Tuesday, August 2, 2011

unSchool the begaining

beginning
ok, I'm going to do it!
...I think, if I'm brave enough ;)
I've been feeling the tug for years, but recently the whisper has turned in to a shout. So, I have prayerfully made the decision to try unschooling my children, kind of...
I have been homeschooling (to many types to count) since I was in third grade, now my oldest is starting high school... I don't want anyone doing the math but that gives me 18+ years.
The way that worked the best for me, I mean that I learned the most and retained the best, was unschooling... only they didn't call it unschooling back then, if I remember right I think they called it neglect...
My oldest is a descent student, although he refuses to spell correctly and his handwriting truly is like chicken scratch, he is bored with school. He has no desire to learn about his school subjects. I would really like to find things that spark his interest.
My 7th grader is different though, she is like me ...it drives me CRAZY... she gets distracted after just a few minutes. She needs a full post (or lots more) to describe her... at this point I need a whole new way of thinking, not just *out of the box* never been in a box is more like it. I'm going to try to get her more opportunities to unschool. I think she will be my most successful unschooler. I am going to start with a math program called Life of Fred, it is a totally different approach to math.

for sample pages:
http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/31samplepages.html

I am also planning to do this course myself, I hope to be able to go through the whole series to the college level work :)

My second grader is my humbler, my challenger,... he'll need his own set of blogs ;) in a lot of ways he is still doing kindergarten work, but I see jumps and sparks in him and have faith that he will do wonderfully.

AND this year I'll have a new school student, my fresh kindergartener, he isn't interested in school at all. I wonder if the baby will learn to read before him. I'll have to be careful not to spoil any love of learning I can eek out of him.


so it begins... I'll keep you posted on my failures (and hopefully my successes)


Changing Education Paradigms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award

2 comments:

  1. the unschooling is working for my 7th grader, I'm doing more of a Waldorf with the younger ones, but my 9th grader we've decided to focus on self governance :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. still making strides... but I struggle with myself more than I do with the kids ;)

    ReplyDelete

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