Hi! Introduction
grenier_wendy
Hi all. I'm a homeschooling Mom to two wonderful children, ages 3 and 5. We started our journey from the perspective of a professional educator (my husband has a M.Ed) and a health care professional (I'm a chiropractor, though I'm not in practice now). In other words, we had a "typical" idea of what education is.
My husband agreed that we would "try" homeschooling for a year, and if our oldest (then four) was reading by the end of the year (last June) we'd continue. So we began.
I spent several months trying to get our daughter to read (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, etc.), only to realize I was driving her away from a love of learning. It was when I stopped pushing that she decided to pursue it on her own, and now reads street signs, shop signs, names, etc. without any pushing.
I desperately need suggestions for how to encourage our children to do follow their passions, and how to follow their lead.
I also need to know how to introduce them to new things and experiences within our very limited budget. I believe that discontinuing practice for now is the best decision for our family emotionally and spiritually, but it certainly isn't financially!
So far I've been trying to set up field trips within our community, and would love ideas for places to go, etc. within that framework. I'd also love ideas for having exploration areas in our home for them to feel free to find out about the world.
In other words I need any help you can give me!
Thank you for any suggestions you may have.
--Wendy
My husband agreed that we would "try" homeschooling for a year, and if our oldest (then four) was reading by the end of the year (last June) we'd continue. So we began.
I spent several months trying to get our daughter to read (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, etc.), only to realize I was driving her away from a love of learning. It was when I stopped pushing that she decided to pursue it on her own, and now reads street signs, shop signs, names, etc. without any pushing.
I desperately need suggestions for how to encourage our children to do follow their passions, and how to follow their lead.
I also need to know how to introduce them to new things and experiences within our very limited budget. I believe that discontinuing practice for now is the best decision for our family emotionally and spiritually, but it certainly isn't financially!
So far I've been trying to set up field trips within our community, and would love ideas for places to go, etc. within that framework. I'd also love ideas for having exploration areas in our home for them to feel free to find out about the world.
In other words I need any help you can give me!
Thank you for any suggestions you may have.
--Wendy
Meredith
"grenier_wendy" <grenier_wendy@...> wrote:
For now, it might help to step back from both those ideas, too. Don't worry about passions, let them play. Don't worry about following, watch what they do and accept their invitations to join in. Spend time with your kids, playing if they want you to play, and just enjoying their company. If you're used to directing and leading, that's going to be enough "work" for you for now! You may find you do a lot of tongue biting for awhile ;)
Here's a page on deschooling for parents which you might find helpful:
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling
They're 3 and 5 - they don't need a million new experience a week. Going to the grocery store is still and adventure, if you let it be. For now, make it your goal to let them explore common, familiar places (including home) to their hearts content Without making it a "learning opportunity" per se. Rather than worrying about "field trips" and "exploration areas in the home" see that exploration is something kids do naturally - you don't have to help or show them so much as be on hand for whatever they need, whether it's to answer a question, hand them a spoon, or smile over a scrap of plastic wrap as though it were the most marvelous thing in the world. It might help to set aside the idea of learning, strange as that may seem, and focus on the idea of wonder - because wonder, and wondering, are part of how people of all ages learn:
Here's a wonderful page full of comments on the value of wonder:
http://sandradodd.com/wonder
Go slowly through common places - slowing down is important! When you're asking "what More can I do/offer/introduce?" you run the risk of missing what your kids are doing Right Now.
I'm going to include a link to "Deb's list of things to do in the winter" which has a lot of good ideas for simple, common things you can do with your kids. Don't try to do them all ;) it's not a curriculum. It is a good source of inspiration for dull days when you need a change of pace or scenery - but those same dull days are also good for snuggling in bed!
http://sandradodd.com/strew/deblist
---Meredith
>> I desperately need suggestions for how to encourage our children to do follow their passions, and how to follow their lead.*****************
For now, it might help to step back from both those ideas, too. Don't worry about passions, let them play. Don't worry about following, watch what they do and accept their invitations to join in. Spend time with your kids, playing if they want you to play, and just enjoying their company. If you're used to directing and leading, that's going to be enough "work" for you for now! You may find you do a lot of tongue biting for awhile ;)
Here's a page on deschooling for parents which you might find helpful:
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling
> I also need to know how to introduce them to new things and experiences within our very limited budget.*****************
They're 3 and 5 - they don't need a million new experience a week. Going to the grocery store is still and adventure, if you let it be. For now, make it your goal to let them explore common, familiar places (including home) to their hearts content Without making it a "learning opportunity" per se. Rather than worrying about "field trips" and "exploration areas in the home" see that exploration is something kids do naturally - you don't have to help or show them so much as be on hand for whatever they need, whether it's to answer a question, hand them a spoon, or smile over a scrap of plastic wrap as though it were the most marvelous thing in the world. It might help to set aside the idea of learning, strange as that may seem, and focus on the idea of wonder - because wonder, and wondering, are part of how people of all ages learn:
Here's a wonderful page full of comments on the value of wonder:
http://sandradodd.com/wonder
> So far I've been trying to set up field trips within our community, and would love ideas for places to go, etc. within that framework.******************
Go slowly through common places - slowing down is important! When you're asking "what More can I do/offer/introduce?" you run the risk of missing what your kids are doing Right Now.
I'm going to include a link to "Deb's list of things to do in the winter" which has a lot of good ideas for simple, common things you can do with your kids. Don't try to do them all ;) it's not a curriculum. It is a good source of inspiration for dull days when you need a change of pace or scenery - but those same dull days are also good for snuggling in bed!
http://sandradodd.com/strew/deblist
---Meredith
Meredith
"grenier_wendy" <grenier_wendy@...> wrote:
Earlier today, Katherine Anderson wrote this on another list, but on the subject of deschooling, and I think it fits:
" That I can learn from my child was a beginning cornerstone for me in getting unschooling. How inspirational interacting with Karl is to increasing my knowledge about parenting. It's a response much like dancing with a partner is, listening and staying open and aware of your child at each interaction, and learning about your child by learning what is interesting to your child. This is important! It's one of the things that's easiest for some parents to neglect by erroneously looking forward to the traditional milestones when parents can go do their own thing as tho their child/ren were almost on autopilot.
Unschooling is learning together, whereas school is learning alone, getting answers to tests into your own head with little to no collaboration allowed, no cheating, no asking, during the test especially. Unschooling encourages questions, "wrong" answers/assumptions, and learning from trial and error rather than having the right answer upfront.
Another idea helpful in deschooling is realizing that humans .. children .. were born to experience, think and learn. That learning is decision making; that extending freedoms to make decisions is central imo to how children learn. This is in direct contrast to the picture of children as receivers for bits and bytes of facts to learn. The more directly they experience the world, the more clearly children are able to learn I think."
>> I desperately need suggestions for how to encourage our children to do follow their passions, and how to follow their lead.****************
Earlier today, Katherine Anderson wrote this on another list, but on the subject of deschooling, and I think it fits:
" That I can learn from my child was a beginning cornerstone for me in getting unschooling. How inspirational interacting with Karl is to increasing my knowledge about parenting. It's a response much like dancing with a partner is, listening and staying open and aware of your child at each interaction, and learning about your child by learning what is interesting to your child. This is important! It's one of the things that's easiest for some parents to neglect by erroneously looking forward to the traditional milestones when parents can go do their own thing as tho their child/ren were almost on autopilot.
Unschooling is learning together, whereas school is learning alone, getting answers to tests into your own head with little to no collaboration allowed, no cheating, no asking, during the test especially. Unschooling encourages questions, "wrong" answers/assumptions, and learning from trial and error rather than having the right answer upfront.
Another idea helpful in deschooling is realizing that humans .. children .. were born to experience, think and learn. That learning is decision making; that extending freedoms to make decisions is central imo to how children learn. This is in direct contrast to the picture of children as receivers for bits and bytes of facts to learn. The more directly they experience the world, the more clearly children are able to learn I think."