NEW MEMBER INTRO
Cindy L.
Julie & Amy,
Thank you for the welcome!
A further introduction is probably in order. I live in St. Louis, with my
husband - Kevin, and our son Graham who is 3.9 y/o. We share our home with
2 cats as well.
We used to joke about homeschooling, due to our personal experiences with
the school system (public & parochial), but I couldn't imagine doing it.
Then I found John Holt, and I said I can do that, that's what I had needed
myself .
Someone mentioned Waldorf, well we experimented with that before I found the
Holt Books, I appreciate some of the ideas but it's quite dogmatic, for us
anyway. We do like the emphasis on nature, and the lack of any formal
learning til age 7 or so. The wooden toys are a nice idea, and the slower
pace for young children fit us too. I liked the idea of preserving the
child's innocence, as I was a precocious little thing, but not much fun as a
kid. The problem was this was much more theory, than practice at least in
our experience. The children were quite aggressive, and the parents were
uh, 'laid back' to say the least. In one case the 'teacher' did nothing
when one child pushed my toddler son to the floor and then pulled a chair
out from under him, but when he wanted to finally participate in circle time
and wanted to touch a puppet , well I was told that he needed to learn to
'respect' the puppets!
She even wrote a note in the school newsletter, about how children who can't
respect puppets should go to the playground and forgo circle time.
Needless to say we had already dropped out by the time someone passed that
on to me. My son was 2 at the time. The good news was that I gave up the
private school idea for good at that point.
One other idea we did incoporate from Waldorf was no t.v. We almost never,
(except for a political debate or severe weather watch) watch t.v. anymore.
Okay, I admit we were/will be again Soprano junkies, got the tapes from my
Father, watched after Graham was in bed. Graham does see PBS, Oprah, and
Jeopardy at my parent's house on a frequent basis, so he's not totally
culturally deprived! It freed up a lot of time for us though, and we don't
really miss it, of course we didn't have cable anyway.
Well that touches on most the recent threads- so I'll stop here. Looking
forward to more discussions & advice from those with some experience at this
unschooling stuff!
Cindy L.
Thank you for the welcome!
A further introduction is probably in order. I live in St. Louis, with my
husband - Kevin, and our son Graham who is 3.9 y/o. We share our home with
2 cats as well.
We used to joke about homeschooling, due to our personal experiences with
the school system (public & parochial), but I couldn't imagine doing it.
Then I found John Holt, and I said I can do that, that's what I had needed
myself .
Someone mentioned Waldorf, well we experimented with that before I found the
Holt Books, I appreciate some of the ideas but it's quite dogmatic, for us
anyway. We do like the emphasis on nature, and the lack of any formal
learning til age 7 or so. The wooden toys are a nice idea, and the slower
pace for young children fit us too. I liked the idea of preserving the
child's innocence, as I was a precocious little thing, but not much fun as a
kid. The problem was this was much more theory, than practice at least in
our experience. The children were quite aggressive, and the parents were
uh, 'laid back' to say the least. In one case the 'teacher' did nothing
when one child pushed my toddler son to the floor and then pulled a chair
out from under him, but when he wanted to finally participate in circle time
and wanted to touch a puppet , well I was told that he needed to learn to
'respect' the puppets!
She even wrote a note in the school newsletter, about how children who can't
respect puppets should go to the playground and forgo circle time.
Needless to say we had already dropped out by the time someone passed that
on to me. My son was 2 at the time. The good news was that I gave up the
private school idea for good at that point.
One other idea we did incoporate from Waldorf was no t.v. We almost never,
(except for a political debate or severe weather watch) watch t.v. anymore.
Okay, I admit we were/will be again Soprano junkies, got the tapes from my
Father, watched after Graham was in bed. Graham does see PBS, Oprah, and
Jeopardy at my parent's house on a frequent basis, so he's not totally
culturally deprived! It freed up a lot of time for us though, and we don't
really miss it, of course we didn't have cable anyway.
Well that touches on most the recent threads- so I'll stop here. Looking
forward to more discussions & advice from those with some experience at this
unschooling stuff!
Cindy L.