Stephanie Jackson

She's been mentioning for a while that she wants to learn to read. I
read to her, she peruses books on her own, gets a kick out of closed-
captioning (which we don't have at home - she sees it occasionally in
restaurants, stores, etc.), and plays games on her Leapster, her
Vtech computer, and on websites like nickjr.com, pbskids.org, and
Disney. She got some writing workbooks for Christmas & it was like
candy for her - she couldn't seem to get enough. She seemed like she
really was hungry for it, so one day I asked her if she wanted me to
(cringe) teach her to read, and she excitedly said yes.

I learned to read by using Phonics, and can see some benefit to using
some of the ideas, but remember being really confused by words like
*women*. So - my question is, does an unschooling family *teach* one
of its members to read? Do I just keep reading to her like I've been
doing, pointing out words on signs, etc., or since she is asking for
guidance, where to I go from here? I know that this group is not
about teaching, and that's why I'm asking here. I don't want to *do*
school. But I want her help feed her hunger.

I have little doubt that this has been discussed here before, so if
any of you can point me toward a related thread, I'd appreciate it.

Sandra Dodd

-=-so one day I asked her if she wanted me to
(cringe) teach her to read, and she excitedly said yes. -=-

The problem is, you can't teach her to read. If it goes well, the
most you can do is help her learn, and if she's not yet ready, the
least you can do is frustrate her and make her feel slow. The most
you could if it's not yet time is make her think reading is hard and
she's not capable.

What a robbery if a five year old thinks someone had to teach her to
read, and thinks someone did teach her to read. She'll want someone
to teach her other things that she could have learned on her own, too.



If you have the urge to offer to try to help someone learn something,
state it that way. Say "I can try to help you a little if you
want." That way if you try, a little, you've been truthful and
honest. And ONLY try a little. If it's good and she wants more,
offer a little more. That little might turn into a lot, or it might
not. Let it unfold naturally.

We made phonics games with cardboard and strips of paper. They
weren't lessons, they were goofy homemade toys. (In school they
would have been lessons, and required, and documented, but here they
weren't any of that.)

There are computer games and websites with choose-the-vowel games and
reading choices games. If they're treated just as games and nothing
more, they don't hurt anything.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Stephanie Jackson

> The problem is, you can't teach her to read. If it goes well, the
> most you can do is help her learn, and if she's not yet ready, the
> least you can do is frustrate her and make her feel slow.

Makes sense. I *really* want her to learn in her own way. Which, it
seems, is the only real way, anyway.

>The most
> you could if it's not yet time is make her think reading is hard
and
> she's not capable.

And that's *exactly* what school did to me, and one of many reasons
we chose to unschool. I love to see how she flourishes when she
figures stuff out on her own, which happens every day.

> If you have the urge to offer to try to help someone learn
something,
> state it that way. Say "I can try to help you a little if you
> want."

I knew when I asked her about teaching that it was a loaded question,
but I hadn't thought of a better one. I'll keep offering to help and
provide her with more games & such, to the extent that she wants
them. She figured out how to first verbally spell, then write, her
name & her sister's. It was beautiful.

> There are computer games and websites with choose-the-vowel games
and
> reading choices games. If they're treated just as games and
nothing
> more, they don't hurt anything.

Can you recommend a couple?

Thanks for your help.

[email protected]

my DD is 9 & can't read.? no one tries harder than??her.?she writes journals, cards.... always. i don't?make a big deal.? she is always on puter.?? my DH didn't read his 1st book till a few yrs ago.? my 25 yo son took all sorts of reading classes <private, at school...>? & didn't start reading <& talkin on ph> till he had 2.? he got a job @ 16 as head?custom motorcycle builder? & had to?read ?orders, call stars on ph...?? my 19 yo son did about the same.? my 13 yo son taught himself 2 read very young, but he doesn't like to write like his sister does. i'm confident DD will read when she is ready.? GL


-----Original Message-----
From: Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 9:53 am
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] 5YO DD Wants Me To Teach Her To Read






-=-so one day I asked her if she wanted me to
(cringe) teach her to read, and she excitedly said yes. -=-

The problem is, you can't teach her to read. If it goes well, the
most you can do is help her learn, and if she's not yet ready, the
least you can do is frustrate her and make her feel slow. The most
you could if it's not yet time is make her think reading is hard and
she's not capable.

What a robbery if a five year old thinks someone had to teach her to
read, and thinks someone did teach her to read. She'll want someone
to teach her other things that she could have learned on her own, too.

If you have the urge to offer to try to help someone learn something,
state it that way. Say "I can try to help you a little if you
want." That way if you try, a little, you've been truthful and
honest. And ONLY try a little. If it's good and she wants more,
offer a little more. That little might turn into a lot, or it might
not. Let it unfold naturally.

We made phonics games with cardboard and strips of paper. They
weren't lessons, they were goofy homemade toys. (In school they
would have been lessons, and required, and documented, but here they
weren't any of that.)

There are computer games and websites with choose-the-vowel games and
reading choices games. If they're treated just as games and nothing
more, they don't hurt anything.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

On Jan 11, 2009, at 11:37 AM, Stephanie Jackson wrote:

> -=-Can you recommend a couple?-=-

My youngest is 17 now, so my knowledge of computer games is way
outdated. Alex listed Up To Ten which is one I was thinking about.
I hope others have other ideas, too.

When my kids were little there were things like Reader Rabbit and a
game based on Schoolhouse Rock.

Sandra



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

John and Amanda Slater

Games for Reading: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Read by Peggy Kaye is a great book of games.  From prereading to fluency.  She is an occupational therapist in a school and has tons of very easy to set up one-on-one games.  I really like them, but since my boys are not interested I love to pass them on.  She has another for math. 

Amanda
Eli 7, Samuel 6





















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Vicki Dennis

My youngest is 24. Not just computer games but personal computers in general
seem a whole different world than when my children were young. My
grandchildren have played with text messaging on Iphones and adding random
keystrokes when Mommy "talks" to Daddy at work via instant message since
they were 1 year old.

Starfall makes Reader Rabbit seem absolutely boring and dull. Also makes
Reader Rabbit seem a stereotype of "educational" software.
My only complaint about Starfall is it is soooooooooooo multilayered that
it is very easy not to realize just how many resources on how many levels it
offers.

I need to check out uptoten and see whether they have discovered it. I
had told their mommy about starfall after I saw it was recommended on some
list (maybe this one?). Had given a few different links but for my oldest
grandchild a couple of years ago starfall was the biggest "hit" and I know
she still comes back to it occasionally.

vicki


On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 1:36 PM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:

>
> On Jan 11, 2009, at 11:37 AM, Stephanie Jackson wrote:
>
> > -=-Can you recommend a couple?-=-
>
> My youngest is 17 now, so my knowledge of computer games is way
> outdated. Alex listed Up To Ten which is one I was thinking about.
> I hope others have other ideas, too.
>
> When my kids were little there were things like Reader Rabbit and a
> game based on Schoolhouse Rock.
>
> Sandra
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

BRIAN POLIKOWSKY

Naruto (6) can read and write some. He really wants to master all and one day he was frustrated and
I suggested that maybe those web sites could help. He used to play a little on them when he was 3-4.
He went there played for maybe 15 minutes and he was done.
 
He likes to play Roblox and talk to the people so that is how he dos a lot of reading and writing asking us to spell and read to him all the time. Its amazing to see how he is learning. Very cool.
He also likes to make book qwith his drawings and writes on those what he can.
I once told him that he is learning to read just like his sister learned to talk. He can relate to that because he witnessed how she went from a few words to talking . He laughs with me when she comes up with complicated new words in her vocabulary. Its very cute and he thinks so too.
A few months ago he wanted really bad to learn to read right now .He has noticed how good he has gotten at it and now it does not frustrate him as much.

 
Alex Polikowsky
http://polykow.blogspot.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingmn/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

k

>>>> A few months ago he wanted really bad to learn to read right now .He
has noticed how good he has gotten at it and now it does not frustrate him
as much. <<<<

This is what is happening with Karl. He was terribly frustrated and felt so
dumb because someone said he should be reading already (at 5?). I showed
him Starfall which he was on for about 15 or 20 minutes and then a couple of
weeks later he wanted to look at it again and that has been it. So now at
about 5 1/2 he has been recognizing a few words here and there, and asking
how to spell all kinds of words, asking what signs of all sorts say not just
road signs, writing with his drawings, asking me to read games online and
off, and so on. It's very exciting and I like what he does with it all,
making up stories and talking in different ways than he used to,
incorporating into what he already has been doing with stories and
playacting.

~Katherine


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pamela Sorooshian

When my oldest daughter said she wanted to learn to read, I calmly
said: "Okay - what word do you want to learn first?" I wrote the word
on an index card and she drew a picture on the other side of the card.
For example, if she says, "Dinosaur," then you write it on one side of
the card and she draws a picture of a dinosaur on the other side. (If
she's not into drawing something, find a picture to cut out of a
magazine or print one off the internet and glue it onto the card.)

I put the cards in an envelope that said "Roya's Words" on it. Every
once in a while she'd want to add a word - we'd put a new word on a
card and she'd draw on the other side and that would go into the
envelope. Every once in a while she'd pull out her words and sort
through them and "practice" them. She got up to about 30 words over a
period of a couple of months before losing interest.

I think it satisfied her urge to feel like she was "learning to read."

-pam

On Jan 11, 2009, at 9:53 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:

> -=-so one day I asked her if she wanted me to
> (cringe) teach her to read, and she excitedly said yes. -=-

raisingexplorers

Being taught how to do something and learning how to do something are
actually very different and often produce different results.

I would like to add that the people I know, who were taught how to
read, do not enjoy reading. My little brother, my father, my cousins,
many of my friends, my oldest son. These people were taught how to
read and do not find the experience enjoyable as adults, nor did they
as children. Everyone I know, who learned how to read, are avid
readers who devour books for pleasure. Myself, my husband, my mother,
my younger son. These people learned how to read and have always found
the activity to be rewarding and enjoyable.

I think, my advice, as someone who has one son who was taught how to
read and one son who learned how to read is to be very careful in
recognizing the difference between teaching someone and aiding them in
learning, and not overstepping that line.

Sandra Dodd

-=-Being taught how to do something and learning how to do something are
actually very different and often produce different results.-=-

If someone teaches me how to do something, I still learned.

If someone teaches and teaches and I don't learn it, they didn't
"teach," in one way of thinking of it, so what the heck were they doing?



For the purposes of unschooling and natural learning, it's generally
best to avoid any recommendations of "teaching." There are some
things with formal structure that will need a teacher or a coach
(ballet, karate, gymnastics competition) but those things school
calls "academics" seem not to need any teaching, given a rich and
friendly environment in which a child can explore and experiment with
the assistance of an adult or two or three who like them and
understand how to help them learn.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pamela Sorooshian

I've been sort of vaguely distinguishing "instruction" from "teaching"
in my mind --- maybe not in line with dictionary definitions or common
usage, but it has helped me think about it. Instruction is "useful" -
instructions help me do things I want to do. Instruction is
specifically for a purpose and it's use is initiated and can be
terminated by the learner. When instructions come with my new
computer, I can utilize those instructions in the way they work for
me. If I want to learn ballet, I can watch instructional videos, read
instructional books, or maybe get instruction in a ballet class. I
sign up for ballet knowing what to expect, knowing that if I don't get
the help I expect to get, I can find another instructor or do
something else.

Teaching, for most people, implies that the teacher is deciding what
the learner ought to learn, how they ought to learn it, when they
should be done learning it, and the teacher tests how much they've
(supposedly) learned. Even piano teachers, for example, very often
think THEY should be totally in charge of what the student learns and
how they learn it - it is rare to find a piano teacher who will simply
help a student learn the way they want to learn and what they want to
learn. At least we can shop around for piano teachers, though. If mom
decides to be a teacher, the kids can't shop around to find another
one who will do things their way. That puts it in a different light
than, say, a ballet, karate, or piano teacher.

-pam

Jenny C

>
> I learned to read by using Phonics, and can see some benefit to using
> some of the ideas, but remember being really confused by words like
> *women*. So - my question is, does an unschooling family *teach* one
> of its members to read?

I'm not a fan of phonics! I've seen it cause kids to really not be able
to spell all those confusing english language words. Perhaps that is
why the word "women" was confusing. It isn't spelled at all the way it
sounds.

My older daughter didn't get phonics at all! It totally confused her.
The whole idea of letters having sounds and groups of letters having
sounds and combining those sounds. Very confusing for her. She
understands it a little better now that she knows how to read, but
doesn't rely on it to read words she doesn't know yet.

Her process was one of collecting words. When she had enough of them to
string together, she was reading. The more words she collected, the
more she was able to read. Only time made that work. She learned to
read pretty fluently at the age of 11/12. She started collecting words
when she was 3, starting with the "stop" sign.

My younger daughter understands phonics. I see and hear her read words
that look like other words she knows and sound them out based on which
letter combinations they have. Mostly it works for her, and I help her
with the tricky ones and explain why it's different and give examples.
It's all information that she gathers and uses. It's low pressure.

All the kids in school, doing the same thing, are being told that they
can read because they can do those things and fill them out on
worksheets and read the silly little easy reader exercises. Margaux
doesn't think she can read anything beyond the words she can actually
read. There is no illusion that she's reading or having sufficient
reading progress, or on her way to reading readiness.

When my oldest was little, when I realized she was a word collector, I
printed out labels for things all over the house and taped them up. It
was fun.

Sandra Dodd

On Jan 12, 2009, at 2:32 PM, Pamela Sorooshian wrote:

> -=-I've been sort of vaguely distinguishing "instruction" from
> "teaching"
> in my mind --- maybe not in line with dictionary definitions or common
> usage, but it has helped me think about it. Instruction is "useful" -
> instructions help me do things I want to do. Instruction is
> specifically for a purpose and it's use is initiated and can be
> terminated by the learner. -=-
>
I don't think of "instructions" as part and parcel of "an
instructor." I think of an instruction booklet as a manual (handbook)
or a pattern/diagram. I think "instructor" is just the latin/fancy
name for "teacher" (the Anglo-Saxon term). And though the origin of
"teach" is lost in antiquity (or maybe not totally lost, but I don't
know what it is without looking), "in struct" is to build in.
Construct, destruct(ive), structure...

If someone's paid to instruct, he can still do his show and make his
presentations without someone else learning anything.

Sandra

Jenny C

If mom
> decides to be a teacher, the kids can't shop around to find another
> one who will do things their way. That puts it in a different light
> than, say, a ballet, karate, or piano teacher.
>


Just the acknowledgement that a kid would have a choice to shop around
would be a big one! It's usually the parent!

When I was teaching dance classes, I was continually surprised by the
parental expectations of what I should or shouldn't be teaching in a
dance class. I remember this one group of moms specifically that wanted
a finished product, they wanted their 5 yr olds doing complex
choreography, and while, each lesson, we spent the last 15 minutes
working on a routine, the moms, wanted the whole class to be designated
to that. I remember telling those moms, that as long as half the kids
in the class still couldn't skip, that I couldn't progress the class to
choreography beyond what we were already doing. They argued that their
kids did complex choreography at home with their own music, so therefore
should be able to do it in my class.

The whole thing, everything they wanted, was the finished product
without all the stuff in the middle to get them there. It was weird.
The moms didn't like me very much and their kids didn't stay very long
with me. The kids liked me just fine and loved class.

Joanna Murphy

> > There are computer games and websites with choose-the-vowel games
> and
> > reading choices games. If they're treated just as games and
> nothing
> > more, they don't hurt anything.
>
> Can you recommend a couple?

My daughter has played Club Penguin for a while now and has gone from not reading a whole
lot to being proficient at both reading and typing. With a little help your daughter might
quickly learn a few provided responses and be able to expand from there. There are fun little
games to play and friends to make. She might be too young--I'm not sure, but she might
enjoy it.

Joanna

Pamela Sorooshian

On Jan 12, 2009, at 1:43 PM, Sandra Dodd wrote:

>
> If someone's paid to instruct, he can still do his show and make his
> presentations without someone else learning anything.

Right - I mean, I realize that. I'm just saying that it has been
helpful for me to think of the difference between what people think of
as "being a teacher" with all that entails versus the process of using
instructions or instructors (whatever they might be called). I know
that the words "instructor" and "teacher" are used interchangeably
(I've been officially hired as an economics teacher, instructor,
lecturer, and professor and they've all been exactly the same job).
And I'm not recommending that other people start using the terms
differently. I'm saying that it helped me "get" the reason unschoolers
recommended not using the word teach or thinking of the unschooling
parent as a teacher.

Instructions are to instructors as ___________ are to teachers.

What fits in that blank? Teachings, I think. There is a difference
between teachings and instructions - teachings seems bigger, more
pervasive, something being handed down from on high.

Whatever they are called, there are people who are giving instructions
and helping people gain a skill or learn information that the people
want to learn. And then there are teachers who are deciding what and
when and how people should learn and have the force of law or parental
authority behind them.

Again, I'm not saying this is a semantics distinction that we ought to
make; I'm saying that pondering this difference helped me comprehend
why unschoolers seemed to be so down on teaching even though they
clearly were utilizing teachers when it suited them to do so (karate,
ballet, guitar, etc).

Oh, and I fully realize that good teachers are also facilitating in
the helpful/useful sort of way, too. And I realize that "follow
instructions" has its own school-related baggage.

In universities, an instructor is a rank that is below professor and
nobody teaching at the college level is called a teacher because that
term is used for k-12 levels only.

-pam

Sandra Dodd

On Jan 12, 2009, at 4:54 PM, Pamela Sorooshian wrote:

> Instructions are to instructors as ___________ are to teachers.
>
> What fits in that blank? Teachings, I think. There is a difference
> between teachings and instructions - teachings seems bigger, more
> pervasive, something being handed down from on high.


Yeah I see what you mean. Instructions can be very technical and
neutral.

I don't think teachers in public school have "teachings." They're
offering technical and neutral info too, very rarely of their own
discovery or creation.

So while we're cataloging crazy English with its too-many words and
difficult nuances, there are Teachers who have their own teachings,
often (I'm thinking) involving music or philosophy, and then there are
teachers who are low-level instructors. Then there are instructions
and things that are instructive without anyone trying to own them. I
could write up the instructions for making a God's eye or a basket
made of rope and yarn. I have written instructions for doing things
before. They'll still exist (maybe) after I'm gone, and should still
work, maybe. People don't necessarily need instructors to follow
instructions (if they're in writing, or drawn/sketched out, or even on
video tape).

Sandra



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Gwen

Megan always liked the Jumpstart games.  They make ones called Jumpstart World now and I don't know if they are different.

We had some based on Dr. Seuss books that were fun.  We had a disc, but now there is this too: http://www.seussville.com/university/

Here are some links of games Megan has played online:

http://funschool.kaboose.com/arcade/index.html
http://www.sesamestreet.org/games
http://www.kindersite.org/Directory/DirectoryFrame.htm
http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/liloandstitch/index.html
http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/index.html
http://bigfishgames.com/
http://www.funbrain.com/kidscenter.html

Gwen

--- On Mon, 1/12/09, Joanna Murphy <ridingmom@...> wrote:
> > There are computer games and websites with choose-the-vowel games
> and reading choices games. If they're treated just as games and
> nothing more, they don't hurt anything.
>
> Can you recommend a couple?




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pamela Sorooshian

On Jan 12, 2009, at 4:10 PM, Sandra Dodd wrote:

> I don't think teachers in public school have "teachings." They're
> offering technical and neutral info too, very rarely of their own
> discovery or creation.


I was thinking that school teachings come down from "on high" in the
form of state standards. The classroom teachers are mere conduits (the
priests?).

-pam

k

I do think there's a vast difference between teachers and instructions from
a person sharing what they know. Sharing what a person knows about reading
is not usually anything like sharing what a person knows about making
something, where if the person wanting to know the information has hands
and/or a mind that works differently from the one instructing, such a
difference is respected and accommodated for with time for the learner to
make minor adjustments or time to figure out on their own how to make the
process work for them.

Coming from an art background, I have seen that over and over again. There
are grad assistants/instructors/professors/etc who instruct in art (in Pam's
sense of the word) as opposed to those who prefer to teach art. Many times
people who hope to teach art invariably do so without respect for
differences and aren't as successful in transferring the skills they have to
others. It happens in art as well as other types of classes.

I think reading is a particularly difficult skill to give instruction in
because the process is so much in the head, and adjustments take much longer
because the feedback from the process of learning reading takes longer.
Other things have more immediate feedback and results like ballet, karate,
art, sewing, and so on.

~Katherine


On 1/12/09, Pamela Sorooshian <pamsoroosh@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Jan 12, 2009, at 4:10 PM, Sandra Dodd wrote:
>
> > I don't think teachers in public school have "teachings." They're
> > offering technical and neutral info too, very rarely of their own
> > discovery or creation.
>
>
>
> I was thinking that school teachings come down from "on high" in the
> form of state standards. The classroom teachers are mere conduits (the
> priests?).
>
> -pam
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Meryl Ranzer

I'm new to the world of Unschooling...but very excited and enthusiastic.
I was thinking about the reading question as I watched my 2 year old
Logan learning to speak.
We haven't taught him how to formulate a sentence, he's working
through it on his own.
We just hang out with him and talk the way all parents do.
The other day he spontaneously said, "My favorite food is hamburger".
He started the sentence two times before completing it.
I did not coach him, but he figured it out himself.
He has been working on creating full sentences for about a week now.
We marvel at how he pays so much attention to everything that goes on
around him, and learns from it.
I feel like he will earn to read in a similar way.
We'll read to him, he'll see us enjoying reading and at some pint
he'll read.
I know it will be a slower process, but it will be pleasurable to see
it unfold.

Meryl Ranzer
mranzer@...

Pamela Sorooshian

On Jan 14, 2009, at 2:29 PM, Meryl Ranzer wrote:

> I feel like he will earn to read in a similar way.
> We'll read to him, he'll see us enjoying reading and at some pint
> he'll read.
> I know it will be a slower process, but it will be pleasurable to see
> it unfold.

It is wonderful.

Of my three children, I got to really observe the process of two of
them learning to read. But my middle child learned to read very young
and I wasn't expecting it yet and she did it very very privately. Only
her older sister, who was 6, was even aware that she was reading; it
took me completely by surprise. Also, neither of my other two children
ever did the "sounding out" style of learning to read. They memorized
a lot of words and read with expression from the very beginning.

So, you never know what to expect - I mean, we can't tell in advance
what "learning to read" is going to look like in any particular child.

-pam

Joanna Murphy

Reading your post made me feel almost a little bit jealous, and definitely a bit nostalgic--
you have such incredibly magic times ahead of you in the next few years. A two year old
learning to talk is like seeing both the Wizard of Oz and all the workings at the same time,
yet with all of the magic intact!

It is wonderful to be privy to the thought processes of a human being in such an open,
honest, direct way. Mine are 10 and 13, and although I still get a few flashes of it, that
unfiltered quality is almost gone. Enjoy it--and take notes for the future!!

Joanna

--- In [email protected], Meryl Ranzer <mranzer@...> wrote:
>
> I'm new to the world of Unschooling...but very excited and enthusiastic.
> I was thinking about the reading question as I watched my 2 year old
> Logan learning to speak.
> We haven't taught him how to formulate a sentence, he's working
> through it on his own.
> We just hang out with him and talk the way all parents do.
> The other day he spontaneously said, "My favorite food is hamburger".
> He started the sentence two times before completing it.
> I did not coach him, but he figured it out himself.
> He has been working on creating full sentences for about a week now.
> We marvel at how he pays so much attention to everything that goes on
> around him, and learns from it.
> I feel like he will earn to read in a similar way.
> We'll read to him, he'll see us enjoying reading and at some pint
> he'll read.
> I know it will be a slower process, but it will be pleasurable to see
> it unfold.
>
> Meryl Ranzer
> mranzer@...
>

Joanna Murphy

I just had a thought in response to my own post--I wonder if people are more comfortable
unschooling in the earlier years because it is easier to see the "effects of learning" with
younger children, and not quite as obvious with older children what is going on in their
heads?

Joanna

--- In [email protected], "Joanna Murphy" <ridingmom@...> wrote:
>
> Reading your post made me feel almost a little bit jealous, and definitely a bit nostalgic--
> you have such incredibly magic times ahead of you in the next few years. A two year old
> learning to talk is like seeing both the Wizard of Oz and all the workings at the same time,
> yet with all of the magic intact!
>

k

>>>> I just had a thought in response to my own post--I wonder if people are
more comfortable
unschooling in the earlier years because it is easier to see the "effects of
learning" with
younger children, and not quite as obvious with older children what is going
on in their
heads? <<<<

Yes, Joanna.

I think there's all the more reason, since it isn't as obvious in the later
years, to cultivate a child-to-parent relationship that makes for lots of
sharing. So with a parent focusing on having fun in the parent-child
relationship, there's less emphasis on seeing learning and better motives
for keeping on with unschooling since ideally the relationship is the most
important and fun focus!

~Katherine


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Sandra Dodd

I liked this story:

-=-We just hang out with him and talk the way all parents do.
The other day he spontaneously said, "My favorite food is hamburger".
He started the sentence two times before completing it.
I did not coach him, but he figured it out himself.-=-

My little brother was learning to talk was 21 or so. His first full
sentence was "I like that car." He had seen a pink mustang.
Sometimes those things stick with you.



Sandra

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Lyla Wolfenstein

this brings back a funny memory for me that exposes my la leche league roots, as well - my older child, when she was 22 months, said her first long sentence - complete with conditional tense (subjunctive?)-

"when i nurse - i touch your other nipple with my hand"

yes, indeed she did.

it came out one careful, methodic word at a time and i think i was incredulous by the end because up until then she hadn't said more than "want that" or "daddy working?"

Lyla

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