Becky Wollenslegel

Laraine, you said:
But what do I do when they complain that the topics
did not come into completion in their minds? This drives me NUTS! I put a
lot of effort into doing what we do do together. Then to find she feels
like there are too many loose ends is frustrating. Perhaps this is a
symptom of deschooling we are working through. But it has driven me this
year to take on more indepth unit studies - we kind of go with the flow, I
don't plan much out, but I gather massive amounts of info on one topic -
oceans is the biggie right now - and we go and go and go as along as they
are interested. Then I push a little to completion - to draw it all
together if you will. Trying to end the loose string effect for dd.
-------------
IMHO, if unschooled learners has loose strings in their minds, the
strings belong to them. One of the reasons we unschool is because
I would get really irritated when I put alot of time and effort into a
project/unit study/whatever and they lost interest before I was through
giving them the knowledge of my efforts. Clearly, my problem.

If your daughter feels there are loose ends let her tie them together. She
will if it's important to her. Otherwise, she's a passive learner waiting
for you to tie things up - like someone would for her in school. I would
just ask her what else she wants to know and where she thinks she could find
the answers to her questions. Then turn it over to her.

My $.02
Becky in Ohio

The O'Donnells

At 03:50 PM 9/8/99 -0400, you wrote:
>IMHO, if unschooled learners has loose strings in their minds, the
>strings belong to them. One of the reasons we unschool is because
>I would get really irritated when I put alot of time and effort into a
>project/unit study/whatever and they lost interest before I was through
>giving them the knowledge of my efforts. Clearly, my problem.

Mine too, well earned though I might add.
>
>If your daughter feels there are loose ends let her tie them together. She
>will if it's important to her. Otherwise, she's a passive learner waiting
>for you to tie things up - like someone would for her in school. I would
>just ask her what else she wants to know and where she thinks she could find
>the answers to her questions. Then turn it over to her.

Becky, thanks so much. I'm going to try this. Between this and the new
'schedule' thing she is going through I do feel she is comparing her 4
years of ps to the hsing experience she is having. She is really into
getting her work 'done' and I suspect that is also a throw back from
school. Unfortunately the 6 yog is also attempting this same scenario -
trying to be like big sister I suppose as she has never been to ps. Becky,
did we figure out where each other live? Any chance of meeting at a park
or something?

I guess this brings me to the point of asking if there are other
unschoolers out there that had kids in ps? I'm the only one in my support
group out here and there is not a lot they seem to be able to tell me in
overcoming these challenges. I want to get rid of the I want to get 'done'
syndrome as well as that rotten schedule - uck! She is a great kid but
does want to be told what to learn and how to learn it. She has only been
out of ps 1 year so perhaps I'm expecting a bit too much just yet. Hmmmmm,
so much to unravel. :o)


In His Service,

Laraine
praxis@...