Tuesday, April 19, 2005
(Someone on a list I'm on asked about unschooling, relaxed schooling, starting out, a typical day, etc. It's one of the posts that led me to start posting on here. I started a reply, but didn't get very far. Here's what I've written so far:)
I'm not entirely sure what we are -- we have definite unschooling tendencies, but I also liked trying out different things, and my sons have taken classes at the Johns Hopkins summer programs, & at Stonehill & Wheaton, and now both take classes at Massasoit. They like taking classes that they pick, that don't have busy work but challenge them, and being with intellectual peers & diverse students. They also both took adaptive phys ed at the public school for awhile with a wonderful teacher -- actually, all 3 of us got to be in the class & had a lot of fun.
I think I had some grandiose plans when my 1st son started homeschooling about the projects he could do (he'd just finished 5th grade). They were based on things he wanted to or was interested in, but he really wasn't into projects. Somethings worked OK -- I remember we had a "Westward, Ho!" project -- my husband had been laid off, so we figured we could go camping for awhile. One math thing we did was to have him figure how much stuff the car trunk could hold (volume) by measuring it & doing the math. And we had him do distances on the map, & mileage & anything else that came along that was useful or involved thinking. And he & his brother (3 years younger), helped a lot with planning the trip (much influenced by the Oregon Trail computer game! It was neat when we we went to Fort Laramie & discovered the pictures of it in the game were actually modeled on it.)
Because my dh & I come from families that see everything as learning opportunities, we haven't done that much different than we would have -- we've just had more time for it. We learned about things they were interested in, & they learned about things we were interested in. I've gotten such a wonderful education over the last 8 years!!!!
After a little time passed, I realized that if I tried to teach him & set expectations, my elder son & I would just bang heads. A lot. But I remembered what one of the really good teachers had said to me at the public school: "If we just get out of his way, DS#1 will learn!" So I tried to do that & he pretty much taught himself.
Then, his little brother decided he wanted to be homeschooled, so we took him out part way through 4th grade. I discovered his learning style was very different from his brother's & he wanted more structure & attention.
I'm not entirely sure what we are -- we have definite unschooling tendencies, but I also liked trying out different things, and my sons have taken classes at the Johns Hopkins summer programs, & at Stonehill & Wheaton, and now both take classes at Massasoit. They like taking classes that they pick, that don't have busy work but challenge them, and being with intellectual peers & diverse students. They also both took adaptive phys ed at the public school for awhile with a wonderful teacher -- actually, all 3 of us got to be in the class & had a lot of fun.
I think I had some grandiose plans when my 1st son started homeschooling about the projects he could do (he'd just finished 5th grade). They were based on things he wanted to or was interested in, but he really wasn't into projects. Somethings worked OK -- I remember we had a "Westward, Ho!" project -- my husband had been laid off, so we figured we could go camping for awhile. One math thing we did was to have him figure how much stuff the car trunk could hold (volume) by measuring it & doing the math. And we had him do distances on the map, & mileage & anything else that came along that was useful or involved thinking. And he & his brother (3 years younger), helped a lot with planning the trip (much influenced by the Oregon Trail computer game! It was neat when we we went to Fort Laramie & discovered the pictures of it in the game were actually modeled on it.)
Because my dh & I come from families that see everything as learning opportunities, we haven't done that much different than we would have -- we've just had more time for it. We learned about things they were interested in, & they learned about things we were interested in. I've gotten such a wonderful education over the last 8 years!!!!
After a little time passed, I realized that if I tried to teach him & set expectations, my elder son & I would just bang heads. A lot. But I remembered what one of the really good teachers had said to me at the public school: "If we just get out of his way, DS#1 will learn!" So I tried to do that & he pretty much taught himself.
Then, his little brother decided he wanted to be homeschooled, so we took him out part way through 4th grade. I discovered his learning style was very different from his brother's & he wanted more structure & attention.
# posted by Xairos @ 5:53 PM 
