Alan & Brenda Leonard

12/12/02 20:44:

> I would like some help, please:) I am still working on immediate family
> members that believe school "should look like school." They including my
> older teen and 21 year old who are no longer in school, think I should
> sit my two young sons down for atleast 2 hours a day and have them
> write.

I'm not in Vermont, Michele, so I can't address your concerns about your
state. Maybe someone else can, or you can check with a group in your state.

However, I'm wondering if your elder children are having trouble with the
idea that Mom's changed. They know what they had to do, and therefore their
younger siblings should have to do that, too. Parents are supposed to stay
the same, so that they're predictable and boring. Unpredictable parents are
disorienting, I think, to people whose lives are going through lots of
changes like your children probably are, growing into adulthood.

It might help to talk to them more, read some of the things you read to
them, explain yourself, or maybe it would just be easier to ignore them.
Unless they do what you do, it's pretty hard for them to tell you how to do
it. (People here do what you do and we have a hard enough time taking
advice from each other!)

brenda