St. Louis Unschoolers

[greenmagick]

Anyone else out there an unschooler?

[stlmomof2]

Originally Posted by greenmagick

Anyone else out there an unschooler?

I am at heart! I love John Holt. We do a lot of learning in our home and I think I'm pretty good at following the lead of my children. However, my kids are only 3.5 and 1.5 so I'm not sure if I'm going to unschool or not during the "school years." I don't really like schools in general for all the reasons Holt lists in his books and then we live in St. Louis where the schools suck, even to people who generally like schools. I'm starting to think we'd go broke if we unschooled because it's hard for me to resist spending money on things that are educational--day trips to natury places, books, games, etc. I'm curious about who will respond here.

[greenmagick]

Well, My children are only 3.5 and 22 months I am sure we will at least start out this way. I plan on unschooling their entire school years, but we will take each day as it comes

About the $$ - well, at least there are a lot of free resources as well

[jrcronewillis]

Hi there,
I don't know if you've checked this out, but the St. Louis Homeschool Network has a great variety of homeschoolers, including unschoolers. It's a pretty remarkable institution which has been around for decades and has 2nd generation homeschoolers.
Here's the website: www.stlouishomeschoolnetwork.org

[stlmomof2]

Neat website. Do you know which of those groups lean more toward unschooling?

[Pattyla]

We basically unschool. I'm not too strict about it though. I am doing the bob books to help dd learn to read and have a math cirriculum (if I would just use it.)

My ODD will be going to Dayspring in the fall for the enrichment day. (ballet, music, art).

I doubt radical unschoolers would claim me but I also doubt anyone else would either. Every time someone asks us what cirriculum we are following or when we find time to do school I end up looking kinda blank. School is what we do all day every day. The hard part right now is getting my dd to see it that way. All our cultures propaganda for school has her confused.

[stlmomof2]

We do Bob Books, too. I ordered some and showed them to her and said, "Look at these. Let's read some of these." She was excited about them and suggests reading them every day or two. When she's obviously tired of them or bored, I say, "Okay, let's do something else." Sometimes she'll say, "I'm tired of this," and I'll say, "Okay, just finish this one page and we'll leave off here." That's about as insistent as I get about stuff like that and I think that's in keeping with the spirit of unschooling. The other day we were doing math and she wanted to draw horses instead and that was fine with me. She tends to be really into some skill for a few weeks and then she puts it down for awhile and then picks it up again. It's hard for me to imagine her in school where there are all of these artificial starting and ending times ("That's all for spelling and now we'll get out our math books and turn to page...") and kids can't pursue their own interests in their own ways. I find myself wondering at what age are kids able to be pushed into focussing their mental energy on what other people (e.g. teachers) tell them to focus on.

[MsBlack]

Originally Posted by Pattyla

I doubt radical unschoolers would claim me but I also doubt anyone else would either. Every time someone asks us what cirriculum we are following or when we find time to do school I end up looking kinda blank. School is what we do all day every day. The hard part right now is getting my dd to see it that way. All our cultures propaganda for school has her confused.

Yup, coulda said that myself.

Thanks for posting that St L area homeschool link, jrcrone--great! (does jrcrone stand for Jr. Crone?)

We are in Southern IL at present, but looking to move a lot closer to the metro area this fall--and definitely have been hoping to hook up with other unschoolers. Wonderful to have a link to whose out there!

Greenmagick....I'm in town a LOT lately, and that is not going to stop anytime soon (YAY). So gimme a holler, wouldja? Let's put a picnic or something together....

[greenmagick]

[QUOTE=MsBlack;14127439
Greenmagick....I'm in town a LOT lately, and that is not going to stop anytime soon (YAY). So gimme a holler, wouldja? Let's put a picnic or something together....[/QUOTE]

I was just thinking of emailing you!!!! Harvested a bunch of basil, that must be why

[Tobeborn]

Just giving a little to this thread! I have an almost 4 year old, and a 5 month old, going to be unschooling, well, already unschooling really

[Dar]

And I have a 16 year old who has been unschooled until now... but she's off to Russia for the next 9 months, where she'll actually be going to high school.

We've only lived in St. Louis for a year (actually, today is exactly one year) so we're not really "in" with the local homeschool community... well, my daughter is more than I am, I think. I did join a couple of email lists for groups that seems to be in our general area and also offered at least some stuff for teens. My impression has been that homeschoolers here are more religious and less unschooly than anywhere else we've lived (various places in California, Arizona, and Kansas/Kansas City) but there are some, and I may have missed a lot, too.

[gratefulmomma]

We are unschoolers! We recently moved to St. Charles from New Orleans. We have a 5 year old son and 18 mo old daughter. I am happy to have found this thread as it has been difficult for me to find other USers here. We are always interested in meeting other unschoolers if anyone wants to get together.


Stacey

[SquishyMommy1]

We are unschoolers....we recently moved from Chicago to St Peters. I have 3 kids (so far) Landen (almost 6) Gage (almost 4) and Seven (17 months)

[greenmagick]

:

Maybe we should plan a get together

I thought about starting an US in stl group on yahoo....maybe I will.

[MsBlack]

You go, greenmagick! Let's find the unschoolers!

[Tobeborn]

yes to the yahoo group! woo-hoo! :

[greenmagick]

I ry to get one set up later today....

hopefully it will be more than me, you and msblack

[crunchy_mama]

Just happened to see this- unfortunately I don't live in St. Louis but we like to visit when we have the funds(we are about 2-2.5 hrs away depending on where in st. louis we go). We started hs'ing last year, very loosely. I have a just turned 5 y.o. and 2 y.o. (and one to come in Nov). We don't fit in w/ radical unschooling either but I have no curriculum or plans to buy any although I am always trying to get resources when I can.

I like a lot of different philosophies but we kind of take what we want from wherever. I want to do more nature study - I think going outside and just being is so good and it just naturally lends itself to learning w/out having to force it. We do have a HWT book- but I haven't taught it to him- some days he likes to look at it and takes a pen and paper and just practices on his own. He likes to be self-directed.

We have a group here but it is so cliquey plus everyone that is involved in the group seem to be the school at home type and I have yet to meet anyone that doesn't use ABeka. Even if I was going to do a curriculum that would be about last on my list- one step above BJU- for many, many reasons.

Anyway- I would love to visit a group up there sometime that was more inclusive. Down here one of the ladies in group acted like I was a leper when I had said I had a hb.

And Ms. Black if you move that way I would be glad to see you as well- I think that sounds like a great idea

[Tobeborn]

I definitely think that any group we did start could also be called eclectic homeschooling or something, I don't consider myself a radical unschooler. I want my boys to lead the way with their interests, and I'm not against using any resources we can to learn/ Curriculum or classes would be great if the kids wanted to do them. We don't plan on doing "school at home", and it would be great to have a place to go to post about what we're doing, what we're interested in. Set up a last minute science center trip or whatever. Seems like a lot of us have kids around the same age, that's great!

[darkviolets]

Just found this thread and am very happy I did. We're moving back to St. Louis in about 2 months and would be super happy to find other unschoolers to hang out with.

My kids are girl 10, boy 7, and boy 10 months and we'll be living in North County.