Just lots of rambling today. Woke up early. No rants, however. :) This was written over a period of 3 days, so it is kind of everywhere.
This week I attended a local curriculum fair, as I do every year. But this year I went with SIL on Friday and attended a seminar there on essential oils with Suzette Saturday. Whereas I usually go alone.
I have so much to think about. We shopped around at several booths. I found a good deal on some Brain Games, origami paper (for strewing), a color wheel, etc. Just the sort of stuff you don't often run across on a trip to WalMart. Being that I wasn't looking for curriculum however, I made it a point to stop by the booths with unconventional topics such as the essential oils booth-lots of educating was done there, a booth about American Heritage Girls (a Christian Alternative to Girl Scouts), a "private/umbrella school" booth, which I will explain later, a Christian Healthcare Alternative Booth, which is a good thought, something to strongly consider, and several others.Gosh, there are so many fun activities and information being handed out of the fair. I successfully isolated my choices to focus on just a few, but how can you not just want to do it all?!
My two main considerations as connected to homeschool this year are: 1. Whether Samantha can join AHG. (She wants to!) and 2. Should we join the umbrella school?
I believe we will allow her to join AHG. She will benefit greatly from it. This I know. (We already filled out the paperwork.) It will only cost $100 for the year. (Next year will be less because there will be no need to purchase a uniform or book.) But they do everything from rock climbing and camping to cooking and fashion. I think it might really spark her interest in some things and be a great, less formal, group environment for S. She will stay in semi-private gymnastics as long as we can work out a time. My only real concern is spreading ourselves too thin. I already cut back to working from home twice a month for the Center. We go in every other week. And I only do nights on the weeks we have the Study, 16 weeks a year. As well as working from home in the Summer. However, I do go in any time they have a girl they need me to talk to. (TRYING to stay "all in" to this ministry and not put it on the back burner while homeschooling, but it can be hard.) I will be on the Board with CHEA this year, which is quite a job along with keeping up with all of Samantha's other CHEA outings. And then with gym and AHG for her, well, it is a lot. I don't see how people do it with multiple children. Very nervous about this, but I think it will be quite an adventure for her and I think the schedules will work out just fine....I hope. (Update: I recently found out it is a troupe for homeschoolers, so the times seem to work out perfect. Activities with Mom are in the day. Activities with Dad are after 7 so Dads who get off late can attend also!) I dread being one of those families always on the run, especially at night when Daddy is at home! I recently realized I really need to be there for him more. It works for some, but we enjoy our sit down time after all is calm and the day is ending. We have dinner together, talk, lounge on the couch, then eventually pass out all cuddled up. 3 Humans, 2 Dogs, and 2 Cats. Now that is the life!
Edit: I talked to the troupe leader yesterday and she told me some more details. Samantha will be a Tender Heart. They will do 6 units this year. 1. Living in the USA 2. Home Care and Repair-perfect since she is getting old enough to help with home projects 3. Crafts-self explanatory, hoping they will be more willing to allow creativity since they aren't so rigidly structured, but she always has the option to opt out. 4. Outdoor Skills-Uh, like, HER FAV! 5. My Style-This will be, I think, the one that is the most fun for her. The girls will get to design fashions, do hair and make up, and put on a fashion show for their parents!!! and 6. Young Meteorologist. Each unit contains a Christian message such as modesty for the fashion show, building a relationship with God through nature, etc. They make sure that they know WHY they are doing what they are doing and how we use it for God. I thought that was PERFECT! We are definitely allowing her to do it. (Update: Hold your horses, we have budgeted to put the money back, but we will see how the meeting goes. I am still a little nervous.) She is extremely excited. I just can't begin to explain the richness this will add to her life. (Side Note: The girls can put any badge they want on the back of their vest-because it is extra room. They just have to earn it at home. Samantha already has some state park badges they said she can put on there. And she picked out some others she wants to earn, like the sewing badge she saw online. The lady I spoke with at the fair said it is so neat to see the badges that each girl decides to earn at home because you can really see their personality shining through on the back of their vest, and I can already see that is so true!) What a perfect group for us! She will be in an environment where she can see WHY she is doing things FOR God. She will always have the option to do or not do something. Creativity is running rampant. And they always encourage families to participate, so it will all be family centered. (Also, one thing I like is that they do a lot of activities with the Trail Side boys-their version of the Boy Scouts, which this all came along when the whole morality issues arose with Girl/Boy Scouts popped up, but anyway, it makes me happy that she won't be completely separated by age and sex all the time.) I can't wait to meet some more homeschool families and see Samantha make new friends! This year will be building upon last year. So many new possibilities.
I also found the umbrella private school intriguing. Georgia does not allow them. We would have to "move to TN." But the jist is once you join their "school," you become a satellite campus. They allow their "satellite campuses" to choose their own "curriculum," or in our case write out a goals report with a few sentences on how we expect to achieve that goal. It does NOT require approval. Just for records. (I do this anyway for my records.) And at that point we are no longer accountable by the School Board. No questioning. No standardized testing! Nothing. They will keep our records and she will graduate through them. (Although, we may not take that route in high school.) Either way, free of the pressure to test her and free from the state's laws, I believe it would be of great benefit! It is $75.00 a year, so maybe in 3rd grade when they begin becoming more rigid.....Just some thoughts.
I am looking forward to the first board meeting of the year, this Monday. (Which is today. I wrote this Saturday night.) I have learned my position as Secretary so hopefully that goes well. I am looking forward to building some more of a relationship with some of the ladies of CHEA, and the opportunity for Samantha to see her CHEA friends more often and to see me being involved in her life...I submit her letter of intent soon and will complete her Progress Report and Goals Report. My! There is so much to add!
Update: The Board meeting went well. It was lot of activity to keep up with, being that it was the beginning of the year and we had to have the meeting indoors because of the rain. But it was nice getting together with everyone and bouncing ideas off each other. I typed the Minutes the night of. Waiting on approval for my first draft. There are lots of things we have planned this year, including maybe a trip caving, which Samantha has been dying to do with Jessie. I can't believe we are going on our second yea of "official homeschooling." Where does time go?
Samantha is looking forward to Homeschool Day at McKay, the End of Summer Pool Party and Not Back to School Picnic. Gymnastics starting back. AHG starting...All this coming up right around the corner...
Once my brother goes back to school we are going on vacation...I am sure she will learn a lot while we are there. When we get back home we will continue doing some of the things that slowed down or went on pause while I had him. She is really into her art still...no slowing down there. She still takes hours in the day to loom things, Creeper keychains for Daddy. Bracelets for friends. Drawing is what she does in all her spare time. And of course sewing which has really picked up now that we know how to use the machine. And then the two things that slowed down, the Civil War Study and How Things Work, we will pick back up. I plan to start back with our Clara Barton book and a trip to the local Old Stone Church, which was a military hospital. I'd also like to think of a big something to do for How Things Work.
My. Things have changed. This year we all know what to expect. This year we are not new. S has friends. I have friends. And to think last year we were both so on edge. This year we have our rhythm down. I feel confident in unschooling. And S is enjoying living and learning through life!
Unschool-ology
Unschooling: Living Without School; Living Free Range-Freedom to Learn What One Wants When One Wants
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
The Value in EVERYTHING
One thing about unschooling that you must learn if you plan to unschool is: There is VALUE in EVERYTHING. Everything. Now, as children, most of us were taught that we must learn certain things in a certain way and if we didn't, we were not learning. In fact, more often than not, if it was something of true interest to us, it was "not learning." And if it was, it was not as important enough to warrant putting off "other learning" until we have satisfied ourselves in our search. However, that simply is not true.
When I explain to somebody what unschooling is, I generally get the reply,"Um. So basically we unschool too" Then, this is what trips me up..."AND my kid goes to school, so that means they are twice as smart?" Well, yes and no. Yes, everybody can unschool. No. I don't think that makes your kids or my kid smarter. Personally, for my child, I believe that the extensive amount of time she is allowed in order to pursue and deal with the five items listed below, is of great benefit to her and her personal growth. So yes, unschooling-in part-is just living life and constantly helping a child to look up answers to their questions, facilitating their interests, etc. But the amount of time a child has to do these things and the amount of time a parent is willing to give to be there and support these things, which takes patience...My, oh my, does it take patience....the more a child will benefit from the unschooling lifestyle.
There are five areas that I would like to address, a few of them which are not even in the slightest considered learning to most.
Personal Interests-This should be a given. I preach it all the time. Personal interests lead to real, intense, meaningful learning. When a child studies something that is of value to them, they will receive more out of it. When a child's interest in art, fashion, airplane models, animals, government, etc is allowed to blossom to the FULLEST extent possible, that is when they really flourish. There is no begging a child to explore their interests like you would possibly have to beg them to do their reading worksheet. In fact, more often than not you have to peel them away from what they are doing to eat or maybe to attend a social event. (Of course that is where being careful not to overschedule comes in, at least for our family.) My S has recently taken an interest in all aspects of art. She could sew for 10 hours a day if she wanted to. When designing clothes, she generally starts out on a designing website, gets some ideas and generating drafts. Then she will sketch and write out notes. Maybe watch some videos. After all that she will begin to draw and cut. This teaches her patience, patterns, symmetry, measuring, art, perseverance, reading and writing, technology, home economics...I could go on. Not to mention what she get from the item she made, weather it is caring for others by giving things you make away. (She aspires to make her own fashions and donate them to people without clothing.) It could be a doll she made that she plays pretend with-lots of value. And all this from a "lazy, uneducational day" of sewing. But....I digress.
Questions-As I mentioned earlier, questions are an important part of unschooling and the main way that young children learn, along with exploring. Most all adults would agree that we understand that children have lots of questions and they can learn very much from having them answered, but are we answering those questions? That is where the patience comes in. Hearing all the "whys" and "hows" can be enough to drive you mad after just one day. We may decide to tune out or we may turn on auto pilot and say, "I don't know." more often than we say, "Let's look it up." or "Well, from what I have learned about _____, I believe the answer is _____" Er, maybe not so robotic, but you get the picture. I keep a running list in S's track book (records I need to keep for the state just in case.) of questions she has asked and discussions that we have. This week so far we have talked about cats and dogs, what a secretary is, what a certification is, grain fed vs. grass fed, colloidal silver, how computers work-as well as seeing the inside components of one and helping to put it together, how to use a Dictionary, instrumental music, and perspective....I could go on but that is just the things I have remembered to write down in the last 3 days. (Our weeks start on Tuesday.) The point is, we are really missing out when we are not answering our children's questions to the best of our abilities, or at the very least assisting them in looking it up. Children are not only opening up opportunities for discussion that leads to learning, but when we have these conversations we are practicing for more serious conversations as our children grow. "Mom, why do people do drugs?" was a recent question S asked me. We had a discussion about it and I hope that my lack of reluctance to discuss it will lead to her confidence in the fact that she can discuss anything with me as she gets older. I want to keep those questions coming! What a day it will be when you can have a deep philosophical conversation with your child. The learning, the connection...It all gives me goose bumps to think about. But we must carry on before I get carried away...
Free Play-Free play can be one of those things that parents struggle with. I know I have! Aren't they too old to play ALL DAY? What are they really learning? Most of us see the value in playing when a child is very young and they are playing pretend or when an older child has turned their play into an "academically related hobby," such as playing with army men, leading to an interest in the military and reenacting famous battles.
But what about when they are outside playing with friends? If you have spent a lot of time observing your child's play, even if it is just through the window, you know that when children play together they are learning to work as a team. They are learning to make their own rules because adults aren't there to make them for them. Children get creative. There is nobody there to tell them the guidelines of the game or what to play, so how about we adjust them to each player, be it on ability or age, or whatever. Children are making compromises. Children are learning how to make each other happy, how to settle arguments, take care of younger children in the group and how to keep up with the older ones. They are learning skills from each other. They are being children and learning through life's experiences, which is what they are best at.
What about when they are playing the same toys over and over? Littlest Pet Shoppes are high on S's list. But honestly, what good can come from that? I used to roll my eyes when she would drag out the big box of pets instead of her globe or tangrams. But as I listened to her play, I realized that she is learning. She is saying things along the lines of, *in a high pitched, British dog voice* "Well, if we need 5 dogs, but I only have 2, I need 3 more! So which dogs to choose?" And the storytelling alone, let us not forget that! All writers start out telling elaborate stories! And not only is she practicing those academic sorts of things, but she is learning problem solving. What do you do when the cat steals the cookies from the cookie jar? Do the dogs eat her, throw her out of the house, sit down and talk to her? What is the outcome? There are so many more benefits to free play that you can find just by a Google search. Or, there are several books on children's play including two that I recommend, Free to Learn and Children's Play.
Building Sand Castles-It is the little things in life that matter. Building sand castles is one of those things. Watching grass grow is just one other. In order to successfully unschool we must see the significance in these things too. Even the "menial" things like taking one of those plastic poppers and popping it over and over are things that have value to children. And when something has value to a child that means it is adding something to his or her life. Children will do things until they are satisfied they have had enough, and who are we to tell them when they have had enough? S will sit for hours just humming. I always wonder, "What is she getting from that? Should I tell her to go find something to do? What is she benefiting so much from it that she will sit and do it for hours?" Must be something, even if I don't see it. Maybe she needs it to calm herself. Maybe she enjoys music just that much. Maybe she is getting ideas for a symphony. ;) Of course, then again, maybe not....Could just be boredom....
Boredom-This is a big one. S has recently been dealing with this. It is Summertime and there are no twice weekly trips to gym or other "organized CHEA activities." So she must learn to fill her time with other things. I remember as a child I got bored a lot...a lot, especially as I got older and "playing" wasn't exactly my forte. But when I was bored I learned to occupy myself. I learned that I don't need others to keep me occupied. I got creative. I would make things. I would re-arrange my room or go through my photos and make a collage. I developed interests in things like politics and the works of Poe and Shakespeare. (Unfortunately my interest waned after awhile, as I had not developed the intellectual patience or understanding to delve deeply enough to understand those things.) I also had a book called "Amelia's Boredom Survival Guide." This book gave me many ideas, even silly ideas. Even though I was getting ideas from somewhere else, I was tweaking them to make other activities. I was finding that there are things to do and each of those things held value for me, even if they didn't for somebody else. Boredom is also a good sign because it means that children have down time which is an important chance for free play to take place, interests to be found, and creativity to flourish. And most important of all, it gives children the chance to build sand castles....for hours.
I understand that this may not be what some people are looking for. Maybe some people want to hear that children can learn all they need to know about the Three R's just through the things I listed. (Well, they can learn all they need to know, but not all of what the schools say they need to know. Generally, children will not learn about coordinate planes through their play, but there is a chance, and if they need it, they WILL learn it.) The way we must look at it is not only seeing the value IN everything, but the value OF everything. We must say, these things teach x, y, z. And also, x is just as important as z. X, being problem solving, z being reading. Everything has value. And everything we learn is valuable.
When I explain to somebody what unschooling is, I generally get the reply,"Um. So basically we unschool too" Then, this is what trips me up..."AND my kid goes to school, so that means they are twice as smart?" Well, yes and no. Yes, everybody can unschool. No. I don't think that makes your kids or my kid smarter. Personally, for my child, I believe that the extensive amount of time she is allowed in order to pursue and deal with the five items listed below, is of great benefit to her and her personal growth. So yes, unschooling-in part-is just living life and constantly helping a child to look up answers to their questions, facilitating their interests, etc. But the amount of time a child has to do these things and the amount of time a parent is willing to give to be there and support these things, which takes patience...My, oh my, does it take patience....the more a child will benefit from the unschooling lifestyle.
There are five areas that I would like to address, a few of them which are not even in the slightest considered learning to most.
Personal Interests-This should be a given. I preach it all the time. Personal interests lead to real, intense, meaningful learning. When a child studies something that is of value to them, they will receive more out of it. When a child's interest in art, fashion, airplane models, animals, government, etc is allowed to blossom to the FULLEST extent possible, that is when they really flourish. There is no begging a child to explore their interests like you would possibly have to beg them to do their reading worksheet. In fact, more often than not you have to peel them away from what they are doing to eat or maybe to attend a social event. (Of course that is where being careful not to overschedule comes in, at least for our family.) My S has recently taken an interest in all aspects of art. She could sew for 10 hours a day if she wanted to. When designing clothes, she generally starts out on a designing website, gets some ideas and generating drafts. Then she will sketch and write out notes. Maybe watch some videos. After all that she will begin to draw and cut. This teaches her patience, patterns, symmetry, measuring, art, perseverance, reading and writing, technology, home economics...I could go on. Not to mention what she get from the item she made, weather it is caring for others by giving things you make away. (She aspires to make her own fashions and donate them to people without clothing.) It could be a doll she made that she plays pretend with-lots of value. And all this from a "lazy, uneducational day" of sewing. But....I digress.
Free Play-Free play can be one of those things that parents struggle with. I know I have! Aren't they too old to play ALL DAY? What are they really learning? Most of us see the value in playing when a child is very young and they are playing pretend or when an older child has turned their play into an "academically related hobby," such as playing with army men, leading to an interest in the military and reenacting famous battles.
But what about when they are outside playing with friends? If you have spent a lot of time observing your child's play, even if it is just through the window, you know that when children play together they are learning to work as a team. They are learning to make their own rules because adults aren't there to make them for them. Children get creative. There is nobody there to tell them the guidelines of the game or what to play, so how about we adjust them to each player, be it on ability or age, or whatever. Children are making compromises. Children are learning how to make each other happy, how to settle arguments, take care of younger children in the group and how to keep up with the older ones. They are learning skills from each other. They are being children and learning through life's experiences, which is what they are best at.
What about when they are playing the same toys over and over? Littlest Pet Shoppes are high on S's list. But honestly, what good can come from that? I used to roll my eyes when she would drag out the big box of pets instead of her globe or tangrams. But as I listened to her play, I realized that she is learning. She is saying things along the lines of, *in a high pitched, British dog voice* "Well, if we need 5 dogs, but I only have 2, I need 3 more! So which dogs to choose?" And the storytelling alone, let us not forget that! All writers start out telling elaborate stories! And not only is she practicing those academic sorts of things, but she is learning problem solving. What do you do when the cat steals the cookies from the cookie jar? Do the dogs eat her, throw her out of the house, sit down and talk to her? What is the outcome? There are so many more benefits to free play that you can find just by a Google search. Or, there are several books on children's play including two that I recommend, Free to Learn and Children's Play.
Building Sand Castles-It is the little things in life that matter. Building sand castles is one of those things. Watching grass grow is just one other. In order to successfully unschool we must see the significance in these things too. Even the "menial" things like taking one of those plastic poppers and popping it over and over are things that have value to children. And when something has value to a child that means it is adding something to his or her life. Children will do things until they are satisfied they have had enough, and who are we to tell them when they have had enough? S will sit for hours just humming. I always wonder, "What is she getting from that? Should I tell her to go find something to do? What is she benefiting so much from it that she will sit and do it for hours?" Must be something, even if I don't see it. Maybe she needs it to calm herself. Maybe she enjoys music just that much. Maybe she is getting ideas for a symphony. ;) Of course, then again, maybe not....Could just be boredom....
Boredom-This is a big one. S has recently been dealing with this. It is Summertime and there are no twice weekly trips to gym or other "organized CHEA activities." So she must learn to fill her time with other things. I remember as a child I got bored a lot...a lot, especially as I got older and "playing" wasn't exactly my forte. But when I was bored I learned to occupy myself. I learned that I don't need others to keep me occupied. I got creative. I would make things. I would re-arrange my room or go through my photos and make a collage. I developed interests in things like politics and the works of Poe and Shakespeare. (Unfortunately my interest waned after awhile, as I had not developed the intellectual patience or understanding to delve deeply enough to understand those things.) I also had a book called "Amelia's Boredom Survival Guide." This book gave me many ideas, even silly ideas. Even though I was getting ideas from somewhere else, I was tweaking them to make other activities. I was finding that there are things to do and each of those things held value for me, even if they didn't for somebody else. Boredom is also a good sign because it means that children have down time which is an important chance for free play to take place, interests to be found, and creativity to flourish. And most important of all, it gives children the chance to build sand castles....for hours.
I understand that this may not be what some people are looking for. Maybe some people want to hear that children can learn all they need to know about the Three R's just through the things I listed. (Well, they can learn all they need to know, but not all of what the schools say they need to know. Generally, children will not learn about coordinate planes through their play, but there is a chance, and if they need it, they WILL learn it.) The way we must look at it is not only seeing the value IN everything, but the value OF everything. We must say, these things teach x, y, z. And also, x is just as important as z. X, being problem solving, z being reading. Everything has value. And everything we learn is valuable.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Just Rambling
Just a little rambling about our Summer. It has been a great Summer so far, the best yet.
Yesterday, for the 4th of July we were invited to a friend's house to have a cookout and do a few fireworks for the kids. They know how to do a cookout! Peanuts, hummus with tortillas fried in coconut oil, spinach and strawberry salad...(I just ate the strawberries), burgers....yum. And watermelon for dessert. We brought watermelon-Earth Fare had a huge sale on them so we brought a few. We talked, laughed, ate, all that good adult stuff while the kids played. I got my feet detoxed, which was nice. So gross to see everything that came out. And Samantha got to walk around the neighborhood with her friends. (She has never done that before, but I was glad she got a taste of the 70's. I hope she does a little more often.) It's the little things, okay? The kids got a little Chemistry lesson with the Snakes, typical homeschoolers. And then we shot off the night time fireworks. My Hubby and hers got along really well, like they have the last few times they got together. Of course, they are both into computers, so that was a good conversation sparker. It was a nice night. We plan to have them over for a movie night (projector screen outside) soon. We were out until 12:30-they are night owls too. Then we took my brother home and passed out. It is nice to have a few sets of couple friends to do things with, each one adds a little something to your life, and hopefully you can add a little something to theirs.
Speaking of friends and foot baths, Suzette has opened my eyes to a whole new world of health I never realized was there. As much as I like the idea of detoxing through foods I never knew you could do it in a foot bath! You wouldn't believe the stuff that comes out of you! But I don't have several hundred dollars to buy a footbath for regular use, so I found a homemade foot bath that many people swear works just the same! All it is is positive and negative charges being sent through your body. Just like a silver generator, which we also need, charges sent through rods. So as opposed to spending all that money on fancy machines, we are going to make our own homemade machines. I will post if all goes well!
This lazy Summer has sparked my interest in several things other than alternative health. S and I have been sewing like mad women! I rather enjoy doing it by hand and would really like to learn to use my small machine and make S some more clothes. (My most recent pillowcase dress turned oyt great!) This Summer had also been an experience in gardening for the both of us. We have little potatoes now and our pepper plants are flowering all over the place! It has brought my attention to the fact that organic doesn't always mean super healthy. Whole foods hold what we need. So we have been on a venture to get S to try new foods so we can change our diet to a more whole food approach. It has been more challenging for me than for her I think. I do not like fruits and only a few vegetables. I have been having to train myself to overcome textures. S has been great about it. She has tried peanuts, hummus, chick peas, oranges, and banana smoothie, which she loved all of those. Pineapples and blue berries, not as much. But that's okay. She tried them and that is what counts. We have had such success with this new approach we are taking. I'm very proud of her! I'm hoping we can replace ice cream nights with smoothie nights and special candy days with nuts or something. Of course I realize we need to enjoy ourselves and maybe junk it up once in awhile, but the less we do it, the better.
Well, better get to bed. We need to leave early tomorrow. Camping. We have been camping a lot this Summer, every other weekend, going different places from Alabama to Dahlonega and soon South Carolina. Samantha has had the chance to learn about wildlife and plants. She has seen waterfalls and heard sounds she has never heard before. She has helped to research backpacking products and knows what each one is for and how to use it. She enjoys our adventures and never can wait to see where we go next. It is a nice family activity, like a regular relaxing vacation. Totally worth the investment! Something I think we will all enjoy for year to come.
Will picture post soon.
Yesterday, for the 4th of July we were invited to a friend's house to have a cookout and do a few fireworks for the kids. They know how to do a cookout! Peanuts, hummus with tortillas fried in coconut oil, spinach and strawberry salad...(I just ate the strawberries), burgers....yum. And watermelon for dessert. We brought watermelon-Earth Fare had a huge sale on them so we brought a few. We talked, laughed, ate, all that good adult stuff while the kids played. I got my feet detoxed, which was nice. So gross to see everything that came out. And Samantha got to walk around the neighborhood with her friends. (She has never done that before, but I was glad she got a taste of the 70's. I hope she does a little more often.) It's the little things, okay? The kids got a little Chemistry lesson with the Snakes, typical homeschoolers. And then we shot off the night time fireworks. My Hubby and hers got along really well, like they have the last few times they got together. Of course, they are both into computers, so that was a good conversation sparker. It was a nice night. We plan to have them over for a movie night (projector screen outside) soon. We were out until 12:30-they are night owls too. Then we took my brother home and passed out. It is nice to have a few sets of couple friends to do things with, each one adds a little something to your life, and hopefully you can add a little something to theirs.
Speaking of friends and foot baths, Suzette has opened my eyes to a whole new world of health I never realized was there. As much as I like the idea of detoxing through foods I never knew you could do it in a foot bath! You wouldn't believe the stuff that comes out of you! But I don't have several hundred dollars to buy a footbath for regular use, so I found a homemade foot bath that many people swear works just the same! All it is is positive and negative charges being sent through your body. Just like a silver generator, which we also need, charges sent through rods. So as opposed to spending all that money on fancy machines, we are going to make our own homemade machines. I will post if all goes well!
This lazy Summer has sparked my interest in several things other than alternative health. S and I have been sewing like mad women! I rather enjoy doing it by hand and would really like to learn to use my small machine and make S some more clothes. (My most recent pillowcase dress turned oyt great!) This Summer had also been an experience in gardening for the both of us. We have little potatoes now and our pepper plants are flowering all over the place! It has brought my attention to the fact that organic doesn't always mean super healthy. Whole foods hold what we need. So we have been on a venture to get S to try new foods so we can change our diet to a more whole food approach. It has been more challenging for me than for her I think. I do not like fruits and only a few vegetables. I have been having to train myself to overcome textures. S has been great about it. She has tried peanuts, hummus, chick peas, oranges, and banana smoothie, which she loved all of those. Pineapples and blue berries, not as much. But that's okay. She tried them and that is what counts. We have had such success with this new approach we are taking. I'm very proud of her! I'm hoping we can replace ice cream nights with smoothie nights and special candy days with nuts or something. Of course I realize we need to enjoy ourselves and maybe junk it up once in awhile, but the less we do it, the better.
Well, better get to bed. We need to leave early tomorrow. Camping. We have been camping a lot this Summer, every other weekend, going different places from Alabama to Dahlonega and soon South Carolina. Samantha has had the chance to learn about wildlife and plants. She has seen waterfalls and heard sounds she has never heard before. She has helped to research backpacking products and knows what each one is for and how to use it. She enjoys our adventures and never can wait to see where we go next. It is a nice family activity, like a regular relaxing vacation. Totally worth the investment! Something I think we will all enjoy for year to come.
Will picture post soon.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Those Dirty, Stinkin', Smelly Rotten, No Good Parents and Their Radical Unschooling
It's funny. One day, when S was only 2 years old, I was texting a friend about school options. "I bet you will end up homeschooling her," she said. I was offended, "No! I would never do that to her! She would miss out too much on all the cool stuff, field trips, buying ice cream at school, recess." Yah. Yah. Little did I know what all she would gain from homeschooling, but I learned. And I changed my entire perspective. Now she still gets fieldtrips. She can still buy ice cream at lunch at my brother's school. (Or we can have lunch at home and go out for ice cream afterward.) And she sometimes gets recesses that last all day long, including some with her CHEA friends. So I should have done my research first. I admit.
Well, not long after I toured the elementary school I always dreamed for my child to attend, and was severely let down, I did start my research. It took one book and I was hooked. THIS was for our family. I started learning about all the different styles of homeschooling. So many! All the forms seemed acceptable to me, something to research and consider, except that wretched unschooling practice! What were those parents thinking? Chaos!
I could imagine it now, a family that had several, dirty, smelly kids, doing nothing all day except watching television and running wild. And since unschooling usually goes hand in hand with parenting styles, they must "unparent," and therefore there children must be horid brats, drains on society. They should go to jail for letting their children's brains rot. They don't deserve to be called homeschoolers!
Being that I was thoroughly convinced boxed curricilulums were for us, I went that July to our local curriculum fair to see all the pre fabricated curriculums and choose which would work best. I was going to find which the top one there was, and only that would be good enough for my beautiful daughter!
I went and listened intently to each of the seminars. I chose, "Starting to Homeschool," "Homeschooling ABCs," and "Christian Homeschooling." I took my notes and I learned all I could. There are two things I took away with me that day that I will always remember. 1. Children need at least 8 hours of play a day, with a majority of it being outdoor. (A Charlotte Mason representative advocating for a curriculum that didn't take a long day, as well as advocating for lots of time in nature.) and 2. Unit Studies were a good choice, exactly what we wanted.
So as soon as I got home that day, I started working on unit studies to do with my 2 year old. THIS was going to be fun! We spent one week on each topic, including recycling, weather, animals, climates, community helpers, etc. Each week we read books, completed an activity, did an art project, something in the kitchen, watched a video that was related to the topic, that sort of thing. After awhile I started loosening up and letting her choose the topics that she wanted and how long we studied them. Her first choice was butterflies. And what a blast that was because she WANTED to learn it. Thus, began our adventure to unschooling.
Unit Studies worked for years. I know she gained knowledge from them and had lots of fun. I am not sure, however, in what way all the formal work at such an early age effected her. Should I have allowed for more free play and not made it so much about learning formally? Or was that play for her as well as learning? And what would she have learned instead, had she been allowed to just play? Ha. Maybe I am over exaggerating the amount of formal work we did.
By the time she was 4, I was determined to be a relaxed homeschooler and just write out my own curriculum that we would follow loosely. "This is not exactly like unschooling. Unschooling is for lazy Moms. We are just extremely relaxed. You could call it unschooling, but it is not radical for sure." I was very confident in my choice and couldn't quit patting myself on the back for doing all my research early on.
It didn't become a fight until she turned 5. I couldn't stand the thought of Samantha being "behind." I couldn't stand the thought that people might think badly of us-because we are homeschoolers-if we didn't teach formally and only on her grade level. It was enough to drive a woman mad. And I took out my madness on S, forcing her to read easy readers every day and repeat math facts as fast as she could. (Not quite the relaxed schooling I had in mind.) I had heard of homeschool burnout before, but never had I thought it would come so soon. "If this is what homeschooled is about, I don't want any part of it," I thought. (And I'm sure S thought that too!) Of course that is a guilty thought no homeschooling Mom wants to admit she has had, but I had it. So we took a break and soon I realized how much she was learning while I was recooping.
And then my mind turned to those dirty, stinkin', smelly, rotten, no good unschoolers and their blissful outlook on life. How they looked at everything with a new light and their children taught themselves things without fighting. They learned about real life things and not superficial stuff. No strict schedules to adhere to. No standards to follow. No forcing them to learn. But they were still learning! They were...free! I was jealous of those dirty, stinkin', smelly, rotten, no good parents and their radical unschooling life. And I'd had it with mine, so for the next 6 months I struggled to adopt that lifestyle, once and for all. I became one of those dirty, stinkin', smelly, rotten, no good unschooling parents and I wouldn't have it any other way. (And neither would S!)
I recently posted this post featuring my last battle within. I hope anybody who visits my blog and is in need of unschooling encouragement, receives what they are needing. I know that in my times of doubt, it was good to get some reassurance from SOMEONE, even a stranger on the Internet, who has been there, done that, and won the war.
This is our story. What is yours?
Well, not long after I toured the elementary school I always dreamed for my child to attend, and was severely let down, I did start my research. It took one book and I was hooked. THIS was for our family. I started learning about all the different styles of homeschooling. So many! All the forms seemed acceptable to me, something to research and consider, except that wretched unschooling practice! What were those parents thinking? Chaos!
I could imagine it now, a family that had several, dirty, smelly kids, doing nothing all day except watching television and running wild. And since unschooling usually goes hand in hand with parenting styles, they must "unparent," and therefore there children must be horid brats, drains on society. They should go to jail for letting their children's brains rot. They don't deserve to be called homeschoolers!
Being that I was thoroughly convinced boxed curricilulums were for us, I went that July to our local curriculum fair to see all the pre fabricated curriculums and choose which would work best. I was going to find which the top one there was, and only that would be good enough for my beautiful daughter!
I went and listened intently to each of the seminars. I chose, "Starting to Homeschool," "Homeschooling ABCs," and "Christian Homeschooling." I took my notes and I learned all I could. There are two things I took away with me that day that I will always remember. 1. Children need at least 8 hours of play a day, with a majority of it being outdoor. (A Charlotte Mason representative advocating for a curriculum that didn't take a long day, as well as advocating for lots of time in nature.) and 2. Unit Studies were a good choice, exactly what we wanted.
So as soon as I got home that day, I started working on unit studies to do with my 2 year old. THIS was going to be fun! We spent one week on each topic, including recycling, weather, animals, climates, community helpers, etc. Each week we read books, completed an activity, did an art project, something in the kitchen, watched a video that was related to the topic, that sort of thing. After awhile I started loosening up and letting her choose the topics that she wanted and how long we studied them. Her first choice was butterflies. And what a blast that was because she WANTED to learn it. Thus, began our adventure to unschooling.
Unit Studies worked for years. I know she gained knowledge from them and had lots of fun. I am not sure, however, in what way all the formal work at such an early age effected her. Should I have allowed for more free play and not made it so much about learning formally? Or was that play for her as well as learning? And what would she have learned instead, had she been allowed to just play? Ha. Maybe I am over exaggerating the amount of formal work we did.
By the time she was 4, I was determined to be a relaxed homeschooler and just write out my own curriculum that we would follow loosely. "This is not exactly like unschooling. Unschooling is for lazy Moms. We are just extremely relaxed. You could call it unschooling, but it is not radical for sure." I was very confident in my choice and couldn't quit patting myself on the back for doing all my research early on.
It didn't become a fight until she turned 5. I couldn't stand the thought of Samantha being "behind." I couldn't stand the thought that people might think badly of us-because we are homeschoolers-if we didn't teach formally and only on her grade level. It was enough to drive a woman mad. And I took out my madness on S, forcing her to read easy readers every day and repeat math facts as fast as she could. (Not quite the relaxed schooling I had in mind.) I had heard of homeschool burnout before, but never had I thought it would come so soon. "If this is what homeschooled is about, I don't want any part of it," I thought. (And I'm sure S thought that too!) Of course that is a guilty thought no homeschooling Mom wants to admit she has had, but I had it. So we took a break and soon I realized how much she was learning while I was recooping.
And then my mind turned to those dirty, stinkin', smelly, rotten, no good unschoolers and their blissful outlook on life. How they looked at everything with a new light and their children taught themselves things without fighting. They learned about real life things and not superficial stuff. No strict schedules to adhere to. No standards to follow. No forcing them to learn. But they were still learning! They were...free! I was jealous of those dirty, stinkin', smelly, rotten, no good parents and their radical unschooling life. And I'd had it with mine, so for the next 6 months I struggled to adopt that lifestyle, once and for all. I became one of those dirty, stinkin', smelly, rotten, no good unschooling parents and I wouldn't have it any other way. (And neither would S!)
I recently posted this post featuring my last battle within. I hope anybody who visits my blog and is in need of unschooling encouragement, receives what they are needing. I know that in my times of doubt, it was good to get some reassurance from SOMEONE, even a stranger on the Internet, who has been there, done that, and won the war.
This is our story. What is yours?
Friday, June 27, 2014
The War Has Been Won
I am pretty sure everybody but my dear SIL, Brandi, is getting tired of reading me rant about unschooling, but that's okay. This is my rant space. And honestly, I expect this to be my last battle within. I have slowly been working on it, and I think we have reached the last battle...I won. I won...So I am going to rant or reason, if you will, just for a bit, then post an update on S. Feel free to skip rant.
I was rereading my most recent blog post on my argument for homeschool/unschool. I wanted to proof it, because what is the point in arguing she can get a great education that way if I look like I can't even spell. Quoting one of the paragraphs listed under, "How do you know your child will learn what they need to learn?" (a commonly asked question when people find out we stopped following the standards so rigidly. We would completely, but I have to know for her "grade placement on paper.") Anyway, here it is...
"Here is a thought. Given a supportive, loving environment, children learn all they need to know before school age without or with minimal assistance. They learn to walk, talk, and sometimes sing their ABCs or even read. Until the last few years, preschools were seen as unnecessary. Children were simply allowed to play...until age 5 when they go to school...until age 18...Then after age 18 we leave them on their own to decide what they want to do in life. They need to learn what is necessesary for their career of choice, weather it be in the medical profession, technical profession, a skilled trade, or even a stay at home mom. They learn to be married, have children, travel, whatever it is they want to do, but they learn it by choice and they find the resources or they learn on their own. What happens between the ages of 5 and 18 that makes us not trust children to learn what they need to learn?"
And then it hit me...What is it exactly that school was preparing me for? What is it that I needed to know for my future that it took 13 years to learn it? Why is it that teachers could never answer the question, "When will I need this later on?" You could argue that you need it for college, but in all honesty, you learn the exact same things IN college. Why learn them twice? You don't take Algebra III as your first math class in college. No, you have pre reqs., and those consist of Algebra I and Algebra II. And really there isn't much prior knowledge required. All the explanations are right there in the text, as long as you have knowledge of very basic math. Not to mention, that only a percentage of people go to college because they WANT to go to college. Many don't want to disappoint family or they just go because that is "the next step." And most of those people don't even graduate, despite all their former schooling. So why are we ALL learning the same stuff? Interesting thought."
Not convinced? I wasn't either. So I continued to read and saw the list of things we do after we graduate. Some go to college. But whatever they do, they prepare for a career, weather it is conventional career, an entrepreneurial career, or staying at home career. They have to learn skills, skills we weren't taught in school. Many people learn it without coercion because it is something they want. Many learn without formal teaching. They research and they DO. I have learned how to be a stay at home Mom. I have learned ALL about homeschooling. I have learned SO MUCH about gardening. I have even done all the research about backpacking, which we enjoy so much. I have learned what gear to pack, and how. I know what areas you can camp and how far in we should hike, what we need around us in order to make the hike/camp easier. And the list could go on about that. I have learned about couponing and bargain finding. I have learned to cook. Not to mention I have learned about alternative medicines. And I am still learning...Okay. I will stop there. You get the picture. So I am thinking. Thinking. What did I learn in school that helped me to get where I am today? What were the pre reqs. if you will, to learning these things. Reading. Basic math. Hm. Now I am stumped. But I learned those things in Kindergarten and 1st grade. I could have taught myself that stuff, with maybe some parental guidance. So where does that leave me? Pissed. That's where. What was I doing all that time? What do I even remember that has helped me throughout the last 5 years? And aren't I going to slowly forget it as I grow older? I have met many people who tell me, "Oh. I haven't been in school for 10 years, I don't remember." But what? I was in school for 13! What do you mean I won't remember any of it in 5 more years?
Okay. So I realize that what I have been preaching this whole time makes even more sense than it used to. Allow children to play. Allow them to explore while they are young and they will learn. They will learn from each other. They will learn by listening to adult conversation. They will learn by seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, DOING. Children will take interest in things and just go with them. And they may not go on that subject very long, but it will stick with them or it will lead them to a new interest. And before you know it, they have obtained all the necessary skills, on their own, to do whatever it is they want to do. One day they may not be reading. And the next they might be gobbling up a book on "How To Draw." Then next thing you know their artistic abilities are soaring. Next think you know they have started their own business selling their drawings and learning about money in order to do that. Then they move on to 3-D models, which sparks an interest in engineering. And then they spend the next year day in and day out, building towns out of model clay. Then they play Roller Coaster Tycoon or Minecraft on the computer sun up to sun down. And then a friend tells them about CAD. So they begin designing things on there. Then as a teenager they get an internship somewhere and that is their life career now. They are happy. They get to work from home and follow their passion at the same time that they can be with their family (assuming that is what this particular child wants in life. Maybe he just wants to travel, and working from home allows it. That would be good too.) Whew! That was a lot, but that is how it should be. I know. I have watched my child go through the beginning steps over the past year. She was practicing drawing. And one moment she couldn't read. Then next moment she could and she was soaring through those How To books. Then she got on the computer and messed around on Minecraft. I just ordered Roller Coaster Tycoon for her...wonder what is next...
My heart has been telling my mind for over a year that unschooling is right for us. Unschooling does not mean her life will be ruined. But I keep hearing that tiny voice inside my head...Her name is Society...and it kept saying, "You are a lazy Mom." "Your child will fail." "You are ruining her forever!" But as this "school year" draws to a close, I have completely stomped that fire out. Now all that is left is a few embers, but I don't expect them to catch flame again anytime soon. For I have made the connection from my heart to my mind that this is the life we will live, and we will live it guilt free. (Who knew writing that letter would help me to convince myself? Ha! Too funny.)
Update On S: Now it is update time. S has been spending so much time playing lately! I watch my brother on school breaks and that gives her plenty of opportunity for unstructured, unsupervised play! I can hear them playing accross the house. (Of course she doesn't realize that.) I can hear them making up games and negotiating rules, trying to keep each other happy. They argue and they figure out solutions. They imagine and play different roles. They innovate together. Most recently they came in to request use of one of my baskets I use for decoration. I did not question, as I could see the creative juices flowing. They headed straight outside and collected all sorts of natural materials to construct a fairy house. They problem solved when they couldn't get the roof right. They preplanned all the extras they wanted to add, then estimated how many of each material they would need to make it just right. At one point S estimated 5 rocks, then said, "I think we need 6, so we are 1 short." I let it be known, at the point where they put the play on pause and said to me, "We can't figure out what to use as sleeping bags." that I had a sewing machine with plenty of scrap fabric. We spent the rest of the day learning to sew fairy clothes and pillows, which sparked my interest in attempting another pillow case dress for S, which is going very well! We used the popcorn popper to make some popcorn, which they always love watching and seeing "how it works," and then they had me pretend I was doing a tutorial on how to make a pillowcase dress. They sat through the whole thing and listened intently. Their interest in learning to use the sewing machine peaked after being allowed to play with it in another room, free to do whatever they wanted with it. I told them if they learned to hand sew well I would teach them the machine. The have been practicing ever sense....It has been a great Summer, the best so far. A good balance between unsupervised play and time together. Time inside and time outside. Time going fun place and exploring and down time. Through all this unstructured (more so than usual) daily learning, S has mastered reading books on her own, reading menus, signs, anything with text really. Money and value has clicked for her. Fractions have clicked for her. Her art has improved. Her understanding of her world has improved. And all the way, it has been fun.
Speaking of fun, we are about half way through Summer break. Most people are about to start preparing for "Back to School" shopping and finding out classes, and in about 6 short weeks, classes in my area will be back in session. Last year we took S to WalMart to "school shop," but quickly found the expenses add up and aren't really worth it for things you aren't going to use. So we may take her to get some art supplies, but for the most part, pencil cases, folders, and the like are wasteful for us. We get 95% of our books from the library, but may take her to McKays to buy some for fun. Last year I also bought academic board games, which will grow with her from US Geography to World Geography, from addition and subtraction, to multiplication, division, fractions, all the way up to Algebra. So no need for more. THIS YEAR, I am collection old computer games for her! Older games were fun. They did focus SOLEY on memorizing, but playing, having fun, and truly understanding and problem solving. So J bought Roller Coaster Tycoon and I am also going to buy Freddi Fish, ZOombinis, Oregon Trail if I can find it, maybe some Reader Rabbit if I can remember the ones I played...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This year is going to be great.
Side Note: I have been adding to her progress report all year-for my files. Oh my! The things we have done, seen, and learned this year! Unbelievable! I cannot finish it until September 1st. (The school year starts September 1st-August 31st for us. So I have to wait to finish it.) I will post it when I am done. It is so hard to believe, after all we have done this year and all she knows, that this Fall would be her first year in school. She would JUST be in Kindergarten! I can't even imagine his things would change for us.
I was rereading my most recent blog post on my argument for homeschool/unschool. I wanted to proof it, because what is the point in arguing she can get a great education that way if I look like I can't even spell. Quoting one of the paragraphs listed under, "How do you know your child will learn what they need to learn?" (a commonly asked question when people find out we stopped following the standards so rigidly. We would completely, but I have to know for her "grade placement on paper.") Anyway, here it is...
"Here is a thought. Given a supportive, loving environment, children learn all they need to know before school age without or with minimal assistance. They learn to walk, talk, and sometimes sing their ABCs or even read. Until the last few years, preschools were seen as unnecessary. Children were simply allowed to play...until age 5 when they go to school...until age 18...Then after age 18 we leave them on their own to decide what they want to do in life. They need to learn what is necessesary for their career of choice, weather it be in the medical profession, technical profession, a skilled trade, or even a stay at home mom. They learn to be married, have children, travel, whatever it is they want to do, but they learn it by choice and they find the resources or they learn on their own. What happens between the ages of 5 and 18 that makes us not trust children to learn what they need to learn?"
And then it hit me...What is it exactly that school was preparing me for? What is it that I needed to know for my future that it took 13 years to learn it? Why is it that teachers could never answer the question, "When will I need this later on?" You could argue that you need it for college, but in all honesty, you learn the exact same things IN college. Why learn them twice? You don't take Algebra III as your first math class in college. No, you have pre reqs., and those consist of Algebra I and Algebra II. And really there isn't much prior knowledge required. All the explanations are right there in the text, as long as you have knowledge of very basic math. Not to mention, that only a percentage of people go to college because they WANT to go to college. Many don't want to disappoint family or they just go because that is "the next step." And most of those people don't even graduate, despite all their former schooling. So why are we ALL learning the same stuff? Interesting thought."
Not convinced? I wasn't either. So I continued to read and saw the list of things we do after we graduate. Some go to college. But whatever they do, they prepare for a career, weather it is conventional career, an entrepreneurial career, or staying at home career. They have to learn skills, skills we weren't taught in school. Many people learn it without coercion because it is something they want. Many learn without formal teaching. They research and they DO. I have learned how to be a stay at home Mom. I have learned ALL about homeschooling. I have learned SO MUCH about gardening. I have even done all the research about backpacking, which we enjoy so much. I have learned what gear to pack, and how. I know what areas you can camp and how far in we should hike, what we need around us in order to make the hike/camp easier. And the list could go on about that. I have learned about couponing and bargain finding. I have learned to cook. Not to mention I have learned about alternative medicines. And I am still learning...Okay. I will stop there. You get the picture. So I am thinking. Thinking. What did I learn in school that helped me to get where I am today? What were the pre reqs. if you will, to learning these things. Reading. Basic math. Hm. Now I am stumped. But I learned those things in Kindergarten and 1st grade. I could have taught myself that stuff, with maybe some parental guidance. So where does that leave me? Pissed. That's where. What was I doing all that time? What do I even remember that has helped me throughout the last 5 years? And aren't I going to slowly forget it as I grow older? I have met many people who tell me, "Oh. I haven't been in school for 10 years, I don't remember." But what? I was in school for 13! What do you mean I won't remember any of it in 5 more years?
Okay. So I realize that what I have been preaching this whole time makes even more sense than it used to. Allow children to play. Allow them to explore while they are young and they will learn. They will learn from each other. They will learn by listening to adult conversation. They will learn by seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, DOING. Children will take interest in things and just go with them. And they may not go on that subject very long, but it will stick with them or it will lead them to a new interest. And before you know it, they have obtained all the necessary skills, on their own, to do whatever it is they want to do. One day they may not be reading. And the next they might be gobbling up a book on "How To Draw." Then next thing you know their artistic abilities are soaring. Next think you know they have started their own business selling their drawings and learning about money in order to do that. Then they move on to 3-D models, which sparks an interest in engineering. And then they spend the next year day in and day out, building towns out of model clay. Then they play Roller Coaster Tycoon or Minecraft on the computer sun up to sun down. And then a friend tells them about CAD. So they begin designing things on there. Then as a teenager they get an internship somewhere and that is their life career now. They are happy. They get to work from home and follow their passion at the same time that they can be with their family (assuming that is what this particular child wants in life. Maybe he just wants to travel, and working from home allows it. That would be good too.) Whew! That was a lot, but that is how it should be. I know. I have watched my child go through the beginning steps over the past year. She was practicing drawing. And one moment she couldn't read. Then next moment she could and she was soaring through those How To books. Then she got on the computer and messed around on Minecraft. I just ordered Roller Coaster Tycoon for her...wonder what is next...
My heart has been telling my mind for over a year that unschooling is right for us. Unschooling does not mean her life will be ruined. But I keep hearing that tiny voice inside my head...Her name is Society...and it kept saying, "You are a lazy Mom." "Your child will fail." "You are ruining her forever!" But as this "school year" draws to a close, I have completely stomped that fire out. Now all that is left is a few embers, but I don't expect them to catch flame again anytime soon. For I have made the connection from my heart to my mind that this is the life we will live, and we will live it guilt free. (Who knew writing that letter would help me to convince myself? Ha! Too funny.)
Update On S: Now it is update time. S has been spending so much time playing lately! I watch my brother on school breaks and that gives her plenty of opportunity for unstructured, unsupervised play! I can hear them playing accross the house. (Of course she doesn't realize that.) I can hear them making up games and negotiating rules, trying to keep each other happy. They argue and they figure out solutions. They imagine and play different roles. They innovate together. Most recently they came in to request use of one of my baskets I use for decoration. I did not question, as I could see the creative juices flowing. They headed straight outside and collected all sorts of natural materials to construct a fairy house. They problem solved when they couldn't get the roof right. They preplanned all the extras they wanted to add, then estimated how many of each material they would need to make it just right. At one point S estimated 5 rocks, then said, "I think we need 6, so we are 1 short." I let it be known, at the point where they put the play on pause and said to me, "We can't figure out what to use as sleeping bags." that I had a sewing machine with plenty of scrap fabric. We spent the rest of the day learning to sew fairy clothes and pillows, which sparked my interest in attempting another pillow case dress for S, which is going very well! We used the popcorn popper to make some popcorn, which they always love watching and seeing "how it works," and then they had me pretend I was doing a tutorial on how to make a pillowcase dress. They sat through the whole thing and listened intently. Their interest in learning to use the sewing machine peaked after being allowed to play with it in another room, free to do whatever they wanted with it. I told them if they learned to hand sew well I would teach them the machine. The have been practicing ever sense....It has been a great Summer, the best so far. A good balance between unsupervised play and time together. Time inside and time outside. Time going fun place and exploring and down time. Through all this unstructured (more so than usual) daily learning, S has mastered reading books on her own, reading menus, signs, anything with text really. Money and value has clicked for her. Fractions have clicked for her. Her art has improved. Her understanding of her world has improved. And all the way, it has been fun.
Speaking of fun, we are about half way through Summer break. Most people are about to start preparing for "Back to School" shopping and finding out classes, and in about 6 short weeks, classes in my area will be back in session. Last year we took S to WalMart to "school shop," but quickly found the expenses add up and aren't really worth it for things you aren't going to use. So we may take her to get some art supplies, but for the most part, pencil cases, folders, and the like are wasteful for us. We get 95% of our books from the library, but may take her to McKays to buy some for fun. Last year I also bought academic board games, which will grow with her from US Geography to World Geography, from addition and subtraction, to multiplication, division, fractions, all the way up to Algebra. So no need for more. THIS YEAR, I am collection old computer games for her! Older games were fun. They did focus SOLEY on memorizing, but playing, having fun, and truly understanding and problem solving. So J bought Roller Coaster Tycoon and I am also going to buy Freddi Fish, ZOombinis, Oregon Trail if I can find it, maybe some Reader Rabbit if I can remember the ones I played...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This year is going to be great.
Side Note: I have been adding to her progress report all year-for my files. Oh my! The things we have done, seen, and learned this year! Unbelievable! I cannot finish it until September 1st. (The school year starts September 1st-August 31st for us. So I have to wait to finish it.) I will post it when I am done. It is so hard to believe, after all we have done this year and all she knows, that this Fall would be her first year in school. She would JUST be in Kindergarten! I can't even imagine his things would change for us.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
For People Who Speak Out of Ignorance
Before reading, it must be said, this was not written toward anybody in particular, only as something I can pull out of my purse in the case that someone hounds me about how we school. I understand the concern, but I am tired from attempting to defend it. With that said, I am defending homeschooled for MY family. Not yours. Not the neighbors. Not for anybody else but us. Everyone has their reasons for choosing what they choose, and as long as it works for your family, I applaud you for choosing something that works. That is all...
I have prepared this list in an event, such as this one, where I am asked to defend our reasoning for homeschool, I can supply this as opposed to debating all night long. Once you read the list and finish your research, I will gladly get back with you to answer any questions. Thank You.
Why We Homeschool:
Aside from typical reasons most people homeschool, ie the fact that there is much less wasted time, keeping children away from peer pressure, the schedules don't work right with our family, etc. etc. Here are our deeper reasons for homeschooling-otherwise the list would go on all day:
Why NOT School-For Our Family:
FAQs About Unschooling:
More often than questions about homeschooling itself, I get asked question about our style of homeschooling, unschooling. Here are a few questions we are commonly asked.
What is unschooling?:
Simply put, unschooling is a practice in which you throw out everything that doesn't work and use what does. Many times that means throwing out the textbooks and worksheets and getting down and dirty digging in the dirt for "ancient artifacts" or even spending the afternoon on the couch reading an entire chapter book about Clara Barton-together. Unschooling means allowing your child to lead so that they will love what they are learning, remember what they are learning, and pick up all the skills they need to continue learning as they grow. (This includes reading, researching, and making connections-things they spend many years teaching in schools, things that don't really need to be TAUGHT at all.)
Is it legal?
Of course it is! Georgia's state laws do not require a particular curriculum or style, just a requirement to cover the core subjects, which we do in a non formal way. We read books (reading), play computer games (math and reading), go to museums (history and science), parks (science), and do a variety of studies, experiments, and activities.
How do you know your child will learn everything they need to learn?
I don't. Because I don't know everything she will need to know as an adult. Most of us don't exit school knowing all we need to know for the future. We really only retain the basics. And the rest we learn as we go. Learning is a whole life venture, and we should learn what we want to learn so that we are enjoying ourselves and when it comes to something we need to learn, we will know how to learn it. As a child, I never learned to cook or garden in school or even at home. But now that I am a Mom who is interested in organic foods and health, I have had to set out and learn things on my own in my own time and in my own way. On a related note, Most of the things we learn in school are completely unecessary. When was the last time that you had to use your knowledge of prepositions that you went over in school...every...single...year? And say you have used that knowledge regularly, for your job, couldn't it be something that you learn later on, just like other job skills? Or how about your knowledge of the French and Indian War? Do you even remember all the details from those two paragraphs that your textbook had about it? Not everybody needs to know the same thing. So why attempt to group us all together under one curriculum? Each individual will need different skills for the future they choose. We can't possibly teach it all in schools. So why not just teach them how to obtain the information they need?
Why let your child choose what they learn? They won't learn if they don't have to. They would just watch TV and eat junk.
Ah. This is typical of people who have children who are formally schooled-in one way or the other-to say. "Children are not to be trusted." Well, that's because we take away their ability to make decisions. And we take away their love for learning. At the point where children have been told what to do, what to eat, what to wear, what to learn, and when to learn it for so long, they begin to need to be told. And they lose the motivation to do anything beyond what they are told.
Children learn from their parents. A typical child who sees their parent reading regularly for enjoyment will grow up receiving the message that reading is something we do for enjoyment. A child who sees a parent watching TV for 8 hours a day receives the message that watching TV is what we do all day. Children learn from what we do, not what we say. If we teach out children TRUE learning is fun. Children will KNOW learning is fun.
Here is a thought. Given a supportive, loving environment, children learn all they need to know before school age without or with minimal assistance. They learn to walk, talk, and sometimes sing their ABCs or even read. Until the last few years, preschools were seen as unnecessary. Children were simply allowed to play...until age 5 when they go to school...until age 18...Then after age 18 we leave them on their own to decide what they want to do in life. They need to learn what is necessesary for their career of choice, weather it be in the medical profession, technical profession, a skilled trade, or even a stay at home mom. They learn to be married, have children, travel, whatever it is they want to do, but they learn it by choice and they find the resources or they learn on their own. What happens between the ages of 5 and 18 that makes us not trust children to learn what they need to learn?
Why don't you FORCE your child to learn?
It's simple, you can't force ANYBODY to learn. If they don't want to learn, they won't. Many adults remember as a child memorizing those History facts for the test just long enough to regurgitate it on the paper so that they could get an A and make the parents and their teachers happy. So why fight and chance extinguishing that natural, fiery passion for learning when we can just wait until the child is ready and willing?
The "S" Word:
Much to most peoples' surprise, we homeschool FOR the socialization.
Socialization is defined as "the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society." Socialization is NOT the ability to conform, but the ability to interact and live in a world with a variety of different people from different cultures, with different ethnic backgrounds, with different belief systems, and different personalities. What better way to learn to do that than to spend your days out in the community volunteering, seeing friends, going to farmers markets and fruit stands, and just meeting others in our community everywhere we go?
When we look at socialization, we have to decide if the situation is positive or negative? Some situations that would be considered positive would be visiting with relatives and discussing the past, playing pretend at the playground with a friend, discussing with a local farmer the details on processing a cow. Some negative situations would include dealing with bullies, peer pressure, and being placed, without choice, in a large setting where children really aren't allowed to be themselves. While it is true that our children need to know these things go on in our world, they do NOT need to deal with it at the young age that they do. Children need solid foundations on how to deal with things-in our family's case, in a Godly manner-rather than lashing out or even closing up as a result of situations they are not ready for.
How can this POSITIVE socialization be properly attained inside of schools where passing notes and talking are generally not allowed, recesses are slowly being taken out of schools to prepare for "testing," which does not allow interaction, children oftentimes have assigned seats in the lunchroom and are told to talk quietly, if at all, and the only other time that children are allowed to talk is during group activities, which are not always daily, and when they are in a group, they are discussing the assignment? In these cases, children are not learning about each other's differences or similarities. They are not discussing their interests or having a deep intellectual conversation. They are not being social at all. Children are not social until after school hours, when they have time. If we can make friends outside of artificial environments, which we can, what is the issue with homeschooling and socialization?
For our family being around others of both sexes and all ages is extremely important. I do not want my child only playing with other children her age, as that is not what she will encounter in the "real world." She can connect with babies through caring for them. She can connect with children her age through play, learning how to make rules, work together, being the leader, and be lead. She can connect with older children who care for her. She can connect with adults when she has a common interest, such as her love for the Civil War, and she can learn about it from the adult in a non intimidating manner.
Before you ask...
Yes, our child does volunteer regularly in her community. She helps speak out for the Unborn. She sorts donations, files folders, counts money, and babysits younger children at a local pregnancy center. While there she encounters and interacts with people of all ages and backgrounds.
Yes, our child does partake in extra curriculars. She is in Homeschool Gym Kids twice a week, and is part of a support group where she takes field trips, has social get togethers, parties, and other activities that schools do. (So she is not missing out on the fun.)
Yes, my child has friends. She sees her friends regularly, and when they get together they play pretend, play games, go outside, and talk-just like other kids.
Yes, my child can function on a daily basis. She can talk to adults and children alike. It may take her a few minutes to warm up, but that is a personality trait, not a "weird homeschooler trait."
No, my child is not awkward. She wasn't awkward before she turned "school" age and I stayed home with her and there is nothing awkward about her now she is older.
There is so much to say, but I assume by now that my point has been made, I tried to answer what I believe are the most common concerns others have in the most respectful way possible. I appreciate your concern for my family, as most people have what they believe to be legitimate fears. As I said before, if you have any further questions, I will gladly discuss them with you, and thank you for taking the time to read them. If you are interested or know anybody interested in homeschooling, I have listed some Resources below:
Resources:
I have prepared this list in an event, such as this one, where I am asked to defend our reasoning for homeschool, I can supply this as opposed to debating all night long. Once you read the list and finish your research, I will gladly get back with you to answer any questions. Thank You.
Why We Homeschool:
Aside from typical reasons most people homeschool, ie the fact that there is much less wasted time, keeping children away from peer pressure, the schedules don't work right with our family, etc. etc. Here are our deeper reasons for homeschooling-otherwise the list would go on all day:
- We homeschool for many reasons, but the first of those reasons is that our view of education is much different than that of most people. To us, education is a lifelong adventure. But also, education is NOT the typical grammar and quick math facts. An education is what you obtain through learning. Learning is something you do everywhere, all the time. An education is what makes you a well rounded person. A person who can research their own interests. A person who knows what they are talking about, not just rambling off facts they picked up somewhere. A well rounded person knows that they shouldn't believe everything they see, hear, or read, and knows how to decide for themselves what to think. A well rounded person is a happy person who does not just go with the day to day flow of mass society because they are told to. They are innovators, they are risk takers, they are entrepreneurs, even in a non conventional sense. A well rounded person has been many places, talked to many people, and experienced many things. Homeschooling allows the time and energy for these sorts of things. Homeschooling makes it easy to spend an entire week preparing a Lemonade Stand. It allows for a trip to the Appalachian Trail for 2 weeks DURING the school year. It allows for practicing a new skill from sun up to sun down without interruption. Homeschool is essentially-Freedom.
- As an extension of my last point, homeschooling, especially the style we use, commonly called Unschooling, allows for a deeper level of thinking. Unschooling allows a child to dive into their interests as long as they want to. Being in the real world and learning from it gives them a true appreciation for nature, art, history, science, the list goes on. For an example, you can visit this link to my blog: http://immahomeschoolingmama.blogspot.com/2014/05/dear-samantha-i-was-brought-to-tears.html?showComment=1403515682574#c3435599635442357220
Why NOT School-For Our Family:
- Reason #1: Schools are not individualized. There really is no argument there. No school can provide my child with the 1 on 1 attention, specialized "curriculum" that I can provide for her.
- Reason #2: Worksheets. Enough said, but I must go on. Most worksheets are repetitive and they are busy work. Worksheets are mindless. And my child, personally, does not want to do them.
- Reason #3: Homework. Children are coming home with too much homework these days. I have seen it too many times. It is home from school. Homework. Extra curricular activities. Bath. Bed. And if I were going to have to help my child with homework every night, why not homeschool?
- Reason #4: Time. It goes back to the homework. Where is the time for things like playing outdoors, building mud pies and digging up worms? Where is the time to just play in your room for hours and hours? Where is time to see your friends outside of school? Or study the things that truly interest you? These are the things children truly benefit from. Weekends you say? No. No time on weekends. Most kids have ball practice or even more homework, maybe Mom and Dad have to run some errands Saturday or church all day Sunday. Trying to catch up on play can seem impossible for children. For us personally, our weekends are Sunday and Monday because my Husband's work schedule. Sundays we are always camping or out doing something fun, but if she were in school, we wouldn't be able to camp Sunday nights and honestly, she would probably have to be in bed by 8 or 9 which means we couldn't stay out late at the playground or with friends like we enjoy doing regularly. Sometimes we get home at midnight because we have just had a bonfire with some friends and their children. Some days we like to stay at the park until they kick us out. That's okay because there are no real time constraints. Freedom, like I said, freedom to truly experience life without all the hurrying that people do.
- Reason #5: Call me selfish, and many do, but I gave birth to my child and I want to raise her...100%. I don't want another person, her teacher, instilling their values in her. I do not want them telling her what to do or disciplining her because I am not there. I do not want a school dictating what she learns, how she learns it, and when she learns it. And I do not want them dictating our lives outside of school, which many schools attempt to do. I want to see her face light up when she finally gets something. I want to hear the joy in her voice when she talks about all the gardening and composting we have been doing the last few weeks. I want to feel the happiness she feels-with her-when she gets her drawings of dogs just right, to her liking. And it goes the other way, she wants me to be there for her 100%. To learn with her, be excited with her, be the person who gives her feedback, and walks beside her down the path she wants to go. Why would I deny my child that sense of love and security when it is so possible to attain?
- Reason #6: Religion. Go ahead and tell me...They have Christian private schools. But first, two things: If I am going to slave away at some job and spend my whole paycheck on tuition, why not just teach her myself? And two, we view religion in a non traditional way. I want her to ask questions. I want her to interpret the Bible For. Her. Self. I want her to connect with nature on a level that I never knew growing up, because this is the World God entrusted us with, and we need to know more about it than we do. How many schools are going to teach her to do that?
- Reason #7: Lastly, all that being said, schools just cannot provide us with what we need for our family, and I am not willing to sacrifice any of it when I can have it all.
This is just a short list I have compiled, but there are many, many more (also briefly referenced in the Socialization section.).
FAQs About Unschooling:
More often than questions about homeschooling itself, I get asked question about our style of homeschooling, unschooling. Here are a few questions we are commonly asked.
What is unschooling?:
Simply put, unschooling is a practice in which you throw out everything that doesn't work and use what does. Many times that means throwing out the textbooks and worksheets and getting down and dirty digging in the dirt for "ancient artifacts" or even spending the afternoon on the couch reading an entire chapter book about Clara Barton-together. Unschooling means allowing your child to lead so that they will love what they are learning, remember what they are learning, and pick up all the skills they need to continue learning as they grow. (This includes reading, researching, and making connections-things they spend many years teaching in schools, things that don't really need to be TAUGHT at all.)
Is it legal?
Of course it is! Georgia's state laws do not require a particular curriculum or style, just a requirement to cover the core subjects, which we do in a non formal way. We read books (reading), play computer games (math and reading), go to museums (history and science), parks (science), and do a variety of studies, experiments, and activities.
How do you know your child will learn everything they need to learn?
I don't. Because I don't know everything she will need to know as an adult. Most of us don't exit school knowing all we need to know for the future. We really only retain the basics. And the rest we learn as we go. Learning is a whole life venture, and we should learn what we want to learn so that we are enjoying ourselves and when it comes to something we need to learn, we will know how to learn it. As a child, I never learned to cook or garden in school or even at home. But now that I am a Mom who is interested in organic foods and health, I have had to set out and learn things on my own in my own time and in my own way. On a related note, Most of the things we learn in school are completely unecessary. When was the last time that you had to use your knowledge of prepositions that you went over in school...every...single...year? And say you have used that knowledge regularly, for your job, couldn't it be something that you learn later on, just like other job skills? Or how about your knowledge of the French and Indian War? Do you even remember all the details from those two paragraphs that your textbook had about it? Not everybody needs to know the same thing. So why attempt to group us all together under one curriculum? Each individual will need different skills for the future they choose. We can't possibly teach it all in schools. So why not just teach them how to obtain the information they need?
Why let your child choose what they learn? They won't learn if they don't have to. They would just watch TV and eat junk.
Ah. This is typical of people who have children who are formally schooled-in one way or the other-to say. "Children are not to be trusted." Well, that's because we take away their ability to make decisions. And we take away their love for learning. At the point where children have been told what to do, what to eat, what to wear, what to learn, and when to learn it for so long, they begin to need to be told. And they lose the motivation to do anything beyond what they are told.
Children learn from their parents. A typical child who sees their parent reading regularly for enjoyment will grow up receiving the message that reading is something we do for enjoyment. A child who sees a parent watching TV for 8 hours a day receives the message that watching TV is what we do all day. Children learn from what we do, not what we say. If we teach out children TRUE learning is fun. Children will KNOW learning is fun.
Here is a thought. Given a supportive, loving environment, children learn all they need to know before school age without or with minimal assistance. They learn to walk, talk, and sometimes sing their ABCs or even read. Until the last few years, preschools were seen as unnecessary. Children were simply allowed to play...until age 5 when they go to school...until age 18...Then after age 18 we leave them on their own to decide what they want to do in life. They need to learn what is necessesary for their career of choice, weather it be in the medical profession, technical profession, a skilled trade, or even a stay at home mom. They learn to be married, have children, travel, whatever it is they want to do, but they learn it by choice and they find the resources or they learn on their own. What happens between the ages of 5 and 18 that makes us not trust children to learn what they need to learn?
Why don't you FORCE your child to learn?
It's simple, you can't force ANYBODY to learn. If they don't want to learn, they won't. Many adults remember as a child memorizing those History facts for the test just long enough to regurgitate it on the paper so that they could get an A and make the parents and their teachers happy. So why fight and chance extinguishing that natural, fiery passion for learning when we can just wait until the child is ready and willing?
The "S" Word:
Much to most peoples' surprise, we homeschool FOR the socialization.
Socialization is defined as "the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society." Socialization is NOT the ability to conform, but the ability to interact and live in a world with a variety of different people from different cultures, with different ethnic backgrounds, with different belief systems, and different personalities. What better way to learn to do that than to spend your days out in the community volunteering, seeing friends, going to farmers markets and fruit stands, and just meeting others in our community everywhere we go?
When we look at socialization, we have to decide if the situation is positive or negative? Some situations that would be considered positive would be visiting with relatives and discussing the past, playing pretend at the playground with a friend, discussing with a local farmer the details on processing a cow. Some negative situations would include dealing with bullies, peer pressure, and being placed, without choice, in a large setting where children really aren't allowed to be themselves. While it is true that our children need to know these things go on in our world, they do NOT need to deal with it at the young age that they do. Children need solid foundations on how to deal with things-in our family's case, in a Godly manner-rather than lashing out or even closing up as a result of situations they are not ready for.
How can this POSITIVE socialization be properly attained inside of schools where passing notes and talking are generally not allowed, recesses are slowly being taken out of schools to prepare for "testing," which does not allow interaction, children oftentimes have assigned seats in the lunchroom and are told to talk quietly, if at all, and the only other time that children are allowed to talk is during group activities, which are not always daily, and when they are in a group, they are discussing the assignment? In these cases, children are not learning about each other's differences or similarities. They are not discussing their interests or having a deep intellectual conversation. They are not being social at all. Children are not social until after school hours, when they have time. If we can make friends outside of artificial environments, which we can, what is the issue with homeschooling and socialization?
For our family being around others of both sexes and all ages is extremely important. I do not want my child only playing with other children her age, as that is not what she will encounter in the "real world." She can connect with babies through caring for them. She can connect with children her age through play, learning how to make rules, work together, being the leader, and be lead. She can connect with older children who care for her. She can connect with adults when she has a common interest, such as her love for the Civil War, and she can learn about it from the adult in a non intimidating manner.
Before you ask...
Yes, our child does volunteer regularly in her community. She helps speak out for the Unborn. She sorts donations, files folders, counts money, and babysits younger children at a local pregnancy center. While there she encounters and interacts with people of all ages and backgrounds.
Yes, our child does partake in extra curriculars. She is in Homeschool Gym Kids twice a week, and is part of a support group where she takes field trips, has social get togethers, parties, and other activities that schools do. (So she is not missing out on the fun.)
Yes, my child has friends. She sees her friends regularly, and when they get together they play pretend, play games, go outside, and talk-just like other kids.
Yes, my child can function on a daily basis. She can talk to adults and children alike. It may take her a few minutes to warm up, but that is a personality trait, not a "weird homeschooler trait."
No, my child is not awkward. She wasn't awkward before she turned "school" age and I stayed home with her and there is nothing awkward about her now she is older.
There is so much to say, but I assume by now that my point has been made, I tried to answer what I believe are the most common concerns others have in the most respectful way possible. I appreciate your concern for my family, as most people have what they believe to be legitimate fears. As I said before, if you have any further questions, I will gladly discuss them with you, and thank you for taking the time to read them. If you are interested or know anybody interested in homeschooling, I have listed some Resources below:
Resources:
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