evalahu

Hi, I'm new to this group and i wanted to introduce myself. We live in Romania but I am from the UK- my husband is Romanian. We have lived here for about 20 months now. We have 2 daughters 7 (nearly 8) and 2. The eldest was in a Romanian school for the first school year we were here but we took her out this year.

I have always wanted to homeschool and tried this year to follow a kind of waldorf path. And here come my nagging questions. My daughter loses interest very quickly in anything I try to "teach". It got so that I was getting frustrated and she would be upset, I would shout, she would cry etc etc. So having read a bit about unschooling I decided to stop"teaching" and just live. But she doesn't seem to have any interest in anything except watching tv or playing. She has no interest in reading and so can barely read although if i sit with her and a book she will struggle through but she resents every second! If she doesn't learn to read more competently how can she pursue an interest and find out more about it? If she shows an interest in something and I suggest we find out a bit more or pursuing a question she had by looking in a book she turns off.

I'm sure loads of people have experienced the same things I am experiencing and I apologize if this is a commonly answered problem and you are all fed up repeating yourselves(LOL)

Emma

Jenna Robertson

When my kids want to learn about something we go to the computer.  Depending on what the topic is, we may start at wikipedia or go to a site on the subject.  However, the resources on youtube are fantastic!  My 10 year old is learning about decorating cakes, my 9 year old is learning about the harp both from youtube.  We will also most likely get books from the library and find other learning options if it's something they really want to explore.  However, how they use those resources is up to them. 

:)
Jenna

 "What's the matter with you? All it takes is faith and trust. Oh! And something I forgot. Dust!"......" Yep, just a little bit of pixie dust. Now, think of the happiest things. It's the same as having wings."                -  Peter Pan   

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[email protected]

i'm new too and have been watching the conversations trying to decide if this group is for me (there seems to be a lot of squabbling)... that being said, we have unschooled since the birth of our son, 8... we didn't even know unschooling existed... i am a former teacher, but instinct told me that unschooling was definitely the way to go... still, i worried horribly when he didn't read when he was "supposed to"... i hung in there and was patient... now i have an excellent reader totally engaged in his own learning, happy and thoughtful... my point is try not to fret... provide your kids with as many opportunities to explore and interact... lots of park time, art, music... PBS (public tv) has been very good to my family... find what works and abandon what doesn't.... peace, love, and joy! jordan ---------- Sent from AT&T's Wireless network using Mobile Email


-----Original Message-----
From: evalahu
Sent: 1/21/2010 2:18:25 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] new to group and some basic questions


Hi, I'm new to this group and i wanted to introduce myself. We live in Romania but I am from the UK- my husband is Romanian. We have lived here for about 20 months now. We have 2 daughters 7 (nearly 8) and 2. The eldest was in a Romanian school for the first school year we were here but we took her out this year.

I have always wanted to homeschool and tried this year to follow a kind of waldorf path. And here come my nagging questions. My daughter loses interest very quickly in anything I try to "teach". It got so that I was getting frustrated and she would be upset, I would shout, she would cry etc etc. So having read a bit about unschooling I decided to stop"teaching" and just live. But she doesn't seem to have any interest in anything except watching tv or playing. She has no interest in reading and so can barely read although if i sit with her and a book she will struggle through but she resents every second! If she doesn't learn to read more competently how can she pursue an interest and find out more about it? If she shows an interest in something and I suggest we find out a bit more or pursuing a question she had by looking in a book she turns off.

I'm sure loads of people have experienced the same things I am experiencing and I apologize if this is a commonly answered problem and you are all fed up repeating yourselves(LOL)

Emma





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Joyce Fetteroll

On Jan 21, 2010, at 9:18 AM, evalahu wrote:

> But she doesn't seem to have any interest in anything except
> watching tv or playing.

First, playing *is* how kids learn. It's how humans are designed to
learn. That's what's natural for them. Kids *should* be playing and
playing a lot.

Second, TV is an awesome window onto the world. It's a thousand
stories and plays and music at the touch of a few buttons. (And I'm
not talking about just educational shows. *Any* show that captures a
child's attention is providing something they need. That rapt
attention is like a thirsty horse sucking up water.

Third, unschooling isn't about stepping back and waiting. It's being
more involved. I don't suggest pulling her away from TV any more than
I'd suggest someone pull a child away from books. But there needs to
be other options that *she* enjoys running through her life that are
better than TV for her to make another choice.

Try reading here:
http://sandradodd.com/strewing

There's no problem planning days out. You shouldn't be waiting for
her to ask! If there's a show she loves, record it. (DVRs are wonders
for helping kids feel like they're not slaves to the programmers'
schedules.)

And when you're done with the Strewing page, click the Randomize
button on her main page and read any that come up that feel relevant.
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

> She has no interest in reading and so can barely read although if i
> sit with her and a book she will struggle through but she resents
> every second!
>


This is said gently but earnestly: You must stop that immediately.
You will make her dislike reading even more.

Read to her as much as she wants. (IF she doesn't want you to read
now, that's okay. Let her be.) Listen to books on tape. Make her
experiences with the printed word warm and joyful not pain filled!

Right now it's possible she isn't developmentally ready to read.
Schools have done a huge amount of damage by leading people to
believe that the only thing standing between a child and knowing how
to read is instruction. It's just not true. If the brain isn't ready
to put all the pieces together, it's just torture and humiliating.

> If she doesn't learn to read more competently how can she pursue an
> interest and find out more about it?
>


Reading is good for somethings.

*BUT* it's really not highest on the list of ways we naturally learn.
We're designed to learn by trying things out, by seeing what happens.
By playing.

The *only* reason that schools emphasize reading so much is because
it's cheap and efficient. It's the only way 1 teacher can pour what
gets passed off as learning into 30 different kids at the same time.

(Try these:
Products of Education
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/products

Why you can't let go
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/talk

She will learn. She will learn by hearing, talking, watching, doing,
thinking.

I don't discount reading at all. I have 6 floor to ceiling book cases
in the house and that's not enough. I love books. But what will help
unschoolers a huge amount is to see reading as just one of many ways
to learn. Reading works best for some things. It works very poorly
for others. (It's way easier to learn how to cook a souffle by
watching a video than by reading a book! It's way easier to learn to
tack and ride a horse by doing than by reading.)

http://sandradodd.com/reading
> f she shows an interest in something and I suggest we find out a
> bit more or pursuing a question she had by looking in a book she
> turns off.
>

So she'll learn to stop showing interest.

The best advice is that instead of facing where you want her to go,
look at her, walk by her side, see what she's noticing, watch her
learn from it. If she asks a question answer it simply. Give more
information if she seems to want more.


Joyce








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plaidpanties666

--- In [email protected], Joyce Fetteroll <jfetteroll@...> wrote:
>> Read to her as much as she wants. (IF she doesn't want you to read
> now, that's okay. Let her be.)

I wanted to pull this out because I have a child who has never really enjoyed being read to - now and then, for a few minutes when she wants to know something specific, but that's all, no stories. It didn't stop her from learning to read, though. She still had lots of opportunities to interact with print - books with lots of labled pictures, subtitles on moves and games, a handful of cds with read-along books... and as I said, she'd ask me to read things for her when she found it necessary - it just hasn't been something she wanted to do recreationally. Its good to Know that you don't Have to read stories to children for them to learn to read, if they aren't into that. So many of us have been told that reading to kids is the most important thing you can do to "promote reading" after all! Know that if your kids don't want that, its not going to hurt them to stop. If anything, it will help them feel better about reading as something they choose to do when and how they are ready.

---Meredith (Mo 8, Ray 16)