[email protected]

In a message dated 4/17/2002 2:12:21 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
rumpleteasermom@... writes:


> I think it's great
> that my kids and I all have different interests that sometimes
> overlap, but I think they would be a lot less content if they had been
> limited to just what I thought they might be interested in -
> especially as they hit their teen years.

I would imagine all our kids would be less content if they were limited to
just what we thought they might be interested in. Limiting them is not what
unschooling is all about, of course. Quite the opposite, imo.

Lots of homeschoolers probably do homeschool in order to limit and control
their kids' exposure, though. Even unschoolers want to keep at least our
younger kids from being exposed to coercive school educational methods, if
nothing else. And many of us have been accused of keeping our kids out of
school in order to keep them from being exposed to "the real world" - which
is sometimes a euphemism for "people of other ethnicities and races." Such an
accusation was made on the NHEN Legislative list recently by a highly
respected (not by homeschoolers) academician, Rob Reich.

Unschooling parents typically (but apparently not always, based on things
said here) consider it their responsibility to their children TO expose them
to many possibilities, to make sure that their kids have as wide experience
of the world as possible so that they have many options, especially, but not
only, as teens. Far from limiting their choices, unschooling parents usually
take real steps to make it possible for their kids to have the whole world as
their "classroom."

I think it would be interesting to make a list of all the ways that
unschooled kids (of all ages) get exposed to new ideas, options, information,
possibilities, or learning opportunities. It would be interesting to people
new to unschooling who have a hard time imagining how the kids learn anything
that isn't in a curriculum.

Unschooled kids are exposed to learning opportunities by (here is a
start......):

seeing parents pursuing their interests, work, or hobbies
other relatives sharing their interests, work, or hobbies
neighbors' interests, work, or hobbies
tradespeople who come to the house
books from libraries, bookstores, garage sales, other people's houses
television and movies
theatrical events
family vacations
houseguests
housework <G>
yardwork
museum visits
...


--pamS










[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Lynda

Domino effect

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: <PSoroosh@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 8:22 AM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Unlimited learning opportunities (was: Not an
unschooler )


> In a message dated 4/17/2002 2:12:21 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> rumpleteasermom@... writes:
>
>
> > I think it's great
> > that my kids and I all have different interests that sometimes
> > overlap, but I think they would be a lot less content if they had been
> > limited to just what I thought they might be interested in -
> > especially as they hit their teen years.
>
> I would imagine all our kids would be less content if they were limited to
> just what we thought they might be interested in. Limiting them is not
what
> unschooling is all about, of course. Quite the opposite, imo.
>
> Lots of homeschoolers probably do homeschool in order to limit and control
> their kids' exposure, though. Even unschoolers want to keep at least our
> younger kids from being exposed to coercive school educational methods, if
> nothing else. And many of us have been accused of keeping our kids out of
> school in order to keep them from being exposed to "the real world" -
which
> is sometimes a euphemism for "people of other ethnicities and races." Such
an
> accusation was made on the NHEN Legislative list recently by a highly
> respected (not by homeschoolers) academician, Rob Reich.
>
> Unschooling parents typically (but apparently not always, based on things
> said here) consider it their responsibility to their children TO expose
them
> to many possibilities, to make sure that their kids have as wide
experience
> of the world as possible so that they have many options, especially, but
not
> only, as teens. Far from limiting their choices, unschooling parents
usually
> take real steps to make it possible for their kids to have the whole world
as
> their "classroom."
>
> I think it would be interesting to make a list of all the ways that
> unschooled kids (of all ages) get exposed to new ideas, options,
information,
> possibilities, or learning opportunities. It would be interesting to
people
> new to unschooling who have a hard time imagining how the kids learn
anything
> that isn't in a curriculum.
>
> Unschooled kids are exposed to learning opportunities by (here is a
> start......):
>
> seeing parents pursuing their interests, work, or hobbies
> other relatives sharing their interests, work, or hobbies
> neighbors' interests, work, or hobbies
> tradespeople who come to the house
> books from libraries, bookstores, garage sales, other people's houses
> television and movies
> theatrical events
> family vacations
> houseguests
> housework <G>
> yardwork
> museum visits
> ...
>
>
> --pamS
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ~~~ Don't forget! If you change the topic, change the subject line! ~~~
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [email protected]
>
> Visit the Unschooling website:
> http://www.unschooling.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

Fetteroll

on 4/17/02 11:22 AM, PSoroosh@... at PSoroosh@... wrote:

> Unschooled kids are exposed to learning opportunities by (here is a
> start......):

* other kids
* observation
* games
* being startling curious about something too ordinary for adults to notice
* hearing stories and looking at photos from the parents' childhoods that
seem ordinary and boring to us but are ancient history to them
* music from around the world
* the attic and the back shelves of closets
* home maintenance <eg>
* house of worship
* volunteer work
* scouts

Joyce

joanna514

>
> Unschooled kids are exposed to learning opportunities by (here is a
> start......):
>
> seeing parents pursuing their interests, work, or hobbies
> other relatives sharing their interests, work, or hobbies
> neighbors' interests, work, or hobbies
> tradespeople who come to the house
> books from libraries, bookstores, garage sales, other people's
houses
> television and movies
> theatrical events
> family vacations
> houseguests
> housework <G>
> yardwork
> museum visits
> ...
>

The beach
The park
The back yard
4-H
Girlscouts
Grandmoms house
playing
Computer games
the internet
sports
community theater
camping trips
magazines
pets
fishing with dad
Watching "Hey Arnold" (I seem to hear this show as a source of
information quite often).
conversations
cards
arguments
music(live,CD's,radio...)
exercising
organizing(toys,socks,dishes....)
saving for things
buying things
going out to dinner
having a yard sale
Geez, I could go on and on.
These are some of the things we do. My kids learn from everything
and love to talk about it all.
Joanna

rumpleteasermom

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., PSoroosh@a... wrote:

>
> I would imagine all our kids would be less content if they were
limited to
> just what we thought they might be interested in. Limiting them is
not what
> unschooling is all about, of course. Quite the opposite, imo.

But there is more than one way to limit IMHO. If a child is kept so
busy doing the things that mom found, when do they have time to find
their own? That's the question I'm asking . . . not because I need it
answered for me (I've already found the right balance for us) but
because I know several people that may need to ponder it for
themselves.

Bridget