Recommended reading
jennifercroce37
Hi,
I am in the process of learning about unschooling my daughter in September. I just finished Linda Dobson's book The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child and found it very helpful. I'd now like to read a book specifically on unschooling since that is the approach want to take. I also found some homeschooling magazines and didn't know if anyone could recommend one or if they were worth subscribing to. I unfortunately don't have a lot of spare time to read so something quick and to the point would be preferred. I want the books more for reference and support for what I am doing. I understand the unschooling concept, but my friends and family do not.
Thanks,
Jen
Thanks,
Jen
I am in the process of learning about unschooling my daughter in September. I just finished Linda Dobson's book The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child and found it very helpful. I'd now like to read a book specifically on unschooling since that is the approach want to take. I also found some homeschooling magazines and didn't know if anyone could recommend one or if they were worth subscribing to. I unfortunately don't have a lot of spare time to read so something quick and to the point would be preferred. I want the books more for reference and support for what I am doing. I understand the unschooling concept, but my friends and family do not.
Thanks,
Jen
Thanks,
Jen
Sandra Dodd
-=- I also found some homeschooling magazines and didn't know if
anyone could recommend one or if they were worth subscribing to.-=-
The unschooling magazines are all out of business. I've heard (but
don't know for positive) that Home Education Magazine won't last long,
or might be done. The other magazines are NOT good for unschoolers.
-=-I just finished Linda Dobson's book The First Year of Homeschooling
Your Child and found it very helpful. I'd now like to read a book
specifically on unschooling since that is the approach want to take. -=-
There's not any single unschooling book that will provide everything
you need to know. The best resources are
http://joyfullyrejoycing.com
http://sandradodd.com/help
-=- I unfortunately don't have a lot of spare time to read so
something quick and to the point would be preferred. I want the books
more for reference and support for what I am doing.-=-
Time spent becoming an unschooler isn't "spare time." If you don't
have enough time to learn how to be a good unschooler, you don't have
time to do it.
For support, you need a list like this, and to stay on it. When
people leave and go off on their own, they tend to lost confidence and
get off track and spend $700 on a curriculum and end up with kids and
moms in tears and so if a $20 is going to make you feel "referenced
and supported" enough to unschool based on no more than that, I
recommend strongly against ANY book.
Unschooling takes at least as much time as a child would have spent in
school. Moms need to be dedicated to spending MANY hours with their
children, doing things that make unschooling better, and not doing
things that make unschooling worse.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
anyone could recommend one or if they were worth subscribing to.-=-
The unschooling magazines are all out of business. I've heard (but
don't know for positive) that Home Education Magazine won't last long,
or might be done. The other magazines are NOT good for unschoolers.
-=-I just finished Linda Dobson's book The First Year of Homeschooling
Your Child and found it very helpful. I'd now like to read a book
specifically on unschooling since that is the approach want to take. -=-
There's not any single unschooling book that will provide everything
you need to know. The best resources are
http://joyfullyrejoycing.com
http://sandradodd.com/help
-=- I unfortunately don't have a lot of spare time to read so
something quick and to the point would be preferred. I want the books
more for reference and support for what I am doing.-=-
Time spent becoming an unschooler isn't "spare time." If you don't
have enough time to learn how to be a good unschooler, you don't have
time to do it.
For support, you need a list like this, and to stay on it. When
people leave and go off on their own, they tend to lost confidence and
get off track and spend $700 on a curriculum and end up with kids and
moms in tears and so if a $20 is going to make you feel "referenced
and supported" enough to unschool based on no more than that, I
recommend strongly against ANY book.
Unschooling takes at least as much time as a child would have spent in
school. Moms need to be dedicated to spending MANY hours with their
children, doing things that make unschooling better, and not doing
things that make unschooling worse.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jennifer Croce
- = -Time spent becoming an unschooler isn't "spare time." If you don't
have enough time to learn how to be a good unschooler, you don't have
time to do it. -=-
I do not view unschooling as a part time thing and understand that it is a lifestyle I need to embrace. I have started shifting my thinking and approach to parenting based on the information from this group and from what I have read. I like having tangible information such as books to be able to reference if needed. I didn't mean to infer that unschooling is a new hobby that I am trying out. It is simply new to me so the more information I have on it the better I feel. I have checked out the websites you mentioned and find them very helpful. I find this group helpful too and am glad I joined it. It is great to have other unschoolers willing to point me in the right direction and tell me what I am doing wrong or how to look at things differently. I think a lot of my need for reading is to help decrease my own anxiety and fear about doing this and to have information to give the doubting relatives and friends. I feel like I
am literally jumping off a cliff without a parachute. This journey is exhilarating but scary at the same time. I have to unlearn everything I know in order to free myself to re-learn a different and better way to live.. I see the books and magazines as crutches, they will help support me until I feel confident to walk this path on my own.
Thanks,
Jen
________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
have enough time to learn how to be a good unschooler, you don't have
time to do it. -=-
I do not view unschooling as a part time thing and understand that it is a lifestyle I need to embrace. I have started shifting my thinking and approach to parenting based on the information from this group and from what I have read. I like having tangible information such as books to be able to reference if needed. I didn't mean to infer that unschooling is a new hobby that I am trying out. It is simply new to me so the more information I have on it the better I feel. I have checked out the websites you mentioned and find them very helpful. I find this group helpful too and am glad I joined it. It is great to have other unschoolers willing to point me in the right direction and tell me what I am doing wrong or how to look at things differently. I think a lot of my need for reading is to help decrease my own anxiety and fear about doing this and to have information to give the doubting relatives and friends. I feel like I
am literally jumping off a cliff without a parachute. This journey is exhilarating but scary at the same time. I have to unlearn everything I know in order to free myself to re-learn a different and better way to live.. I see the books and magazines as crutches, they will help support me until I feel confident to walk this path on my own.
Thanks,
Jen
________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
If you want something for relatives, Linda Dobson's Homeschool Book of
Answers might be good. It leans toward unschooling.
Mary Griffith's unschooling book is good too, for that.
Don't count on either of them to give you everything you need to know
as an unschooling parent, though.
Sandra
Answers might be good. It leans toward unschooling.
Mary Griffith's unschooling book is good too, for that.
Don't count on either of them to give you everything you need to know
as an unschooling parent, though.
Sandra
Pam Sorooshian
On 3/30/2009 1:53 PM, Jennifer Croce wrote:
websites and favorite posts from this and other unschooling lists - keep
in a 3-ring binder. That gives you something tangible to grab and read.
Books - there are a number of good ones, depending on your purpose.
Sandra has a book - a collection of essays. They are great for really
"getting" the underlying why's and how's of unschooling. Rue Kream's
book is especially good if your interest is in how unschooling
principles apply to everything in life. If you're still trying to get
out of the school mentality, then the first half of Grace Llewelyn's
book is wonderful (Te Teenage Liberation Handbook) or even John Gatto's
"Dumbing us Down." These will help you remember why you don't want to do
school. Frank Smith's, "The Book of Learning and Forgetting," has had a
huge influence on many of us; it isn't about unschooling, although most
unschoolers who read it immediately feel that unschooling is the only
thing that makes sense in the light of what he tells us about how
learning happens.
You're learning "more" - not unlearning. Other people's writing will
inspire and inform you - but you'll learn the most from your own kids.
Watch them more carefully. Try to think like them. Try to create joy and
comfort and security and lots of interesting swirling experience around
them. THAT is unschooling!
-pam
> I think a lot of my need for reading is to help decrease my own anxiety and fear about doing this and to have information to give the doubting relatives and friends.Print out some of your favorite articles from Joyce and Sandra's
websites and favorite posts from this and other unschooling lists - keep
in a 3-ring binder. That gives you something tangible to grab and read.
Books - there are a number of good ones, depending on your purpose.
Sandra has a book - a collection of essays. They are great for really
"getting" the underlying why's and how's of unschooling. Rue Kream's
book is especially good if your interest is in how unschooling
principles apply to everything in life. If you're still trying to get
out of the school mentality, then the first half of Grace Llewelyn's
book is wonderful (Te Teenage Liberation Handbook) or even John Gatto's
"Dumbing us Down." These will help you remember why you don't want to do
school. Frank Smith's, "The Book of Learning and Forgetting," has had a
huge influence on many of us; it isn't about unschooling, although most
unschoolers who read it immediately feel that unschooling is the only
thing that makes sense in the light of what he tells us about how
learning happens.
> I feel like IYou'll find your wings. Be brave.
> am literally jumping off a cliff without a parachute. This journey is exhilarating but scary at the same time.
>
> I have to unlearn everything I know in order to free myself to re-learn a different and better way to live.. I see the books and magazines as crutches, they will help support me until I feel confident to walk this path on my own.Not so much. I don't think there is such a thing as "un-learning."
>
You're learning "more" - not unlearning. Other people's writing will
inspire and inform you - but you'll learn the most from your own kids.
Watch them more carefully. Try to think like them. Try to create joy and
comfort and security and lots of interesting swirling experience around
them. THAT is unschooling!
-pam