homeschoolmd

Well, I've taken Sandra's advice and for the past few days, I've
been "riding the bike" or in other words, unschooling instead of
thinking about unschooling.

I unsubscribed for a day thinking I needed to spend my time thinking
of things to do with my kids instead of thinking of how to respond to
others'posts. I had withdrawal symptoms and my dh suggested I go no
email so I don't have to worry if I get behind on messages.

It has been a great few days of unschooling. Friday, I showed the
kids a book I had gotten out of the library called Janice VanCleave's
Geography for Every Kid. There are some mapping projects in there
and we decided to each make a map and hide something in the yard.
That was a lot of fun and led us to want to do some orienteering
which we plan to do in the next few weeks.

Saturday, we went ice skating.

This morning we were sitting around the breakfast table talking about
stuff and one thing led to another. Allison decided she wanted to
make a trivia game for us to play. She set up a poster board with
category pockets to hold questions, along with a spinner. I gave
her a copy of the library dewey decimal system and she chose her
categories from that. We pulled out all our reference books and
played a few rounds. (I swear I never told her about Sandra's family
using reference books to play trivia)

After the girl's basketball game they wanted to go to the library to
get more books for the game. Allison got so many books it was hard
to carry all of them. Now I have stacks of books all over the place.

We played a few more rounds of the game, it was fun.

I told the Allison I was not going to spend so much time reading my
emails. She said "but mom, you learn so much from them." I said "I
know, but I'm spending too much time doing that". She said "what
will you do instead?" I told her I would do more things with her.
She liked that!

Pat

P.S. The only problem with posting without email is I won't have my
spell checker. Oh no!

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/17/02 6:58:02 PM, homeschoolmd@... writes:

<< We pulled out all our reference books and
played a few rounds. (I swear I never told her about Sandra's family
using reference books to play trivia)
>>

Hey, isn't that what reference books are for!?

One of our best quiz books is the Top Ten of Everything book. Almost
everyone will get at least one right, and nobody really cares if anybody gets
ANYTHING right!

Sounds fun, making a trivia game. I have a piece of advice--people shouldn't
be too strict about the answers. There are errors in some of the games out
there, and sometimes answers change, or questions are worded in an ambiguous
fashion. So instead of fighting about "wrong" answers, maybe find a way to
consider more than one answer right. More winners means more winning!

Sandra

joanna514

--- In AlwaysLearning@y..., "homeschoolmd" <homeschoolmd@y...> wrote:
> Well, I've taken Sandra's advice and for the past few days, I've
> been "riding the bike" or in other words, unschooling instead of
> thinking about unschooling.

Me too!
I was at the store yesterday and bought a two pack of cards, plus 5
dice, set. We've played dice and cards games lots here, and needed
a fresh deck, but I also included some poker chips in the purchase.
I've been "dealer" all morning with my boys, playing "Inbetween".
We'll move onto blackjack next.(Jack will like that one!) Jack (5) is
now playing "rich guy". The chips are his money, the cards are his
dollars and the dice are his jewels. He just came over with a
handful of leftover birthday candles and whispered to me, "you know
what these are gonna be?....the knives!" I just aksed him why a rich
guy needs knives, and he said, "so he can cut his food" (duh)
Anyway, I've been much more *present* here these days. Reading
Redwall and Harry Potter in the middle of the day, we rented "An
American in Paris" and though the dancing is really good, I didn't
like it all that much. The mentality toward women really struck me,
and I had to comment on a few things here and there, but otherwise it
was fairly entertaining. I think Hello Dolly will always be Carly's
favorite. She really relates to Dolly(scary, huh).

Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration!
Joanna






> I unsubscribed for a day thinking I needed to spend my time
thinking
> of things to do with my kids instead of thinking of how to respond
to
> others'posts. I had withdrawal symptoms and my dh suggested I go
no
> email so I don't have to worry if I get behind on messages.
>
> It has been a great few days of unschooling. Friday, I showed the
> kids a book I had gotten out of the library called Janice
VanCleave's
> Geography for Every Kid. There are some mapping projects in there
> and we decided to each make a map and hide something in the yard.
> That was a lot of fun and led us to want to do some orienteering
> which we plan to do in the next few weeks.
>
> Saturday, we went ice skating.
>
> This morning we were sitting around the breakfast table talking
about
> stuff and one thing led to another. Allison decided she wanted to
> make a trivia game for us to play. She set up a poster board with
> category pockets to hold questions, along with a spinner. I gave
> her a copy of the library dewey decimal system and she chose her
> categories from that. We pulled out all our reference books and
> played a few rounds. (I swear I never told her about Sandra's
family
> using reference books to play trivia)
>
> After the girl's basketball game they wanted to go to the library
to
> get more books for the game. Allison got so many books it was hard
> to carry all of them. Now I have stacks of books all over the
place.
>
> We played a few more rounds of the game, it was fun.
>
> I told the Allison I was not going to spend so much time reading my
> emails. She said "but mom, you learn so much from them." I
said "I
> know, but I'm spending too much time doing that". She said "what
> will you do instead?" I told her I would do more things with her.
> She liked that!
>
> Pat
>
> P.S. The only problem with posting without email is I won't have my
> spell checker. Oh no!