csm4191970

Hi! My name is Christy, and I unschool my 2 kids. My daughter is 13,
and my son is 10. I love to read and watch tv with my kids. My
daughter loves horses and takes riding lessons once a week. She plays
Neopets, Webkinz, and Howrse online. My son enjoys playing cars,
army guys, cowboys, and video games. He has been diagnosed adhd, but I
have him on no meds. He's extremely high-spirited and all boy.
Neither of the kids have ever been to school. I started out doing the
traditional textbook approach with my daughter, but that QUICKLY fell
apart. After that we tried about a zillion different things, but we
keep coming back to unschooling.
My question/concern is this. When I look at unschoolers blogs or
websites, it seems like their kids have all kinds of interests and are
constantly researching and doing "schooly" things on their own. Well
my unschooling days end up being like this: my daughter and I watch
Gilmore Girls dvds half the day (it would be all day, but we sleep in
till 10 and have breakfast/lunch around 11)and my son plays with his
toys. Both kids do have great imaginations. My daughter does write a
lot. Her favorite series is Warriors, and since there is no book out
now, she is writing her own storyline for it. My son draws little
shootem up barroom fights, and tells me the whole story for it.
I just get nervous and think they will never learn everything they
will need to know if they go to college! My daughter does do math at
least twice a week or more, but my son hates ANY kind of school work.
He just learned to read well in the past year. He reads like 3rd grade
reader type books.
I know this is long, but I just want to know if other people's days
look at all like mine. Do your kids just play, use the computer, watch
tv all day some/most days? Is this really unschooling or am I just
being lazy?

Thanks so much,
Christy

Joyce Fetteroll

On Feb 29, 2008, at 4:05 PM, csm4191970 wrote:

> it seems like their kids have all kinds of interests and are
> constantly researching and doing "schooly" things on their own.

Well, look at it this way, who wants to take time to write about the
days kids watched TV all day?

You'll always get a view skewed to what's interesting to write about.

Until recently, at 16, my daughter didn't do anything that looked
like research. Now she's researching hair metal groups from the
80's :-) (That's history through music, for reporting purposes ;-)

> Do your kids just play, use the computer, watch
> tv all day some/most days?

When my daughter was a preteen it did look like days of TV and video
games. Apparently that's not uncommon for those transition years.

> my daughter and I watch
> Gilmore Girls dvds half the day (it would be all day, but we sleep in
> till 10 and have breakfast/lunch around 11)and my son plays with his
> toys.

For unschooling it's a lot more important to examine the why rather
than the what.

Are you guys doing what you're doing because it's fun or because it's
easy? Do they seem unhappy?

See, if I say yes to the above, it can sound like unschooling means
parking the kids (and self) in front of the TV for 6 hours. It
doesn't. Sometimes it will look that way, but our choices should be
conscious ones to do what we enjoy not because we don't want to put
effort in.

I would bring some swirly exciting things into their lives and see
how they react. And you can turn routines more interesting: go to
grocery stores in different towns. Try ethnic stores. If your library
is part of a consortium, visit other libraries. If they're happy at
home, then I'd make offers to keep the doors open so they know what's
available but don't feel guilty if they don't take up the offers. And
there are swirly things for home too: new games, movies, inviting
people over and so on.

Joyce

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

csm4191970

Thanks, Joyce. That is true about writing what is interesting lol.
I loved those 80's hair bands too! Tell your daughter she has good
taste :)

I guess when I take the time to really look at it, they are really
enjoying what they are doing. My daughter begs to watch more Gilmore
Girls every time we end an episode, and my son loves acting out his
Cars movie with his cars.

I think that I just over think this every year, and every year I
criticize myself for not doing enough. Maybe we are caught in a
constant cycle of deschooling because I try to start each year with
"schooly" things, and the kids get sick of it. I know I do! I just
feel like I have to live up to everyone else's expectations of
education. My parents were both teachers, so I feel like I have to
show them that the kids are actually doing "school."

I will try out your suggestions. Today we are going down to Amish
country, so that should be an adventure :)

Christy















--- In [email protected], Joyce Fetteroll
<jfetteroll@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Feb 29, 2008, at 4:05 PM, csm4191970 wrote:
>
> > it seems like their kids have all kinds of interests and are
> > constantly researching and doing "schooly" things on their own.
>
> Well, look at it this way, who wants to take time to write about the
> days kids watched TV all day?
>
> You'll always get a view skewed to what's interesting to write about.
>
> Until recently, at 16, my daughter didn't do anything that looked
> like research. Now she's researching hair metal groups from the
> 80's :-) (That's history through music, for reporting purposes ;-)
>
> > Do your kids just play, use the computer, watch
> > tv all day some/most days?
>
> When my daughter was a preteen it did look like days of TV and video
> games. Apparently that's not uncommon for those transition years.
>
> > my daughter and I watch
> > Gilmore Girls dvds half the day (it would be all day, but we sleep in
> > till 10 and have breakfast/lunch around 11)and my son plays with his
> > toys.
>
> For unschooling it's a lot more important to examine the why rather
> than the what.
>
> Are you guys doing what you're doing because it's fun or because it's
> easy? Do they seem unhappy?
>
> See, if I say yes to the above, it can sound like unschooling means
> parking the kids (and self) in front of the TV for 6 hours. It
> doesn't. Sometimes it will look that way, but our choices should be
> conscious ones to do what we enjoy not because we don't want to put
> effort in.
>
> I would bring some swirly exciting things into their lives and see
> how they react. And you can turn routines more interesting: go to
> grocery stores in different towns. Try ethnic stores. If your library
> is part of a consortium, visit other libraries. If they're happy at
> home, then I'd make offers to keep the doors open so they know what's
> available but don't feel guilty if they don't take up the offers. And
> there are swirly things for home too: new games, movies, inviting
> people over and so on.
>
> Joyce
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

k g

csm4191970 <kcmaurer@...> wrote: > I try to start each year with
>"schooly" things, and the kids get sick of it. I know I do!


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Every September I have this nesting like desire to go out a buy materials,to "get organized" buy new clothes...I know it's from 12 years of going to school myself. After twice buying a bunch of stuff that we never used,or finding myself trying to make plans that never work, I have to make it a point not to buy anything in September or October. It really helps to keep telling myself the year begins in January, not September! It takes me out of school year mode.
-Kelly




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