A group of families striving to provide an exceptional learning environment for their kids, based on their kids' interests and developmental abilities, and a healthy, fruity lifestyle.
Members: 51
Latest Activity: May 13
Started by Mary TG. Last reply by Mangoustine Jan 17. 3 Replies 1 Like
Let's post what a typical unschooling day looks like in your home. Here's mine. I got up a 7:30am and started in on some fruit. The kids play first thing in the morning until about 9. I get my…Continue
Started by Sophia Shanez. Last reply by Sophia Shanez Oct 29, 2012. 5 Replies 0 Likes
I just started unschooling/homeschooling back in march and am in my 3rd year of high school. I'm so worried about college. I want to be able to learn and do whatever I want but I keep thinking about…Continue
Started by Mary TG Sep 5, 2012. 0 Replies 1 Like
What a beautiful day. I'm so thankful my kids were able to enjoy the outdoors for hours today. For unschooling we read an online article about the Curiosity on Mars and watched a video about its…Continue
Started by Mary TG. Last reply by David Costa Aug 14, 2012. 6 Replies 0 Likes
I think on one hand it's harder to have hcrv kids while in a school setting. On the other the hcrv lifestyle makes being at home so much more fun and effective.What are your thoughts?Continue
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Comment by HolisticHealthDetective on February 19, 2012 at 12:43pm We have a 3.5 yr-old and a newborn, so we haven't hit classic school age yet with our faeries. But so far, I have found that my answer to q's thus far depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm mute and don't even reply like the other day when a friend said "Wow, she's almost ready to start school!." I actually didn't even respond; just smiled.
At other times I read something inspirational about unschooling and I get a rebellious mood and start to feel a bit like being an vocal activist--when people make schoolish comments.
When Ana gets to trad. school age, I'd like to embrace fancy yet fitting code word terminology, like "Oh, we do free-range education" or something. I do tend to lean towards the sentiment that has been voiced that the word "un" is part of the turn-off. "Un"assisted birth vs. freebirth; "un"school vs. free-range. That kind of thing.
Here in the US the laws vary state by state. You don't really want to emphasize the unschooling to school officials unless you are really comfortable with the. Just tell them you are homeschooling. They will assume you are using a similar, school-like curriculum. Here in Maine, homeschoolers need to send a letter of intent to homeschool starting at age 6 to the Dept. of Education and the local school superintendent and they just file it. After age 7 you need to have a certified teacher (does not have to be teaching in a school) view a "portfolio" and verify that the student was offered instruction in all the 'essentials', math, language, history, geography, social studies, physical education/health, Maine studies and computer science. The portfolio is very loosely defined and can be verbal, or just samples of what the kid has been working on. I have found an unschooling mother of 4 (whose oldest son now works for NASA as an engineer) who used to be a teacher and now works as a consultant and does homeschool verifications on the side. It costs $30 per kids per year for her to write her little letter and send it to the state. If you're in the US you can check your state laws here http://www.hslda.org/laws/
Ah power struggle!! I had never thought of it on those terms. Absolutely, I'm even thinking that choosing school is the first of many surrenders to the power of the society. Even when I put her in daycare I had this strong feeling that I was selling out. It felt wrong. It felt like selling my soul. What is protocol for letting the government know your child will not be participating? i have a few years yet, but just curious.
I know, it makes no sense for learning to become a power struggle when it can happen without it, in a fun way. And the classroom day is broken up into short chunks of time and the kids don't get a chance to finish something that they're interested in.
Fabulous. I prefer ease to struggle myself, so going with it will have to be something I master, and it doesn't sound too hard to master :)
And the reading and writing comes on it's own....just this morning my 6 year old son wrote messages (phonetically) on a dry erase board for us for about an hour. You could never force him to write at a desk for an hour in school, it would be torture. He wrote stuff like, "I wish you didn't have chickenpox" to his brother and "am I good at spelling" etc. And kept running around the house to us to read his messages. And lately the rage is chess in our house. I'm terrible and they keep getting better!!! Yesterday I lost my queen on the 3rd move, my daughter is crazy with the knights....
Yes!!! The other day somehow we stumbled upon the difference between a helicopter and an airplane and we ended up watching stuff on youtube that allowed her to experience what came upon us. I thought of how painful this same lesson could have been at the seventh hour of a day in school, or the third for that matter. I remember being exhausted and not interested and not paying any attention cause I couldn't. It was over stimulation. They teach us early to be exhasuted from all this information that we ''need'' to know, in order to maintain our unconsciousness so we can assimilate into society and buy and become ''smart''. There is no joy in school, unless you're the ,5% that love to do this stuff at an early age, and sometimes those kids are doing it for all the wrong reasons, because they are not taught about themselves first. They think they are to find themselves through information and somewhere in the distant future I can become. Instead of living this life today they want us to look with them and be lost with them. No thanks, we're good. :)
Allison, I just noticed this quote from you, "Life cannot be taught" and it reminded me how open kids are to learning what interests them, which is most anything they're involved with. The whole concept of adults having to teach children 'how to learn' is ludicrous to me. In any stimulating environment (by this I mean, loving adults, freedom, health, joy) kids are learning all the time. Silly to think they must sit at a desk and do paperwork or sit still to listen to an adult to learn. There are so many other types of learning.
Chris, would you explain a little about what you mean by free schools? I just wasn't sure. thanks.
I don't picture my daughter's life spent in a school. What a waste. Life cannot be taught. Information is not helping anyone right now. We need love. Expecially the batch of new kids. Thank you for starting the group and if there's anything I can do to help, let me know.
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