~ June Unschooling Support! ~ - Page 2

[unlegal]

Ah, I better introduce myself!

My name's Nicole, and I'm just starting to really dive into homeschooling/unschooling. I've always known I would, but my daughter's just now showing a real interest in learning. Everything is, "What's this, what's that!" and "READ!" after she tosses her book at me and jumps in my lap. I'm so excited/nervous/AHH to jump into it all. I know she's been learning all this time already, but I feel like it's just really starting now. It makes me so happy

Hope to learn a lot from you lovely ladies!

[UnschoolnMa]

Hi all! We just had a long visit and BBQ with some friends and it was a lot of fun. We ate great food, played pool, listened to music, watched 4 episodes of "Flip This House" and the end of the first "Pirates of the Carribean". We had a cool discussion about pirates being role models or not. Not too far from us is a town festival and their theme this year was all about pirates. Some in the community felt the theme was inappropriate due to how pirates behaved in real life and what are we teaching kids with those examples. Interesting. Missing Dd as she off at a friend's house tonight, but I know she's having fun too.

[SagMom]

Oh, we loved the first "Pirates of the Carribean" movie. Depp was sooooo funny. Last weekend we saw the newest "Pirates" what a major disapointment! There were enough loose ends from the earlier movies that they could have just wrapped them up in this picture, but then they also dragged out a million NEW stories and subplots. It was very confusing, and had a slapped together feel to it. It also wasn't nearly as funny as the earlier movies. And, while the stunts were fun to watch in the first movie, there were so many battle scenes in this one that they all started to look alike (yawn.)

So that's my review (not that anyone asked .)

OTOH, we saw "Flyboys" the other day, and that was excellent.

We went to a birding class this week, and learned about different kinds of nests--we also tried out a new bug spray that did NOT work at all. Fortunately, we also went on a nature hike this week where the naturalist showed us jewelweed and we were saved. Found a dog tick on the dog and a deer tick on ds It's been soooo hot and humid here lately. We've been told to expect thunderstorms for the last three days, but we're still waiting...

In addition to all THAT nature stuff, we've had a lot of conversations about health/illness and death/quality of life this week, as our cat is dying.

I found myself thinking this morning, "I've had enough of nature lately."

Dd is doing a writing challenge with a friend and has been heavily into IMing both irl friends and a long distance penpal, so her typing/writing skills are being heavily utilized lately.

Ds1 is busy with his building projects. Last week, he went over to a friend's house and did geometry problems for fun. My unschooling self loves that he enjoys that, and my schooled self is thinking, "That's not supposed to be fun!"

[dillonandmarasmom]

Originally Posted by May May

Welcome to June, free thinkers!


A blessing for the beginning of our month ~ Byron Katie (unknowingly) supports unschooling.

For those of you that can appreciate the teachings of Byron Katie, I wanted to share this awesome quote of hers that is entirely relevant to unschooling. I use the word "unknowingly" because she is only just learning about the concept of self-directed learning as a societally-realistic option for educating children. ~



". . . Master or teacher is not a word I normally use. It implies that we all don't teach equally. And that's not true. Everyone has equal wisdom. It is absolutely equally distributed. No one is wiser than anyone else. Ultimately, there's no one who can teach you except yourself."



Happy Friday to all!

Lve that quote!
We had a very full weekend. I unschool as a rule, but sometimes we plan trips (I use "plan" very loosely--like the morning of) to nature to really get the kids out into things we want them to be exposed to. Today was a hike at a local creek in the mountains. Both of our kids are "natural" learners (learn best outdoors), so we had an opportunity to talk about plantlife, the circle of life, currents, ripples on water, fish, birds, why it's important to keep our Earth clean...it was amazing.
The very best part was absolutely magical. I was driving, DS was pummelling DH with questions about our surroundings, when out of nowhere comes a deer and her fawn. We slowed to a crawl, and both kids just happened to be looking out the front window and caught sight of it. DH had us all get quiet (which wasn't hard since the kids were both sitting with jaws dropped , and we watched as she carefully led her little one across the road. It was a magical blessing! The rest of our journey took on a spiritual, almost zen-like quality. We even got into the freezing creek. Good stuff!

[UnschoolnMa]

Oh that sounds so cool Darcy! I absolutely love deer (a bit of a spiritual connection if you will) so that would have been a terrific sight to see. What a treat.

Joan, yeah I have heard that the recent Pirates movie is a bit scattered. Some thought it was too long too I guess. My kids loved it and didn't in a variety of ways. I got to hear all about it when they got out of the theatre. I do believe I'd watch Johnny Depp read from the phone book though, so I am not coming from an unbaised POV no matter what.

Tonight we are enjoying a dip (although not a big enough one IMO) in the recent super warm temps. This house holds heat like there's no tomorrow. Dd is reading in her room and Ds is visiting with a friend and playing Guild Wars. I am drinking cheap wine and watching the cat play.

[Kidzaplenty]

[mama in the forest]

Everyone's having such a great time. I love reading it!

In addition to all THAT nature stuff, we've had a lot of conversations about health/illness and death/quality of life this week, as our cat is dying.

Joan, I'm sorry. That must be very poignant & interesting for the children. And sad of course. Still, aren't kids just so amazingly clear sighted when it comes to things like this?

My kids found two abandoned kittens about a week ago behind a store, and we brought them home. They were SO small! They've been having a wonderful time mixing up the kitten drink (first time formula's ever been in this house ) and feeding them. They've been researching kitten development and taking them for rides in Barbie cars. Though I'm doubtful the sources of research recommended that. Hey, I think I have a picture or two here:
http://greenleesforest.blogspot.com/

It rained so much recently and the kids are building things out of mud right now.

I just ordered a hard cover Frank Nettle human physiology book from Amazon today. I'm so excited!! It's the gold standard for a physiology atlas, and I can't wait. I also got some anatomy coloring books. They're pretty cheap - only $3. I wonder who's going to color in them, the kids or me?

[Ruthla]

Hi ladies! Wow, this thread is jumping, and it's only the 4th!!

I'm still having a hard time trusting that DD is really learning enough when I don't prod her to read certain books or do specific things. Or rather, my Mom's doubts are starting to creep in. It's hard to constantly defend myself!!!

[SagMom]

Originally Posted by mama in the forest

Joan, I'm sorry. That must be very poignant & interesting for the children. And sad of course. Still, aren't kids just so amazingly clear sighted when it comes to things like this?

Yeah. I was thinking that euthanasia was going to "have to" be done, but thinking about how to explain that to my 7 yr old made me look at the whole picture differently. While kitty is terminal, she's not in any pain--so, saying we could "help" her to die so that she didn't suffer, doesn't make sense (at least not yet) because it's not apparent that she's suffering. And, in talking with all the kids about life cycles made me less nervous about providing hospice care to the cat. I think our culture (or at least my upbringing) left me with the idea that death is something to be avoided at all costs, and then, when it's imminent, to be hurried through and gotten over with. But there must be value in letting nature take it's course, in being patient and trusting that bodies know what to do--not unlike in birth, yk? So, lots of philosophical conversations going on here, as well as practical care-taking.

My kids found two abandoned kittens about a week ago behind a store, and we brought them home.

Oh, they are SO adorable! I'm glad your kids found them, poor kitties. I just don't understand people sometimes.

I love watching the deer, but most people around here think of them as a nusance. They DO eat up gardens and stuff, but they've got to eat, and maybe if we weren't building on every square inch of land they'd be able to stay in the woods and eat there!

Well, we finally got our rain last night. It's about 20 degrees cooler today so I think I'll go clean my house--much as I hate doing that, we've reached the tipping point where leaving it as it is is makes me feel worse than having to clean it.

[oldermamato5]

Ruthla it IS so hard when someone close to you just doesn't have the open mind to see how learning takes place so naturally. I know because my own mama still doesn't after all these years. We have agreed to disagree because we love each other and both want what is best for my children.
Anyway~
we are going swiming today,play in the park,and just enjoy being together!
Hope everyone else is having a happy day too!

[RasJane]

Hi Nicole! Maybe we'll meet up at park days here in town at some point? That would be great.

We got our rain this morning too. Talk about a temperature drop! I think some housekeeping is in our schedule for the day too. I just couldn't bring myself to hole up in the upstairs bathroom and scrub while the kids were playing in all that sun outside. Methinks it is time.

A story to share. I love the lack of "you can'ts" about this lifestyle.
Ds (8) was reading about the atom bomb and wanted to know how it works. I told him he needed to understand atoms first. So we read about atomic structure. Once he "got" atoms, he got all excited and wanted to know how to make one. I assumed he meant a model with all the craft stuff. "No," he says, "a real atom. Can we make a real atom?" I explained that no one had figured it out yet, but many had tried over the years. I also told him I would sit in the front row and yell the loudest when he received his Nobel Prize for doing so. So, now my 8 year old is trying to figure out how to make an atom. I Love IT!

[MamaNosBest]

Hi, ladies, I hope I can ask a very quick question.

Do your children have to, like homeschooled kids, take periodic "tests" to show the state that they are not just truant?

[mommabear]

Originally Posted by RasJane

A story to share. I love the lack of "you can'ts" about this lifestyle.
Ds (8) was reading about the atom bomb and wanted to know how it works. I told him he needed to understand atoms first. So we read about atomic structure. Once he "got" atoms, he got all excited and wanted to know how to make one. I assumed he meant a model with all the craft stuff. "No," he says, "a real atom. Can we make a real atom?" I explained that no one had figured it out yet, but many had tried over the years. I also told him I would sit in the front row and yell the loudest when he received his Nobel Prize for doing so. So, now my 8 year old is trying to figure out how to make an atom. I Love IT!

That's awesome!

Originally Posted by MamaNosBest

Hi, ladies, I hope I can ask a very quick question.

Do your children have to, like homeschooled kids, take periodic "tests" to show the state that they are not just truant?

Here in BC we have the choice of either 'enrolling' our kids with a school as homelearners, or simply 'registering' them. If you do the former you do have to do testing and submit portfolios of work, but you also get more money and access to materials and resources (up to $1,000 to spend on 'approved' activities and materials). This essentially counts your child as a student of the school, and therefore the school gets money and wants to ensure your student 'looks good' on paper. If you choose to register your child (which we do, btw) you get about $150 - $175, but don't have to submit or essentially 'do' anything. I feel so lucky to have this option -- there is no imposition of 'acceptable' course work or timetables. Hope that helps!

[Earth Angel]

Greenlee, those kittens are just way to cute!!

Joan, I'm sorry to hear about your kitty. It does sound like it is, like everything else, becoming a positive learning experience for you all though. When my beloved dog passed away, she wasn't in any pain either....but visibly deteoriating, as any other old animal begins to do when life is near its end. Something that another wise pet owner did share with us, is to make sure that you talk with your pet about it being OK to go....that you all will be OK without them. My friend said, that pets often feel that they shouldn't leave the family they've been "responsible" for all this time, so often have a difficult time passing on, simply because they worry about their humans. This is probably so off topic, and I'm not sure if this is helpful for you or not....but thought I'd share because once I told my sweet Sabby this, she passed away about 2 hrs later. She seemed to really need that reassurance that we'd be OK, and that she had done such a wonderful job being our dog


It is rainy here today....and was pretty rainy yesterday too. We've been doing the usual indoor stuff, legos and drawing and reading, but also watching TV and playing on the computer more. We watched a portion of a pretty interesting show on the history channel called The Carribean Pirates. We're watching the 2nd half this afternoon once Dh gets back from town. Had some interesting pirate discussions!

Do your children have to, like homeschooled kids, take periodic "tests" to show the state that they are not just truant?

Depends on where you are. Each state has different requirements for homeschoolers, and as unschoolers, we must abide by those requirements too. Where are you? Maybe someone here is in the same state and can give you some ideas/examples of how they work with their own state requirements????

[MamaNosBest]

I'm in Virginia.

:

[MBFoley]

I am subbing even though I not a mom yet. My fiance and I are planning to ttc in a year or two, meanwhile we hav talked about homeschooling and a little about unschooling, both of us want to know more about it.

[mama in the forest]

Do your children have to, like homeschooled kids, take periodic "tests" to show the state that they are not just truant?

In Michigan (where i live) there are no tests or requirements of documentation at all for any homeschooler or unschooler. So I do not have to do that with my children.

States that have requirements for this sort of thing do bind the parents to whatever those requirements are, and there are families who follow them; however, there are familes both unschooling and homeschooling who choose to fly under the radar and avoid the government altogether.

[3lilmonsters]

It's rainy here today, and it's been a kinda lazy day. We all slept in a bit this morning, I think it was about 8 when I got up . But we were up late last night, so it's all good.

When we got downstairs and went to make breakfast the kids reminded me that last night I went to an awsome sale at a craft store and they wanted to see what I'd gotten. So we proceeded to empty the bags one item at a time into the middle of the living room floor, getting all excited about craft projects. Then we went to look up the recipe for pancakes on the computer and for some reason I got it in my head to google that guy (turns out his name is Bob Ross...I think) that had painting shows on PBS. So we watched him paint part of a southwestern scene, and a waterfall and the kids were as amazed as I was watching it.

We decided to all attempt painting waterfalls after breakfast, but after breakfast ds#1 got into a discussion with his auntie about anime and they looked at some sort of anime magazine and dd looked at a how to draw anime book. Then they watched one episode of some anime show, and played with the little one on starfall for a few minutes while I did some work. That all ended a few minutes ago and ds#2 is happily engrossed in cutting paper with some cool edged scissors I picked up last night, while dd is in her room drawing. Ds#1 happened to find a 9v battery laying around and hunted down an appropriately sized screwdriver to replace the battery in his directional microphone and I'm just sitting here wasting time.

Later we're going to paint and read some. I have some errands I need to do, but it's just feeling like a lazy day.

We've talked about death lately here too. Tomorrow we're going to take a trip to see their grandfather who is dying. It'll probably be the last time they see him

On a slightly more upbeat note, yesterday ds#1 asked me (while we had a visitor who is not too into the idea of them being homeschooled) "Mom, do you think that once a time passes it's really gone? Or do you believe that all times exist somewhere at any given instant?"

[RasJane]

You can go to the HSLDA site to check the law in your state. In Oregon, we are supposed to notify the esd and then test every few years. However, many, if not most, of the hs families I know just don't bother for one reason or another. I am opposed to testing in the 3rd grade, which is when it starts. That would be next year for my son and I just don't think he needs to worry about testing at this point in his life. It pays to research how things work in your state though for sure.

[RasJane]

Originally Posted by 3lilmonsters

On a slightly more upbeat note, yesterday ds#1 asked me (while we had a visitor who is not too into the idea of them being homeschooled) "Mom, do you think that once a time passes it's really gone? Or do you believe that all times exist somewhere at any given instant?"

I love it! Ds asks questions like that too and I am just blown away. That's great that she asked in front of your visitor. I love times when you can just give a gloating smile to anti-hs people.