Lewis'

Hey Kim,

What you are describing sounds like you have to "de-school" them. Have you
read "The Teenage Liberation Handbook".??.. your girls might be ready to
read that for themselves.

I read it twice and now I gave it to my 11 year old to read so he can
understand the unschooling way better--in terms of options and ideas. .
We have always been child-led but for my kid...he needs some direction.
This year since he is technically doing upper middle school /high school
level work , I told him we would be more hands-off. It will be more
directed my him as to what he wants to study.

Each year I have him sit down and do a list of things he might want to
investigate or study..... we don't stick to it but its a starting point.
When we run out of ideas or get bored we try to remember what was on the
list to see if its sounds interesting or not and go from there.

In the meantime,,, we just "live" !!!!. Between activities, the dog, the
house, the shopping, the meal prep,visiting our friends, volunteer work,
the laundry, field trips and our huge appetite for books and going to the
library....

We have been mostly "unschoolers" for years but have in just the past few
years gone to a more text approach for math only.

It takes time to come up with your own family's rhythm.

Good luck
Jeanne in Wisconsin