Alicia Knight

Hi Everyone -

I'd just like to introduce myself to the list. I live in Virginia with
two boys ages 12 and 8, my DH, and our dog and cat. Our homeschooling
journey began April 2001 when our oldest son finally convinced us that
we could do no worse by him. Hsing was his idea -- and he even wrote a
proposal outlining the positive and negative aspects of hsing.
Actually, his proposal didn't include any negatives, and he had
counterarguments for every negative that I raised. My youngest son was
not interested in hsing and wanted to continue to attend public school,
and he just completed second grade. After spending the past year
dealing with teachers who are hyper-focused on standardized tests that
he's not even supposed to worry about until the end of the 3rd grade,
he's not interested in returning to ps.

I was attracted to unschooling from the very first. After spending the
last 10+ years in the field of early childhood education, I've come to
understand that children learn best when allowed to follow their own
paths and the proper role for the educator is to provide a safe,
learning rich environment, observe the children for their interests and
to provide opportunities to enrich their explorations of those
interests. While I know in my bones that this is the best approach for
my children, I still struggle with a certain amount of ingrained
schoolishness. Hanging with other unschoolers is a great counterbalance
for that.

Anyway, hello to all -- I'm happy to be here!

~ Alicia

alaurashome

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., Alicia Knight <superdiva@a...> wrote:
> Hi Everyone -
>
> I'd just like to introduce myself to the list. I live in Virginia
with
> two boys ages 12 and 8, my DH, and our dog and cat.
>
> Anyway, hello to all -- I'm happy to be here!
>
> ~ Alicia


Hi Alicia!

Welcome! I am beginning to see you on most of my e-lists. :)
We obviously have a lot in common. We really have to get our kids
together sometime.

Alaura in VA

tamlvee

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., Alicia Knight <superdiva@a...> wrote:
>
> I was attracted to unschooling from the very first. After spending
the
> last 10+ years in the field of early childhood education, I've come
to
> understand that children learn best when allowed to follow their
own
> paths and the proper role for the educator is to provide a safe,
> learning rich environment, observe the children for their interests
and
> to provide opportunities to enrich their explorations of those
> interests. While I know in my bones that this is the best approach
for
> my children, I still struggle with a certain amount of ingrained
> schoolishness. Hanging with other unschoolers is a great
counterbalance
> for that.


Welcome Alicia,

The above paragragh you wrote describes me!!! What area of early
childhood education have you worked? I'm a family child care
provider and mentor. I just pulled my children (boy 9 and girl 7)out
of school a couple of months ago. I've seen how well unschooling
works with preschoolers and know it will be very rewarding with my
children in their "school years". Unschooling is one of those gut
feeling, know it in your heart, techniques that requires much trust.
It's harder for me to trust a 9 year old than a 3 year old and I
think that comes from my public school upbringing. That is my
challenge, to trust my children to know what they need. Coming here
helps and meeting other unschoolers helps too.

I find this message board very informative and challenging to many of
my beliefs, which I love and need.

Tammy