New Homschooler has questions...
mwmdo2004
Hi all,
Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic unschooling day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time picturing how it will work, especially since I'm starting to homeschool 2 kids that have been in the public school system.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Deeanna
---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic unschooling day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time picturing how it will work, especially since I'm starting to homeschool 2 kids that have been in the public school system.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Deeanna
---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Joanne
Hi Deeanna...welcome!
Picture a weekend....sometimes you stay in, sometimes you go out,
sometimes you have friends over, sometimes you need alone time,
sometimes you do things locally, sometimes you go away for the
weekend, sometimes you go visit friends, sometimes you spend the
weekend doing projects around the house, sometimes you read a book
you're into for the whole weekend.....that's unschooling for us.
It's one long never-ending weekend. :-)
You can read more at my blog. :-)
~ Joanne ~
Mom to Jacqueline (8), Shawna (11) & Cimion (13)
http://anunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/
--- In [email protected], mwmdo2004 <mwmdo2004@...>
wrote:
picturing how it will work, especially since I'm starting to
homeschool 2 kids that have been in the public school system.
Picture a weekend....sometimes you stay in, sometimes you go out,
sometimes you have friends over, sometimes you need alone time,
sometimes you do things locally, sometimes you go away for the
weekend, sometimes you go visit friends, sometimes you spend the
weekend doing projects around the house, sometimes you read a book
you're into for the whole weekend.....that's unschooling for us.
It's one long never-ending weekend. :-)
You can read more at my blog. :-)
~ Joanne ~
Mom to Jacqueline (8), Shawna (11) & Cimion (13)
http://anunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/
--- In [email protected], mwmdo2004 <mwmdo2004@...>
wrote:
>unschooling day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time
> Hi all,
>
> Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic
picturing how it will work, especially since I'm starting to
homeschool 2 kids that have been in the public school system.
>Great rates starting at 1¢/min.
> Thanks in advance for your help!
>
> Deeanna
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
John and Amanda Slater
Joanne,
I was looking at your blog about buying a guitar. My husband is a guitar builder for Gibson and has advice for a left handed player:
I have several left-handed friends who learned to play right handed. They say it's so much easier to play that way, because their dominant hand is fretting the strings, and that's where the extra strength and dexterity come in handy. There will always be a larger variety of right handed guitars than left. Left handed guitars are more common now than a few years ago, but most companies still charge a little more for them. If she ever gets in a situation where people are passing the guitar around the campfire, it will be easier to borrow someone elses since they will most likely be right handed. Hope this is helpful. It is also easier to sell a right handed guitar for upgrading or loss of interest.
HTH,
Amanda
---------------------------------
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I was looking at your blog about buying a guitar. My husband is a guitar builder for Gibson and has advice for a left handed player:
I have several left-handed friends who learned to play right handed. They say it's so much easier to play that way, because their dominant hand is fretting the strings, and that's where the extra strength and dexterity come in handy. There will always be a larger variety of right handed guitars than left. Left handed guitars are more common now than a few years ago, but most companies still charge a little more for them. If she ever gets in a situation where people are passing the guitar around the campfire, it will be easier to borrow someone elses since they will most likely be right handed. Hope this is helpful. It is also easier to sell a right handed guitar for upgrading or loss of interest.
HTH,
Amanda
---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Michelle/Melbrigða
On 8/22/06, mwmdo2004 <mwmdo2004@...> wrote:
unschooling day is like. It fluctuates from day to day. Some days we
seem to be so busy we can't breathe and other days we seem like sloths
"just" sitting in front of the tv, playing video games, watching
movies, reading books, knitting, playing word games, being silly.
Today was one of those awfully busy days. We started the morning off
finishing up the invitations for Mary Elayne's birthday party,
showering, dressing and packing lunches for our homeschool resource
day, going to said day, stopping off at the bookstore for an hour,
going home to see if we could find a book that struck our interest at
half.com, getting a craving for cookies so we looked up a new recipe
(which only got mild reviews as they took nearly 30 minutes to bake
per batch!), making a quick dinner, stamping some cards for a project
we are working on, running to the video store to return some DVD's
before they were late and pick up some new ones, watched a movie while
we sat an knit (and two others were doing other things throughout the
house), and somewhere in all that taking time to check e-mail, update
blogs, reading a few friends' blogs and finally answering this. Oh
and dishes have actually been done and the cats played with.
Yesterday was a totally different day. Tomorrow will be different
still. Each day and each week changes as we do. It's important to
realize that your days are going to look different from the days when
you were schooling. It really isn't a fair comparison either as our
lives are nothing like when we were schooling!
--
Michelle
aka Melbrigða
http://eventualknitting.blogspot.com
[email protected] - Homeschooling for the Medieval Recreationist
> Hi all,Welcome Deeanna! There is no one picture of what a "basic"
>
> Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic unschooling day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time picturing how it will work, especially since I'm starting to homeschool 2 kids that have been in the public school system.
>
unschooling day is like. It fluctuates from day to day. Some days we
seem to be so busy we can't breathe and other days we seem like sloths
"just" sitting in front of the tv, playing video games, watching
movies, reading books, knitting, playing word games, being silly.
Today was one of those awfully busy days. We started the morning off
finishing up the invitations for Mary Elayne's birthday party,
showering, dressing and packing lunches for our homeschool resource
day, going to said day, stopping off at the bookstore for an hour,
going home to see if we could find a book that struck our interest at
half.com, getting a craving for cookies so we looked up a new recipe
(which only got mild reviews as they took nearly 30 minutes to bake
per batch!), making a quick dinner, stamping some cards for a project
we are working on, running to the video store to return some DVD's
before they were late and pick up some new ones, watched a movie while
we sat an knit (and two others were doing other things throughout the
house), and somewhere in all that taking time to check e-mail, update
blogs, reading a few friends' blogs and finally answering this. Oh
and dishes have actually been done and the cats played with.
Yesterday was a totally different day. Tomorrow will be different
still. Each day and each week changes as we do. It's important to
realize that your days are going to look different from the days when
you were schooling. It really isn't a fair comparison either as our
lives are nothing like when we were schooling!
--
Michelle
aka Melbrigða
http://eventualknitting.blogspot.com
[email protected] - Homeschooling for the Medieval Recreationist
Michelle/Melbrigða
On 8/23/06, John and Amanda Slater <fourslaterz@...> wrote:
best friend is left handed and plays a right handed guitar. She said
it just seemed so natural and wondered why more right handed people
didn't play "left handed" guitars.
--
Michelle
aka Melbrigða
http://eventualknitting.blogspot.com
[email protected] - Homeschooling for the Medieval Recreationist
> Joanne,I haven't read your blog LOL! But saw this and wanted to concur! My
>
> I was looking at your blog about buying a guitar. My husband is a guitar builder for Gibson and has advice for a left handed player:
>
> I have several left-handed friends who learned to play right handed. They say it's so much easier to play that way, because their dominant hand is fretting the strings, and that's where the extra strength and dexterity come in handy.
best friend is left handed and plays a right handed guitar. She said
it just seemed so natural and wondered why more right handed people
didn't play "left handed" guitars.
--
Michelle
aka Melbrigða
http://eventualknitting.blogspot.com
[email protected] - Homeschooling for the Medieval Recreationist
Joanne
Thanks Amanda,
I appreciate your input on this. :-) Can he recommend a good
beginner guitar for her...an 8 year old girl...who wants to be a
rock star/writer/astronaut? LOL
~ Joanne ~
Mom to Jacqueline (8), Shawna (11) & Cimion (13)
http://anunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/
--- In [email protected], John and Amanda Slater
<fourslaterz@...> wrote:
their dominant hand is fretting the strings, and that's where the
extra strength and dexterity come in handy. There will always be a
larger variety of right handed guitars than left. Left handed
guitars are more common now than a few years ago, but most companies
still charge a little more for them. If she ever gets in a
situation where people are passing the guitar around the campfire,
it will be easier to borrow someone elses since they will most
likely be right handed. Hope this is helpful. It is also easier to
sell a right handed guitar for upgrading or loss of interest.
I appreciate your input on this. :-) Can he recommend a good
beginner guitar for her...an 8 year old girl...who wants to be a
rock star/writer/astronaut? LOL
~ Joanne ~
Mom to Jacqueline (8), Shawna (11) & Cimion (13)
http://anunschoolinglife.blogspot.com/
--- In [email protected], John and Amanda Slater
<fourslaterz@...> wrote:
>a guitar builder for Gibson and has advice for a left handed player:
> Joanne,
>
> I was looking at your blog about buying a guitar. My husband is
>handed. They say it's so much easier to play that way, because
> I have several left-handed friends who learned to play right
their dominant hand is fretting the strings, and that's where the
extra strength and dexterity come in handy. There will always be a
larger variety of right handed guitars than left. Left handed
guitars are more common now than a few years ago, but most companies
still charge a little more for them. If she ever gets in a
situation where people are passing the guitar around the campfire,
it will be easier to borrow someone elses since they will most
likely be right handed. Hope this is helpful. It is also easier to
sell a right handed guitar for upgrading or loss of interest.
>call rates.
> HTH,
> Amanda
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Cara
Hi Deeanna,
My children are 4 & 7 and have never been to school. Here is what
our week has been like so far.
Sunday - we cleaned the house, picked up projects that they were no
longer interested in building/making. I set a book on the side
cabinet in the kitchen opened to magnets. I also set some magnets
with other objects by the book. I made a checklist "What is
magnetic?". I left it in the morning. My 7 year old reads very
well and enjoyed the checklist (she did it after dinner). My 4 year
old doesn't read but loved to experiment with the magnets and making
things moved. Over a late dinner we discussed the checklist.
(Sometimes they do just ignore the book and project)
Monday - Daddy was in from work and he had a discussion over
breakfast with the girls about magnetism. We talked about
north/south poles, Aurora Borealis, etc. Then we visited
grandparents and waited for their cousins to get out of school so
they could fish/play at the grandparents house.
Tuesday - Hubby and oldest daughter went with grandpa to the hunting
store to get supplies for the upcoming season. Hubby always likes
to tell the girls what kinds of dead things are hanging on the walls
at the stores. Youngest daughter and I (who don't like hunting) had
breakfast and talked about our neighborhood. Then we all met at
grandma's house for lunch and dinner.
Wednesday - we did some window shopping, the girls picked out a new
toy. We worked outside in the yard and played badminton. We had
dinner at a local Chinese place and discussed how people speak
different languages (since we live in Cajun country many people here
speak French - as well as Spanish and Chinese). Then we camped out
in the living room and watched a movie together.
Thursday - we are doing errands/paying bills today and visiting the
library. My oldest daughter is interested in music/dance/costumes
and wants to get some books. My youngest just likes to walk to the
library.
We started as the "school at home" crowd. But the only thing we
found we enjoyed were certain books. My oldest sometimes likes
worksheets if she wants to do them like a game - like, "Mom - time
me to see how fast I can do this page" But that isn't very often.
One book we do like from our past curriculum is "Story of the
World" - it tells history like a story. I buy the activity book as
well. It has lots of maps and coloring sheets and activity ideas.
Like when we read about the Vikings the girls took an old box and
made a ship out of it. Then they screamed "We're going a-viking" as
they pretended to be Vikings for a few hours - complete with made up
costumes.
I also unschool (LOL) and many days while they are playing quite
contently I can spend hours researching my family history or
learning new stuff to make our house eco-friendly. I also pursue my
passions of soap making, bread baking and sewing. Sometimes the
girls want to help and other times they don't.
Cara :)
My children are 4 & 7 and have never been to school. Here is what
our week has been like so far.
Sunday - we cleaned the house, picked up projects that they were no
longer interested in building/making. I set a book on the side
cabinet in the kitchen opened to magnets. I also set some magnets
with other objects by the book. I made a checklist "What is
magnetic?". I left it in the morning. My 7 year old reads very
well and enjoyed the checklist (she did it after dinner). My 4 year
old doesn't read but loved to experiment with the magnets and making
things moved. Over a late dinner we discussed the checklist.
(Sometimes they do just ignore the book and project)
Monday - Daddy was in from work and he had a discussion over
breakfast with the girls about magnetism. We talked about
north/south poles, Aurora Borealis, etc. Then we visited
grandparents and waited for their cousins to get out of school so
they could fish/play at the grandparents house.
Tuesday - Hubby and oldest daughter went with grandpa to the hunting
store to get supplies for the upcoming season. Hubby always likes
to tell the girls what kinds of dead things are hanging on the walls
at the stores. Youngest daughter and I (who don't like hunting) had
breakfast and talked about our neighborhood. Then we all met at
grandma's house for lunch and dinner.
Wednesday - we did some window shopping, the girls picked out a new
toy. We worked outside in the yard and played badminton. We had
dinner at a local Chinese place and discussed how people speak
different languages (since we live in Cajun country many people here
speak French - as well as Spanish and Chinese). Then we camped out
in the living room and watched a movie together.
Thursday - we are doing errands/paying bills today and visiting the
library. My oldest daughter is interested in music/dance/costumes
and wants to get some books. My youngest just likes to walk to the
library.
We started as the "school at home" crowd. But the only thing we
found we enjoyed were certain books. My oldest sometimes likes
worksheets if she wants to do them like a game - like, "Mom - time
me to see how fast I can do this page" But that isn't very often.
One book we do like from our past curriculum is "Story of the
World" - it tells history like a story. I buy the activity book as
well. It has lots of maps and coloring sheets and activity ideas.
Like when we read about the Vikings the girls took an old box and
made a ship out of it. Then they screamed "We're going a-viking" as
they pretended to be Vikings for a few hours - complete with made up
costumes.
I also unschool (LOL) and many days while they are playing quite
contently I can spend hours researching my family history or
learning new stuff to make our house eco-friendly. I also pursue my
passions of soap making, bread baking and sewing. Sometimes the
girls want to help and other times they don't.
Cara :)
Deb
--- In [email protected], mwmdo2004 <mwmdo2004@...>
wrote:
choose, eat something somewhere along the way, maybe play in the
yard or go swimming or go fishing or catch tadpoles. You maybe watch
a movie, read some books (for fun, not 'grade level' or 'required
reading'), doodle, turn over rocks and watch the worms. Somewhere in
there more food occurs as needed. Evening rolls around and you look
for bats, watch the fireflies, maybe make a little fire in your
backyard firepit (if you've got one), toast marshmallows (or not).
Eventually, you all fall asleep. Not once during the day did anyone
do anything or think about anything they "should" be doing because
they are in a certain grade or need to do a certain subject. Life
just flowed along.
That is where you need to be right now to start - getting all the
school system out of your system. Take a vacation. "Typical" rule of
thumb is one month of "vacation" (aka de-schooling, detoxing) for
every year of school for every person in the house (you too Mom -
and you were in the system longest). Explore things that are of
interest, not of requirement. If your state *requires* some sort of
documentation, make notes at the end of the day about what you did -
walked, baked, played, etc. Sort it all out later.
Expect that it won't look a whole lot like school learning is
happening - odds are your kids won't pull down the textbooks and
worksheets and beg you to give them quizzes. They will watch TV,
they will play, they may even read a bunch (if that's what they like
and they now have free rein over what and when and how much).
They'll be like a field that needs to lay fallow for a time so that
it can regroup itself so it can produce strong healthy crops again.
They might not even ask questions just yet for fear it'll produce
a "lesson" on something. So, what to do? Take time, Be with them, do
your own things as well (pick up that forgotten knitting or take up
a new hobby). Live Life
--Deb
wrote:
>Picture a lovely sunny day in mid-July. You all get up when you
> Hi all,
>
> Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic
>unschooling day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time
>picturing how it will work, especially since I'm starting to
>homeschool 2 kids that have been in the public school system.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!
>
> Deeanna
>
choose, eat something somewhere along the way, maybe play in the
yard or go swimming or go fishing or catch tadpoles. You maybe watch
a movie, read some books (for fun, not 'grade level' or 'required
reading'), doodle, turn over rocks and watch the worms. Somewhere in
there more food occurs as needed. Evening rolls around and you look
for bats, watch the fireflies, maybe make a little fire in your
backyard firepit (if you've got one), toast marshmallows (or not).
Eventually, you all fall asleep. Not once during the day did anyone
do anything or think about anything they "should" be doing because
they are in a certain grade or need to do a certain subject. Life
just flowed along.
That is where you need to be right now to start - getting all the
school system out of your system. Take a vacation. "Typical" rule of
thumb is one month of "vacation" (aka de-schooling, detoxing) for
every year of school for every person in the house (you too Mom -
and you were in the system longest). Explore things that are of
interest, not of requirement. If your state *requires* some sort of
documentation, make notes at the end of the day about what you did -
walked, baked, played, etc. Sort it all out later.
Expect that it won't look a whole lot like school learning is
happening - odds are your kids won't pull down the textbooks and
worksheets and beg you to give them quizzes. They will watch TV,
they will play, they may even read a bunch (if that's what they like
and they now have free rein over what and when and how much).
They'll be like a field that needs to lay fallow for a time so that
it can regroup itself so it can produce strong healthy crops again.
They might not even ask questions just yet for fear it'll produce
a "lesson" on something. So, what to do? Take time, Be with them, do
your own things as well (pick up that forgotten knitting or take up
a new hobby). Live Life
--Deb
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: mwmdo2004@...
Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic
unschooling
day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time picturing how it
will
work, especially since I'm starting to homeschool 2 kids that have been
in the
public school system.
=-=-=-=-=
It pretty much works the same way summer vacation or Christmas break
works. You go; you do; some days you do not. <g> Just play. Be
interested. Be interesting. Treat your children as honored guests to
this planet. Answer questions. Help---or not.
Write down everything you do each day---NOT in schoolish terms! Write
down where you go, what you do, whom you see. Just write it down. Take
pictures. Start a blog! <g> After a month of documenting, go back a
LOOK at what all you DID!
It won't look like school (more than likely, it won't). It should look
like LIVING. Living a rich and wondeful life.
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://liveandlearnconference.org
"It's a small world...but a BIG life!" ~Aaron McGlohn. aged 6
________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email
and IM. All on demand. Always Free.
From: mwmdo2004@...
Just subscribed to this group. Would love some input on a basic
unschooling
day. I love the philosophy but am having a hard time picturing how it
will
work, especially since I'm starting to homeschool 2 kids that have been
in the
public school system.
=-=-=-=-=
It pretty much works the same way summer vacation or Christmas break
works. You go; you do; some days you do not. <g> Just play. Be
interested. Be interesting. Treat your children as honored guests to
this planet. Answer questions. Help---or not.
Write down everything you do each day---NOT in schoolish terms! Write
down where you go, what you do, whom you see. Just write it down. Take
pictures. Start a blog! <g> After a month of documenting, go back a
LOOK at what all you DID!
It won't look like school (more than likely, it won't). It should look
like LIVING. Living a rich and wondeful life.
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://liveandlearnconference.org
"It's a small world...but a BIG life!" ~Aaron McGlohn. aged 6
________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email
and IM. All on demand. Always Free.
John and Amanda Slater
Joanne,
I asked him about a guitar. He knows nothing specific about low end acoustics. He suggested going to a music shop that teaches lessons and asking what they recommend. Expect to spend aroung $50. Sorry I could not be more help.
Amanda
Joanne <billyandjoanne@...> wrote: Can he recommend a good
beginner guitar for her...an 8 year old girl...who wants to be a
rock star/writer/astronaut? LOL
---------------------------------
Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I asked him about a guitar. He knows nothing specific about low end acoustics. He suggested going to a music shop that teaches lessons and asking what they recommend. Expect to spend aroung $50. Sorry I could not be more help.
Amanda
Joanne <billyandjoanne@...> wrote: Can he recommend a good
beginner guitar for her...an 8 year old girl...who wants to be a
rock star/writer/astronaut? LOL
---------------------------------
Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]