Deana Brown

Hello I am not sure if i had posted a newcommer message or not to this
list since I belong to a few lists. My daughter who is 9 started
homeschooling with me about two months ago, after a month of doing 6
subjects a day we found it to be just not fun and caused alot of
stress. I then learned about unschooling and we tried this for about 3
weeks and found her attitude to become better at first then she thought
she ran the house hold. So we have changed some things and found that a
combination of relaxed homeschool and unschooling with certain limits
works best for her personality and ours.

Here is what we came up with and she seems absolutely fine with it.

Every day she is allowed on my computer for 1 hour upon waking. then
she must have breakfast, read the bible or watch a bible video, then..

Mondays 1 worksheet of math or a computer game with math
Tuesday Reading or online science or hands on.
Wednesday Reading or online geography or history
Thursday Writing a story on the computer or in her journal
Friday Cooking (as she has shown a lot of interest here)

From 11:30am to bedtime the rest of each day is free to do as she pleases.

It has worked so much better for all of this way .

Deana

Joanne

--- In unschoolingbasics@yahoogroups.com, Deana Brown
<squeekyme@...> wrote:

Welcome. :-)

>>>I then learned about unschooling and we tried this for about 3
> weeks and found her attitude to become better at first then she
thought she ran the house hold.>>>>>

Why did she think she ran the household? That's not what unschooling
is.

>>>> Every day she is allowed on my computer for 1 hour upon
waking. then she must have breakfast, read the bible or watch a
bible video, then..
> Mondays 1 worksheet of math or a computer game with math
> Tuesday Reading or online science or hands on.
> Wednesday Reading or online geography or history
> Thursday Writing a story on the computer or in her journal
> Friday Cooking (as she has shown a lot of interest here)>>>>>>>

I may be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) but this is not
unschooling, it's eclectic homeschooling. There's nothing wrong with
that but it's not unschooling.

I'm curious though,.... what happens if she wants to stay on the
computer for 90 minutes or she doesn't feel like reading the bible
one day. And also, what happens if she wants to cook on Wednesday?

Please understand I'm not finding fault with what you're doing. I'm
only questioning the use of the word unschooling in your
description. You said it's a combination of unschooling and relaxed
homeschooling and I'm guessing that the relaxed homeschooling part
is what you posted, the scheduled and required school work and the
unschooling part is letting her do whatever she wants from 11:30 on.
The first part is correct, that seems like relaxed/eclectic
homeschooling BUT the other part is not unschooling.

If you'd like to move towards unschooling, you've come to the right
place.

~ Joanne ~
Mom to Jacqueline (7), Shawna (10) & Cimion (13)
Adopted into our hearts October 30, 2003
http://anunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/

HMSL2@aol.com

I think it's great you made changes and going from six subjects a day to
where you at now. It is a nice step towards relaxing.
That said..............
This is an unschooling list. Unschoolers do not force teach,demand or
brainwash.
I'm sure someone may have a kinder gentler way to say it.

Being allowed to use the computer for 1 hr a day is very little time to
explore. Prisoners get more computer time...
She must have breakfast? Does every other member have to eat breakfast every
day? I know I don't eat food every am. What if she doesn't want it? What if
she doesn't finish what happens?
What is her *required time to wake up?

What does she like to do?
Do you go places just for fun?

So your saying you have no plans to unschool? What you explain is relaxed
homeschooling. What part of what we do are you interested in?
You say "she seems absolutely fine with it". Many kids are fine with PS.
Would she be allowed to tell you if she wasn't?



Laura
***********************************************************


<< I then learned about unschooling and we tried this for about 3
weeks and found her attitude to become better at first then she thought
she ran the house hold. So we have changed some things and found that a
combination of relaxed homeschool and unschooling with certain limits
works best for her personality and ours.
<<Here is what we came up with and she seems absolutely fine with it.

Every day she is allowed on my computer for 1 hour upon waking. then
she must have breakfast, read the bible or watch a bible video, then..

Mondays 1 worksheet of math or a computer game with math
Tuesday Reading or online science or hands on.
Wednesday Reading or online geography or history
Thursday Writing a story on the computer or in her journal
Friday Cooking (as she has shown a lot of interest here)

From 11:30am to bedtime the rest of each day is free to do as she pleases.

It has worked so much better for all of this way .

Deana>>







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