new article about unschooling
[email protected]
Sarah Sobonya says unschooling led to creativity
By Sarah Sobonya, mother of home-schooler Rain Quinlan, 14
May 13, 2007
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/13/first_person_sarah_sobonya/
When I look back on our eight years of unschooling, what strikes me
most is how much fun we’ve had. I never expected unschooling to be so
much fun. In a way, it’s been a kind of an endless summer: eight years
of watching Rain follow her whims and her dreams and of learning and
growing alongside her.
With unschooling, no two days are the same. Some days we rise late and
spend the day puttering around the house, maybe baking pancakes and
reading together, gardening or watching movies. Other days we’re up
early and off to museums or classes or berry-picking or visits with
friends.
Although we rarely spend an entire day together anymore, I think I
spend more time with her than do most parents of teens. I really enjoy
hearing her ideas and insights and jokes, and just being with her. In
my very biased opinion, she’s a pretty wonderful person.
Most of the time, I don’t think in terms of traditional academics at
all. When Rain was younger, schooled children would sometimes quiz her
on the things they were learning in their classes, like multiplication
facts or spelling words. They would forecast a lifetime of doom and
gloom for her, and sometimes she would come home upset and determined
to master the skills the schooled kids were working on.
I walked a fine line, trying to support in achieving her stated goals
while pointing out the things that she knew that most kids didn’t, and
gently sharing my conviction that learning things on her own timetable
didn’t mean she would never learn them, if she needed to know them.
When she was 10 or so, her hitherto almost nonexistent writing skills
blossomed, and within a year she was keeping a blog or two and writing
beautiful stories. A couple of years later, she wrote a thoughtful
essay requesting a scholarship to a summer program and was awarded the
highest amount possible.
It didn’t matter at all that when she was 9, she would have struggled
to write a simple paragraph. Her writing score on the SAT she took as
an eighth-grader was well above that achieved by the average
college-bound high school senior. She wrote when she was ready, and she
enjoyed it, and I enjoyed bearing witness to the process.
There’s an idea among some people that home schooling parents need to
know everything their children will learn, or they’ll need to hire a
tutor for those topics. I haven’t found this to be true. Learning
occurs independently of teaching most of the time, and most of what I
know was never explicitly taught to me.
Indeed, I’m often surprised by what Rain knows. Through books,
television, radio, talking with people, Internet browsing, classes,
live lectures and perhaps osmosis, she’s acquired a rich tapestry of
background knowledge and an impressive skill base. The availability of
resources for learning in today’s world is amazing to me, and Rain has
learned to maneuver this world with dexterity and grace.
I’m always here if she needs me, but I would never want to be her only
source of information. I like that she can explore the world and make
her own choices. She doesn’t always agree with me, and I think that’s a
good thing.
I don’t consider unschooling to be a sacrifice on my part but an active
negotiation between the two of us. In our family, we pull together, and
unschooling is just an extension of that. Since Rain was born, I’ve
always either worked or been a student or both, and I’ve tried to apply
the principles of unschooling to my life as well as Rain’s.
I do the things that I want to do, and I truly enjoy all facets of my
life (well, except housework!). I feel so fortunate that Rain and I are
able to live this way.
****************************************
I wish she could've found joy in housework too! <bwg>
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0
By Sarah Sobonya, mother of home-schooler Rain Quinlan, 14
May 13, 2007
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/13/first_person_sarah_sobonya/
When I look back on our eight years of unschooling, what strikes me
most is how much fun we’ve had. I never expected unschooling to be so
much fun. In a way, it’s been a kind of an endless summer: eight years
of watching Rain follow her whims and her dreams and of learning and
growing alongside her.
With unschooling, no two days are the same. Some days we rise late and
spend the day puttering around the house, maybe baking pancakes and
reading together, gardening or watching movies. Other days we’re up
early and off to museums or classes or berry-picking or visits with
friends.
Although we rarely spend an entire day together anymore, I think I
spend more time with her than do most parents of teens. I really enjoy
hearing her ideas and insights and jokes, and just being with her. In
my very biased opinion, she’s a pretty wonderful person.
Most of the time, I don’t think in terms of traditional academics at
all. When Rain was younger, schooled children would sometimes quiz her
on the things they were learning in their classes, like multiplication
facts or spelling words. They would forecast a lifetime of doom and
gloom for her, and sometimes she would come home upset and determined
to master the skills the schooled kids were working on.
I walked a fine line, trying to support in achieving her stated goals
while pointing out the things that she knew that most kids didn’t, and
gently sharing my conviction that learning things on her own timetable
didn’t mean she would never learn them, if she needed to know them.
When she was 10 or so, her hitherto almost nonexistent writing skills
blossomed, and within a year she was keeping a blog or two and writing
beautiful stories. A couple of years later, she wrote a thoughtful
essay requesting a scholarship to a summer program and was awarded the
highest amount possible.
It didn’t matter at all that when she was 9, she would have struggled
to write a simple paragraph. Her writing score on the SAT she took as
an eighth-grader was well above that achieved by the average
college-bound high school senior. She wrote when she was ready, and she
enjoyed it, and I enjoyed bearing witness to the process.
There’s an idea among some people that home schooling parents need to
know everything their children will learn, or they’ll need to hire a
tutor for those topics. I haven’t found this to be true. Learning
occurs independently of teaching most of the time, and most of what I
know was never explicitly taught to me.
Indeed, I’m often surprised by what Rain knows. Through books,
television, radio, talking with people, Internet browsing, classes,
live lectures and perhaps osmosis, she’s acquired a rich tapestry of
background knowledge and an impressive skill base. The availability of
resources for learning in today’s world is amazing to me, and Rain has
learned to maneuver this world with dexterity and grace.
I’m always here if she needs me, but I would never want to be her only
source of information. I like that she can explore the world and make
her own choices. She doesn’t always agree with me, and I think that’s a
good thing.
I don’t consider unschooling to be a sacrifice on my part but an active
negotiation between the two of us. In our family, we pull together, and
unschooling is just an extension of that. Since Rain was born, I’ve
always either worked or been a student or both, and I’ve tried to apply
the principles of unschooling to my life as well as Rain’s.
I do the things that I want to do, and I truly enjoy all facets of my
life (well, except housework!). I feel so fortunate that Rain and I are
able to live this way.
****************************************
I wish she could've found joy in housework too! <bwg>
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0
Ren Allen
~~I wish she could've found joy in housework too! <bwg>~~
Yeah...that's one area that took me a long time to really enjoy.
Though I don't always feel a sense of joy while doing certain tasks,
there is a level of gratefulness I can carry with me most days.
Today, I mopped floors and shook rugs and washed bedding etc... all
the deep cleaning that tends to get neglected when we're busy and on
the go. As I washed all the dirty towels I got to relive our happy
memories of LEAF this weekend and other messy moments.:) Life is
messy. Unschooling probably brings more mess because of our choice to
have our kids around more. Embracing the mess that comes with living
and happy memories really helps shift the energy around here.
Still learning these things, but glad to find I don't grump and moan
very often when cleaning anymore.:)
Ren
learninginfreedom.com
Yeah...that's one area that took me a long time to really enjoy.
Though I don't always feel a sense of joy while doing certain tasks,
there is a level of gratefulness I can carry with me most days.
Today, I mopped floors and shook rugs and washed bedding etc... all
the deep cleaning that tends to get neglected when we're busy and on
the go. As I washed all the dirty towels I got to relive our happy
memories of LEAF this weekend and other messy moments.:) Life is
messy. Unschooling probably brings more mess because of our choice to
have our kids around more. Embracing the mess that comes with living
and happy memories really helps shift the energy around here.
Still learning these things, but glad to find I don't grump and moan
very often when cleaning anymore.:)
Ren
learninginfreedom.com
Janice Haenny
This is wonderful. I am new to this and it so much reinforced my vision and what we are doing. I really needed this. I went to the link and then read the conversation, interesting how the communication skills of the "unschoolers" seemed so much more developed than "unschoolers isn't even a word"...
Janice Haenny (Parker, 7)
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of kbcdlovejo@...
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 5:52 AM
To: [email protected]; UnschoolingDiscussion@...
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] new article about unschooling
Sarah Sobonya says unschooling led to creativity
By Sarah Sobonya, mother of home-schooler Rain Quinlan, 14
May 13, 2007
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/13/first_person_sarah_sobonya/
When I look back on our eight years of unschooling, what strikes me
most is how much fun we’ve had. I never expected unschooling to be so
much fun. In a way, it’s been a kind of an endless summer: eight years
of watching Rain follow her whims and her dreams and of learning and
growing alongside her.
With unschooling, no two days are the same. Some days we rise late and
spend the day puttering around the house, maybe baking pancakes and
reading together, gardening or watching movies. Other days we’re up
early and off to museums or classes or berry-picking or visits with
friends.
Although we rarely spend an entire day together anymore, I think I
spend more time with her than do most parents of teens. I really enjoy
hearing her ideas and insights and jokes, and just being with her. In
my very biased opinion, she’s a pretty wonderful person.
Most of the time, I don’t think in terms of traditional academics at
all. When Rain was younger, schooled children would sometimes quiz her
on the things they were learning in their classes, like multiplication
facts or spelling words. They would forecast a lifetime of doom and
gloom for her, and sometimes she would come home upset and determined
to master the skills the schooled kids were working on.
I walked a fine line, trying to support in achieving her stated goals
while pointing out the things that she knew that most kids didn’t, and
gently sharing my conviction that learning things on her own timetable
didn’t mean she would never learn them, if she needed to know them.
When she was 10 or so, her hitherto almost nonexistent writing skills
blossomed, and within a year she was keeping a blog or two and writing
beautiful stories. A couple of years later, she wrote a thoughtful
essay requesting a scholarship to a summer program and was awarded the
highest amount possible.
It didn’t matter at all that when she was 9, she would have struggled
to write a simple paragraph. Her writing score on the SAT she took as
an eighth-grader was well above that achieved by the average
college-bound high school senior. She wrote when she was ready, and she
enjoyed it, and I enjoyed bearing witness to the process.
There’s an idea among some people that home schooling parents need to
know everything their children will learn, or they’ll need to hire a
tutor for those topics. I haven’t found this to be true. Learning
occurs independently of teaching most of the time, and most of what I
know was never explicitly taught to me.
Indeed, I’m often surprised by what Rain knows. Through books,
television, radio, talking with people, Internet browsing, classes,
live lectures and perhaps osmosis, she’s acquired a rich tapestry of
background knowledge and an impressive skill base. The availability of
resources for learning in today’s world is amazing to me, and Rain has
learned to maneuver this world with dexterity and grace.
I’m always here if she needs me, but I would never want to be her only
source of information. I like that she can explore the world and make
her own choices. She doesn’t always agree with me, and I think that’s a
good thing.
I don’t consider unschooling to be a sacrifice on my part but an active
negotiation between the two of us. In our family, we pull together, and
unschooling is just an extension of that. Since Rain was born, I’ve
always either worked or been a student or both, and I’ve tried to apply
the principles of unschooling to my life as well as Rain’s.
I do the things that I want to do, and I truly enjoy all facets of my
life (well, except housework!). I feel so fortunate that Rain and I are
able to live this way.
****************************************
I wish she could've found joy in housework too! <bwg>
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
__________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Janice Haenny (Parker, 7)
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of kbcdlovejo@...
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 5:52 AM
To: [email protected]; UnschoolingDiscussion@...
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] new article about unschooling
Sarah Sobonya says unschooling led to creativity
By Sarah Sobonya, mother of home-schooler Rain Quinlan, 14
May 13, 2007
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/13/first_person_sarah_sobonya/
When I look back on our eight years of unschooling, what strikes me
most is how much fun we’ve had. I never expected unschooling to be so
much fun. In a way, it’s been a kind of an endless summer: eight years
of watching Rain follow her whims and her dreams and of learning and
growing alongside her.
With unschooling, no two days are the same. Some days we rise late and
spend the day puttering around the house, maybe baking pancakes and
reading together, gardening or watching movies. Other days we’re up
early and off to museums or classes or berry-picking or visits with
friends.
Although we rarely spend an entire day together anymore, I think I
spend more time with her than do most parents of teens. I really enjoy
hearing her ideas and insights and jokes, and just being with her. In
my very biased opinion, she’s a pretty wonderful person.
Most of the time, I don’t think in terms of traditional academics at
all. When Rain was younger, schooled children would sometimes quiz her
on the things they were learning in their classes, like multiplication
facts or spelling words. They would forecast a lifetime of doom and
gloom for her, and sometimes she would come home upset and determined
to master the skills the schooled kids were working on.
I walked a fine line, trying to support in achieving her stated goals
while pointing out the things that she knew that most kids didn’t, and
gently sharing my conviction that learning things on her own timetable
didn’t mean she would never learn them, if she needed to know them.
When she was 10 or so, her hitherto almost nonexistent writing skills
blossomed, and within a year she was keeping a blog or two and writing
beautiful stories. A couple of years later, she wrote a thoughtful
essay requesting a scholarship to a summer program and was awarded the
highest amount possible.
It didn’t matter at all that when she was 9, she would have struggled
to write a simple paragraph. Her writing score on the SAT she took as
an eighth-grader was well above that achieved by the average
college-bound high school senior. She wrote when she was ready, and she
enjoyed it, and I enjoyed bearing witness to the process.
There’s an idea among some people that home schooling parents need to
know everything their children will learn, or they’ll need to hire a
tutor for those topics. I haven’t found this to be true. Learning
occurs independently of teaching most of the time, and most of what I
know was never explicitly taught to me.
Indeed, I’m often surprised by what Rain knows. Through books,
television, radio, talking with people, Internet browsing, classes,
live lectures and perhaps osmosis, she’s acquired a rich tapestry of
background knowledge and an impressive skill base. The availability of
resources for learning in today’s world is amazing to me, and Rain has
learned to maneuver this world with dexterity and grace.
I’m always here if she needs me, but I would never want to be her only
source of information. I like that she can explore the world and make
her own choices. She doesn’t always agree with me, and I think that’s a
good thing.
I don’t consider unschooling to be a sacrifice on my part but an active
negotiation between the two of us. In our family, we pull together, and
unschooling is just an extension of that. Since Rain was born, I’ve
always either worked or been a student or both, and I’ve tried to apply
the principles of unschooling to my life as well as Rain’s.
I do the things that I want to do, and I truly enjoy all facets of my
life (well, except housework!). I feel so fortunate that Rain and I are
able to live this way.
****************************************
I wish she could've found joy in housework too! <bwg>
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
__________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Deb Lewis
***I went to the link and then read the
conversation, ***
Not a fan of Ghostbusters but I liked this comment: <G>
***roger_o_thornhill (Anonymous) says.
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria."
-Dr. Peter Venkman***
Deb Lewis
conversation, ***
Not a fan of Ghostbusters but I liked this comment: <G>
***roger_o_thornhill (Anonymous) says.
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria."
-Dr. Peter Venkman***
Deb Lewis
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: d.lewis@...
***I went to the link and then read the
conversation, ***
Not a fan of Ghostbusters but I liked this comment: <G>
***roger_o_thornhill (Anonymous) says.
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria."
-Dr. Peter Venkman***
-=-=-=-
I haven't watched Ghostbusters in what? twenty years or something? But
what the hell did that quote have to do with the story?
Am I missing something really, really obvious?
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
From: d.lewis@...
***I went to the link and then read the
conversation, ***
Not a fan of Ghostbusters but I liked this comment: <G>
***roger_o_thornhill (Anonymous) says.
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria."
-Dr. Peter Venkman***
-=-=-=-
I haven't watched Ghostbusters in what? twenty years or something? But
what the hell did that quote have to do with the story?
Am I missing something really, really obvious?
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.