crissyhall
Thanks everyone for putting things into perspective! You've given me
great ideas and I've been able to use them and see them work!
hi Alex!!! I'm so sorry for your loss, but happy to hear that you're
expecting again. It would be great to get together with you again. I
helped start a local homeschool group this year, real laid-back and
just for the kids to make friends and have fun, and would love to have
another unschooler around! Let me know if you're interested,
crissyhall@... I can't believe your son isn't 4 yet, I thought
he was older than Nate :)
I love the conversations too. And the best part is not necessary
having the answer to the questions, but just the interests it
sparks. I remember a quick trip to Target and catching an American
Girl book from falling out of the van sparked a
conversation about WWII, & the Civil War, which lead to human rights,
and wonderiing why woman don't have equal
rights!!! My oldest dd and I just couldn't fathom why women make up
over 50% of the population but we couldn't pass the
ERA??? Then I shared our conversation with someone who was old enough
to vote in the 70s and found out that many
women were frightened of having to share public bathrooms and being
forced to fight in wars. Amazing!
I can't always "see" learning happening in my kids, but I see it in
myself so I trust it is working the same wonderful way with
them. Wars and timelines were sooo boring to me in school and now
after watching the TV show "Rome" (which I'm sure
many, many people find as a totally unredeeming waste of time full of
violence and sex) has sparked an interest in history
and religions. My dh and I want to find a really good book about the
Roman empire and find out more about Titus Pullo
and Lucius Vorianus (sp?), how much was their story embellished and
how much was true :) And when did different
religions start in comparison to world events. Oh and what is the
Buddism and Hinduism.... And, and, and...... :)
I also HATE science and have no interest in writiing computer code
(even though according to tests they are my
stregthens???) until.... my dh wanted "scientific" proof and
documentation that unschooling works. And after listening to
Pam's speech that there is a study about the brain and how learning
works (thanks Pam!), I'm now looking forward to
looking up a scientific study and want to learn to write code so I can
have a blog!!!
Anastasia, my dh was like your dh and he happened to really question
unschooling one day when I was PMSing, not a
good time for me to be the most persuasive and unemotional! And he
wanted proof; studies on unschooling and
unschooled kids that were sucessful, not just antidotal evidence. Ha!
He's knew he was asking for the impossible! Luckily
I was able to quote some smart woman from here (can't remember who?)
that he would have to trust me because I believe
in it. I also remember him telling me about working with people from a
country well esteemed for education and while they
could quickly quote a fact from the top of their head (so it took him
2 extra minutes to look it up ;), they couldn't use the
information to creatively solve a problem. We want our kids to be
creative, curious, passionate, problem solvers that love
learning not kids crushed and just do what they are told. He said I
was right and that he would have to trust me, but it
would be helpful to him to have some of the highlights pointed out. I
can do that! He saw the kids at the end of the day when they were
winding down and missed out on a lot of the conversations, questions,
passions, and fun places we had been to.
Ren, "fan of obsessions" sounds like a good book title:)
Question: I understand "Principles vs Rules" and I definitely agree
that discipline doesn't mean punishment, but I'm struggling with what
to do when a principle isn't being followed? What do you do when a
child is being hurtful even after it has been clearly stated that they
are being hurtful? Is finding out what the cause is and coming up
with other options enough??? What do you do when a child doesn't have
the language skills to say what's going on?
~Christine
great ideas and I've been able to use them and see them work!
hi Alex!!! I'm so sorry for your loss, but happy to hear that you're
expecting again. It would be great to get together with you again. I
helped start a local homeschool group this year, real laid-back and
just for the kids to make friends and have fun, and would love to have
another unschooler around! Let me know if you're interested,
crissyhall@... I can't believe your son isn't 4 yet, I thought
he was older than Nate :)
I love the conversations too. And the best part is not necessary
having the answer to the questions, but just the interests it
sparks. I remember a quick trip to Target and catching an American
Girl book from falling out of the van sparked a
conversation about WWII, & the Civil War, which lead to human rights,
and wonderiing why woman don't have equal
rights!!! My oldest dd and I just couldn't fathom why women make up
over 50% of the population but we couldn't pass the
ERA??? Then I shared our conversation with someone who was old enough
to vote in the 70s and found out that many
women were frightened of having to share public bathrooms and being
forced to fight in wars. Amazing!
I can't always "see" learning happening in my kids, but I see it in
myself so I trust it is working the same wonderful way with
them. Wars and timelines were sooo boring to me in school and now
after watching the TV show "Rome" (which I'm sure
many, many people find as a totally unredeeming waste of time full of
violence and sex) has sparked an interest in history
and religions. My dh and I want to find a really good book about the
Roman empire and find out more about Titus Pullo
and Lucius Vorianus (sp?), how much was their story embellished and
how much was true :) And when did different
religions start in comparison to world events. Oh and what is the
Buddism and Hinduism.... And, and, and...... :)
I also HATE science and have no interest in writiing computer code
(even though according to tests they are my
stregthens???) until.... my dh wanted "scientific" proof and
documentation that unschooling works. And after listening to
Pam's speech that there is a study about the brain and how learning
works (thanks Pam!), I'm now looking forward to
looking up a scientific study and want to learn to write code so I can
have a blog!!!
Anastasia, my dh was like your dh and he happened to really question
unschooling one day when I was PMSing, not a
good time for me to be the most persuasive and unemotional! And he
wanted proof; studies on unschooling and
unschooled kids that were sucessful, not just antidotal evidence. Ha!
He's knew he was asking for the impossible! Luckily
I was able to quote some smart woman from here (can't remember who?)
that he would have to trust me because I believe
in it. I also remember him telling me about working with people from a
country well esteemed for education and while they
could quickly quote a fact from the top of their head (so it took him
2 extra minutes to look it up ;), they couldn't use the
information to creatively solve a problem. We want our kids to be
creative, curious, passionate, problem solvers that love
learning not kids crushed and just do what they are told. He said I
was right and that he would have to trust me, but it
would be helpful to him to have some of the highlights pointed out. I
can do that! He saw the kids at the end of the day when they were
winding down and missed out on a lot of the conversations, questions,
passions, and fun places we had been to.
Ren, "fan of obsessions" sounds like a good book title:)
Question: I understand "Principles vs Rules" and I definitely agree
that discipline doesn't mean punishment, but I'm struggling with what
to do when a principle isn't being followed? What do you do when a
child is being hurtful even after it has been clearly stated that they
are being hurtful? Is finding out what the cause is and coming up
with other options enough??? What do you do when a child doesn't have
the language skills to say what's going on?
~Christine