Newbie here and a question
[email protected]
Hi,
My name is Stephanie and I'm currently "unschooling' 4 children: Georgia is
19, Benny is 8, Joey is 6 and Jon is 5. Unschooling is new to us this school
year. My husband isn't quite on board with this...yet. He has sort given
my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
He comes up with some very deep things at times. Can anyone give me some
suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to read
with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.
Thanks
Stephanie Low
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
My name is Stephanie and I'm currently "unschooling' 4 children: Georgia is
19, Benny is 8, Joey is 6 and Jon is 5. Unschooling is new to us this school
year. My husband isn't quite on board with this...yet. He has sort given
my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
He comes up with some very deep things at times. Can anyone give me some
suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to read
with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.
Thanks
Stephanie Low
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
DJ250
Yikes! Even if your kid was in school, he may not get such a guarantee! Maybe check out these websites: www.sandradodd/unschooling and www.joyfullyrejoycing.com.
Best wishes,
~Melissa, in MD :)
Best wishes,
~Melissa, in MD :)
----- Original Message -----
From: stephanielow@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 3:08 PM
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Newbie here and a question
Hi,
My name is Stephanie and I'm currently "unschooling' 4 children: Georgia is
19, Benny is 8, Joey is 6 and Jon is 5. Unschooling is new to us this school
year. My husband isn't quite on board with this...yet. He has sort given
my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
He comes up with some very deep things at times. Can anyone give me some
suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to read
with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.
Thanks
Stephanie Low
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
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Faith Void
Hi Stephanie,
What your husband is asking for is a tall order. Even if ds was in school
they don't expect children to really read until 8. Each child will learn
when THEY are ready, regardless of some one else's schedule. People learn,
no one teaches them. You can light the way for them to discover new things
and find information.
Most people recommend at leat one month per year the children were in school
as time to deschool. One month of you (and dh) letting go of school. Take
some time and read, search the archives on here, read Sandra Dodd's and
Joyce Fetterol's site. Ask lots of questions, we answer them :-). Spend huge
amounts of time observing your kids without directing them. If they are
interested in something support it. If they want something help them find a
way to get it. If they ask a question answer it (if you don't know the
answer look it up). BE there for them. Many find it helpful to really learn
about unschooling before they get the kids involved.
Does you husband like to read? Would he like to listen to people speak?
There are great audio downloads available on the Live and Learn site
http://liveandlearnshop.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=32_34_38
There are all kinds of local unschooling groups in many parts of the
country. Sandra's site has a list of many of them. Find IRL (in real life)
people to connect with is really amazing.
best wishes,
Faith
What your husband is asking for is a tall order. Even if ds was in school
they don't expect children to really read until 8. Each child will learn
when THEY are ready, regardless of some one else's schedule. People learn,
no one teaches them. You can light the way for them to discover new things
and find information.
Most people recommend at leat one month per year the children were in school
as time to deschool. One month of you (and dh) letting go of school. Take
some time and read, search the archives on here, read Sandra Dodd's and
Joyce Fetterol's site. Ask lots of questions, we answer them :-). Spend huge
amounts of time observing your kids without directing them. If they are
interested in something support it. If they want something help them find a
way to get it. If they ask a question answer it (if you don't know the
answer look it up). BE there for them. Many find it helpful to really learn
about unschooling before they get the kids involved.
Does you husband like to read? Would he like to listen to people speak?
There are great audio downloads available on the Live and Learn site
http://liveandlearnshop.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=32_34_38
There are all kinds of local unschooling groups in many parts of the
country. Sandra's site has a list of many of them. Find IRL (in real life)
people to connect with is really amazing.
best wishes,
Faith
On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 3:08 PM, <stephanielow@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> My name is Stephanie and I'm currently "unschooling' 4 children: Georgia is
>
> 19, Benny is 8, Joey is 6 and Jon is 5. Unschooling is new to us this
> school
> year. My husband isn't quite on board with this...yet. He has sort given
> my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
> read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
> He comes up with some very deep things at times. Can anyone give me some
> suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to
> read
> with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.
>
> Thanks
> Stephanie Low
> If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
> fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
>
> __.
>
--
http://faithvoid.blogspot.com/
www.bearthmama.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Joyce Fetteroll
> He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving.Unfortunately reading can't be taught. Neither can walking. Neither
can bike riding.
I know that is counter to what the mainstream says and believes about
reading.
(Though even if I were a nut case, no school would guarantee a 6 yo
reading by Thanksgiving. Teachers know that's not possible for every
6 yo.)
Reading and walking and bike riding each require several brain areas
to mature in order to coordinate a lot of different actions. Walking
and bike riding involve muscle coordination, balance, vision, and who
knows what else to all be working together in a specific way. Until
that happens, all the instruction in the world will just likely make
the child feel like there's something wrong with them when in reality
their brains just aren't ready.
Reading is much more complex than it looks. (Though simpler for kids
to puzzle out that it seems it should be!) Reading is more than just
learning what letter makes what sound and putting them together with
a few rules about exceptions. If it were that simple, schools would
have perfected the instruction long ago! In that way it's like
walking and bike riding. You can explain and show but what actually
works is kids figuring it out on their own.
Unschooled children learn to read -- without instruction -- in the
same age range as schooled kids, typically between 6 and 8. That's
when the brain areas needed for decoding typically develop. It also
happens to coincide with reading instruction so it appears that
reading instruction is responsible for kids reading but since
unschooled kids are reading at the same ages it can't be the
instruction. It's age and being surrounded by the written word.
While schools "require" all kids be reading by 4th grade, the truth
is they aren't. The kids who aren't reading are shuttled off to
special instruction. But no matter how gently that is done, kids can
end up demoralized and feeling stupid. Or, for self preservation,
deciding reading is stupid.
The advantage unschoolers have is that our kids learn when they're
developmentally ready without the demoralization. And if they're
older when they first start reading, they're quickly reading at age
level and are indistinguishable from kids who were reading years
earlier.
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
Oops that should read Georgia is 10......
Stephanie Low
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
Stephanie Low
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
----- Original Message -----
From: <stephanielow@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 12:08 PM
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Newbie here and a question
> Hi,
>
> My name is Stephanie and I'm currently "unschooling' 4 children: Georgia
> is
> 19, Benny is 8, Joey is 6 and Jon is 5. Unschooling is new to us this
> school
> year. My husband isn't quite on board with this...yet. He has sort given
> my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
> read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
> He comes up with some very deep things at times. Can anyone give me some
> suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to
> read
> with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.
>
> Thanks
> Stephanie Low
> If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
> fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
[email protected]
Well, it's not as if you are going to try to prevent the boy from reading, are you? :)
And when Dad reads to him, he can see what sort of grasp your son has. What sort of progress he makes.
And he will. It may not be a straight line and it may not be on a schedule of someone else's choosing, but he will go through all the normal stages of learning to read.
Dad can help him by telling him words he doesn't know when they are reading together, playing with the alphabet, etc. Enjoy a bunch of silly Dr. Seuss or other good books together. See what the boy likes and urge Dad to do more of that.
And let Dad know that whether someone can read is kind of vague. Does he recognize letters and know they represent sounds? Can he recognize some words? Can he read a simple Bob book? Can he read chapter books? Can he write anything? (Around here, writing came long after reading, btw.)
If your son is ready and interested, reading will happen if you and DH make it part of his life. He can't read them if you don't have books around. But there's a lot of reading in the world -- games and online and comics and signs, etc.
If your son has a preference, there's also no "unschooling rule" about using a curriculum. I never did with DS but DD demanded one. We used the "100 Easy Lessons" book. She didn't think she could read at all -- and was quite ticked that everyone else could :) -- but it turned out she could already read the first 1/3 of the book and so we did the middle 1/3 and by that time she was reading small books on her own (which is what she counted as "reading").
Nance
He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
And when Dad reads to him, he can see what sort of grasp your son has. What sort of progress he makes.
And he will. It may not be a straight line and it may not be on a schedule of someone else's choosing, but he will go through all the normal stages of learning to read.
Dad can help him by telling him words he doesn't know when they are reading together, playing with the alphabet, etc. Enjoy a bunch of silly Dr. Seuss or other good books together. See what the boy likes and urge Dad to do more of that.
And let Dad know that whether someone can read is kind of vague. Does he recognize letters and know they represent sounds? Can he recognize some words? Can he read a simple Bob book? Can he read chapter books? Can he write anything? (Around here, writing came long after reading, btw.)
If your son is ready and interested, reading will happen if you and DH make it part of his life. He can't read them if you don't have books around. But there's a lot of reading in the world -- games and online and comics and signs, etc.
If your son has a preference, there's also no "unschooling rule" about using a curriculum. I never did with DS but DD demanded one. We used the "100 Easy Lessons" book. She didn't think she could read at all -- and was quite ticked that everyone else could :) -- but it turned out she could already read the first 1/3 of the book and so we did the middle 1/3 and by that time she was reading small books on her own (which is what she counted as "reading").
Nance
He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving. He is
read to learn and is extremely bright....actually he's so smart its scary.
Debra Rossing
I might suggest that you sit down with hubby (in a calm, quiet time and
place and attitude) and ask for more information. Does he want DS to be
able to recognize his name, address, etc? Know the alphabet in order? Be
able to handle "The cat sat on the mat" type stuff? Being "able to read"
can mean a lot of things, different to different people. In school, if a
child can sound out "c-a-t", they are "beginning to read". However, in
most home/un schooling circles, you'll likely hear that kids are
"reading" when they are actually able to fluently and independently
handle the symbolic language involved in gathering printed information
that they need. Oh, and there's also the difference between reading
aloud and reading to one's self - two DIFFERENT processes involved so
one may be able to silently zoom through Harry Potter, one might also
have trouble reading this paragraph aloud. Reading is not an end in
itself; it is a tool, just as a hammer is a tool. It's one of several
means of gathering information.
Just a guess, but it sounds like DH may be feeling external pressure
from family, coworkers, etc.
--Deb R
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place and attitude) and ask for more information. Does he want DS to be
able to recognize his name, address, etc? Know the alphabet in order? Be
able to handle "The cat sat on the mat" type stuff? Being "able to read"
can mean a lot of things, different to different people. In school, if a
child can sound out "c-a-t", they are "beginning to read". However, in
most home/un schooling circles, you'll likely hear that kids are
"reading" when they are actually able to fluently and independently
handle the symbolic language involved in gathering printed information
that they need. Oh, and there's also the difference between reading
aloud and reading to one's self - two DIFFERENT processes involved so
one may be able to silently zoom through Harry Potter, one might also
have trouble reading this paragraph aloud. Reading is not an end in
itself; it is a tool, just as a hammer is a tool. It's one of several
means of gathering information.
Just a guess, but it sounds like DH may be feeling external pressure
from family, coworkers, etc.
--Deb R
**********************************************************************
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
the system manager.
This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses.
www.mastercam.com
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
plaidpanties666
--- In [email protected], "marbleface@..." <marbleface@...> wrote:
Unfortunately, there isn't one set of "normal stages" when it comes to learning to read. Some kids go through a set of stages where they puzzle out letter-sound combinations, but not all. Some kids jump right to reading short phrases and sentences without knowing being able to read single words! And still others read by a process that's so subtle it looks like magic. If dad is expecting "normal stages" he may be frustrated by a kid who learns via another route - and could draw the conclusion that his child isn't learning to read at all!
---Meredith (Mo 8, Ray 15)
>> And when Dad reads to him, he can see what sort of grasp your son has. What sort of progress he makes.*********************
>
> And he will. It may not be a straight line and it may not be on a schedule of someone else's choosing, but he will go through all the normal stages of learning to read.
Unfortunately, there isn't one set of "normal stages" when it comes to learning to read. Some kids go through a set of stages where they puzzle out letter-sound combinations, but not all. Some kids jump right to reading short phrases and sentences without knowing being able to read single words! And still others read by a process that's so subtle it looks like magic. If dad is expecting "normal stages" he may be frustrated by a kid who learns via another route - and could draw the conclusion that his child isn't learning to read at all!
---Meredith (Mo 8, Ray 15)
gruvystarchild
~~My husband isn't quite on board with this...yet. He has sort given
my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving.~~
Ultimatums get in the way of joyful learning and relationships in general. If it's so important to him, he should be the one working with your child. He doesn't have the right to put that on you. He couldn't put that on a teacher in school.
~~ Can anyone give me some suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to read with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.~~
I believe teaching is damaging to the learning process. This list exists to help you move away from teaching and towards trust. We can't give you curriculum or teaching suggestions. We can only help you move towards unschooling, not schooling at home.
Phonetic style would have been horrible for my child that learned to read at 12. He didn't learn that way and it may have convinced him he wasn't "smart".
Ren
radicalunschooling.blogspot.com
my an ultimatum. He wants our 6 year old reading by Thanksgiving.~~
Ultimatums get in the way of joyful learning and relationships in general. If it's so important to him, he should be the one working with your child. He doesn't have the right to put that on you. He couldn't put that on a teacher in school.
~~ Can anyone give me some suggestions on helping him.....I did teach my older son and daughter to read with Jessie Wise's book . It teaches reading phoentically.~~
I believe teaching is damaging to the learning process. This list exists to help you move away from teaching and towards trust. We can't give you curriculum or teaching suggestions. We can only help you move towards unschooling, not schooling at home.
Phonetic style would have been horrible for my child that learned to read at 12. He didn't learn that way and it may have convinced him he wasn't "smart".
Ren
radicalunschooling.blogspot.com