Deschooling (parents)
Sandra Dodd
I was working on editing this week's chat, and found a story that people didn't respond to, but it's a good one, and important. This list is a better place for it anyway.
Jill Parmer: I have a story about another piece of school thought falling off of me.
Jill Parmer: When Steve and I were getting our outer brick wall redone, we did all the hard demo work. And at one point I was digging dirt away from the foundation, and a strong thought crossed my mind. That I can do this work even though I didn't go to school for construction. And it felt so good to be competent, and just keep working bit by bit.
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Think of things like that in your own life that weren't about interactions with your children, but times when something you were doing as an adult strengthened your confidence in natural learning, or shed light on an aspect you hadn't considered, maybe.
If you share it with the discussion list, that's even better, but just thinking through your own recent thoughts and actions might help with your deschooling or confidence.
Sandra
Jill Parmer: I have a story about another piece of school thought falling off of me.
Jill Parmer: When Steve and I were getting our outer brick wall redone, we did all the hard demo work. And at one point I was digging dirt away from the foundation, and a strong thought crossed my mind. That I can do this work even though I didn't go to school for construction. And it felt so good to be competent, and just keep working bit by bit.
========================
Think of things like that in your own life that weren't about interactions with your children, but times when something you were doing as an adult strengthened your confidence in natural learning, or shed light on an aspect you hadn't considered, maybe.
If you share it with the discussion list, that's even better, but just thinking through your own recent thoughts and actions might help with your deschooling or confidence.
Sandra
messy_boys
>>Think of things like that in your own life that weren't about >>interactions with your children, but times when something you were >>doing as an adult strengthened your confidence in natural learning, >>or shed light on an aspect you hadn't considered, maybe.Recently I needed to figure out how much mulch I needed for a flower bed. Mulch is sold in bags by 'cubic feet.' I had no idea how to figure how many bags I needed. I'm sure somewhere in public school I learned how to figure cubic feet, but it's blank now.
I simply got on the computer and searched for "calculate cubic feet." A calculator came up, I put in the needed measurements, and voila - I knew exactly how many bags I needed.
Thanks for making me think about this!
Kristie
NCMama
I have a facility for hearing accents, and knowing where a person is from, especially which part of my own state, North Carolina. There is a town not far from here whose residents (to me) have a very distinct way of almost slurring their words. I'll ask someone, "Oh, are you from Gastonia?" and they're surprised I know. I can usually tell if someone is Native American by their accent. I usually know if someone is from Maine, because we vacationed there when I was a child, and can usually "hear" the difference between a Maine accent and a New Hampshire or Massachusetts accent.
I've never studied linguistics, or checked out any books on phonology. It's from observing, and listening. It's not something I even consciously did - I did not set out one day, thinking, "Today, I'm going to learn dialects!" Some part of me must have enjoyed that categorization.
I've also been playing a lot of Solitaire on my phone, the game called "Klondike", which is the one with seven cards across on which you place descending cards in alternate colors, and you build up the suits in order on 4 separate stacks. I had the thought a few days ago that I could probably tell very early on which games I was going to lose, by paying close attention to the remaining cards in the deck. I wouldn't need to play for even 1 whole minute, I could determine really quickly if winning was possible.
I haven't done that, but just the thought was exciting to me. Normally, I would not have felt "smart" enough to even think about doing that. I did really well in math in school, until it came time for statistics and probability. I still "did well" and made A's, because I figured out the formulae to get the correct answers, but I never understood what I was doing. When I've heard people talk about players in Vegas counting cards, I would think, "Oh, I couldn't do that - that's that whole statistics thing."
Knowing that, if I wanted to put the time and effort into learning how to parse out the remaining cards, I could, made me feel more capable.
Caren
I've never studied linguistics, or checked out any books on phonology. It's from observing, and listening. It's not something I even consciously did - I did not set out one day, thinking, "Today, I'm going to learn dialects!" Some part of me must have enjoyed that categorization.
I've also been playing a lot of Solitaire on my phone, the game called "Klondike", which is the one with seven cards across on which you place descending cards in alternate colors, and you build up the suits in order on 4 separate stacks. I had the thought a few days ago that I could probably tell very early on which games I was going to lose, by paying close attention to the remaining cards in the deck. I wouldn't need to play for even 1 whole minute, I could determine really quickly if winning was possible.
I haven't done that, but just the thought was exciting to me. Normally, I would not have felt "smart" enough to even think about doing that. I did really well in math in school, until it came time for statistics and probability. I still "did well" and made A's, because I figured out the formulae to get the correct answers, but I never understood what I was doing. When I've heard people talk about players in Vegas counting cards, I would think, "Oh, I couldn't do that - that's that whole statistics thing."
Knowing that, if I wanted to put the time and effort into learning how to parse out the remaining cards, I could, made me feel more capable.
Caren
Joyce Fetteroll
On Sep 15, 2011, at 6:11 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:
knowledge" story that added to a natural accumulation of knowledge to
do something new.
I've been admiring some very creative cakes on deviantArt. The ones
with the hard shiny coatings in bright colors. They look like
Sculpey :-) (Apparently they've also been a big deal on cooking shows
and a staple of wedding cakes for some time but those aren't circles I
frequent.)
I didn't even know what they were called but there was a bake sale for
the church coming up and I decided I wanted to try making some. And,
via the internet, within an hour or so I not only knew what they were
called (fondant, it even feels like Sculpey) but through YouTube had
gained enough additional skills to add to the years of playing with
PlayDoh and Sculpey to actually create some that look pretty
decent :-) (I'll take some pictures.)
The internet helped with the cake part too since though I've baked
cookies, muffins, pies and bread, I've probably made like 3 cakes in
my life before this. None of us are big cake fans so it wasn't a skill
I really needed before this. And when I needed it, I went out and got
it. ;-)
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> Think of things like that in your own life that weren't aboutOh, just this week! This is mostly a "pulling in a big chunk of
> interactions with your children, but times when something you were
> doing as an adult strengthened your confidence in natural learning,
> or shed light on an aspect you hadn't considered, maybe.
knowledge" story that added to a natural accumulation of knowledge to
do something new.
I've been admiring some very creative cakes on deviantArt. The ones
with the hard shiny coatings in bright colors. They look like
Sculpey :-) (Apparently they've also been a big deal on cooking shows
and a staple of wedding cakes for some time but those aren't circles I
frequent.)
I didn't even know what they were called but there was a bake sale for
the church coming up and I decided I wanted to try making some. And,
via the internet, within an hour or so I not only knew what they were
called (fondant, it even feels like Sculpey) but through YouTube had
gained enough additional skills to add to the years of playing with
PlayDoh and Sculpey to actually create some that look pretty
decent :-) (I'll take some pictures.)
The internet helped with the cake part too since though I've baked
cookies, muffins, pies and bread, I've probably made like 3 cakes in
my life before this. None of us are big cake fans so it wasn't a skill
I really needed before this. And when I needed it, I went out and got
it. ;-)
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Rippy Dusseldorp
-=-times when something you were doing as an adult strengthened
your confidence in natural learning -=-
My different experiences with learning to read in different languages has been something that has given me confidence in natural learning.
I learned to read English in elementary school and I ended having to go to remedial class. I have memories of it being painfully difficult and boring. It only clicked for me when I was 8 years old and I've loved reading in English ever since.
When I was 8, I learned how to read Hindi in about 3 weeks. My parents had sent me away to India to live in a boarding school for a few months. I had never been exposed to Hindi before this. The teachers used physical punishment to accelerate learning - making me find sticks that they would use to hit me across the palms of my hand. I lost my ability to read Hindi within a few months of leaving India.
When I was 12, I took French and struggled for the next 6 years. I did okay in the exams, but never learned more than necessary to pass the exams. I took one year of French in University and did not enjoy it, struggling all the time. I got an A in the course, but my knowledge was all smoke and mirrors. Today I would struggle with simple sentences.
When I was 14, I was sitting in prayers in the temple and I didn't want to be there. I felt I could not leave without my mom's disapproval, so I decided to decode our Punjabi hymn book as a fun mental challenge. I first taught myself the numbers and letters using the table of contents and once I had figured those out, I matched the words that were being sung to the words in the hymn book. I figured out the vowels and consonants. Within a couple of hours, I had decoded Punjabi and I could read at a beginner's level. I rarely read any Punjabi now, but if I have a few minutes to review, I can usually make out the text if I had to.
When I was 29, I had to enroll in a Dutch language course for Dutch citizenship. I was interested and I wanted to be there. After about one year of biweekly night classes, I got an A in the reading section of the course for the minimal level I needed. Dutch is the only other language I read in - never for pleasure, only for information.
Rippy
your confidence in natural learning -=-
My different experiences with learning to read in different languages has been something that has given me confidence in natural learning.
I learned to read English in elementary school and I ended having to go to remedial class. I have memories of it being painfully difficult and boring. It only clicked for me when I was 8 years old and I've loved reading in English ever since.
When I was 8, I learned how to read Hindi in about 3 weeks. My parents had sent me away to India to live in a boarding school for a few months. I had never been exposed to Hindi before this. The teachers used physical punishment to accelerate learning - making me find sticks that they would use to hit me across the palms of my hand. I lost my ability to read Hindi within a few months of leaving India.
When I was 12, I took French and struggled for the next 6 years. I did okay in the exams, but never learned more than necessary to pass the exams. I took one year of French in University and did not enjoy it, struggling all the time. I got an A in the course, but my knowledge was all smoke and mirrors. Today I would struggle with simple sentences.
When I was 14, I was sitting in prayers in the temple and I didn't want to be there. I felt I could not leave without my mom's disapproval, so I decided to decode our Punjabi hymn book as a fun mental challenge. I first taught myself the numbers and letters using the table of contents and once I had figured those out, I matched the words that were being sung to the words in the hymn book. I figured out the vowels and consonants. Within a couple of hours, I had decoded Punjabi and I could read at a beginner's level. I rarely read any Punjabi now, but if I have a few minutes to review, I can usually make out the text if I had to.
When I was 29, I had to enroll in a Dutch language course for Dutch citizenship. I was interested and I wanted to be there. After about one year of biweekly night classes, I got an A in the reading section of the course for the minimal level I needed. Dutch is the only other language I read in - never for pleasure, only for information.
Rippy