Luz Shosie and Ned Vare

on 8/15/02 10:39 AM, [email protected] at
[email protected] wrote:

"mierons" writes; Ned responds:
Dear mierons, You're on the right path, now start taking longer steps. We're
with you all the way.

> I feel that my
> children do much better when I let them pick the subject areas that
> interest them and delve abit more into it than what the text books
> offer. So............. where do I start.
Start by following what you're telling us -- LET the children make the
decisions. In other words, STOP doing what you're doing. Life is NOT
"subject areas."

> I live in Arkansas and they have mandatory testing in the 5th, 7th
> and 10th grades. So I have that that I will have to somehow have to
> deal with.
First of all, they probably don't have "mandatory passing" of those tests,
and I can bet the farm that not all the school kids pass all those tests.
By homeschooling, especially unschooling, your kids are almost guaranteed to
be years ahead of school kids, but acadamically and emotionally. So, DON"T
WORRY ABOUT TESTS. Homeschooling is not about preparing kids for the tests
that put schoolkids in boxes. You have some unlearning to do, some
de-schooling. UNschool yourself. It's for the children's sake.

> I also would like to know how do you all really teach the kids.
Entirely by example. By being kind to them, nurturing for them, helping them
become who they want to be. By not doing to them what the schools do to
them, including "teach". The less teaching that happens, the more learning
takes place.

> know that I have desided this year to try to get as much as I can
> off of the internet.
When you get something, be sure NOT to tell the kids about it. Let them get
what they want from the internet and anyplace else.

>I would guess the biggest subject area that I
> really finding difficult to find is math that is taught as a fun
> game that will slowly build up on its self teaching as they have
> fun. I would appriciate any help anyone could offer.
> Thanks!
Go to www.borntoexplore.org/unschool and read Luz's article called,
"A Few Words About Math." It will change your ideas about "teaching" math,
I'm sure.

Ned Vare
There are no "Fun Games" if they're designed to be "educational"
When prisons show movies, it's still prison.

Tia Leschke

>
>First of all, they probably don't have "mandatory passing" of those tests,
>and I can bet the farm that not all the school kids pass all those tests.
>By homeschooling, especially unschooling, your kids are almost guaranteed to
>be years ahead of school kids, but acadamically and emotionally.

I think we do unschoolers (all homeschoolers really) a disservice when we
continually talk about how homeschooled kids are almost guaranteed to be
years ahead of school kids. Here we are saying that kids should decide
what and when to learn stuff, and then we assume they'll be ahead of grade
level. A kid who chooses not to learn to read until age 10, 12, or even
later is not going to be years ahead of school kids. He'll likely have
lots of other strengths, but he could well be years *behind* the average
school kid his age, like mine. <g>
Tia


No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
*********************************************
Tia Leschke
leschke@...
On Vancouver Island