reading and highschool
[email protected]
Two different questions:
I'm new here, I have a 6 yr old, she Can read but doesnt' like to or want to read yet, it's REALLY hard for me to step back and not "teach".....but I'm getting better w/ that.
Highschool- I keep hearing that kids will need credit courses in the highschool years I guess either to qualify for graduation or for college.... why is this, and how does this still fit for unschooling??
I'm new here, I have a 6 yr old, she Can read but doesnt' like to or want to read yet, it's REALLY hard for me to step back and not "teach".....but I'm getting better w/ that.
Highschool- I keep hearing that kids will need credit courses in the highschool years I guess either to qualify for graduation or for college.... why is this, and how does this still fit for unschooling??
plaidpanties666
--- In [email protected], "kristi3003@..." <kristi3003@...> wrote:
Something to keep in mind about natural learning is that it frequently doesn't "look" like some kind of steady progression. Kids (or adults for that matter) develop interests, get all wrapped up in learning a whole bunch, and then often set things aside for awhile - a few weeks or a few years. Mo goes in and out of phases of being interested in reading, but even when she's interested she's not all that enthusiastic about it. I don't mean I'm trying to make her read, I mean she reads for informational purposes, rather than pleasure. That's not all that uncommon, either, many kids don't read for pleasure until early adolescence and some people never do.
That's something else to keep in mind where reading is concerned - most of us have been sold this big bill of goods saying people are somehow *supposed* to like reading, but there's no reason for that to be the case. Reading is a tool, a skill-set that kids can and do learn to use without it being more than that in the same way some people drive cars daily without that being something they really enjoy.
Six is young. Some kids learn to read before six naturally, but reading is complex - hard work for a little kid. There's no real reason for a six year old to *need* to read, no reason to go to all the trouble or do all that hard work unless she really wants to, for the sheer joy of the process itself. Enjoy reading to your little one as much as she wants you to! She'll grow up fast enough without pushing her to read more on her own than she's ready for.
To some extent this is more of a question for people in your local area, since laws vary, but in general there are a range of options available to homeschoolers where the teen years are concerned, options that, from an unschooling point of view, are largely dependent on what your kids want. In my state (TN) we have the option of using an "umbrella school" to appease the legal educational requirements, and have found one that's very friendly to unschoolers. Ray has a "school ID" and will eventually have a diploma from The Farm without ever having to take school-room type classes. A friend of mine, alternately, has a son taking classes at a local Junior College - a common route for college-bound homeschoolers and one that changes the playing field dramatically as "graduation" becomes less of a concern than "do my credits transfer?" Other homeschoolers get into colleges with transcrips and portfolios.
You have a Lot of time! Please don't stress too much about college right now! There are more options available all the time for homeschoolers interested in higher education and you have more than a decade ahead of you with your little one. That's lots of time to do more research on the subject. Home and especially unschoolers have advantages over high-schooled kids where colleges are concerned because they're interested and motivated - things that go a long way in the world outside of mandatory education.
---Meredith (Mo 8, Ray 16)
> I'm new here, I have a 6 yr old, she Can read but doesnt' like to or want to read yet, it's REALLY hard for me to step back and not "teach".....but I'm getting better w/ that.***********************
Something to keep in mind about natural learning is that it frequently doesn't "look" like some kind of steady progression. Kids (or adults for that matter) develop interests, get all wrapped up in learning a whole bunch, and then often set things aside for awhile - a few weeks or a few years. Mo goes in and out of phases of being interested in reading, but even when she's interested she's not all that enthusiastic about it. I don't mean I'm trying to make her read, I mean she reads for informational purposes, rather than pleasure. That's not all that uncommon, either, many kids don't read for pleasure until early adolescence and some people never do.
That's something else to keep in mind where reading is concerned - most of us have been sold this big bill of goods saying people are somehow *supposed* to like reading, but there's no reason for that to be the case. Reading is a tool, a skill-set that kids can and do learn to use without it being more than that in the same way some people drive cars daily without that being something they really enjoy.
Six is young. Some kids learn to read before six naturally, but reading is complex - hard work for a little kid. There's no real reason for a six year old to *need* to read, no reason to go to all the trouble or do all that hard work unless she really wants to, for the sheer joy of the process itself. Enjoy reading to your little one as much as she wants you to! She'll grow up fast enough without pushing her to read more on her own than she's ready for.
>> Highschool- I keep hearing that kids will need credit courses in the highschool years I guess either to qualify for graduation or for college.... why is this, and how does this still fit for unschooling??****************
To some extent this is more of a question for people in your local area, since laws vary, but in general there are a range of options available to homeschoolers where the teen years are concerned, options that, from an unschooling point of view, are largely dependent on what your kids want. In my state (TN) we have the option of using an "umbrella school" to appease the legal educational requirements, and have found one that's very friendly to unschoolers. Ray has a "school ID" and will eventually have a diploma from The Farm without ever having to take school-room type classes. A friend of mine, alternately, has a son taking classes at a local Junior College - a common route for college-bound homeschoolers and one that changes the playing field dramatically as "graduation" becomes less of a concern than "do my credits transfer?" Other homeschoolers get into colleges with transcrips and portfolios.
You have a Lot of time! Please don't stress too much about college right now! There are more options available all the time for homeschoolers interested in higher education and you have more than a decade ahead of you with your little one. That's lots of time to do more research on the subject. Home and especially unschoolers have advantages over high-schooled kids where colleges are concerned because they're interested and motivated - things that go a long way in the world outside of mandatory education.
---Meredith (Mo 8, Ray 16)
[email protected]
Thank you, I just keep hearing people in our coop saying how the easy days will be over in a few years when they'll have to start doing school work for 5-7 hrs a day to satisfy the credit hours requirements to finish highschool and go to college and that was freaking me out, I do NOT want to do that!!!!!!!
vickisue_gray
--- In [email protected], "kristi3003@..." <kristi3003@...> wrote:
The beauty of unschooling is that learning is done for the pure joy of learning. Unschooled kids that decide that they want to pursue college tend to do better then the kids who are told that is the route they must travel. My two oldest are currently in college and doing rather well. They choose to do well and they are enjoying the experience. If I told them that they HAD to do this when they didn't want to, they wouldn't be being as successful at it.
>Another point many seem to miss is that even if you decided at some point, or your child decided at some point, to go into the conventional school route, that sort of learning, truly does not require 5-7 hours a day for years and years and years, like the schools would have you believe.
> Thank you, I just keep hearing people in our coop saying how the easy days will be over in a few years when they'll have to start doing school work for 5-7 hrs a day to satisfy the credit hours requirements to finish highschool and go to college and that was freaking me out, I do NOT want to do that!!!!!!!
>
The beauty of unschooling is that learning is done for the pure joy of learning. Unschooled kids that decide that they want to pursue college tend to do better then the kids who are told that is the route they must travel. My two oldest are currently in college and doing rather well. They choose to do well and they are enjoying the experience. If I told them that they HAD to do this when they didn't want to, they wouldn't be being as successful at it.
Faith Void
On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 10:09 AM, vickisue_gray <vickisue_gray@...>wrote:
caught up to her age-peers within a week. They had been doing schooling for
7-8 years, she had never done any school work. After taking a couple tests
she got the hang of it and it became easier.After the initial excitement of
a new experience she was bored. She stated, "They don't do any learning in
school." The things she did learn for school were done outside of the
classroom, ie homework and projects.
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www.bearthmama.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>***My oldest decided to try out public school. She started mid-year and
>
> --- In [email protected]<unschoolingbasics%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "kristi3003@..." <kristi3003@...> wrote:>
> > Thank you, I just keep hearing people in our coop saying how the easy
> days will be over in a few years when they'll have to start doing school
> work for 5-7 hrs a day to satisfy the credit hours requirements to finish
> highschool and go to college and that was freaking me out, I do NOT want to
> do that!!!!!!!
> >
>
> Another point many seem to miss is that even if you decided at some point,
> or your child decided at some point, to go into the conventional school
> route, that sort of learning, truly does not require 5-7 hours a day for
> years and years and years, like the schools would have you believe.
>
caught up to her age-peers within a week. They had been doing schooling for
7-8 years, she had never done any school work. After taking a couple tests
she got the hang of it and it became easier.After the initial excitement of
a new experience she was bored. She stated, "They don't do any learning in
school." The things she did learn for school were done outside of the
classroom, ie homework and projects.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=
>http://faithvoid.blogspot.com/
> The beauty of unschooling is that learning is done for the pure joy of
> learning. Unschooled kids that decide that they want to pursue college tend
> to do better then the kids who are told that is the route they must travel.
> My two oldest are currently in college and doing rather well. They choose to
> do well and they are enjoying the experience. If I told them that they HAD
> to do this when they didn't want to, they wouldn't be being as successful at
> it.
>
> __._
>
www.bearthmama.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]