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Hello,

My almost 8 and 5 are home with me, my 10 is in a traditional local school, her choice. We had a few far away friends visit and the judgements started coming out in conversations about learning. This friend who is a self taught artist was worried because my son doesn't read well and because he refuses to write unless it is important to him. How he got this info about Riley amazes me, but it was clear a certain verbal testing was going on. My kids were exhausted from 3 days at a freezing cold swim meet and really were out of it, but the idea of learning having to be broken down into tiny bits kept coming into our conversations. Topics about curriculum and programs and step by step reading manuals were mentioned. Usually I let my kids speak for themselves, but on this visit they didn't want anything other than food, blankets and TV. They were not the thrilled to have someone to talk with homeschooled kids who amaze the visitors. I felt uncomfortable like I was having to prove our way as a healthy way to learning, so those out their with a strong voice, could you help me regain the confidence that got me to this point.

Mary H.

Elizabeth Hill

**My kids were exhausted from 3 days at a freezing cold swim meet and
really were out of it, but the idea of learning having to be broken down
into tiny bits kept coming into our conversations. Topics about
curriculum and programs and step by step reading manuals were mentioned.**

Hi, Mary --

I'm with you. I find step-by-step, bit-by-bit learning to be annoying
and useless.

One way you can put this idea across, is to borrow some teacher jargon
to stun the next person who tries this. Say "My kids are whole-to-part
learners, not part-to-whole" learners." Or if you want it to be more
understandable you could say that they are "holistic" learners. When I
want to be LESS understandable, I toss in the world "gestalt", even
though I'm not completely clear on the meaning.

Have fun!
Betsy

Deb Lewis

***worried because my son doesn't read well...***

Most eight year olds in school don't read well either. The difference is
in school they're pushed and stressed and badgered and made to feel
inferior and stupid if they don't want to or are not ready to read yet.


***Topics about curriculum and programs and step by step reading manuals
were mentioned.***

Schools use curriculum and step by step reading programs and lots of
kids in school read later. None of those things can guarantee a
particular outcome. But they can create feelings of worry, dread,
resentment and inadequacy and I'm sure those things don't contribute to
reading in any way.

***...he refuses to write unless it is important to him.***

No one writes unless it's important to them! Does he think people
everywhere are sitting down to write for no reason? What do people write
when they have no reason to write, I wonder? That's just silly.

Dylan doesn't write much and he's twelve. He has recently written down
the names of some CD's he'd like to have. He wrote the titles of some
books he wants and he sometimes writes little notes to me asking if I'll
wake him at a certain time. He doesn't have a need to write at the
moment. If he wants to contact someone, he uses the phone.

My husband rarely writes. He signs his name on paychecks, he makes
shopping lists, but that's about it for him. He's forty five. He's not
suffering in any way from a lack of writing.

*** They were not the thrilled to have someone to talk with
homeschooled kids who amaze the visitors. I felt uncomfortable like I was
having to prove our way as a healthy way to learning,***

Those days happen. We all have days when we're less than sparkling. You
were probably not feeling as energetic as you otherwise might have been
either and that's why it got to you.

Deb L

Robyn Coburn

<<<<One way you can put this idea across, is to borrow some teacher jargon
to stun the next person who tries this. Say "My kids are whole-to-part
learners, not part-to-whole" learners." Or if you want it to be more
understandable you could say that they are "holistic" learners. When I
want to be LESS understandable, I toss in the world "gestalt", even
though I'm not completely clear on the meaning.>>>>>

From Dictionary.com

Gestalt:

"A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern
of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from
a simple summation of its parts."

Sounds like a perfect way to describe a learner, and also Unschooling.

I have also heard the definition that the "whole is greater than the sum of
its parts", which makes me think of families, or our e-lists!

Robyn L. Coburn

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Elizabeth Hill

**

From Dictionary.com

Gestalt:

"A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern
of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from
a simple summation of its parts."

Sounds like a perfect way to describe a learner, and also Unschooling.**


Thanks, Robyn! A relaxed-homeschooling friend describes herself (not her kids) as a "gestalt learner", which is how the word crept into my vocabulary with only limited comprehension.

Betsy

mamaaj2000

--- In [email protected], "Robyn Coburn"
<dezigna@c...> wrote:
> Gestalt:
>
> "A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration
or pattern
> of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be
derived from
> a simple summation of its parts."
>
> Sounds like a perfect way to describe a learner, and also
Unschooling.

I like it! I can just see using that if someone asks about what math
textbook we use. "Oh, ds is a gestalt learner, so we don't need a
book specifically for math. It's everywhere, you know."

At least if I wanted to scare them off...

--aj

queenjane555

>This friend who is a self taught artist was worried because my son
>doesn't read well and because he refuses to write unless it is
>important to him.

I hope you pointed out to your friend the irony of a self taught
artist pushing curriculum on a kid. If art is good enough to be self
taught, why not reading?


Katherine