sharon currie

Hi Christine,

"Please don't attack me as if I'm anti unschooling. I am looking for
information and trying to figure out what is right."

Do what's comfortable for yourself and your child. Do not over sacrifice your beliefs for the sake of what you may believe to be the best/must for your child, because by the end of the day, you might be struggling with something that's not naturally you. Just take what you consider the best fromboth homeschooling and un-schooling) and make it your own.

As for me and son, we're still on the path of deciding what is and what's not. But so far, I'm quite comfortable with us veering towards un-schooling, simply because the relax and un-structured environment is working wonderfully for my son. No maths studies until he decides to do it(as long as he can counts, I not too worried), no reading forced upon him even though he is reading his star wars books without realising it, as for science and georgraphy, we can't really miss it as it's around us, very day of our life in the form of tv shows, news and park. Basically no curriculum! Why? Because I believe that the only thing that matters is his entrance exams to uni, that is, if uni still applies to him in 10 years time. Currently my son's convinced he'll be a good train driver, see what I mean? So in the meantime, we have ten years to work on his algebra and everything. But still I wouldn't say I'm a true un-schooler because I do insist on certain things like the bedtime
routine of washing up and bedtime story by 8pm, I do insist on him getting breakfasted and brush teeth and changed before starting on his PS2, and I am limiting his exposure to Star Wars movies (dvds) and Star Wars Lego on PS2 to just half a day so we can have the other half for doing other things. But by the end of the day, I know my son, he needs his sleep and when he doeasn't get enough sleep, he's really difficult to be with. He does have an obssessive streak in him and when allowed unlimited access to his star wars dvds and PS2 (which we did!) he was like a junkie, unwilling to get away from the tv and he wanted more and more and more, when we said no, he just went into mega tantrum, being totally un-reasonable(signs of his tiredness) and agressive(which is very unusual of him), despite being on it for 3 weeks, almost daily for about 8 hours on and off! Actually it was when he insisted on playing for even longer period that we eventually said no, this is not working!

So my advice is continue surfing more websites, continue asking questions and opinions and if you come across a site that's nasty and you're not comfortable with, then perhaps it's obviously not the right group for you, so don't be disheartened, there's lots of other sites available. and if you have access to a good library, do read up on the many different homeschooling books available as they can give you lots of ideas to how to formulate your direction. But firstly asked yourself What's sort of learner is your child? Mine learn by 'immersion' which I believed can possibly explain his obssessiveness. What is it really that you visualised and hope for your child by educating him/her yourself, instead of school?

I believe no two homeschooling families are the same, we are all unique, based on our very individual beliefs, capabilites and family needs.

All the best. Hope I'm of help.
SharonC





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