ladyeliza_r

Hello, I'm new to this group! My name is Elizabeth. Right now I'm
just HSing my oldest, who just turned 7. We're using the Sonlight
curriculum, and enjoying it alot, but I'd eventually like to move
away from the curriculum being the core of their learning. By the
time she is a teen I'd like her to be in charge of most of her
education although I will encourage specific skills I think that
people need such as home economics and personal financial management.
Our other children are 3; 19 months, and a Baby due in August.

Question is...right now she is not interested in much of anything.
How can I help her to find interests? About the only things she had
any sort of sustained interest in has been butterflies and wanting to
play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can ever find
affordable lessons for her).

Elizabeth

[email protected]

In a message dated 3/21/03 4:39:13 PM, ladyeliza_r@... writes:

<< Question is...right now she is not interested in much of anything.

How can I help her to find interests? >>

By dumping Sonlight and living an interesting life.

<<About the only things she had

any sort of sustained interest in has been butterflies and wanting to

play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can ever find

affordable lessons for her). >>

IF?
If you ever do?
Get a guitar, learn to tune it, get a chord book and YOU learn enough to help
her learn. She can play around with a guitar a LOT without lessons.

And an interest doesn't have to be sustained to lead to learning. It can be
a momentary flash. A sudden and fleeting interest in cement mixers. Take
her to see one. If she never cares again, she knows way more than she did
before she saw how they get it in and out of there, how thick it is, what
tools they use to level it, how they clean up the slag.

<<How can I help her to find interests? >>

You find interests. And do it right in front of her, with her there, so she
can see how people find interests.

Sandra

Deborah Lewis

***How can I help her to find interests?***

Take her places and do things with her and watch what she delights in.
Then, help her do delightful things instead of curriculum.

***About the only things she had
any sort of sustained interest in has been butterflies ***

Do you have butterfly gardens where you live? Plant your own, LOVELY!
Go talk to your cooperative extension agent and see if anyone around has
a butterfly farm, or is, or will be hosting a bug fare. Look for
butterflies.

***and wanting to
play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can ever find
affordable lessons for her).***

Wanting to play guitar doesn't always equal wanting to take guitar
lessons. Get the guitar and let her play, and if she wants to know more
find a book and help her out. Or, find a teenager who plays and see if
he or she would show your daughter how to play some songs. Don't confuse
a desire to play with a desire for lessons. NOT the same thing.

Deb L

*Michele*

You can also plant a butterfly bush, opens all kinds of discussions!
This bush is not expensive, I found ours in the Spring Hill Nursery Catalog.
My son who is 11 has friends with interest in guitar, I felt at first this may be a "thing" because everyone else was doing it. We purchased a guitar, with beginner books. Well low and behold he has taught himself how to play. He has a tuner and has learned to tune it himself. If he continues along this path, there are some teens in our support group for homeschool that would love to show off their skills and teach a youngster to play. Are you a member of a support group in your area? There may be adults too that would love to show your daughter how to play if she is not self motivated.
Michele
*************************************************************************************************
Deborah Lewis <ddzimlew@...> wrote:***How can I help her to find interests?***

Take her places and do things with her and watch what she delights in.
Then, help her do delightful things instead of curriculum.

***About the only things she had
any sort of sustained interest in has been butterflies ***

Do you have butterfly gardens where you live? Plant your own, LOVELY!
Go talk to your cooperative extension agent and see if anyone around has
a butterfly farm, or is, or will be hosting a bug fare. Look for
butterflies.

***and wanting to
play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can ever find
affordable lessons for her).***

Wanting to play guitar doesn't always equal wanting to take guitar
lessons. Get the guitar and let her play, and if she wants to know more
find a book and help her out. Or, find a teenager who plays and see if
he or she would show your daughter how to play some songs. Don't confuse
a desire to play with a desire for lessons. NOT the same thing.

Deb L

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

Nora or Devereaux Cannon

Elizabeth - relax for a minute in your child. With 4 in your
care it may be hard to see all that there is - but it is there.
Butterflies and guitar can encompass the world. From
metamorphosis to the mathematics of pitch, you have a winner.

At a practical level. with littles around, try yourself to think
about butterflies and guitar in the background. Gardens are
good, but even in an apartment you can order a chrysalis - or
explore symmetry - or find out how many states have official
butterflies (Tennessee has one that is not even found in the
state, because of a legislative compromise and sheer stupidity) -
or print and color seventy eleven copies of the same page with
different color combinations - or follow a migration map online -
or connect with local parks for a butterfly hunt - or make a
butterfly costume/cake - or look at butterfly bandages and find
out why they are preferred for certain kinds of wounds.

... same thing for guitar, with the addition that the pawn shop
is your friend..

The thing that works with unschooling is to follow delight - and
scatter it like a flower girl in front of the bride - not every
petal will be crushed to release fragrance - but enough will.
...of course to follow delight, you have to admit to yourself
that you feel delight.
----- Original Message -----
From: "ladyeliza_r" <ladyeliza_r@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 2:15 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Hi! New To Group!


| Hello, I'm new to this group! My name is Elizabeth. Right now
I'm
| just HSing my oldest, who just turned 7. We're using the
Sonlight
| curriculum, and enjoying it alot, but I'd eventually like to
move
| away from the curriculum being the core of their learning. By
the
| time she is a teen I'd like her to be in charge of most of her
| education although I will encourage specific skills I think
that
| people need such as home economics and personal financial
management.
| Our other children are 3; 19 months, and a Baby due in August.
|
| Question is...right now she is not interested in much of
anything.
| How can I help her to find interests? About the only things she
had
| any sort of sustained interest in has been butterflies and
wanting to
| play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can ever find
| affordable lessons for her).
|
| Elizabeth
|
|
| ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups
Sponsor ---------------------~-->
| Make Money Online Auctions! Make $500.00 or We Will Give You
Thirty Dollars for Trying!
| http://us.click.yahoo.com/yMx78A/fNtFAA/46VHAA/0xXolB/TM
| ---------------------------------------------------------------
------~->
|
| ~~~~ Don't forget! If you change topics, change the subject
line! ~~~~
|
| If you have questions, concerns or problems with this list,
please email the moderator, Joyce Fetteroll
(fetteroll@...), or the list owner, Helen Hegener
(HEM-Editor@...).
|
| To unsubscribe from this group, click on the following link or
address 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/
|
|
|

marji

At 20:15 3/21/03 +0000, Elizabeth wrote:
>Hello, I'm new to this group! My name is Elizabeth.

Welcome!!

>...wanting to play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can ever
>find affordable lessons for her).
>
>Elizabeth

I know you've already gotten a lot of great responses on this, but I do
want to reiterate, being a guitarist and being the wife of a private guitar
teacher: Don't wait for being able to afford lessons. Your daughter does
not need them, and they can take all the fun out of playing, especially if
you get the "wrong" teacher. I've seen it happen loads of times; lessons
can strip all the fun, joy and passion right out of guitar playing.

Teaching oneself to play the guitar can be one of the great joys in life;
it's REALLY easy to do, and it can give a person the feeling of success
that'll make them want to continue with it. Lessons*can* (not *will,* by
any means) do just the opposite. Because guitar is such an incredibly easy
instrument to teach yourself and play as a beginner, it can be tremendously
fun from early on. If a person is really driven to keep improving past the
point of just competency on the instrument, I believe that would be a good
time to seek out a teacher to take a guitar player to the next level. But,
there are a lot of cool musical/math things to be gained from playing the
guitar, even at a beginner's level. And, they can be gained without a
person ever being aware that they are gaining them. Of course, one of the
big benefits is the notion that, "If I can teach myself to play the guitar,
I can probably teach myself anything I really want or need to know." Well,
at least it has worked out that way in my life.

The best way for your daughter to get started on the guitar is to find out
what songs your daughter likes to listen to/sing along with the
most. Then, get the easiest songbook with those songs in it, and make sure
the book has those little guitar chord diagram boxes in it. Then, give her
the book and the guitar and get out of the way, unless she asks for help
figuring out the little diagrams. Because she'll already know the songs,
her ear will help her self-correct. The diagrams are really
self-explanatory; in fact, that's exactly how I taught myself to play at
that age.

The suggestion that was made of having her be with other kids who are
playing guitar is a great, great suggestion. Just playing with and watching
other kids play the guitar will show your daughter lots of things that no
one will even have to explain to her. That's how I learned three-finger
(Travis) picking, a technique I love and use to this very day!

My husband is a classical/jazz guitarist and composer. He didn't take any
lessons until he was 22 years old. He was a great guitarist at that point,
but he felt that he needed something more formal to master jazz theory and
application and classical technique. He still will take a lesson or two
from time to time, even though he really is a world-class player.

Well, my time limit is running out. ;-) Have fun!!

Warm wishes,

Marji

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

Betjeman and Barton Tea Merchants

Have you thought about raising caterpillers into butterflies? There are kits out there - you send off for the caterpillers, feed them watch them grow etc.

Also up here in New England there's a great butterfly place

http://www.butterflyplace-ma.com/

You might do a search in your area ( sorry I don't know where you live) and find a similar place.

Karen


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

Elizabeth Roberts

Michelle,

We were just looking at a butterfly bush from Spring
Hill...not sure how well it would grow here (Cape
Cod). I don't seem to have much of a green thumb. We
bought a box of mixed seeds that were supposed to
attract butterflies, but only a few plants actually
came up and my DH ended up (ok, he did it on purpose
and we went around about it) mowing them down...then
there was a disaster with a hydrangea...bought one,
put it in the ground, watered it; next day (a REALLY
hot day) the leaves looked burnt and it didn't grow
any all year although by fall there were a few leaves.
I'm hoping it'll recover this spring...I love
hydrangeas and really want to put in more this year if
I didn't kill that one last year.

Elizabeth



--- *Michele* <tenacityforlife@...> wrote:
>
> You can also plant a butterfly bush, opens all kinds
> of discussions!
> This bush is not expensive, I found ours in the
> Spring Hill Nursery Catalog.
> My son who is 11 has friends with interest in
> guitar, I felt at first this may be a "thing"
> because everyone else was doing it. We purchased a
> guitar, with beginner books. Well low and behold he
> has taught himself how to play. He has a tuner and
> has learned to tune it himself. If he continues
> along this path, there are some teens in our support
> group for homeschool that would love to show off
> their skills and teach a youngster to play. Are you
> a member of a support group in your area? There may
> be adults too that would love to show your daughter
> how to play if she is not self motivated.
> Michele
>
*************************************************************************************************
> Deborah Lewis <ddzimlew@...> wrote:***How can
> I help her to find interests?***
>
> Take her places and do things with her and watch
> what she delights in.
> Then, help her do delightful things instead of
> curriculum.
>
> ***About the only things she had
> any sort of sustained interest in has been
> butterflies ***
>
> Do you have butterfly gardens where you live?
> Plant your own, LOVELY!
> Go talk to your cooperative extension agent and see
> if anyone around has
> a butterfly farm, or is, or will be hosting a bug
> fare. Look for
> butterflies.
>
> ***and wanting to
> play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we can
> ever find
> affordable lessons for her).***
>
> Wanting to play guitar doesn't always equal wanting
> to take guitar
> lessons. Get the guitar and let her play, and if
> she wants to know more
> find a book and help her out. Or, find a teenager
> who plays and see if
> he or she would show your daughter how to play some
> songs. Don't confuse
> a desire to play with a desire for lessons. NOT the
> same thing.
>
> Deb L
>
> Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT
>
> ~~~~ Don't forget! If you change topics, change the
> subject line! ~~~~
>
> If you have questions, concerns or problems with
> this list, please email the moderator, Joyce
> Fetteroll (fetteroll@...), or the list
> owner, Helen Hegener
> (HEM-Editor@...).
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, click on the
> following link or address an email to:
> [email protected]
>
> Visit the Unschooling website:
> http://www.unschooling.com
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo!
> Terms of Service.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness,
> live on your desktop!
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>


__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
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Elizabeth Roberts

I have yet to see or hear of a single pawn shop
anywhere on Cape Cod. Down home there's at least one
in every town LOL (NC is home).

I have been thinking that with my music background it
shouldn't be hard for me to teach myself guitar and
thus teach it to Sarah. We're working on the recorder
right now and she knows a couple songs. I taught
myself a little sax and clarinet, and flute; so this
might be the way I'll go with that.

Elizabeth

--- Nora or Devereaux Cannon <dcannon@...> wrote:
> Elizabeth - relax for a minute in your child. With
> 4 in your
> care it may be hard to see all that there is - but
> it is there.
> Butterflies and guitar can encompass the world.
> From
> metamorphosis to the mathematics of pitch, you have
> a winner.
>
> At a practical level. with littles around, try
> yourself to think
> about butterflies and guitar in the background.
> Gardens are
> good, but even in an apartment you can order a
> chrysalis - or
> explore symmetry - or find out how many states have
> official
> butterflies (Tennessee has one that is not even
> found in the
> state, because of a legislative compromise and sheer
> stupidity) -
> or print and color seventy eleven copies of the same
> page with
> different color combinations - or follow a migration
> map online -
> or connect with local parks for a butterfly hunt -
> or make a
> butterfly costume/cake - or look at butterfly
> bandages and find
> out why they are preferred for certain kinds of
> wounds.
>
> ... same thing for guitar, with the addition that
> the pawn shop
> is your friend..
>
> The thing that works with unschooling is to follow
> delight - and
> scatter it like a flower girl in front of the bride
> - not every
> petal will be crushed to release fragrance - but
> enough will.
> ...of course to follow delight, you have to admit to
> yourself
> that you feel delight.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ladyeliza_r" <ladyeliza_r@...>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 2:15 PM
> Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Hi! New To Group!
>
>
> | Hello, I'm new to this group! My name is
> Elizabeth. Right now
> I'm
> | just HSing my oldest, who just turned 7. We're
> using the
> Sonlight
> | curriculum, and enjoying it alot, but I'd
> eventually like to
> move
> | away from the curriculum being the core of their
> learning. By
> the
> | time she is a teen I'd like her to be in charge of
> most of her
> | education although I will encourage specific
> skills I think
> that
> | people need such as home economics and personal
> financial
> management.
> | Our other children are 3; 19 months, and a Baby
> due in August.
> |
> | Question is...right now she is not interested in
> much of
> anything.
> | How can I help her to find interests? About the
> only things she
> had
> | any sort of sustained interest in has been
> butterflies and
> wanting to
> | play the guitar (which we intend to begin if we
> can ever find
> | affordable lessons for her).
> |
> | Elizabeth
> |
> |
> | ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups
> Sponsor ---------------------~-->
> | Make Money Online Auctions! Make $500.00 or We
> Will Give You
> Thirty Dollars for Trying!
> |
>
http://us.click.yahoo.com/yMx78A/fNtFAA/46VHAA/0xXolB/TM
> |
>
---------------------------------------------------------------
> ------~->
> |
> | ~~~~ Don't forget! If you change topics, change
> the subject
> line! ~~~~
> |
> | If you have questions, concerns or problems with
> this list,
> please email the moderator, Joyce Fetteroll
> (fetteroll@...), or the list owner, Helen
> Hegener
> (HEM-Editor@...).
> |
> | To unsubscribe from this group, click on the
> following link or
> address 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/
> |
> |
> |
>
>


__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
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Elizabeth Roberts

LOL...Paul and I were talking about that last night,
just getting her one and letting her go with it as she
wants to; although I'm interested in learning it
myself and teaching myself (I've taught myself to play
the flute, and some basic sax and clarinet...I was
about 6 when I taught myself to read music at a
friend's house who had a piano and lesson books
available, let me come over and bang away at my
pleasure!!).

Elizabeth

--- marji <marji@...> wrote:
> At 20:15 3/21/03 +0000, Elizabeth wrote:
> >Hello, I'm new to this group! My name is Elizabeth.
>
> Welcome!!
>
> >...wanting to play the guitar (which we intend to
> begin if we can ever
> >find affordable lessons for her).
> >
> >Elizabeth
>
> I know you've already gotten a lot of great
> responses on this, but I do
> want to reiterate, being a guitarist and being the
> wife of a private guitar
> teacher: Don't wait for being able to afford
> lessons. Your daughter does
> not need them, and they can take all the fun out of
> playing, especially if
> you get the "wrong" teacher. I've seen it happen
> loads of times; lessons
> can strip all the fun, joy and passion right out of
> guitar playing.
>
> Teaching oneself to play the guitar can be one of
> the great joys in life;
> it's REALLY easy to do, and it can give a person the
> feeling of success
> that'll make them want to continue with it.
> Lessons*can* (not *will,* by
> any means) do just the opposite. Because guitar is
> such an incredibly easy
> instrument to teach yourself and play as a beginner,
> it can be tremendously
> fun from early on. If a person is really driven to
> keep improving past the
> point of just competency on the instrument, I
> believe that would be a good
> time to seek out a teacher to take a guitar player
> to the next level. But,
> there are a lot of cool musical/math things to be
> gained from playing the
> guitar, even at a beginner's level. And, they can
> be gained without a
> person ever being aware that they are gaining them.
> Of course, one of the
> big benefits is the notion that, "If I can teach
> myself to play the guitar,
> I can probably teach myself anything I really want
> or need to know." Well,
> at least it has worked out that way in my life.
>
> The best way for your daughter to get started on the
> guitar is to find out
> what songs your daughter likes to listen to/sing
> along with the
> most. Then, get the easiest songbook with those
> songs in it, and make sure
> the book has those little guitar chord diagram boxes
> in it. Then, give her
> the book and the guitar and get out of the way,
> unless she asks for help
> figuring out the little diagrams. Because she'll
> already know the songs,
> her ear will help her self-correct. The diagrams are
> really
> self-explanatory; in fact, that's exactly how I
> taught myself to play at
> that age.
>
> The suggestion that was made of having her be with
> other kids who are
> playing guitar is a great, great suggestion. Just
> playing with and watching
> other kids play the guitar will show your daughter
> lots of things that no
> one will even have to explain to her. That's how I
> learned three-finger
> (Travis) picking, a technique I love and use to this
> very day!
>
> My husband is a classical/jazz guitarist and
> composer. He didn't take any
> lessons until he was 22 years old. He was a great
> guitarist at that point,
> but he felt that he needed something more formal to
> master jazz theory and
> application and classical technique. He still will
> take a lesson or two
> from time to time, even though he really is a
> world-class player.
>
> Well, my time limit is running out. ;-) Have fun!!
>
> Warm wishes,
>
> Marji
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>


__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
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Elizabeth Roberts

Karen,

Thanks for the link...I'm out on the Cape. I'll have
to check it out, maybe plan for a day out. I hadn't
thought about a kit, but I'll bet she'd like that. I
know her science program has something about life
cycles coming up that it would go along nice with.

Elizabeth

--- Betjeman and Barton Tea Merchants
<karen@...> wrote:
> Have you thought about raising caterpillers into
> butterflies? There are kits out there - you send
> off for the caterpillers, feed them watch them grow
> etc.
>
> Also up here in New England there's a great
> butterfly place
>
> http://www.butterflyplace-ma.com/
>
> You might do a search in your area ( sorry I don't
> know where you live) and find a similar place.
>
> Karen
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
http://platinum.yahoo.com

[email protected]

In a message dated 3/21/03 7:21:42 PM Eastern Standard Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:

> IF?
> If you ever do?
> Get a guitar, learn to tune it, get a chord book and YOU learn enough to
> help
> her learn. She can play around with a guitar a LOT without lessons.
>
>

Jackson, dh, learned to play guitar on his own as a child with no lessons.
He is very good at it also. Both my boys have guitars. Not expensive ones.
You can pick up inexpensive ones at yard sales and pawn shops, thrift stores.
And they love to just play around with Dad. He doesn't try to "teach" them
anything. They just strum along. I am sure if the interest continues that
they will either pick up on the chords etc on their own or ask Dad how to do
it. But until then they have fun and it is great to see them enjoying the
time they spend with their Dad.
Pam G.


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