Too "school" for unschooling? - Page 3

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by lauriem33 

I agree with this. I can see daily that just by living, she is learning. The problem is her own perception of it because it does not look like compartmentalized 50 minute segments broken down into "subjects" of history, math, science, etc... I know that now at 13 she spent more than half her life in public school (age 5-11) and that is going to have an extremely strong effect on her ideas about life and learning. But for how long? 

For several years we were part of a funded homeschooling program which was philosophically very unschooling-like. They recently expanded their programs into secondary education and were very interested in encouraging their adolescent students to really embrace the opportunities for self-determination and following their own bliss. A proportion of these kids had been in school previously. The program encourages such students to create blogs in which to post weekly reflections on their own learning. If kids had writers block, or couldn't think of any interests or anything to write about, the facilitators would give them a bunch of prompts that they could choose from. "Something made me go 'hmmm...' this week was ___, Something that energized me was ____, This week I was surprised by ____, An unexpected conversation I had this week was ___, The song that would make the best soundtrack for my week is ____, etc." Or they would be encouraged to use photos to show what had occupied their interest or made them think. Or use some other medium ... video, audio, cartooning, prezi presentations, whatever.

The idea was that by asking learners to take a little time to actively reflect on what had held their interest over the previous week, they would become more aware of what motivates them, of who they are, of where their interests lie, and more aware and appreciative of their natural learning.

Would something like that appeal to your dd? My kids haven't needed to deschool but even they occasionally enjoy documenting their natural learning as an antidote to the feeling that they have nothing to "show" for their learning, no tidy tick-lists of courses and grades to document that it's happening.

Miranda

[Marsupialmom]

Another possiblity is she is at a stage that her life needs to be compartimentalized: this is learning and this is fun.  Some kids are always this way, my son learns best this way.  I am not saying he never teaches himself things but he is very happy and thrives on structure.   

I loved the idea of unschooling but it was not a match for my oldest child. He could better see his steps, look at his improvement, and see what he learned by having structure.  

We have a friend whose 16 year old child refused to go to school any longer. This child has ADD.  She found having reading, writing, and math structured made her happy.  The rest she has let go as unstructured because this is what her child needs, not necessarily what mama wants for the child.  

Your 13 year old might like the feeling of being able to get work done in 1-2 hours then have her time to herself.  She will not realize she is learning in this time (yet) but in a few years or months she might get it.  13 emotionally and hormonally can be a very hard time.  IMO, it is a "flakey" stage because the mind is so busy with a million things.  My girls did not require the structure my son did early but have loved and thrived on it the starting the preteen years.  They need something "organized" for them because their head is so crazy due to growing.  IMO, it is like when they are 2-3 years old on growing.  Mind and body are growing so fast they need some structure someplace.  Some kids do great with little structures others need more and you should respect your child needs not look at them as failures or as your child is "ruined". 

[Lainie Liberti]

I think you are being intuitive about your child's education. We are unschooling, or road schooling, which we find to the best choice for us.  We are actually taking an extreme approach by backbacking around the world for 8  years, letting the world be my son's classroom.

We've been on the road now for 2 years and there is one thing I know for sure: 

Education happens.

A child learns no matter what.  If a child is engaged, interested and empowered, he or she will learn. Parents, there is no to feel stress over the process, since children are learning from your stressful thoughts. Simply  trust and they will learn.

 

The biggest myth I'd like to dispel about unschooling or in our case, roadschooling,  is  that my son is not getting an education. He is and he is learning exactly what he needs to know, and when he's ready and engaged in learning it and this flows through every other aspect of life.

 

http://www.raisingmiro.com