sara_boheme

I think I've always been an unschooler. My valiant attempts at
teaching my two children packaged curriculum, or the hodge podge
known as "The Classical Method" always left me giving up halfway
through and just letting the kids be kids. I have a natually curious
daughter who was constantly checking books out from the library
about what she wanted to learn anyway (now that my son is older he
does the same). But I didn't officially start unscooling until this
year. Not because of the great books I read (there were many, John
Holt & David Albert among them ), not because of the wonderful
websites and testimonials (although they were informative and
inspiring). The low down dirty truth is that my mother died. A
horrible, unexpected death, and two years later I am still reeling
from it. Although I got into counseling right away, it wasn't until
this year that her death really hit home. I found that I needed to
stop the whirlwind of my life and just BE. So we stopped "doing
school". We started just living. I started sleeping in and letting
the kids get up and do whatever they wanted. Sometimes that was
playing a video game, sometimes it meant they made cookies for
breakfast (with me on call to take the cookie sheet out of the
oven), or played mancala or played zoo with all their stuffed
animals. We played cards together, took walks, watched movies, had
tea. I asked for time alone when I needed it. At first I felt
guilty, was I being neglectful? We weren't doing our Saxon math! Was
it ok to have them downstairs making toast (at ages 11 & 6 ) while I
slept til 7:30 or 8? I was so used to being "super mom", the
attached parent. Now my daughter is getting nervous about this new
unschooling thing. "Will I learn what I need to know?" she'll
ask. "Honey you can learn whatever you want, and that will be what
you need to know" is what I've been replying. So we go to the
library, we go to the park, we watch Bill Nye the Science guy. On my
down days I hope it will be enough. It is enough for me that I have
happy, healthy children. And truth be told, I need this unschooling
as much as they do. And so I ramble here on this post. For
reassurance, for support, for companionship; and just to say hello.

Thanks for listening,

Sara :-)

Angela S.

Sara,

I am sorry to hear about your mother�s untimely death. :-(



I am happy for you and your children however, that it brought you to
unschooling. Your days sound wonderful and as long as you are available to
your children to help them follow their dreams and interests, they will be
fine.



Keep your chin up. :-)





Angela S.

HYPERLINK "mailto:game-enthusiast@..."game-enthusiast@...

Life Is Good!


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sara_boheme

Thank you Angela. I love coming here and reading posts. Very thought
provoking. Mostly I lurk and just try to glean bits of wisdom. :-).

Thank you again for your support.

Sara