Judy Youngquest

<< I am new to this site. I have a 10 year old and 13 year old and am curious 
 about what you all think, unschooling-wise, about: 1)SET TIMES FOR BED vs. 
 ANYTIME IS OKAY...same with rising time. 2)Use of the computer/internet: 
 SHOULD THERE BE A LIMIT? 3)Last year, we homeschooled with a curriculum from 
 Oak Meadow. We did the Saxon Math lessons everyday...after lots of coercing. 
 They both learned alot inspite of resistance. Now we are unschooling (again) 
 and I am having trouble just LETTING GO of math...I doubt that they are ever 
 going to choose to do it on their own...the stuff they were learning, we 
 will probably never come across naturally (multiplying fractions, algebra, 
 etc.)so, what happens if they want to take an SAT test later; I guess they 
 just have to "knuckle down" and learn lots of math all at once THEN? I think 
 I need a pep talk.


I was happy to read that so many of you do not have bedtimes. I have 2 daughters same age (10) and one goes to bed on her own at about 8:30.
The other stays up until I go to bed. But I also discovered that late at night is when she does her best writing and asks me for math problems to do. We have always unschooled but also have workbooks available. They sit on the shelf just as the coloring and craft books do. One loves to do them. The other hates to do them. The one that loves them is poor in math. The one who hates the workbooks and never uses them excels in math. She does it all in her head. She hates to write, but makes up poems and stories and recites them to me. Tell her it is very good and she might want to write that down she will say, "No thanks."

This year we purchased our first curriculum, Oak Meadow. I like it, but use it loosely. They have some really neat ideas in it that I might not think of doing that are fun and the kids love it. I also like the use of the Recorder as we were not doing any music before Oak Meadow. We used a borrowed one for 3rd grade last year and actually did everything in it. I just don't worry about what we are supposed to do in certain weeks. But at the end of school year I went over it and realized we had actually covered it all or already knew or were involved in these things.

Oak Meadow no longer uses Saxon Math. They made up their own math which is much more unschool-friendly. Multiplying fractions we learned in cooking. We are not up to Algebra yet but I am sure they will have a way to use it that is unschool-friendly.
We learned Roman Numerals last year in one quick lesson the Oak Meadow way.

The computer was a big deal when we first got it, but they use it just the right amount IMO. I use it too much. For someone with a "Kill your Television" bumper sticker on my car you would think I would not sit at this thing so long.

Chow,
Judy