27 weeks pregnant, been sick the whole time.....scared my 6y/o is getting behind, help.

[Kailey's mom]

She is in 1st grade, and honestly I haven't been doing much with her due to sickness.  I feel like I'm failing her =(  Despite it all she is reading better, likes to read on the computer etc...but HATES to write still, and her writing is not where a "typical going to school" child's would be at all.  She used to love her workbooks, but now hates them... I haven't been pushing her at all, not really even encouraging because I feel like CRAP.  I have even thought she may be better off in public, which she has NO interest in either.  I know once the baby is born I'll be back on track, IDK, I just feel SO guilty!!

[rightkindofme]

The great thing about unschooling is there isn't truly a set of milestones everyone must meet at the same time. You and your daughter are still very early. I would use this as a time to work on non-"school" non-academic skills. It's ok that she isn't lock-step. That was the point, right?

[moominmamma]

Six-year-olds need good writing skills. When they're in  school. Because it helps the teacher evaluate them.

Your 6-year-old does not need good writing skills. She'll need them by the time she's 16, in order to present herself as mature and capable when accessing resources and opportunities. Keep your eyes on the horizon, not on the ground beneath your feet.

Rather than beating yourself up over all the lovely school-like accomplishments you're not able to prod her through, I would spend a little time helping yourself appreciate what this difficult chapter in your family life is helping her learn. Just guessing here, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is learning these sorts of things:

Human fetal development.

Empathy.

Solving her own boredom.

Helpfulness.

Adapting to someone else's physical and emotional limitations.

Self-sufficiency in activities of daily living.

Nutrition.

Discovering her natural learning style at this point in her development (not workbooks!)

Creativity.

Computer skills.

etc.

Embrace the learning opportunities your lives offer you, rather than bemoaning what's missing. Walk her through making her own grilled cheese sandwich. Take her with you to prenatal appointments. Show her how you can track uterine size measurements, and weight, and use that to gauge mom and baby's health. Look up gastro-intestinal anatomy and physiology with her. Ask her to show you something neat she's found or learned on the computer lately. Find her a cool series of videos that extends an interest she's discovered on the internet. Tell each other made-up stories.

Swim with the flow, rather than battling against it. There will be plenty of time to learn to write sometime in the next ten years.

Miranda

[Kailey's mom]

Thank you both so much!!! and you are right, she is learning quite a bit.  Since I've been pregnant, she has been on the computer quite a bit, and on her own has been watching video's on fetal development, than we talk about it.  Sadly we watch quite a bit of Tv lately, but stick to things like animal planet, which she loves.  She has such a strong interest in animals and babys in general.  She has been learning to occupy herself some, which she did not do before I got pg.  I know she is bored, but she is being so good about it.  She makes things for the SPCA on her own for the animals.  She has been watching video's on how to change diapers, than practices with her dolls lol.  She already is begging me to pump so she can help feed the baby, so we had a talk about how that will be a while since we don't want the baby to get nipple confusion.  Funny thing she has been doing is reading baby names, because she does not like the name we picked out lol.  We are naming the baby Lillian.  There is a dog 2 doors down named "Lilly"  so she doesn't want her sister named after a dog.  We almost have her convinced that Lillian is not going to be confused with the dog =) 

[diymotherhood]

I did the same thing last summer. I was so miserably hot and then after the baby is born I had all these fun cramps and didn't do anything, either. But you know what? That will pass and both of my girls learned a lot about babies. Now they learn a lot about babies' development. My daughter is so much the same way. She used to love the workbooks and now hates them. She never liked writing, but she loves to draw. So we made a book. We started out with once sentence per half-page (we folded the paper in half and hole-punched a bunch of them, then tied them with string) and color a picture for it. She gave the book to her Grandma as a present. She is so proud of herself. It helped a lot.

I think next we will make a normal paper-size book with a page of writing and a page of drawing, because she has gotten a lot better and quicker about it all. And I suggested we could even write letters (to Auntie and Grandma) and she is excited about that as well. You could do greeting cards as well. 

However, don't worry if you don't do anything until after your baby is here (even a couple of months after). When kids are at home they learn things so much faster when they are willing and forcing yourself and them is not worth it. :-) Enjoy the pregnancy and just take the rest of the time off. 

[Fillyjonk]

Just to add something else. I'm now working on writing with my 9 year old. We're doing a few weeks of intensive handwriting. For the first time ever. He had such a hard time learning to read that I wasn't going to push writing til he was ready to try. He is picking it up fast and I'm so impressed with his motivation and progress. The point I'd make really is that not having learnt til now has not held him back at all. As a homeschooler, you just do not need it. And he does some reasonably academicish extra curricular stuff, such as involvement in local history, astronomy  and archaelogy societies as well as scouts, music stuff and so on. I really agree that homeschooler don't need it, it so seldom is necessary for kids this age to write outside school.

eta: aaaand I am sorry I have posted this in unschooling by accident, I didn't see that it was in here not the general homeschooling forum, My apologies. However, I stand by my observation that kids aged six really don't need to be able to write anything apart from maybe their name if they are in a situation where it is bothering them not to be able to.

Edited by Fillyjonk - 1/16/13 at 3:00pm

[cottonwood]

Please don't judge by what the school system expects and what "the typical school kid is doing." There isn't a typical school kid, and lots of kids in school are struggling because (well, this is one reason anyway) they're being pushed to do too early what they're not developmentally ready for. Just because the schools deem that certain  things should be learned in a certain time frame doesn't mean it's best for all or even most, and "being behind" is meaningless anyway in this context, because it is so easy to catch up, quickly, when you learn something when you're ready and without all the busywork and time wasted on crowd control.

Really, truly, you're okay. Take this time while you're not feeling well to relax and enjoy your uninterrupted one-on-one time with your daughter. :)