New with Questions
Jeannie
My name is Jeannie and I joined a few months ago but never did an intro.
I am currently homeschooling 4 of my 6 children ages 9,6,4,and 2. My ds 9 was pulled out of ps back in October. The rest have never been to school and hopefully never will if I can continue to homeschool. Raising 6 kinds on a now 1 income family is a little hard to do but we manage.
I started hs'ing with a full boxed curriculum. I was working full time and we needed structure. My ds rebelled most of the first few months. I decided to take 2 months off and let him adjust we just did some computer games and took a vacation to the smokies in feb. We got to play in some snow and learned so much with out books it wascrazy. now we just got back from a camping trip to the beach and had a fun time . we learned a lot. So now I have some ideas and a lot of questions :)
How did you start unschooling?
My kids are 9,6,4 and 2. their intrests change daily, sometimes hourly. Do you let them explore freely or do you make a lot of fun lessons?
Is it ok to bounce from one idea to another? do they retain the info fairly easily?
How do you teach the basics? Just walmart workbooks, no work books?
Do you follow any guides?
Anything else you want to share??? good or bad?
I am currently homeschooling 4 of my 6 children ages 9,6,4,and 2. My ds 9 was pulled out of ps back in October. The rest have never been to school and hopefully never will if I can continue to homeschool. Raising 6 kinds on a now 1 income family is a little hard to do but we manage.
I started hs'ing with a full boxed curriculum. I was working full time and we needed structure. My ds rebelled most of the first few months. I decided to take 2 months off and let him adjust we just did some computer games and took a vacation to the smokies in feb. We got to play in some snow and learned so much with out books it wascrazy. now we just got back from a camping trip to the beach and had a fun time . we learned a lot. So now I have some ideas and a lot of questions :)
How did you start unschooling?
My kids are 9,6,4 and 2. their intrests change daily, sometimes hourly. Do you let them explore freely or do you make a lot of fun lessons?
Is it ok to bounce from one idea to another? do they retain the info fairly easily?
How do you teach the basics? Just walmart workbooks, no work books?
Do you follow any guides?
Anything else you want to share??? good or bad?
Elissa
Hello Jeannie,
Welcome!
I don't use any type of workbook although I do have some hanging around the house, just like I have word-search books, sudoku, riddles, Ranger Rick, skateboarding mags, Nintendo Power mag, or other print.
Unschooling for our family is just living life, as we would if school had never been invented. We play in the water, we watch TV, we read books, we cook, clean (well, not so much), play board games, pretend we are jedi knights, craft, paint, draw, knit, chill out, run around, talk about what is happening in our world, locally and internationally, listen to and play music, work, pet the dog, put the cats outside, make smoothies, surf the net, keep up with friends, go on road trips, visit other unschoolers, dance, sing, sit, and stand. We spend alot of time together just talking. It's a wonderful lifestyle.
Have you been reading the posts over the past few months? If not, I suggest you sit back and spend some time reading through the discussions so that you can get an idea of what unschooling truly is about.
Read here:
joyfullyrejoycing.com
sandradodd.com/unschooling
www.run.ning.com
Elissa, Unschooling Momma to Emily 15, and Max 9. Proud Momma to Zack, 21.
How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.
--Alexandre Dumas
Welcome!
I don't use any type of workbook although I do have some hanging around the house, just like I have word-search books, sudoku, riddles, Ranger Rick, skateboarding mags, Nintendo Power mag, or other print.
Unschooling for our family is just living life, as we would if school had never been invented. We play in the water, we watch TV, we read books, we cook, clean (well, not so much), play board games, pretend we are jedi knights, craft, paint, draw, knit, chill out, run around, talk about what is happening in our world, locally and internationally, listen to and play music, work, pet the dog, put the cats outside, make smoothies, surf the net, keep up with friends, go on road trips, visit other unschoolers, dance, sing, sit, and stand. We spend alot of time together just talking. It's a wonderful lifestyle.
Have you been reading the posts over the past few months? If not, I suggest you sit back and spend some time reading through the discussions so that you can get an idea of what unschooling truly is about.
Read here:
joyfullyrejoycing.com
sandradodd.com/unschooling
www.run.ning.com
Elissa, Unschooling Momma to Emily 15, and Max 9. Proud Momma to Zack, 21.
How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.
--Alexandre Dumas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeannie" <the_smittys@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:39:10 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] New with Questions
My name is Jeannie and I joined a few months ago but never did an intro.
I am currently homeschooling 4 of my 6 children ages 9,6,4,and 2. My ds 9 was pulled out of ps back in October. The rest have never been to school and hopefully never will if I can continue to homeschool. Raising 6 kinds on a now 1 income family is a little hard to do but we manage.
I started hs'ing with a full boxed curriculum. I was working full time and we needed structure. My ds rebelled most of the first few months. I decided to take 2 months off and let him adjust we just did some computer games and took a vacation to the smokies in feb. We got to play in some snow and learned so much with out books it wascrazy. now we just got back from a camping trip to the beach and had a fun time . we learned a lot. So now I have some ideas and a lot of questions :)
How did you start unschooling?
My kids are 9,6,4 and 2. their intrests change daily, sometimes hourly. Do you let them explore freely or do you make a lot of fun lessons?
Is it ok to bounce from one idea to another? do they retain the info fairly easily?
How do you teach the basics? Just walmart workbooks, no work books?
Do you follow any guides?
Anything else you want to share??? good or bad?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jeannie
--Thank you for the web suggestions and the post. I went back and read a lot of posts and see that what I am asking is still more of a homeschool mode and not an unschool mode. I see a difference and I think my ultimate goal is to one day be unschooling. I have only been homeschooling for 1.5 years and have learned so much it is amazing. We are in an unschooling umbrella school in florida and I love the freedom that umbrella gives me. We love to spend days at the beach doing nothing but playing, digging, surfing, and swimming. I hope to stay on this group while we still homeschool . :)if that is ok.
Honestly
- In [email protected], Elissa <MystikMomma@...> wrote:
Honestly
- In [email protected], Elissa <MystikMomma@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Jeannie,
> Welcome!
> I don't use any type of workbook although I do have some hanging around the house, just like I have word-search books, sudoku, riddles, Ranger Rick, skateboarding mags, Nintendo Power mag, or other print.
> Unschooling for our family is just living life, as we would if school had never been invented. We play in the water, we watch TV, we read books, we cook, clean (well, not so much), play board games, pretend we are jedi knights, craft, paint, draw, knit, chill out, run around, talk about what is happening in our world, locally and internationally, listen to and play music, work, pet the dog, put the cats outside, make smoothies, surf the net, keep up with friends, go on road trips, visit other unschoolers, dance, sing, sit, and stand. We spend alot of time together just talking. It's a wonderful lifestyle.
> Have you been reading the posts over the past few months? If not, I suggest you sit back and spend some time reading through the discussions so that you can get an idea of what unschooling truly is about.
> Read here:
> joyfullyrejoycing.com
> sandradodd.com/unschooling
> www.run.ning.com
>
> Elissa, Unschooling Momma to Emily 15, and Max 9. Proud Momma to Zack, 21.
> How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.
> --Alexandre Dumas
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeannie" <the_smittys@...>
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:39:10 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [unschoolingbasics] New with Questions
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> My name is Jeannie and I joined a few months ago but never did an intro.
> I am currently homeschooling 4 of my 6 children ages 9,6,4,and 2. My ds 9 was pulled out of ps back in October. The rest have never been to school and hopefully never will if I can continue to homeschool. Raising 6 kinds on a now 1 income family is a little hard to do but we manage.
>
> I started hs'ing with a full boxed curriculum. I was working full time and we needed structure. My ds rebelled most of the first few months. I decided to take 2 months off and let him adjust we just did some computer games and took a vacation to the smokies in feb. We got to play in some snow and learned so much with out books it wascrazy. now we just got back from a camping trip to the beach and had a fun time . we learned a lot. So now I have some ideas and a lot of questions :)
>
> How did you start unschooling?
>
> My kids are 9,6,4 and 2. their intrests change daily, sometimes hourly. Do you let them explore freely or do you make a lot of fun lessons?
>
> Is it ok to bounce from one idea to another? do they retain the info fairly easily?
>
> How do you teach the basics? Just walmart workbooks, no work books?
>
> Do you follow any guides?
>
> Anything else you want to share??? good or bad?
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Meredith
--- In [email protected], "Jeannie" <the_smittys@...> wrote:
---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)
>> Do you follow any guides?My kids are my guides. I talk with them, hang out with them, play with them, and learn what they are thinking about, what sorts of things interest them. I look for ways to to support their interests - sometimes that includes buying things or helping them look things up on the internet, but often it looks like being willing to help Ray find things to set on fire safely, or help Mo sort through a collection of old doilies and decide what to do with each one. Today it looked like hanging around a swimmin' hole, and tomorrow it will look like hanging around a skate park!
> How do you teach the basics?It helped me to step back and ask myself what were the most important things that anyone could learn - anyone, regardless of occupation or education. Those are my "basics" and it turns out they don't have much to do with the 3Rs. Going through that mental process helped me calm down about the academic stuff.
> Is it ok to bounce from one idea to another? do they retain the info fairly easily?Kids do tend to bounce around - and that's a good thing. Its part of how they're wired, how they learn and process information. Learning happens by making connections. When "info" is connected to "joy" then its often remembered better - because happiness feels good to remember! Some parents/teachers take that to think that one needs to create more pleasant learning opportunites, but the truth is that every moment is full of learning already. You really can work on creating a more pleasant Life - more full of joy and kindness and mutual support - and know that the rest will follow.
---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)
Joyce Fetteroll
On Jun 23, 2009, at 9:39 AM, Jeannie wrote:
of styles. I thought the unschoolers were clueless about getting what
kids needed to know into them, but they were the only ones actually
enjoying their kids and enjoying learning and that's what I wanted.
After reading long enough, I got that it wasn't necessary to teach in
order for them to learn the necessary stuff. I also got that a lot of
the so-called necessary stuff wasn't necessary.
things that engage them. Run new things through their lives. Step out
of the way when they're engaged in what fascinates them. Help them
expand on what interests them. Answer their questions. Learning
happens as a side effect.
(And what interests them isn't limited to what looks like they'd
learn in school. What interests them might be bathroom jokes,
cartoons, video games, skateboarding, cats ... It's all good.)
you're learning something because you need to use it, you'll learn it
far better than if someone makes you do it because they think one day
you might need it.
But kids can make knowledge work without fully understanding it.
That's a natural part of the learning process. So they might be able
to use something in one context and but not really get it in another
context. Like getting a feel for percentage in a video game health
meter but not understanding how to figure out a 15% tip. Unlike kids
in school, they don't get the (supposedly) full packet of knowledge
handed to them as though that's all they need. They'll pick up bits
and pieces here and there to slowly build up a picture of how
something works and what contexts its good for and why they'd need
it. This is how we're designed to learn.
I had an epiphany one day when I was reading to my daughter. The book
started out saying the town clock frequently told the right time. She
was 11 and had certainly heard the word frequently, but she asked
what it meant because her definition wasn't refined enough to get the
joke.
That's how real learning works. We build up a working knowledge of
the world. Sometimes our working knowledge is good enough for the
context we're using but when we move to something else, we find it
isn't good enough so we tweak and refine it. Schooled kids are more
likely to freeze and think they're dumb because they're conditioned
to believe that they're stupid if their knowledge isn't complete. And
how do they get more without a teacher? Unschooled kids know that
incomplete knowledge is just how the world works.
There's more on that from my 2002 conference talk if you're interested:
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/talk
saying "Forget reality! Stick to the philosophy!" ;-)
How did your kids learn to speak? They went from not even knowing
language existed to full sentences in just 3 or so years. Did you
worry they wouldn't be able to master that without Walmart workbooks ;-)
The only reason we believe the basics are hard is because schools
make them hard. They use methods that are poorly designed for
learning. Not because educators are mean or ignorant ;-) It's because
schools were designed as cheap ways to raise the minimum education
level of the masses that were full of immigrants who couldn't read or
do arithmetic. The factories needed a better workforce. So schools
used methods that were cheap and got the job done. They could have
one set of materials and one teacher to handle 30 kids.
Learning out of context from abstract materials stuff that you aren't
interested in learning is *hard*. Working to get what you want (like
the next level on a vide game) and learning what you need as a side
effect of that is as effortless as learning to speak your native
language.
There's more on that too at:
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/products
But do run new things through their lives. Don't wait for them to
ask. They can't ask about things they don't know exist!
Run things through their lives you think they'd enjoy *not* things
you think will be good for them. Kids only give us so many chances at
"trust me" before they stop trusting us. So use them wisely :-)
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> How did you start unschooling?By reading on the AOL homeschooling boards across the full spectrum
of styles. I thought the unschoolers were clueless about getting what
kids needed to know into them, but they were the only ones actually
enjoying their kids and enjoying learning and that's what I wanted.
After reading long enough, I got that it wasn't necessary to teach in
order for them to learn the necessary stuff. I also got that a lot of
the so-called necessary stuff wasn't necessary.
>No lessons. The goal is doing things they like and enjoy, doing
> My kids are 9,6,4 and 2. their intrests change daily, sometimes
> hourly. Do you let them explore freely or do you make a lot of fun
> lessons?
things that engage them. Run new things through their lives. Step out
of the way when they're engaged in what fascinates them. Help them
expand on what interests them. Answer their questions. Learning
happens as a side effect.
(And what interests them isn't limited to what looks like they'd
learn in school. What interests them might be bathroom jokes,
cartoons, video games, skateboarding, cats ... It's all good.)
> Is it ok to bounce from one idea to another? do they retain theIt's kind of a loaded question ;-) The simple answer is yes. If
> info fairly easily?
you're learning something because you need to use it, you'll learn it
far better than if someone makes you do it because they think one day
you might need it.
But kids can make knowledge work without fully understanding it.
That's a natural part of the learning process. So they might be able
to use something in one context and but not really get it in another
context. Like getting a feel for percentage in a video game health
meter but not understanding how to figure out a 15% tip. Unlike kids
in school, they don't get the (supposedly) full packet of knowledge
handed to them as though that's all they need. They'll pick up bits
and pieces here and there to slowly build up a picture of how
something works and what contexts its good for and why they'd need
it. This is how we're designed to learn.
I had an epiphany one day when I was reading to my daughter. The book
started out saying the town clock frequently told the right time. She
was 11 and had certainly heard the word frequently, but she asked
what it meant because her definition wasn't refined enough to get the
joke.
That's how real learning works. We build up a working knowledge of
the world. Sometimes our working knowledge is good enough for the
context we're using but when we move to something else, we find it
isn't good enough so we tweak and refine it. Schooled kids are more
likely to freeze and think they're dumb because they're conditioned
to believe that they're stupid if their knowledge isn't complete. And
how do they get more without a teacher? Unschooled kids know that
incomplete knowledge is just how the world works.
There's more on that from my 2002 conference talk if you're interested:
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/talk
>If they're basic, why do they need taught? Which sounds like I'm
> How do you teach the basics? Just walmart workbooks, no work books?
saying "Forget reality! Stick to the philosophy!" ;-)
How did your kids learn to speak? They went from not even knowing
language existed to full sentences in just 3 or so years. Did you
worry they wouldn't be able to master that without Walmart workbooks ;-)
The only reason we believe the basics are hard is because schools
make them hard. They use methods that are poorly designed for
learning. Not because educators are mean or ignorant ;-) It's because
schools were designed as cheap ways to raise the minimum education
level of the masses that were full of immigrants who couldn't read or
do arithmetic. The factories needed a better workforce. So schools
used methods that were cheap and got the job done. They could have
one set of materials and one teacher to handle 30 kids.
Learning out of context from abstract materials stuff that you aren't
interested in learning is *hard*. Working to get what you want (like
the next level on a vide game) and learning what you need as a side
effect of that is as effortless as learning to speak your native
language.
There's more on that too at:
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/products
> Do you follow any guides?The kids are the best guides :-)
But do run new things through their lives. Don't wait for them to
ask. They can't ask about things they don't know exist!
Run things through their lives you think they'd enjoy *not* things
you think will be good for them. Kids only give us so many chances at
"trust me" before they stop trusting us. So use them wisely :-)
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]