:looks around tentatively: so can i get some unschooling support even tho I'm not really unschooling??! or not doing a good job of it anyway
so here's the deal--my oldest is turning 8, and pretty much the last two years (i.e. the only two years he's been "school age", even tho i've considered myself an unschooler for at least four), our lives haven't been all that conducive to a proper learning environment. we've moved a LOT, been ridiculously broke, xdh deployed, we got divorced, i found a new partner, and just had a new baby! So now, my ex (the older two's dad) is not at all convinced that *unschooling* is a good thing, and really i can't blame him for that opinion given all the stuff we've been thru
we should have been checking out literary classics from the library, learning fractions while baking bread and cookies, and a plethora of other enriching activities for my kids to be learning from. but instead we were basically working thru what seemed to be one crisis after another, and we did the best we could to give the kids normalcy, to help them know that everything was gonna be okay. And it is now. YAY!
However--my oldest is now gonna be "third grade level", my middle one is turning 5 so she *can* legally start kindy this year, and of course my ex feels like we need to "buckle down and do school with them" already, esp since my oldest is slightly "behind" in some subjects
i mean, oak meadow is cool and all, but i'm not inclined to follow any curriculum that rigidly... my x wants them educated with a "real curriculum", but he's not wanting to spend money on other programs and thinks i shoudl just use the oak meadow. he also doesn't really get that waldorf education isn't going to give public-school-similar results even if i do follow it 100%--yk? waldorf has diff. priorities than PS, and unschooling has different priorities still. but now i feel like i'm in the hotseat to homeschool in such a way so that my x approves. which sucks. he's really a pretty reasonable guy, but he's unwilling to do the proper research into homeschooling methods, or even to pay attn to how the kids learn best
:
I mean, do you think I should try to, kind of, compromise--like, just do our unschooley thing, but keep a journal of what we do as "proof" to their dad that they're learning? i could buy more curriculum, and i know the kids would use it and even enjoy it, but grr that's money i really can't afford to spend right now
i guess mostly i'm just ranting here, sorry... thx for the support anyway