m_aduhene

hi,
my dd is 8. she has never been to school. she was never "taught" to read and is now reading. i have never insisted she learn anything but we chat, watch tv, dvd's, socilaise, go shopping, go on the computer. i believe she is getting on fine.
my dh however is unsure. he has recently had a spat with her about maths and how he wants her to do 1/2 an hour of maths a day. i am happy to do this and so far dd has been willing but i can't see me wanting or being able to force her. she can add and takeaway and is great with money but he thinks she should know multiplication, division as well. also be able to put things down on paper. i am not opposed to his view and want to do what's right for all of us. he makes me worry tho that i am not doing enough for her.
tonight he has mentioned that she seems to flit around with things and does not seem interested in anything i or he offers her ,for eg. if i say let's do such and such she always says she doesn't want to ( but sometimes she will say later let's do what u said earlier).
i feel i don't have enough interests of my own but i am always willing to go along with something they want to do or offer ideas which they can do with me or alone or not at all.
i am not a person who has a passionate interest in anyone thing but i do show an interest in all things. sandra it seems that u r very interested for example in words and their meanings but i don't think u have ever mentioned that your children have this same passion. but u as a family did all the medieval re-enactment stuff.....we don't do anything like that. my children are not complaining they r bored in fact my ds tonight asked if we could just do nothing tomorrow (he spent half a day today at the park and then played on his jeep he's made in the garden out of an old divan with a friend). but when my dh expressed his concern tonight and the one about maths the other day then it does do something inside me that makes me think i am depriving my children of "something" be it a knowledge of composers, historical events they won't know about, maths concepts i may omit to mention......
i know you have archives and i have suggested john holt books. i don't push him to believe what i believe but i am open to his ideas as they are his children too and i don't want it to become a dictator about this is the right way. but it feels right to me(despite my occasional doubts). i know i can't make him see something he may never see but do i do the maths and push for interest in "topics"??
sorry got long
blessings
michelle

Sandra Dodd

-=-sandra it seems that u r very interested for example in words and
their meanings but i don't think u have ever mentioned that your
children have this same passion. -=-

Holly does.

When I made the comment the other day that it's not "acquarium" (like
"acquire") but that it's a water thing (agua=water), I thought that
would be interesting, but the person who had written it saw it as
nothing more than me correcting her spelling. I thought it would be
an example of HOW people learn writing without memorizing a bunch of
stuff (nor memorizing anything). Holly would've loved to have heard
that, if she hadn't figured it out already on her own.

If your husband doesn't know how unschooling works, ask him to read
here:
http://sandradodd.com/math

Many math whizzed contributed to that.

-=-i know i can't make him see something he may never see but do i do
the maths and push for interest in "topics"??-=-

Play games. Get Zoombinis (a computer game, but maybe only for older
systems---anyone know if it's available online to play? That would be
COOL). Not "math games," just any games with cards, dice, dominos,
any games with counting and patterns and numbers.

And while you're playing, don't talk about math, but do look for the
kinds of math required to play or win.

Sandra




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

Pam Sorooshian

The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis was re-released as Zoombinis:
Logical Journey. It works on PC's with windows XP and Vista, but does
not work on the newest Mac operating system (Leopard).

There are old versions available still, too (there isn't much
difference between the old version and the new one.

This is such a wonderful game - I love it. My kids all loved it. Our
homeschool group once had a "Zoombinis Day" in which the kids were the
zoombinis, going around doing all kinds of activities on a trail all
over a big park, each based on one of the zoombini challenges. Everyone
dressed up, we had music at each location - it was a blast.

-pam

On 5/7/2009 6:00 PM, Sandra Dodd wrote:
> Play games. Get Zoombinis (a computer game, but maybe only for older
> systems---anyone know if it's available online to play? That would be
> COOL). Not "math games," just any games with cards, dice, dominos,
> any games with counting and patterns and numbers.
>