Kelly Thielen

>
> Cindy,
> Most of the social activities that my kids have are with each other, and
> when we make trips to town. Then occasionally we get together with
> friends. Even more occasionally, we get together with a group of kids.
> I like the kids to be friends with themselves and their family first.
> BTW, my kids are 6, 4, and 3.
> Ann
>

This is just how we are, too. My kids ds is 8 and my dd is 6 and they
are best friends and playmates. This family and closeness and special
sibling relationship is one of the benefits of unschooling, for me. We
interact mostly with family and close friends. But, from time to time,
they make "playdates" with 1 of their friends.
Kelly

Kelly Thielen

> If a child is making her own learning
> experience, I don't care if she uses curriculum or not, though I
> have yet to meet an elementary age child who would choose
> curriculum if given the choice.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. Wanted to let you know that
both of my children have chosen workbooks from time to time. I do not
have a curriculum though, they occasionally like to sit and do exercises
in their workbooks and have Mom guide them. Sometimes my kids have even
wanted to "play" school, where I am the teacher and they the students,
and somehow they had the notion this is what "homeschooling" was. Since
it was what they wanted, we did do this once or twice. I had a little
chalkboard and I assinged a picture or some alphabet to my at the time
5yr.old, or once I taught my 7 yr.old the concept of odd and even
numbers on the board, but it was definately "child led learning", he
wouldn't have learned it if he wasn't interested.
Kelly

Olivia

>> Most of the social activities that my kids have are with each other, and
>> when we make trips to town. Then occasionally we get together with
>> friends. Even more occasionally, we get together with a group of kids.
>> I like the kids to be friends with themselves and their family first.
>> BTW, my kids are 6, 4, and 3.
>> Ann
>>
>
>This is just how we are, too. My kids ds is 8 and my dd is 6 and they
>are best friends and playmates. This family and closeness and special
>sibling relationship is one of the benefits of unschooling, for me. We
>interact mostly with family and close friends. But, from time to time,
>they make "playdates" with 1 of their friends.



Just wondered if anyone is unschooling an only child. Are there any special
issues that arise when there aren't any other siblings in the house for
daily play?

[email protected]

In a message dated 6/12/99 5:03:20 PM, liv2learn@... writes:

<<Just wondered if anyone is unschooling an only child. Are there any special
issues that arise when there aren't any other siblings in the house for
daily play?
>>

You know, I tried to answer this and it got really wordy, and I'm still not
sure I answered the question. I don't know if there are special issues,
because we've never had more than one child, so I don't have anything to
compare to.

All I know is, that my son manages to keep himself busy, and rarely asks to
have friends over. He thrilled when they do come over, or we go someplace
for a visit, but he is so used to being on his own, that I honestly don't
think it occurs to him. We belong to a support group that meets at least one
time a week, and often I try to wrangle some other "kid time" for him during
the week, but it doesn't always happen. Unfortunely, we live about 40 miles
away from our best friends, if they lived across the street, I think our
lives would be considerably different.

jocelyn

Andi Kaufman

>From: Olivia <liv2learn@...>
>Just wondered if anyone is unschooling an only child. Are there any special
>issues that arise when there aren't any other siblings in the house for
>daily play?

that would be me. and yes there are. the boredom and he talks about. but he
usually finds something to do or i help. We have lots fo friends over and
we do lots of stuff with others. we also play alot of games. which i find
is unschooling at its finest. I dont have any problems with it.

Andi...domestic goddess and active volunteer
mom to Isaac
tl2b@...

Never Underestimate the Power of This Woman!