dawnt

HI everyone,

First to introduce myself, I am Dawn,and my husband is David
We have three great kids Heather,8,Zack,5, and Natalie,1 1/2. This
is our first year homeschooling.

I am here because the furthur we go along in this first year of
ours the more I hate "schooling" my kids. I admit coming from public
schools all my life and two of my children attending public schools
that is all we know. Workbooks and textbooks just are not working
for us. I feel horrible everyday sitting them at the dining room
table and saying no talking, and don't get up until you are done
with that Math. Kids need to be kids! They need to play and explore.
This is what my heart tells me, but than that "school" mentality
kicks in and I say "get back to work". I am ready to STOP, but I
need help.

This will not be easy for me. I do not even know how to begin
unschooling. I am not very crafty, and we do not have to many places
to "explore" were we live. Also, how do you explain to relatives who
also have the school mentality? How do I de-school myself and my
children? Where do I find ideas? Also, we are in Maryland and have
to go to the board of education twice a year to go over our work.
What do I say to them?

I will take any help or suggestions. Thank you for having this
group to come to for us who have no idea what to do!

Dawn Tolson

Angela S.

> I will take any help or suggestions. Thank you for having this
> group to come to for us who have no idea what to do!
>
> Dawn Tolson

Read everything about unschooling that you can get your hands on.
www.Sandradodd.com,
the archives of this list, and the archives of the unschoolingdiscussion
list are great places to start.
For books, try the Unschooling Handbook.

Think of how much your kids learned before they were school aged and try to
give them a rich environment and an enthusiastic helpful mom. They will
continue to learn without painful lessons at the dining room table. It
often helps new unschoolers to document the learning that happens naturally
so you can see how much they've been exposed to at the end of the month (or
week or quarter or whatever).

As you continue to see your children learning and growing without formal
lessons, you will grow more confident in unschooling. Bite your tongue when
you feel like imposing lessons on them and offer to take them somewhere fun
or play a game with them. Let them help you cook and garden and tend the
animals, etc. Work on making your home a place your children will be
enthusiastic to be. Buy fun games and neat toys and books. Follow your own
interests with enthusiasm and they will learn to do the same.
Angela
game-enthusiast@...

jlh44music

> This will not be easy for me. I do not even know how to begin
unschooling. I am not very crafty, and we do not have to many places
to "explore" were we live. Also, how do you explain to relatives who
also have the school mentality? How do I de-school myself and my
children? Where do I find ideas? Also, we are in Maryland and have
to go to the board of education twice a year to go over our work.
What do I say to them?>>>>>

Welcome Dawn!
Have you found any local homeschooling groups to connect with?
nhen.org lists them for every state. I found by joining my local
homeschool group, I not only get notification about any "field trips"
etc they have planned (many are doing more traditional curriculum,
but sometimes there are things that interest us) but some of the
members list themselves as unschoolers, and I've, slowly, been able
to connect with other unschoolers in my area. Also, did you search
for a yahoo group for your state for homeschoolers (there's one here
in MA, they're again mostly more curriculum oriented, but were
INVALUABLE when I was writing my first letter of intent to homeschool
and helped with getting me started as far as what's REQUIRED). This
site is wonderful for those of us new to unschooling (my dd just
finished 6th grade, we're currently deschooling and healing).

Hopefully you can find some local unschoolers who can help you with
how they've done their reporting and give you some tips. I have a
list of "educationese" words that's helpful, we're writing a
narrative report once a year, but if you have to show work samples
(?) you might have better luck trying to find others in your state
who homeschool, and particularily unschool.

Read as much as you can about unschooling. It's hard to let go of
the old notions of "school" but if you feel in your gut that it's the
way to go for your kids (I wasn't sure at first, had never HEARD of
unschooling up until about a year ago! but kept coming back to it),
then TRUST that and learn as much as you can. Read here for a
while, and also check some of the archives and previous posts.

And hopefully some unschoolers in your state will pop in here!
Jann