nellebelle

This is so nice. Thank you for taking the time to write it and for sharing it with us. I would love to share it with others and am hoping that is OK. I will share the entire article with Pam's name attached. Please let me know if that is not OK.



>>>>>>>>It is natural for people to learn�each in their own way. It is natural
for children to want to understand the world around them. They also
want to join the adult world and become competent and capable adults
themselves. They'll strive for this in their own natural ways.
Unschooling parents work on creating a home environment that supports
their children's natural desire to learn and grow.>>>>>>>>

This is such a nice summary. I heard something on the radio the other day about some educator or educational program working to "teach kids how to learn". It about gagged me. We can model ways to gather information, but we do not need to teach kids how to learn. They are born with that ability.


>>>>>>>>A true unschooling slogan is, "Life is learning, learning is life."
Unschoolers simply do not think there are times for learning and times
for not learning. They don't divide life into school time or lesson
time versus play time or recreation time. There is no such thing as
"extracurricular" to an unschooler�all of life, every minute of every
day, counts as learning time and there is no separate time set aside
for education.>>>>>>>>>>>

I try to explain this sometimes when I'm asked if we homeschool during summer vacation or what kind of schedule we keep for homeschooling. That paragraph says it well. I like this especially: Unschoolers simply do not think there are times for learning and times for not learning.>




>>>>>>>>>If what we mostly want is for our children to respect us
and to adopt our beliefs and goals, unschooling may not be for us.>>>>>>>>>>>

Does "respect" really belong with the rest of that sentence? Although I don't think of living with my children in terms of "raising them to respect me", it seems as though a childhood based on being respected would result in an adult child who respected his/her parents, even if the child ends up NOT adopting our beliefs and goals.

Mary Ellen

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