decjec

I enjoyed reading the comments written in by readers! One comment that
hit me was when the child asks "Where do carrots come from?" and the
reader posted that you can take the seeds out in the backyard and bury
it in the ground.Oh how silly of me that was in school.
But in reality if a child asks,Where do carrots come from? They would
be told " Oh sweetie today we are working on this. You will learn
about that in next years curriculum.
Danette--


- In [email protected], Kristie Cochran
<kristiecochran@...> wrote:
>
> This was posted on one of my other homeschool lists:
>
>
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/FEATURES01/701280371
>
> Kristie
>

flynnzie2

Kristie,

Thanks for sharing-I found the article to be informative and helpful.
I'm still not certain what unschooling is and is not, but the freedom
for my daughter to learn what she is interested in is wonderful. As
her mother, seeing the return of her joy in learning is so rewarding.
I saw her confidence and creativity squashed in traditional schools,
and am finding this to be a relief that dd doen't have to be cut from
the same cookie cutter as everone else.

Flynnzie

Vickisue Gray

I really enjoyed the article. My only complaint would be by the end,
they tend to make it sound a bit like unschooling is for delayed learners.
At the dentist office the other day, jaws dropped when I told
them we didn't need a note for school. The clerk asked if homeschooling
was really hard to do. When I told her not at all, we unschool, everyone
turned and stared at us, " Oh, what's wrong with him?"

I find that a bit offensive. Still being somewhat new to unschooling, I felt
the need to point out that there's nothing 'wrong' with him. My son is very
advanced and ahead of his same aged peers. Unschooling gives him
freedom to learn at his pace which is much faster then the school system.

Vicki who is learning to unschool herself, lol


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flynnzie2

Hi Vicki,

While we were camping, a few people asked about my daughter being in
school, and I explained we were schooling at home. The responses were
very positive, but I'm sure that if I had said 'unschooling', I'd have
gotten some puzzled looks. Rather than becoming offended, less than
positive responses are a great opportuity to explain what unschooling
is, and the differences of a home education.

I didn't get the impression from the article that unschooling is for
the learning challanged. I thought the article pointed out that
unschooling can be for learners of all abilities.

Flynnzie

Laurie

ROFL Danette – my kids and I were just discussing this yesterday (and
I hadn't read the article so it was unrelated) – where do carrots come
from (they're almost 4 and 6.5). My DD remembered DH's garden from
the last few years and piped up, "you put seeds in the ground".
Thinking about that myself brought up my own question – "OK, but where
do the seeds come from? When the carrots are harvested, they don't
have seeds on them." I had to look it up. I wonder how many
elementary kids could answer THAT. ;)

The answer, in case I've piqued your interest (and you got as *great*
an education as I did in public school…lol):
Most of us never get a chance to see carrot seeds, however, because
the plant is usually pulled out of the ground before it produces them.
We harvest carrots in their first year so we can eat the tasty orange
root, but carrots are biennials—they produce seeds in their second year.

As I was reading the article this morning, this quote struck me - "If
they're focused on one area, the child may know everything about
gardening but won't know multiplication tables." I literally laughed
out loud. How ludicrous to think that you can learn *anything* about
gardening and it not turn into a math and numbers game!! LOL Just
shows how flat and stagnant the education system has become in their
thoughts. Same with this quote - "My 11-year-old, given his druthers,
would never do spelling and always do math." At the very least, if he
loves math THAT much, some day he will have to learn to read and
therefore, spell, in order to learn more math. It's just amazing that
people don't see it. What can we do to explain this better to people??

Laurie

--- In [email protected], "decjec" <decjec@...> wrote:
>One comment that
> hit me was when the child asks "Where do carrots come from?" and the
> reader posted that you can take the seeds out in the backyard and >
bury it in the ground.Oh how silly of me that was in school.
> Danette--
>
>

Candy Drake

Hi Every one I need help please, My son Jordan is 6 and I started " Homeschooling " him last year in kindergarten with arizona virtual academy an online charter school and im telling you it has really burned us both out , its so much stuff and he is creative and artistic and loves to do that stuff and I have been really researching and wanting to find a better way to teach my son school and i have a 4 year old too who I have been stressed about teaching him too. I really lvoe my kids and love having them home with me and believe in being their teacher very much and I have been reading so much about unschooling and it seems like a very good idea but I seem to have all the fears that i read about and I dont know where to start because Jordan is so turned off by school right now because of the online academy and both of us feeling pressured that I am afraid he will not WANT to learn on his own and he has a grasp on reading but is not perfect at it yet and he knows how to add
and subtract . he doesnt know nouns and verbs etc, I just couldnt get him to understand that concept yet and I get worried he wont be smart as an adult but yet he is very smart and a wonderful artist , he loves to paint and draw pictures, he draws like 30 pictures a day because he loves it and he talks like an intelectual and he ahs this great personality , He also loves the cooking channel very much. so I was just really wanting some good advice from you all and hekp me know where to start and what to do. I know the arizona laws are pretty simple when it comes to home schooling , all i have to do is send an letter of intent to homeschool, which the virtual academy is not technicly homeschooling but all i knew to do as of last year, well thankyou I would love to hear feed back .
thanks candy

Laurie <unschoolingblogger@...> wrote:
ROFL Danette – my kids and I were just discussing this yesterday (and
I hadn't read the article so it was unrelated) – where do carrots come
from (they're almost 4 and 6.5). My DD remembered DH's garden from
the last few years and piped up, "you put seeds in the ground".
Thinking about that myself brought up my own question – "OK, but where
do the seeds come from? When the carrots are harvested, they don't
have seeds on them." I had to look it up. I wonder how many
elementary kids could answer THAT. ;)

The answer, in case I've piqued your interest (and you got as *great*
an education as I did in public school…lol):
Most of us never get a chance to see carrot seeds, however, because
the plant is usually pulled out of the ground before it produces them.
We harvest carrots in their first year so we can eat the tasty orange
root, but carrots are biennials—they produce seeds in their second year.

As I was reading the article this morning, this quote struck me - "If
they're focused on one area, the child may know everything about
gardening but won't know multiplication tables." I literally laughed
out loud. How ludicrous to think that you can learn *anything* about
gardening and it not turn into a math and numbers game!! LOL Just
shows how flat and stagnant the education system has become in their
thoughts. Same with this quote - "My 11-year-old, given his druthers,
would never do spelling and always do math." At the very least, if he
loves math THAT much, some day he will have to learn to read and
therefore, spell, in order to learn more math. It's just amazing that
people don't see it. What can we do to explain this better to people??

Laurie

--- In [email protected], "decjec" <decjec@...> wrote:
>One comment that
> hit me was when the child asks "Where do carrots come from?" and the
> reader posted that you can take the seeds out in the backyard and >
bury it in the ground.Oh how silly of me that was in school.
> Danette--
>
>






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Heather

Hi Candy,

I'm also in Arizona, in Tucson, and I unschool my 2 kids, ages 11 & 8. I
suggest letting go of the Virtual Academy. It doesn't sound like it is
working for either you or your son.

<I dont know where to start because Jordan is so turned off by school right
now>

You can start by taking a "vacation" from school. Do fun stuff with your
kids. More art, more playing, take walks, kick soccer balls around, etc.

<I am afraid he will not WANT to learn on his own>

Recognize that your son already IS learning, every day, all the time. So
what if he doesn't know the difference between nouns and verbs. Who cares?
He can communicate, right? So he can use them in real life. Being able to
label them isn't important except in school and in testing situations.
Especially at age 6. So you can relax <g> and just go about enjoying life.

You might want to find a local support group. Where in Arizona are you?
You also might be interested in the HENA conference later this month in
Phoenix. Here is their website: http://hena.us/

sincerely,
heather
swingdancechick@...




On 2/1/07, Candy Drake <angeljjck@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Every one I need help please, My son Jordan is 6 and I started "
> Homeschooling " him last year in kindergarten with arizona virtual academy
> an online charter school and im telling you it has really burned us both out
> , its so much stuff and he is creative and artistic and loves to do that
> stuff and I have been really researching and wanting to find a better way to
> teach my son school and i have a 4 year old too who I have been stressed
> about teaching him too. I really lvoe my kids and love having them home with
> me and believe in being their teacher very much and I have been reading so
> much about unschooling and it seems like a very good idea but I seem to have
> all the fears that i read about and I dont know where to start because
> Jordan is so turned off by school right now because of the online academy
> and both of us feeling pressured that I am afraid he will not WANT to learn
> on his own and he has a grasp on reading but is not perfect at it yet and he
> knows how to add
> and subtract . he doesnt know nouns and verbs etc, I just couldnt get him
> to understand that concept yet and I get worried he wont be smart as an
> adult but yet he is very smart and a wonderful artist , he loves to paint
> and draw pictures, he draws like 30 pictures a day because he loves it and
> he talks like an intelectual and he ahs this great personality , He also
> loves the cooking channel very much. so I was just really wanting some good
> advice from you all and hekp me know where to start and what to do. I know
> the arizona laws are pretty simple when it comes to home schooling , all i
> have to do is send an letter of intent to homeschool, which the virtual
> academy is not technicly homeschooling but all i knew to do as of last year,
> well thankyou I would love to hear feed back .
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joyce Fetteroll

On Feb 1, 2007, at 3:28 PM, Candy Drake wrote:

> I am afraid he will not WANT to learn on his own

He probably will want to avoid activities that resemble school
learning because he has a negative association with them. If you put
no pressure on him, he will recover and so-called educational
activities will lose the taint.

But that's just a tiny portion of what and ways he can learn.

Though don't expect unschooling to look like school. It's a rare
unschooling kid who picks up workbooks for fun. But they will *use*
the skills through living life that schools try to pour into them and
get better at the skills and pick up more knowledge as a side effect
of using them.

> and he has a grasp on reading but is not perfect at it yet

Why does he need to be perfect at it right now? How will reading well
enhance him being 6 years old?

Schools have parents so terrified that if their kids aren't reading
well early that they're doomed to be poor readers.

The truth is they're likely to be poor readers *because of* school,
not because they're not reading early. Being in an environment where
there's pressure to do what you can't yet, and messages that you're
defective because you aren't doing something that "everyone else" is,
is what causes reading problems.

Kids naturally learn to read typically between 4 and 12. By 15,
though, you can't tell who read earlier and who read later. A 12 year
old who has just decoded the code for reading isn't 6 years behind
one who decoded the code at 6. The 12 year old quickly catches up to
his or her age mates because all the other brain areas that are
needed for reading were developing and being used for other things
and just waiting for the last piece to kick in. There's a lot of
stories of kids going from non-reading to reading adult level books
practically overnight.

> he doesnt know nouns and verbs etc, I just couldnt get him to
> understand that concept yet and I get worried he wont be smart as
> an adult

Why does he need nouns and verbs right now? Why do you fear that just
because he can't understand now, he won't understand 5 years from now?

Why do you associate knowing nouns and verbs as being smart? You
don't need to tell us. Just think about it. We're all chock full of
inconsistencies that clog up clear thinking! It takes a while to
recognize them and hold them up to the light of day to examine them
closely.

If you think of people you know in real life who you consider smart,
would you think they were less smart if they didn't know nouns and
verbs even though they used them properly all the time in speaking?

Joyce

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