Nina Sutcliffe

Robin -

Well put.... and respectfully so! I was glad to see your eloquent response
here. I feel the same. We also limit some things and other things we limit
for a period of time, but find it's not necessary to do so at a later time.

I also appreciated that you pointed out how important it is to acknowledge
that all families and children are different, and to be careful about
generalizing from one's own personal experiences to what all people should
do. What I find attractive about unschooling is that it's flexibility - we
learn to recognize and *respond* to our differences. How one family
unschools SHOULD be different (even if those differences are subtle and
minute) from how another family does it because we are different from each
other. It is not some rigid 'plan' of dos and don'ts that we do or dont' do,
or policies that we must follow. I think that it is a trap that is easy to
fall into when we attach labels to what we do. It is for that reason that I
often hesitate to label how we, as a family, learn.

Thanks for your articulate post!

Nina




> Message: 19
> Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 07:54:53 -0800
> From: "DiamondAir" <diamondair@...>
> Subject: Re: another tv question
>
> From: louisaem@...
>> Personally I believe that limiting any interest does not reflect the ideals
>> of unschooling. My TV is on all the time and my kids would rather do just
>> about anything else. During the summer they rarely watch because we are
>> outside so much. When I suggest an activity they show NO hesitation to
>> leave
>> the TV. Even when it's on they are usually doing something else.
>
>
> Hmmmm, I'd have to say I respectfully disagree with this one. Unschooling to
> me means child-led learning, it does not mean that I give my kids free reign
> to do whatever they want whenever they want to. There are things in life
> that we limit, because of our own principles. For instance, in our family
> we're vegetarians, we boycott all Nestle products, we don't allow toy guns
> in our house, we ride our bicycles instead of taking our car, we buy almost
> everything second-hand, and we don't watch TV. All of these things, we
> believe are for the overall health and well-being of our family and/or for
> the health and well-being of our earth.and other people. Are we not
> unschooling because we're vegetarian?? Not unschooling because we won't buy
> our son a mini replica Uzi? Not unschooling because we don't watch the
> television? Not unschooling because our kids have to bicycle instead of
> riding in the car? To me, unschooling is not a list of things we do or do
> not do, it's a mind-set that allows my children to learn by following their
> own interests instead of being told what to learn, when, and where. I
> *don't* believe that means I have to allow them access to every single way
> to learn things. Sure, they could learn anatomy and human sexuality by
> watching porn movies. They could learn about hurricanes by watching TV.
> Both, *I personally* believe are damaging. And why do I think TV is
> damaging? Because young children don't have the mental context to place the
> images they see in. Sure, my son might be watching a show about hurricanes,
> but he will also see commercials where it is implied that you need this,
> that, or the other product in order to be happy in life. He will see ads for
> things that we are not going to buy (for frugality and earth-saving reasons)
> and that until that point he didn't know existed (thus making his life and
> ours so much happier, not to know about all the things you can't have :-).
> He will also see ads for other programs with guns blazing or scantily clad
> people pawing each other. At some point in his life, he'll be able to put
> these images in a context, but it's pretty clear that right now all they do
> is cause him concern, judging by the way he's reacted when he's seen them.
> He's an extraordinarily sensitive child and I'd like to see him keep his
> "magic" for a few more years.
>
> I also think it's dangerous to generalize from one's own personal
> experiences to every other person. I hear people say "We have candy out all
> the time and my kids never touch it", or "we have the TV on all the time and
> my kids rarely watch it". Well this is great, and it may work quite well for
> those individual families. I also know families that have candy out all the
> time and their kids are 40 pounds overweight. And I know families
> that have the TV on all the time and the kids are glued to it like
> little sponges for 7 hours a day. So much depends on individual kids and the
> preferences and innate personalities they were born with, as well as the
> family environment. All of this "it's unschooling to do this", "it's not
> unschooling if you do that", "some people CALL themselves unschoolers but
> they're really not", etc. (not just responding to this particular post but
> to many in the same vein) remind me of my high school punk rock days. It was
> "punk" to do this, but "poser" to do that. I could never keep it all
> straight and I still can't. If I wasn't "punk" because I wore Birkenstocks
> with my mohawk, and I'm not "unschooling" because I limit TV, well so be it
> I guess :-)
>
> Blue Skies!
> -Robin-
> Mom to Mackenzie (8/28/96) "I told you I was going to grow up to be a
> weirdo"

yuli womie

I have 3 sons - 10 and 7 years old and 18 months. I
was wondering
if
> anyone had suggestions of books they found that
their sons enjoyed.
My
> boys are really into adventure stories, and anything
that makes them
> laugh. I'm looking for read together books and "read
by themselves

Ooh, I love talking about books. :) For funny (REALLY
FUNNY)adventure stories, try the Enchanted Forest
Chronicles. The first of the 4 books is Dealing With
Dragons. It's about a princess who doesn't want to be
pawned off on a knight in shining armor, so she goes
to work for a dragon instead. The princess thing is
NOT only for girls. There are all sorts of dragons,
wizards, knights, princes, and other interesting
characters in the series. And for boys, it's great to
have a strong female character to admire now and then.

If they like the British humor that's so popular with
the Harry Potter crowed, try Eva Ibbotson. Or Roald
Dahl. Island of the Aunts is a good Ibbotson books. So
is The Secret of Platform 13. And Which Witch. But I
liked the Aunts book best. Roald Dahl is the writer of
James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, but he's got lots more books, too.

Those are all read-aloud suggestions. For reading on
their own, the older boys might like Cam Janson books
(lots of books in that series) Wayside School series
(very funny). My son likes the Animorphs series, but I
haven't read any of them. He says they're adventurous
and funny.And don't rule out books of comics like
Garfield, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, etc. as a
non-intimidating way to ease kids into reading. Juli

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Johanna

Roald also wrote Matilda. Lots of unconventional children. Who wrote the Enchanted Forest Chronicles?
Johanna
 
----- Original Message -----
From: yuli womie
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Digest Number 1063

I have 3 sons - 10 and  7 years old  and 18 months. I
was wondering
if
> anyone had suggestions of books they found that
their sons enjoyed.
My
> boys are really into adventure stories, and anything
that makes them
> laugh. I'm looking for read together books and "read
by themselves

Ooh, I love talking about books. :) For funny (REALLY
FUNNY)adventure stories, try the Enchanted Forest
Chronicles. The first of the 4 books is Dealing With
Dragons. It's about a princess who doesn't want to be
pawned off on a knight in shining armor, so she goes
to work for a dragon instead. The princess thing is
NOT only for girls. There are all sorts of dragons,
wizards, knights, princes, and other interesting
characters in the series. And for boys, it's great to
have a strong female character to admire now and then.

If they like the British humor that's so popular with
the Harry Potter crowed, try Eva Ibbotson. Or Roald
Dahl. Island of the Aunts is a good Ibbotson books. So
is The Secret of Platform 13. And Which Witch. But I
liked the Aunts book best. Roald Dahl is the writer of
James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, but he's got lots more books, too.

Those are all read-aloud suggestions. For reading on
their own, the older boys might like Cam Janson books
(lots of books in that series) Wayside School series
(very funny). My son likes the Animorphs series, but I
haven't read any of them. He says they're adventurous
and funny.And don't rule out books of comics like
Garfield, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, etc. as a
non-intimidating way to ease kids into reading. Juli

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/?.refer=text


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