Penn Acres

A quick visit to the site hosting the Neil Postman info drives me to ask a question that I have tried to formulate many times and never sent. ..And Yes ..this is not the forum to send it to but I know there are people on here who did do" school at home" so it is these people who I am asking. We have been unschooling since midwinter and I often wonder if I had been able to "homeschool" the way so many people say thay do.( Covering a lot of subjects-with children willing to do the reading-writing etc) would I have been as interested in exploring unschooling as much as I had. Bluntly then-How do people get their children to homeschool. exactly? did you use consequences? rewards? How did you present the idea that there were things they had to do ?I will ask on other lists as well. Np matter how much I feel that unschooling is a wonderful choice for the family -somehow I feel that I got here by default.
Grace
In a lovely spot in the mountains of BC.






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

Betsy

**A quick visit to the site hosting the Neil Postman info drives me to
ask a question that I have tried to formulate many times and never
sent. ..And Yes ..this is not the forum to send it to but I know there
are people on here who did do" school at home" so it is these people who
I am asking. We have been unschooling since midwinter and I often
wonder if I had been able to "homeschool" the way so many people say
thay do.( Covering a lot of subjects-with children willing to do the
reading-writing etc) would I have been as interested in exploring
unschooling as much as I had. Bluntly then-How do people get their
children to homeschool. exactly? did you use consequences? rewards?
How did you present the idea that there were things they had to do ?I
will ask on other lists as well. Np matter how much I feel that
unschooling is a wonderful choice for the family -somehow I feel that I
got here by default.**

Hi, Grace --

I think lots of people unschool because they feel that the level of
bullying that it would take to get their particular kids to do
curriculum requires them to be meaner than they are willing to be.

(Disclaimer: I do have friends who are able to entice their children to
do some curriculum willingly. I am not saying that all curriculum users
are mean. However, overcoming *resistance* in children is likely to
take either pressure or trickery. I don't want to use either.)
(Although I'll cop to some occasional trickiness. ;-) )


Betsy

Michelle ~ ms65442

I've been a member here for about 6 months now, think unschooling makes a lot of sense, but am still personally uncomfortable with the idea of actually doing it - uncomfortable with the comments I'd get from family/friends and just a huge, scary, "What if it doesn't work?" thought keeps popping in my head.

Fortunatley, my son is just 14 months, so I don't have to make a decision right away.

In doing a little research on local schools, I found that there is a Sudbury school about 4 blocks from me. I like the sense of community available - I feel like we'd be so alone/sheltered if it was just Rory and I. I like that I can say he's going to school to anyone who asks. I like that it's based on unschooling principles and ideas.

But if he's going to school, I guess it's not unschooling.

I've read so many interesting discussions and ideas here and would love to hear the group's thoughts on Sudbury schools - opposed to regualr schooling and opposed to unschooling.

Thank you!

Michelle
Mommy to Rory Daniel, 5.3.02


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 7/7/03 1:23:11 PM, pennacres@... writes:

<< Bluntly then-How do people get their children to homeschool. exactly?
did you use consequences? rewards? How did you present the idea that there
were things they had to do ?I will ask on other lists as well. >>

When my oldest was little I asked other moms I knew how they got their kids
to get medicine. They said "I put it in a spoon and say 'here!' and he drinks
it," or something. Kirby would not, could not, take any medicine in any form.

Years later, I looked back and wondered why I tried to make him.

But basically it was just the way he was.

If you go to google.com and put in some subset of these terms:
homeschooling discipline schoolwork work task consequences
you'll get lots of discussion of how some of the more serious homeschoolers
make their kids do their work.

What I've read about myself has involved such things as loss of privileges,
grounding, withholding food, shaming (private and public), spankings, and the
threat of school or of Christian boarding schools. Some can't threaten school
because they don't believe in it. Some threaten hellfire and damnation.

There are kids told to do their work because God wants them to.

I never did.

Sandra

coyote's corner

Hi,
I've been thinking allot about this. Brianna simply didn't react well to sit and learn type of stuff. So I guess we came to unschooling by default. Now, she's saying that she isn't learning anything. I'm re-reading the Handbook....I'm trying to let her lead.
For the last few days she's been working in her math workbooks an doing word searches. Due to circumstances beyond our control (her bio-mom threatened court action if I didn't drop Brianna off to "help with the girls") - we haven't been reading Harry Potter - or anything at night. We've been talking.
I believe in unschooling.
I believe that my doubts are because of me and my baggage more than Brianna's.

Janis

----- Original Message -----
From: Penn Acres
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 3:21 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-Discussion] How did you?


A quick visit to the site hosting the Neil Postman info drives me to ask a question that I have tried to formulate many times and never sent. ..And Yes ..this is not the forum to send it to but I know there are people on here who did do" school at home" so it is these people who I am asking. We have been unschooling since midwinter and I often wonder if I had been able to "homeschool" the way so many people say thay do.( Covering a lot of subjects-with children willing to do the reading-writing etc) would I have been as interested in exploring unschooling as much as I had. Bluntly then-How do people get their children to homeschool. exactly? did you use consequences? rewards? How did you present the idea that there were things they had to do ?I will ask on other lists as well. Np matter how much I feel that unschooling is a wonderful choice for the family -somehow I feel that I got here by default.
Grace
In a lovely spot in the mountains of BC.






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


Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




~~~~ 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.


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