Grace Penno

Hi-I changed the thread title to address the questions of kids wanting to go to school to be "normal" or ( for my grandchildren ) wanting to go to public school because everyone they know does and not to do that is usually too much of a barrier to having friends to play with.
The kids they know made a Very big deal about them not going to public school. The children had simply never heard of such a thing. They still are puzzled by it when they see Kara who is still homeschooling while her twin went back to public school last October and loves it.
I wish they had never gone to school but I think it would have become a very big issue even so.
I wish I had some answers to how to unschool when one wants to go to school.
The biggest problem is that it is impossible to get away from the public school idea with one in school.There are no homeschoolers under 12 in the area and all of the others are enrolled in distance learning or a combination of that and Christian based homeschooling.
We let/ or have Stephanie stay home whenever we have to go away or when she is very tired or if she just wants to (the last almost never happens).
We are not able to just take off whenever we want because that makes it very difficult for her at school and we do support her in her choice ( in that we make it possible for her to do as much or as well as she wants to.)
With over 1000 members on this list is there no one????? who has taken their young kids out of public school when there was no real issues-(ie, bad schools-learning difficulties-reluctance to go-bullying) other than the conviction that realxed home schooling ar unschooling was a very positive thing?
I know that the last time I asked I was given the message that if a child really wants to go to public school it is "not supportive of child led learning or unschooling to keep them out and "unschool" .
Still curious though to hear from other parents in similar circumstances.
grace
{Miss Frizzle says "Take Chances-Get Messy-Make Mistakes"}





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

[email protected]

In a message dated 5/16/2003 10:02:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
pennacres@... writes:
> With over 1000 members on this list is there no one????? who has taken
> their young kids out of public school when there was no real issues-(ie,
> bad schools-learning difficulties-reluctance to go-bullying) other than
> the conviction that realxed home schooling ar unschooling was a very
> positive thing?

We came out of private, not public, school for many reasons---bullying &
excessive pressure were the two biggest. But I think the main reason was that
I'd researched it (4 months' worth) and eventually decided that unschooling
just plain made sense. This HUGE light went on in my head and it just
clicked. John Holt and Mary Griffith "spoke" to me. The only disappointing
thing was that I hadn't found it sooner (see my earlier post on "shouting
from the rooftops"! <g>).

Had I found unschooling earlier, I doubt there would have been any question
that Cameron NEVER would have gone to school. But seeing as that didn't
happen, I was sucked into the school rut. There HAD to be something to get me
to do the research initially, and Cameron seemed very happy to be inschool
until half-way through fourth grade. *I* was happy with school until HE was
unhappy.

I wish, I wish, I wish that we'd found it earlier--I'm so envious of those of
you who have! Congratulations! But I'd say the REASON we pulled him out was
that we found a better way, NOT because we were so disappointed in school.

~Kelly



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

Have A Nice Day!

Same experience here.

My son wasn't happy in school, but I had no real complaints about the school or the teachers then. In fact, they were very cooperative with me most of the time.

That was when I realized that it wasn't the teachers, it was the system that needed fixing, and since I couldn't do that, I decided homeschooling was the better option.

Kristen
----- Original Message -----
From: kbcdlovejo@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] wanting normal


In a message dated 5/16/2003 10:02:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
pennacres@... writes:
> With over 1000 members on this list is there no one????? who has taken
> their young kids out of public school when there was no real issues-(ie,
> bad schools-learning difficulties-reluctance to go-bullying) other than
> the conviction that realxed home schooling ar unschooling was a very
> positive thing?

We came out of private, not public, school for many reasons---bullying &
excessive pressure were the two biggest. But I think the main reason was that
I'd researched it (4 months' worth) and eventually decided that unschooling
just plain made sense. This HUGE light went on in my head and it just
clicked. John Holt and Mary Griffith "spoke" to me. The only disappointing
thing was that I hadn't found it sooner (see my earlier post on "shouting
from the rooftops"! <g>).

Had I found unschooling earlier, I doubt there would have been any question
that Cameron NEVER would have gone to school. But seeing as that didn't
happen, I was sucked into the school rut. There HAD to be something to get me
to do the research initially, and Cameron seemed very happy to be inschool
until half-way through fourth grade. *I* was happy with school until HE was
unhappy.

I wish, I wish, I wish that we'd found it earlier--I'm so envious of those of
you who have! Congratulations! But I'd say the REASON we pulled him out was
that we found a better way, NOT because we were so disappointed in school.

~Kelly



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


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

nellebelle

I didn't put them in in the first place when there was no real issue. I
always liked school well enough and had a great GPA. Our local schools are
said to be good. My kids didn't have any issues that were red flags for
being problems in school. I didn't keep them home because I thought school
was bad. I liked the idea of letting them learn at their own pace and
thought 2 students to one teacher sounded good. (That was before
unschooling) It wasn't until I began homeschooling and learned more about
education, homeschooling, and unschooling, that I began to think of all the
negative aspects of school.

Mary Ellen

----- Original Message ----- there no one????? who has taken
> > their young kids out of public school when there was no real
issues-(ie,
> > bad schools-learning difficulties-reluctance to go-bullying) other than
> > the conviction that realxed home schooling ar unschooling was a very
> > positive thing?

Tia Leschke

> With over 1000 members on this list is there no one????? who has taken
their young kids out of public school when there was no real issues-(ie,
bad schools-learning difficulties-reluctance to go-bullying) other than the
conviction that realxed home schooling ar unschooling was a very positive
thing?

Our older kids all went to school, but I knew before I even conceived Lars
that he would be unschooled. It's certainly because of the bad aspects of
school, but it's much more because of the positives of unschooling. I'm
especially glad we unschooled now that I know much better "who he is", and
that he would have been nearly destroyed by school like his older brother
was. But I didn't know that then.
Tia

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
saftety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin
leschke@...

Mary

From: "Tia Leschke" <leschke@...>

<<Our older kids all went to school, but I knew before I even conceived Lars
that he would be unschooled. It's certainly because of the bad aspects of
school, but it's much more because of the positives of unschooling. I'm
especially glad we unschooled now that I know much better "who he is", and
that he would have been nearly destroyed by school like his older brother
was. But I didn't know that then.>>


Tara was almost 9 when Joseph was born. She was in the 4th grade. Had been
going to school since she was 4. Aside from being shy and not "social" with
the other children, she did well. Not saying those 1st two things were good
for her but that was when school for me was the only way to go. I knew of
nothing else and it was a "great" school.

I planned on going back to work when Joseph was 3 months old. My boss was
calling me every day waiting. When he was 2 months old, I knew the doubts I
had since he was born about working were not going away. Fortunately for us,
my husband felt the same way. I had stayed with Tara until I "had" to put
her in school. This was a whole new life for me and the kids. Different
husband and a whole different way of living. Over the next year, I saw
Tara's spark start to flicker. It was school that was doing it to her. 5th
grade was the start of so much more for her. By 7 & 8th grade, my husband
and I were at that school at least once a month. Not because of Tara but
because of the teachers. But we had made our decision by the time Joseph was
2. And by then Sierra was 1. So we knew we would homeschool really before
the trouble started. We just knew we could raise happier children without
school. We knew our children would learn so much more by being with us most
of the time as opposed to strangers with "good" intentions. There was a lot
more to it that strengthened our decision as time went on, but for us there
was just no other way. We couldn't understand giving our children up to so
many different people at such a young age for such a long time.

Mary B