Michelle Leifur Reid

On 11/20/06, jen mobley <jenpmobley@...> wrote:
>Sometimes it even seems like she's regressing and
> "acting like a baby". I don't know why. She's very bright for her age and
> remembers everything.

Is she truly regressing or is she acting her natural age for someone
who isn't forced into growing up so fast? :) This is probably her
way of deschooling - going back to a place where she remembers being
accepted for who she was rather than what she was doing. She can be a
kid again. She can ask for assistance. She can play "baby games"
again. She can abandon that grown up kindergardener in favor of her
"childish youth." I would see this more as healing than regressing.
Even the short amount of time that she was in school can leave an
impact on who she feels she is!

About Girl Scouts: Be aware that Girl Scouts aren't always
unschooling friendly. I was a Girl Scout my entire life and while I
loved souts, I found that my daughters didn't. While they enjoyed
being with other girls, the structure of scouting and the drive to
finish badges and earn awards did not mesh well with them. There is
an emphasis on completing things and earning the next level award.
Emily dropped out after her first year in Juniors because there was SO
much stress on working towards their Bronze Award. She saw the other
Bronze Award recipients' work and felt she couldn't come up with as
good of a project. Mary Elayne got frustrated with Brownies because
she would start the work on a badge and decide that she had learned
all she wanted to on the badge and was ready to move on to something
else. But because she didn't complete the badge she had nothing to
show (at least on her vest) for all that she had learned. No badges
for half completed work. Half completed work equated to not good
enough. :(

It's also important to remember that the majority of girls in scouting
are traditionally schooled. They bring with them all the issues that
go along with school. Depending on how comfortable your child is with
unschooling this may or may not be a problem. There are homeschool
Girl Scout troops that can be a bit better, but again most people are
schooling at home (to some degree) and aren't living free, joyful and
unschooled lives. There are much better ways of finding socialization
for your child than scouting. If your primary goal is socialization
that is.

Michelle - with a crazy mixed up view of scouting :)