Re: [unschoolingbasics] How I strew :)
[email protected]
Ways I strew --
I am the getter of things -- DS heard a remark about the book "The Language Police." He asked me to get it for him. I asked and the library ordered it from another branch and I'll pick it up later today.
DD had an idea to redecorate her room -- I drove us to Jo-Ann Fabrics. She picked out a really wonderful combination of fabrics and I helped her sew as needed, trying to do only what she is unable (so far) to do.
Magazines/fliers with books and games and other stuff come and I hand them to the kids and then order what they choose.
I drive to the library and am available to check out when DD finishes selecting her books.
I see an interesting website on line. I think it's interesting anyway. I save it to Favorites and let the kids know it is there is they want to pursue it. There is about a... hmmmm ... hard to judge, maybe 20% rate of them following up on whatever I strew on the computer.
We see a word posted on a sign we drive by all the time -- someone at the local U-Store-It place has a brain and posts trivia questions on their marquee. Anyway, I remind DS to look it up when we get home -- he googles -- discovers it has nothing to do with what we thought but then spends the next hour with DD browsing around a site on different psychiatric terms. My job? Leave them the heck alone. :)
So the strewing here is haphazard -- in addition to the above, the house is just one big strew -- books and mags and supplies for different projects are readily available on shelves or in bins or the computer is always on or whatever is needed is at hand if possible -- all within the bounds of the budget! and our reality, of course (we know all about saving up for something and working around Dad's erratic work schedule and when something is just too darned expensive).
For me, it's better to have a messy house and have that graph paper available when DS wants to do a geometry magic trick he just read about -- at 10 PM, when he seems to come alive, just as I am fading. :)
What was the topic? :) How I strew -- I try to help without pushing. It's a balance, for me anyway. And changes constantly. The kids are 11 and 9 now -- so I strew differently than when they were 7 and 5, or whatever.
Nance
In a message dated 6/2/2004 7:15:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Yeah, this "strewing" thing is different for each of us. The thing that remains constant, is I'm sharing my life with whole people that I trust to make the best choices for their own lives. I live with them the way I live with dh....sharing interests, learning from each other and trusting in each others abilities and differences.
Ren, off to glue flowers