Michael Soguero

I do not read "assistance" to be equivalent to arguing for lessons &
curriculum. Some sort of interaction with others seems to be important to
the learning process whether it is the asking of authentic questions (rather
than contrived "guess what's in my head" questions) or trying a particular
"strategy." I put strategy in quotes because it may be laden with too many
negative connotations for some. I simply mean, for example, deciding to use
particular vocabulary in one's interaction with a child believing that they
might pick up on that vocabulary (they may not and that's okay too but no
harm in trying). Would this be anti-unschooling as some define it? Is this
assistance? Does it really matter what it is called? Perhaps it fits into
the category of "exposure" among your list of elements of learning below.

Michael


>From: SandraDodd@...
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [Unschooling-Discussion] "What is unschooling?" from Pat
>Farenga at GWS
>Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 20:25:45 EDT
>
>
>In a message dated 8/13/03 6:07:56 PM, grlynbl@... writes:
>
><< > Some folks may be using "learn to read naturally" as meaning "learn to
> > read unassisted". But, to me, it is natural for children to have
> > assistance. >>
>
>I'm wondering whether for some people here they're not fishing for the
>blessings of the group to teach reading, or for the justification from the
>group for
>giving up on unschooling.
>
>Why would someone come here wanting that?
>
><< I am so glad, I
>was not the only person who took the work "natural" to be literal... like,
>it
>would just "HAPPEN! BAM!" .. ( for everyone, that is, for some, yes it
>does)>>
>
>Nothing happens BAM were learning is concerned. There is interest,
>observation, exposure, trial and error, question and answer. None of that
>needs
>lessons, a curriculum, or a phonics method.
>
>There is nothing unnatural about a person figuring something out in those
>ways. It's the way people learn about unschooling all the time.
>Interest,
>observation, exposure, trial and error, question and answer. There's
>enough
>reading online already to last someone weeks, without what's being added
>daily.
>
>Yet some are determined to look for evidence that unschooling doesn't work.
>
>This is a funny place to look for it.
>
>Sandra
>
>Sandra

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[email protected]

Michael_Soguero@... writes:
> . I simply mean, for example, deciding to use
> particular vocabulary in one's interaction with a child believing that they
> might pick up on that vocabulary (they may not and that's okay too but no
> harm in trying). Would this be anti-unschooling as some define it? Is this
>
> assistance? Does it really matter what it is called? Perhaps it fits into
> the category of "exposure" among your list of elements of learning below.
>
> Michael


If you really have no attachment which way or the other to them picking it
up, I don't think that's anti-unschooling. Thinking a good vocabulary should
be important to your kid doesn't sit right with me tho. Is that nitpicking?

It's interesting to me to see the 'exposure' thing, and the comments about
kids picking up culture from parents, etc. If you leave math books all over the
place, you're kids will learn more math, if you leave reading materials
around instead, they'll read that. Or not, hehehe.

How about leaving lots of different stuff around so that they are following
their interests, hehehe, and not the parents'? Isn't that better unschooling?
Is it passive coersion to leave around Shakespeare but no chemistry books (
to use Sandra's post as just an example) ?

You can be ready and willing to offer anything and ask questions, and go out
to the store or library to get whatever you don't have, but is that the same
as having them around? Tough questions. I know I have much more fiction in
the rest of the house, and all the sciency stuff I'm not much interested in is
only on my husband's shelves and my kid's room. I don't know what I think
about that, now, hehehehe. Maybe I should clean less? lol

*hmmmm*

~Aimee


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/15/03 2:11:54 PM, AimeeL73@... writes:

<< Is it passive coersion to leave around Shakespeare but no chemistry books
(
to use Sandra's post as just an example) ?
>>

I think it's honest fascination with what fascinates the parents.

When the parents are easiest fascinated by having a sterile barren clean
house, I don't know how the kids learn Shakespeare OR chemistry.

We have a periodic chart of the elements, one of those laminated things,
which comes out periodically. <g> We've had many discussions of what metals do
what in what circumstances, and have made lots of baking soda messes.

I started to say I've never put on a video about chemistry, but that's not
true. We have some of the... not Bill Nye but the other crazy wigged guy.

Sandra

Deniz Martinez

--- In [email protected], AimeeL73@c... wrote:

>How about leaving lots of different stuff around so that they are
>following their interests, hehehe, and not the parents'? Isn't that
>better unschooling?
>Is it passive coersion to leave around Shakespeare but no chemistry
>books (to use Sandra's post as just an example) ?

This is one of those "grey areas", isn't it? We as parents can't help
but influence our children who live with us 24/7. Children naturally
soak up the environment that is around them (if that environment is a
passive one; children who are forced into participating in their
parents' passions have been known to rebel, LOL). My bookcase doesn't
have a single Shakespeare book (sorry folks!), but I've got lots of
Persian poetry books. I also am more likely to be playing Turkish
folk music around the house rather than Western Classical music. My
husband is a big video gamer who plays almost every night, and
recently got the kids their own system as well. When the kids were
too young to choose for themselves, I was the one who picked out
books and toys to buy for them and decided what videos and TV shows
to switch on for them, and I made a conscious decision to never ever
switch on Barney because I couldn't stand that big purple dork, LOL.

All of these things that we as parents do are influencing our young
children's tastes. But what do you do about that? Short of buying one
of every type of book or rotating through every single musical style
or switching the TV to another channel every 10 minutes or whatever,
there's no way you have the time to personally expose your child to
every single possibility out there.

In addition to that old standby the public library, we are very lucky
to now also have television and computers so that kids can expose
themselves to a wide range of information outside of their parents'
relatively narrow interests. The problem arises when parents limit or
censor their children's reading, watching, and playing based upon
those personal preferences. That's where the unschooling kicks in I
suppose--I'm not going to stop my kid from reading whatever he wants,
or listening to whatever music he wants, or even switching on Barney
if that's what he really wants to do (ugh!). I can't help but
passively influence my child with my interests, but I don't think it
becomes blatant coercion unless I actively push my interests on him
and prevent him from branching out and pursuing his own interests.

Cheers,
Deniz

odrade7

--- In [email protected], SandraDodd@a... wrote:
[ I started to say I've never put on a video about chemistry, but that's not true. We
have some of the... not Bill Nye but the other crazy wigged guy. ]

I used to love watching this one science show that was on a few years back. It had a
scientist guy, a woman, and a big guy in a mouse costume. That show was really
nutty and funny and interesting. I can't think of the name of it for the life of me.
Anyone know what I'm talking about? I'd love to find videos/DVDs of this show but I
don't remember what it was called. LOL

TreeGoddess

Deniz Martinez

--- In [email protected], "odrade7"
<odrade7@y...> wrote:
> --- In [email protected], SandraDodd@a...
wrote:
> [ I started to say I've never put on a video about chemistry, but
> that's not true. We have some of the... not Bill Nye but the other
>crazy wigged guy. ]
>
> I used to love watching this one science show that was on a few
> years back. It had a scientist guy, a woman, and a big guy in a
> mouse costume. That show was really nutty and funny and
> interesting. I can't think of the name of it for the life of me.
> Anyone know what I'm talking about? I'd love to find videos/DVDs
> of this show but I don't remember what it was called. LOL
>
> TreeGoddess

BEAKMAN'S WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's cool, but I like Bill Nye better.

I really miss Mr. Wizard.

Deniz :D

[email protected]

denizmartinez@... writes:
> In addition to that old standby the public library, we are very lucky
> to now also have television and computers so that kids can expose
> themselves to a wide range of information outside of their parents'
> relatively narrow interests.

That is a great point that I didn't think of at the time I was posting.

I have a theory that as computers and the net become more accessable, we will
see more homeschoolers and specifically, unschoolers. I think more
homeschoolers will become unschoolers. Why research a bunch of stuff that the kids'
are not interested in, or buy curriculum, when the kid can get online and get
his fill of lots of interesting stuff he wants to know? Or, the parent can pull
lots of stuff from the net and have it around, that they find when they're
surfing. I send Alex about 3 links a day to his email.

No worries about the parent knowing nothing about a certain subject, the kid
can find what he needs.

It's silly to decide for the kid what he should know, because the kids have
much more of a pulse of what's new and needed in modern society, and they,
almost effortlessly, learn that.

My son was interested in learning Japanese, pulled up a bunch of websites,
told me all this stuff I never knew, and he did that in about two hours on line.
Lots of kids are interested in Japanese because of YuGiOh cards and video
games. Can't take Japanese until high school because it's "too hard". But it's
ridiculous to make the kids wait if they're interested at 8 or 9 years old.

Watched Big Trouble last nite, people kept spitting out wierd, but useful,
facts, all learned from the Discovery Channel. lol

So, you're right, as long as you're not limiting exposure to these
technologies, they will find what they're looking for, and be exposed to new things that
parents know nothing about.

I am learning French and Spanish, for example, and have no interest in
Japanese, at all. But that doesn't seem to be making a dent in his interest in
Japanese. Now he wants to go to Japan!!

~Aimee



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

cheryl

Has anyone guessed Beakman's World?


> --- In [email protected], SandraDodd@a... wrote:
> [ I started to say I've never put on a video about chemistry, but that's
not true. We
> have some of the... not Bill Nye but the other crazy wigged guy. ]
>
> I used to love watching this one science show that was on a few years
back. It had a
> scientist guy, a woman, and a big guy in a mouse costume. That show was
really
> nutty and funny and interesting. I can't think of the name of it for the
life of me.
> Anyone know what I'm talking about? I'd love to find videos/DVDs of this
show but I
> don't remember what it was called. LOL
>
> TreeGoddess
>

Stepheny Cappel

Ok so here I am again. My ds 9 is playing vice city on the playstation his older brother brought home for them all this week. That was nice of him. I noticed he is not doing the missions and just putting in the codes to have the sword and cutting peoples heads off... should I leave him alone? Get another game? Steph
----- Original Message -----
From: Deniz Martinez
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 9:09 AM
Subject: [Unschooling-Discussion] Re: adult assistance was What is Unschooling?


--- In [email protected], AimeeL73@c... wrote:

>How about leaving lots of different stuff around so that they are
>following their interests, hehehe, and not the parents'? Isn't that
>better unschooling?
>Is it passive coersion to leave around Shakespeare but no chemistry
>books (to use Sandra's post as just an example) ?

This is one of those "grey areas", isn't it? We as parents can't help
but influence our children who live with us 24/7. Children naturally
soak up the environment that is around them (if that environment is a
passive one; children who are forced into participating in their
parents' passions have been known to rebel, LOL). My bookcase doesn't
have a single Shakespeare book (sorry folks!), but I've got lots of
Persian poetry books. I also am more likely to be playing Turkish
folk music around the house rather than Western Classical music. My
husband is a big video gamer who plays almost every night, and
recently got the kids their own system as well. When the kids were
too young to choose for themselves, I was the one who picked out
books and toys to buy for them and decided what videos and TV shows
to switch on for them, and I made a conscious decision to never ever
switch on Barney because I couldn't stand that big purple dork, LOL.

All of these things that we as parents do are influencing our young
children's tastes. But what do you do about that? Short of buying one
of every type of book or rotating through every single musical style
or switching the TV to another channel every 10 minutes or whatever,
there's no way you have the time to personally expose your child to
every single possibility out there.

In addition to that old standby the public library, we are very lucky
to now also have television and computers so that kids can expose
themselves to a wide range of information outside of their parents'
relatively narrow interests. The problem arises when parents limit or
censor their children's reading, watching, and playing based upon
those personal preferences. That's where the unschooling kicks in I
suppose--I'm not going to stop my kid from reading whatever he wants,
or listening to whatever music he wants, or even switching on Barney
if that's what he really wants to do (ugh!). I can't help but
passively influence my child with my interests, but I don't think it
becomes blatant coercion unless I actively push my interests on him
and prevent him from branching out and pursuing his own interests.

Cheers,
Deniz


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

Deniz Martinez

--- In [email protected], "Stepheny Cappel"
<stephc62@b...> wrote:
> Ok so here I am again. My ds 9 is playing vice city on the
> playstation his older brother brought home for them all this week.
> That was nice of him. I noticed he is not doing the missions and
> just putting in the codes to have the sword and cutting peoples
> heads off... should I leave him alone? Get another game? Steph

Teehee. That's a cool game.

You know, I know people who are complete pacifists, won't even step
on a bug in real life, and yet they are strongly attracted to fantasy
violence, blood and gore and yuck yuck yuck.

My dad is one such person. He's one of the kindest gentlest men
you'll ever meet, but he LOVES horror movies and violent video games.

I'm one such person as well. I really CAN'T kill a bug, I end up
catching it in a cup and tossing it outside, LOL. But I love watching
Jackie Chan and Jet Li kick the crap out of people in martial arts
films, and I laugh 'till I cry everytime they kill Kenny on South
Park.

I mentioned that my husband recently got the kids their own game
system (an N64), which is what prompted you to ask about video games
I guess. My son is a very sweet, gentle, empathetic little boy, and
highly sensitive too--if I so much as sniffle, he asks me if I'm
crying, what's wrong, am I ok, etc. Just for randomly sniffling, LOL!
But he LOVES watching his Papa run over people on Vice City, and he
himself has been getting a tremendous kick out of intentionally
eating and stepping on as many people as he can on the game Rampage.
(In this game, he plays a king-kong type monster whose goal is to
wreck as much damage on various cities as possible. Destroy the
building, smash the cars, and eat/kick/smush/drop the people! LOL)

Anyway, I'd say just leave him alone, it's only a game. ;)

Deniz

zanhawk

> --- In [email protected], "Stepheny Cappel"
> <stephc62@b...> wrote:
> > Ok so here I am again. My ds 9 is playing vice city on the
> > playstation his older brother brought home for them all this week.
> > That was nice of him. I noticed he is not doing the missions and
> > just putting in the codes to have the sword and cutting peoples
> > heads off... should I leave him alone? Get another game? Steph

Sounds like my 9yo son too! He just loves to mame vice city citizens and see
what effects the different weapons have in the game. I think there is no
problem with it. He's just having fun playing a pretend game. And using
the codes has peaked my son's interest in reading.
My views are a little biased as I love to play games, video/pc/board/card
etc. (Vice City was purchased for me.) But most importantly is that we have
never restricted the games they choose, and we have never had any problems
with violence. We are all gamers around here.

Jamie
Proud Mama Gamer <g>

Fetteroll

on 8/16/03 10:23 PM, Stepheny Cappel at stephc62@... wrote:

> Ok so here I am again. My ds 9 is playing vice city on the playstation his
> older brother brought home for them all this week. That was nice of him. I
> noticed he is not doing the missions and just putting in the codes to have the
> sword and cutting peoples heads off... should I leave him alone? Get another
> game? Steph

In real life I hate destroying things that someone has put effort into
creating. But in Godzilla I have no problem whacking buildings and throwing
them around and generally trashing a city. (Not to mention other monsters.)

My daughter is very conscious of people's feelings but there's a new
resident to the town in the Animal Crossing game who is really snooty and
superior. Kathryn has no problem shoving her around until she gets mad, or
whacking her with a shovel.

I think it's fun because we're free to try out things we can't in real life
because of the horrible repercussions. It's just a game. No one and no thing
is really being harmed. When Godzilla starts a new fight the cities are
magically returned to pristine condition! :-)

It *would* be a problem if your son were disconnected from his compassion in
real life, or, because of a bad home life, were using the game to *become*
disconnected and reiniforce his ability to not care. I suspect none of that
is true for your family.

Joyce

Shyrley

Stepheny Cappel wrote:

>Ok so here I am again. My ds 9 is playing vice city on the playstation his older brother brought home for them all this week. That was nice of him. I noticed he is not doing the missions and just putting in the codes to have the sword and cutting peoples heads off... should I leave him alone? Get another game? Steph
>
>
Sounds like he's having fun to me. My lot love that game. Sometimes they
complete the mission, sometimes they run around with the flamethrower
and sometimes they conjure up the tank with the cheat codes and blow
things up.

Shyrley

[email protected]

stephc62@... writes:
> My ds 9 is playing vice city on the playstation his older brother brought
> home for them all this week. That was nice of him. I noticed he is not doing
> the missions and just putting in the codes to have the sword and cutting
> peoples heads off... should I leave him alone? Get another game? Steph


That activity is always the first thing my kid does too. Makes big heads,
flat heads, etc...God knows! lol

Hey, think of it as computer programming, that's what he's really doing. ;-)


He'll probably get bored with that eventually....really only so many times
you can do that before you realize it's kinda silly, lol.

~Aimee


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/17/03 1:21:13 AM, zanhawk@... writes:

<< My views are a little biased as I love to play games, video/pc/board/card

etc. (Vice City was purchased for me.) But most importantly is that we have

never restricted the games they choose, and we have never had any problems

with violence. We are all gamers around here.

>>

No violence in real life here either.

If anyone newish to this and hasn't seen this collection of articles and
testimonials, you might want to look:

http://sandradodd.com/games/page


Sandra

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/17/03 5:13:41 AM, fetteroll@... writes:

<< I think it's fun because we're free to try out things we can't in real life
because of the horrible repercussions. It's just a game. No one and no thing
is really being harmed. When Godzilla starts a new fight the cities are
magically returned to pristine condition! :-) >>

Kirby and Marty are playing a new Star Wars scenario game in which you get
dark points and light points, and you can decide whether to be "a good guy" or
"a bad guy." Your goodness or badness increases with decisions you make as you
play. The game goes differently if you're playing a bad guy. They've done
both. They're having a lot of fun exploring this made-up world from different
angles.

Sandra

Stepheny Cappel

Thanks to all that responded. This is what I thought you would all say, just making sure I guess. Most people I know that homeschool here would be horrified that I even have that game in my house... Oh I don't want to damage his little phsicy... so off he goes to chop off heads and watch blood spurt LOL... and I have to watch. Well he has also started really tormenting his sisters aka, throwing their shoes in the woods, he did shoot at them with a toy that the neighbor kids brought down, but I think they were all playing like that and he just didn't miss... well new things.. what ? The sisters are telling mom and she isn't saying anything? Or she is only talking to me about it?? No having to sit on the couch, all new stuff for him... He is the youngest, so they probably are teasing him too... He just isn't telling.

Oh and sorry I didn't change the subject line or cut all the excess off. I should know better Steph


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

Shyrley

You gonna call me or what about wednesday?

Shyrley

>
>

marji

Hey, Kelly!!!

I ain't goin' nowhere (in the good sense, that is). I'm just over my head
in work and music and life, so I don't get a chance to read too much or
respond, but I'm here!! And, if I can manage to scrape together enough
dough, I'll *really* see you in August!! But, I'm always here (so don't go
talkin' 'bout me behind my back!) :-D

With love and hugs and waves to everyone,
Marji

At 23:02 6/1/04, you wrote:
>In a message dated 6/1/2004 3:24:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>marji@... writes:
>
>Enjoy!!
>
>Marji<<<<<
>Hi, Marji! I thought you'd left! It's great to "see" you!
>~Kelly
>

<http://www.gaiawolf.org/>GaiaWolf ~ Music for the Planet
Take the "red pill" to learn the truth about
<http://www.bancruelfarms.org/meatrix/>the Meatrix
a not-for-profit ~ yoga of immunity ~
<http://immunics.org/>immunics.<http://immunics.org/>org

"The animals of this world exist for their own reasons. They were not made
for humans any more than blacks were made for whites, or women created for
men." ~ Alice Walker

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

[email protected]

In a message dated 6/1/2004 3:24:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
marji@... writes:

Enjoy!!

Marji<<<<<
Hi, Marji! I thought you'd left! It's great to "see" you!
~Kelly






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