Perhaps it is merely a difference between children. I learned a great deal from my voracious reading as a child. I learned to read at a very young age, and my reading was quite varied. My father told the story of how he found me at age 5 reading Reader's Digest, and upon asking me what I was reading, I informed him that I was reading about a soldier in Vietnam behind enemy lines. When I see a movie I like, I promptly go read the book, if I haven't read it already. (Yes Kate, I've actually read The Princess Bride!)
However, my two children are different. The Scientist was also an early reader, and is still a voracious one. However, she doesn't seem able to pick up as much when she reads. I am still laboring to teach her proper grammar and punctuation, for example, and this, at least for me, requires worksheets and practice to make the point. She struggles over writing assignments, and while they are fine when she does complete them, the grammar and punctuation is still an issue after a few years of writing. Thus the need I feel to bolster her writing with language workbooks.
Also, she doesn't seem to have much "curiosity." She loves to read but doesn't have a desire to find out more about what she's read, or to explore much on her own. If I didn't direct her schooling, she'd probably stick to Saddle Club books and playing with her hamster. How do you know she will develop an interest for more later, and isn't it important to build the foundation while she's still young?
Wildchild is requiring even more work, as she dislikes reading, period. She is capable of doing it; she just dislikes it, by her own admittance. I am having to coax her with phonics exercises and viewings of Between the Lions to get her to read at all. I know she can, and so I am doing everything possible to make it easier for her. I've heard many moms say that kids learn at their own pace, but if reading is the basis for so much of learning, she'd best learn to do it well for herself (she's eight and doing mostly "second grade" level work.) And Wildchild has even less of a spirit of inquiry than her sister.
I don't feel guilt for my schooling choices, but I've noticed that "unschooling" moms are mainly ones that seem to wax rhapsodic about their schooling choices, so maybe I'm wondering if I'm missing out on something. :) Also, I'd like to know what kinds of books you choose. Or do the kids choose?? Grab a drinkie and chat with me!
16 comments:
I'm fascinated to read this. A couple of years ago I was working at a yarn shop on weekends where the proprietor was a devout proponent of "unschooling". She had a 14-year-old girl who was appallingly uneducated in any sense of the word that means anything to me -- she didn't know who Charles Dickens was, for example -- so it tainted my understanding of the terms. I look forward to a long discussion about this with you, here and perhaps at JMBM, too!
The beauty of homeschooling is choice. What works for one family won't work for another, and vice versa.
Unschooling makes me nervous, since I'm a product of structured public ed, but I understand the principles behind it.
It "reads" to me that you have a handle on what works with your children, and it may change from year to year. My oldest homeschooler works well with day ed (English all day Monday, Math all day Tuesday, Science all day Wednesday, etc.) because she has trouble switching from subject to subject. My son gets bored, and into trouble if we do that with him...but he is good at independent scheduling, with limits. He can pick what he wants to do and in whichever order works for that day...he just has to have it all done by the end of the week.
Bottom line, if it works for you, and it isn't illegal, immoral, or contrary to the Word of God...go for it!
I'm such unschoolers would love to tell you about it at the Education, Homeschooling, & Unschooling Forums.
Personally, I think public schools do more harm than good.
Well, I do homeschooling. Just, very structured homeschooling.
Barb, I also think you have a good handle on what works for your girls and you. That is so important. I think the key to any of our home-schooling or life in general is balance and moderation. When I taught reading in our public schools here for a few years, we were really pushing whole language, unstructured reading, and less phonics, etc. It was too extreme. I didn't like it as well. I do not know a lot about unschooling, but I do think there is something good to be said with the old fashioned way of teaching with some worksheets, writing, etc. Teaching our children and motivating them is just hard work, rewarding but hard. At least that is how I see it. I am sure that as you continue to pray about it, Christ will continue to lead you in the way
He wants you to go. I had to pretty much throw a lot of what I had learned in teaching children out the door when I started home-schooling Angus. It was a very long process of learning new techniques, etc. However, it has been a great experience.
And, as you mentioned, each child learns at his or her own pace. There used to be a time when Angus could hardly write anything. Now he writes essays, term papers, etc. He has really blossomed into a great writer. It just takes time. It will happen! I bet you are doing a great job!! :)
Great post and you covered a lot of what I am have questioning lately. I, too was AMAZED at the number of homeschooling moms. While I know it's not for me, I am in awe with those who can do it WELL!
Before I homeschooled I had no children and 11 theories. Now I homeschool 11 children and have no theories. ;~)
We do what works best for our family and for each unique child. God provides wisdom, strength, forgiveness, and new hope daily!
Our grown children take care to thank us often for educating them at home. They thrived (throve?!) on structure with lots of freedom and flexibility.
You would like our homeschool center ice skating events. Last week the kiddos (ages 4-18) put on a spontaneous ice musical!
Hey there.
I'm one of those crazy homeschoolers that doesn't do structured lessons with the kiddos.
Unschooling, like homeschooling, comes in many flavors. And, it's more of an educational philosophy than a practice. We do lots and LOTS of workbooks. Cuz, well, we like to.
I write a lot about unschooling and different ideas about thinking about education over at my blog. Basically, I don't believe there's one right way to learn. That there's many ways, and it's not up to me to decide for my children how they learn. Even if I did, they are the ones in control of learning anyway.
What I'm in charge of is giving them the opportunity to live the most enriched and fulfilled life as possible. Giving them this, they learn a whole heck of a lot. Maybe not exactly what's learned in school, but what they don't know is surely balanced out by all the things they know about that schools don't teach.
BTW, about the Charles Dickens reference - I bet you hands down that if you asked all of the public high school graduates if they actually know who Charles Dickens is and what he wrote, they wouldn't be able to tell you. I know that was just an example, but if that's the kind of things that we look at to decide whether someone is successful and educated... well, I think we're looking in the wrong place.
Thanks for your post. Happy homeschooling, however you choose to do it. :)
To chime in again, mostly because I'm not sure where I come down in this discussion, yes the Dickens point was just an example. On the other hand, I guess I think there are some things that everyone should know - basics, I guess, plus a bunch more if you want to call yourself 'educated'.
I also realize that 'regular' schools are not doing well by any standards, so I'm not saying they're the model. On the other hand, it seems so unlikely that most parents know enough themselves to be able to teach the wide range of subjects that a young person should know. Does every family have a parent who knows calculus and trig? How do homeschooling parents avoid passing on their aversions, like hating to read assigned books? Aren't non-related teachers more likely to have fewer preconceptions and prejudgments?
Also, how do you all deal with the common issues of parent-child tension? One of the benefits of going to school seems to me to be being exposed to other opinions, influences and even pressures than one's own parents.
This is a fascinating subject and I admire homeschooling parents and teachers so much!
I will chime in more later, but I just wanted to pop in and say that in the area of subject range, my husband and I are very blessed. My husband was a Computer Science major in college with a math minor. He was a teaching assistant in his high school chemistry class.
On the other hand, I majored in German and minored in Spanish and Communications in college. I love reading books on history. I studied piano, although not until college. I'm interested in all kinds of music. (My husband is tone deaf.)
My husband and I think completely differently, and the math concepts I was halfway good at in high school -geometry (especially proofs) and algebra - are the ones my husband dislikes. He prefers to work with numbers that are not real. We're total opposites at the way we approach things, so we have two different ways of helping our kids approach things; one will probably work better for them.
We're also supplementing our daughters education with outside teaching, much in the way any parents do. My eldest daughter has taken piano lessons and voice lessons, is taking gymnastics, and will be taking horseback riding lessons. My youngest daughter has taken gymnastics and is taking ballet. As you might notice on my blog, my daughters and I also enjoy ice skating.
As far as the highly advanced subjects, a lot of parents can take advantage of local community colleges for subjects such as say, chemistry, where one can work with the test tubes and chemicals that may be hard to work with or even acquire for home use. That way, kids can also get college credits at the same time, which can be very helpful, not to mention money-saving, down the road.
Lastly (for now), I think most parents are at the very least capable of homeschooling through the grade school and middle school level. If there's any sort of problem, there are very good textbooks and even computer programs out there to walk students through subjects easily and succinctly. Once high school arrives, many homeschooling parents do send the kids to a local school, public, private or parochial. But as I just stated above, there are still a myriad of options out there even for that.
hello barb
i am rather late to this discussion, probably cos i've been *partying* so hard lol
we've tried almost every homeschooling approach (have been "offically" doing *it* for about twelve years).
i remember almost killing D17 with nine subjects when he was about eight.
for me, a more unschooly approach really suits my personality, and yes, i read *to* and *with* my kiddos a lot. and that's the basis of our education. and making cakes. and going to the beach.
i'm not really a *radical unschooler* tho, cos i think of myself as the parent, and there is some direction from me, especially if the kiddos are "at a loose end".. and i do like a tidy-ish house *grin*...
i don't like to put myself in a box over a home ed approach tho, cos that's a bit stifling. and as you know, our babes go straight from home to school *gasp* at around 13 years... so that's kinda the antithesis of unschooling: but, hey, it's been a fab balance for our family so far.
i like what tammy takahashi said. i think i'll hop over to her blog and have a wee squizz.
gosh, a few more swirling thoughts from moi:
to be honest, i find i have to give a lot of energy to *make* my kiddos write stuff in books... maybe i'm just less confrontational these days?? yes, i think i prefer self-motivated learning, where the kiddos just swing through the trees... but do i provide learning experiences?? yes, we see lots of interesting people and talk about tons of cool stuff.
i guess i'd say that learning here is *informal*.
gosh i do ramble.
told ya it was swirling...
Wow - everyone here is so enthuasiastic about teaching and that's certainly one of the most important ingredients of success, whether in regular schools or at home. But what do homeschooling parents do when a child doesn't want to learn something basic and important (reading, for example)? Or is sullen and sassy? Or has learning problems?
Well, my youngest daughter is not really interested in learning how to read. To be honest, right now she would rather just do ballet or gymnastics or anything physical like that, rather than any mental learning.
I think for the most part, it's just having a good relationship with the child that helps. If your child is sullen or sassy with you the parent, your problems might go beyond homeschooling. In my daughter's case, I have explained to her why she needs to learn, and that learning is her job, just like her daddy goes to his job everyday, and I teach them, clean house, etc. She also knows that she would be going to some sort of school if she was not homeschooled, so there's no getting out of it.
I've also tried to take my time with her. That's an advantage of homeschooling. When she can't think straight, it's easy to take a break, and either go to something else or have her run around outside for a bit, or whatever. She might face more problems in a traditional school setting with her lack of enthusiasm about learning.
As far as learning problems, I couldn't say anything to that. Are we talking Down's syndrome, or autism, or something else? I don't really know anyone off the top of my head who has to deal with this issue. Maybe if I do come across someone, I will post a link.
good question, anon.
love your response, barb.
i guess it could be that the child is simply not *ready* to read etc... for example. my experience with my first two children was that i *taught* them to read. i showed flashcards, helped them *sound out* words etc... it was quite a lot of work on my part. the younget three have pretty much learned by osmosis: they taught themselves. it does help that our house is full of books, we spend lots of time reading, the older kids have great enthusiasm for reading etc.
funny, my S9 has just called out to me: "hey mum, do i have to do this multiplication?? it's really hard."
(maths is the only textbook we use: hubby is a maths teacher lol) so, i think i'll sign off and go and do it *with* him.
actually I think we’ll get the popcorn out and make little piles of fours etc
see ya.......
oh, i meant to say that there's a ton of good stuff here
which may help to define unschooling. it's rather rabid in parts, but i love the way she values children. lots of gems here.
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