Intro (again?)
[email protected]
Hi! I originally sent this message on the 17th, and have never seen it post.
I also sent another message to an indidual who never received it, at the same
time.
So.. I'm resending, and if you've all seen it before, I do apologize!
Well, I've got that "coming home" feeling right now.
The line from Rocky Mt High.. "Coming home to a place you've never been
before".
I am soooo glad to have found this group. It feels wonderful.
My name is Laura, husband Chip, we've been married almost 15 years.
We have three kids. Jeremy, 9. Emily,7 and Luke 4 in a few weeks.
My parents gave me this lifestyle the best they could in the 70's. But it
was illegal in Illinois to homeschool. So off I went to school, to get my
sleep.
When I got home, thats when the learning started.
My mom is an artist, and I was constantly exposed to great works of art,
incredible
music and very eclectic forms of any kind of art.
We watched movies galore, classics. Educational, historical, I LOVE epics.
(And Mel Gibson being in many epics these days kept that interest up..ahem.)
In 1976, they took me on the best vacation they could think of....
I was taken to Williamsburg Virginia for a re enactment of several battles
of the Revolutionary War. I came home with a love for that period that has
remained my entire life. I knew more about this time frame than did my
history teacher. A fact that at first upset him, then he was intrigued and
was invited to my home for dinner. He thanked my parents for instilling a
love
of history in my life. Maybe at the time, I didn't appreciate what he meant.
Now I do. It was very touching.
So, the minute Jeremy was born, I looked at this beautiful little boy and
thought..
"No way will I turn him over to quacks in five years!" It was literally one
of my first
thoughts (after having cried my eyes out!)
So we set out to learn about homeschooling. I've enjoyed the Charlotte Mason
method and a few pre packaged curriculums, and the book "the Well Trained
Mind".
The book actually gave me great ideas on the kids keeping notebooks on worms
and such!
But, I always fell away from what I was doing, no matter how much I enjoyed
it.
I found the kids saying "Awwww" when I called them to "do school".
I had heard of unschooling, but so many had acted like it was a "too far out"
idea ..that I had not looked seriously.
Well, it's Jeremys year to be tested in the state of Colorado. So I find
myself
getting nervous. He does NOT know the things other third graders around here
know. BUT.. he knows SOME high school level things, too. I worried that
they would test him just like they test the others, and that the areas he is
truly talented in, would not even be asked about. So, I looked into
West River Academy in Grand Junction, CO. Peggy sent me info and told
me to look at the Unschooling.com website. YIPEE!
(BTW, anyone here that uses West River Academy??)
Like minded people! I'm NOT lazy! hahhahahahha.. boy does that feel good!
A perfect example of how unschooling works. We like the Math U See
curriculum.
Multiplication was just not clicking with Jeremy so I gave myself permission
to
just put it away. I would simply ask him a question once in awhile, and if he
hesitated, I would supply the answer, offering a brief explanation of how I
got the
answer.
About two weeks after starting this, Jeremy was playing with his stuffed
animal
collection on his top bunk. He began arranging them in groups of three.
At 11 pm that night, he came flying out of his room, yelling "Three, Three
times!
That's NINE!" And took us in to show us the different groupings and how they
represented numbers, etc.
I was elated. Not only did he know multiplication, but he SAW how it worked,
he didn't just blindly memorize answers!
The next day he happily sat down and filled in about 4 chapters of his math
book,
willingly, without being asked!
I LOVE this!
Nice to meet you all!
Laura
I also sent another message to an indidual who never received it, at the same
time.
So.. I'm resending, and if you've all seen it before, I do apologize!
Well, I've got that "coming home" feeling right now.
The line from Rocky Mt High.. "Coming home to a place you've never been
before".
I am soooo glad to have found this group. It feels wonderful.
My name is Laura, husband Chip, we've been married almost 15 years.
We have three kids. Jeremy, 9. Emily,7 and Luke 4 in a few weeks.
My parents gave me this lifestyle the best they could in the 70's. But it
was illegal in Illinois to homeschool. So off I went to school, to get my
sleep.
When I got home, thats when the learning started.
My mom is an artist, and I was constantly exposed to great works of art,
incredible
music and very eclectic forms of any kind of art.
We watched movies galore, classics. Educational, historical, I LOVE epics.
(And Mel Gibson being in many epics these days kept that interest up..ahem.)
In 1976, they took me on the best vacation they could think of....
I was taken to Williamsburg Virginia for a re enactment of several battles
of the Revolutionary War. I came home with a love for that period that has
remained my entire life. I knew more about this time frame than did my
history teacher. A fact that at first upset him, then he was intrigued and
was invited to my home for dinner. He thanked my parents for instilling a
love
of history in my life. Maybe at the time, I didn't appreciate what he meant.
Now I do. It was very touching.
So, the minute Jeremy was born, I looked at this beautiful little boy and
thought..
"No way will I turn him over to quacks in five years!" It was literally one
of my first
thoughts (after having cried my eyes out!)
So we set out to learn about homeschooling. I've enjoyed the Charlotte Mason
method and a few pre packaged curriculums, and the book "the Well Trained
Mind".
The book actually gave me great ideas on the kids keeping notebooks on worms
and such!
But, I always fell away from what I was doing, no matter how much I enjoyed
it.
I found the kids saying "Awwww" when I called them to "do school".
I had heard of unschooling, but so many had acted like it was a "too far out"
idea ..that I had not looked seriously.
Well, it's Jeremys year to be tested in the state of Colorado. So I find
myself
getting nervous. He does NOT know the things other third graders around here
know. BUT.. he knows SOME high school level things, too. I worried that
they would test him just like they test the others, and that the areas he is
truly talented in, would not even be asked about. So, I looked into
West River Academy in Grand Junction, CO. Peggy sent me info and told
me to look at the Unschooling.com website. YIPEE!
(BTW, anyone here that uses West River Academy??)
Like minded people! I'm NOT lazy! hahhahahahha.. boy does that feel good!
A perfect example of how unschooling works. We like the Math U See
curriculum.
Multiplication was just not clicking with Jeremy so I gave myself permission
to
just put it away. I would simply ask him a question once in awhile, and if he
hesitated, I would supply the answer, offering a brief explanation of how I
got the
answer.
About two weeks after starting this, Jeremy was playing with his stuffed
animal
collection on his top bunk. He began arranging them in groups of three.
At 11 pm that night, he came flying out of his room, yelling "Three, Three
times!
That's NINE!" And took us in to show us the different groupings and how they
represented numbers, etc.
I was elated. Not only did he know multiplication, but he SAW how it worked,
he didn't just blindly memorize answers!
The next day he happily sat down and filled in about 4 chapters of his math
book,
willingly, without being asked!
I LOVE this!
Nice to meet you all!
Laura
Cory and Amy Nelson
Laura-
I did see your intro the first time you posted it. We'll blame it all on
Yahoo :). Nice to meet you again!
Amy
Mama to Accalia (6/14/99)
"The hardest to learn was the least complicated" -Indigo Girls
I did see your intro the first time you posted it. We'll blame it all on
Yahoo :). Nice to meet you again!
Amy
Mama to Accalia (6/14/99)
"The hardest to learn was the least complicated" -Indigo Girls
> Hi! I originally sent this message on the 17th, and have never seen it post.
> I also sent another message to an indidual who never received it, at the same
> time.
> So.. I'm resending, and if you've all seen it before, I do apologize!
>