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Sarah M
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| Posted: April 22 2009 at 9:53am | IP Logged
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Elizabeth wrote:
*I'm not naturally mathematically inclined. I've learned the hard way that math--for us--is a "just do it" thing. We've chosen our textbooks and we just do it every day. |
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Do you mind sharing what you use, Elizabeth?  please?
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Elizabeth
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Real Learning
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Location: Virginia
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| Posted: April 22 2009 at 10:00am | IP Logged
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Math-it and Math-U-See until they are ready for Teaching Textbooks. And I do spend a season with the Serendipity math gnomes 
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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10 Bright Stars
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| Posted: April 22 2009 at 12:19pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the breakdown of planning, Elizabeth and yes, it was very helpful. When you study one subject or time period for the year, do you do it for all the kids across the board? (So, you are all studying the Civil War at one time together, for example?)I think that would be VERY helpful obviously! Something for me to consider.
I also like the idea of 8 weeks of intensive study on some subject. I have always hated having a bit of knowledge about this or a snippet of that. I like the idea of really pushing our sleeves up and getting our hands dirty so to speak in the material.
Also, this is sort of off topic, but anyone have any suggestions as to how to wean the older children from Mommy reading EVERYTHING to them, or do you think this is really neccesary? (i.e. it is o.k. to do) The boys (aged 14 and 12) LOVE to have me read them their history text, their science text, their religion, (which I think I should read and explain) and I really enjoy reading their books and even their book report books outloud to them since, for starters: I know what they are studying better as I have not read some of these books or visited the subject matter in years so it helps for discussion etc.), and I enjoy the time with them.
The problem is that I am taking up the whole day in reading them their stuff, then I teach English and Math which takes a lot MORE time with everyone, and I really leave the littles out as a result. (Although God has been so gracious in this area. For some reason my 8 year old daughter Mary is absurdly advanced when it comes to playing lesson planning and running a preschool!! She has the little twins and her 5 year old sister sitting on the other side of the basement every morning for an hour or more, with her lesson plan all planned out, and she thought of making an ABC booklet for them using cut out magazine pictures all on her own, is making lapbook folds etc. and crafts with them, on her own, is taking them up for a planned snack time, ON HER OWN! SHE is truly unbelievable and really putting me to shame!  They all listen to her and she has the total "classoom" working in silence and learning. She thinks it is "fun". I am just happy she has such an interest. Once they get bored, we start her school for the day. I guess she will eventually grow out of this phase, but she is strangely talented in early education!!!! And, she thinks it is fun, so what a blessing. She spends her afternoons sifting through old teacher craft magazines I found at a thrift store and writes down her plans for the next day. She even has a folder for each child (3 of them) and places all of their work neatly in plastic covers and puts it in the notebook after their "school" is over for the day. Isn't that adorable?? I sometimes marvel at her organizational skills and wish I had them! She must take after her Dad.
But, I digress...sorry for that diversion! Back to the original off-topic question....Elizabeth mentioned her kids really reading A LOT as others have mentioned before. That is the dream of every homeschool mom and I really pictured my boys reading A LOT more than they do. My boys have never been big readers, although they do read C.S.Lewis and Tolkien and things of that nature before going to sleep, or Eyewitness info. type books. (or Nat. Geographics) Do you think I am doing them a disservice by reading to them all the time, even if I enjoy it, or do you think I need to really wean them from this, especially as my eldest will be in high school (at home) next year and I imagine I will not be able to read him all of his books and teach him and all the others coming up behind him. I guess when I read it aloud, I know they are learning it. They have to listen since there is nothing else to do. My husband gets upset whenever he hears that I am reading to them and wants me to make them do all their work mainly alone. I just don't trust that they will A. read it or B. learn anything without me spoonfeeding them. Have I created a problem you think??? How do you all handle checking up on what they have read, or does it matter? (Well, I mean it matters, but how much?
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Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: April 22 2009 at 5:54pm | IP Logged
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I was looking up something else and came across this unschooling post on my blog:
Unschooling at its Best
It was one of those days everything fell into place.
While I don't label myself or my family as unschoolers, I must admit to being pretty flexible. I often worry that someone will see that we use some Seton workbks and some CHC resources and TT and immediately think I'm a fraud...thus my concern over ever labeling myself an "unschooler."
Theresa used the term "us-schooling" and I always liked that. Our schooling is all about "us" and works best for "us."
My style? I like hopping down rabbit trails and it fits my personality well and the fact that I am often found hopping down different boy and girl bunny trails throughout the year.
It fits my children well too because if one gets an interest in something the others aren't into, they are free to "hop" down their own trail.
We began this school year w/ early American history/colonial life. By October (for Annie's sake) we were doing Indians, November Pilgrims. It still fit the overall unit so all was good.
This set my heart (noticing some interest in my 11 yr old dd) on wanting to cover all the famous explorers better. Thus an Explorers unit was developed for the 11 and 16 yr old to take us through the rest of the year. It'll continue into next year if need be. I'm sure we'll revisit this w/ Annie at a later date.
This year it was easy to spin a study of the Presidental election into our on-going American study. November was a great month!
After Christmas I wanted to get back on track w/ our American/History/colonial life study. I even exchanged a few ideas w/ Books about FIAR and rowing. (Sorry I jumped ship on this, Books.  ) But I do have a good excuse...you see, there was a blackberry bramble crossing our path. It just appeared one day.
The economy was going haywire. All my dh's overtime was stopped, causing us to cut our spending. Grocery and gas prices were soaring. Two friends were laid-off. The country was in a state of panic. Then there was that massive undertaking begun by my bil and dh.
So we "hopped" off the planned trail and went venturing into a study of the Great Depression and self-sufficiency.
How do we "study" these time periods? Pretty much the same way others have mentioned. I call it creating a mosaic...taking little pieces of things we're interested in and putting a bunch of exposure, books, movies, studies, etc. together until it makes one big, beautiful picture. Each mosaic, created by each individual child, looks different. But they all create great artwork because they each created their own. So they own it. Completely.
It doesn't always look complete, but it's my belief that our education is never complete.
Our American/Colonial notebooks are still unfinished. I trust they'll get picked up along the way and added to. Perhaps...just perhaps finished before college? Maybe not.  These notebooks are ongoing. And that's a great way to keep from falling into guilt and failure over our hsing experiences. We encourage our children to keep adding to their mosaics.
I'm afraid the ideal of unit schedules, while lovely to me, doesn't work well within these four walls under the oaks. Our explorers unit will very well go into two years. So might our American/Colonial study. Election was one month. So was pilgrims/indians. Gardening will go through the summer. Possibly fall. Our Great Depression unit is somewhere in its second month.
And other trails and brambles crisscross our paths. We might stay a week on one before getting back on the main path. We might diverge from the main path for two months before getting back on.
See what I'm saying? It's unschooling...at it's best.
Unschooling is simply a mindset that anything and everything is (or can be) turned into a learning opportunity. And I embrace that w/ my children.
And that's how I teach. I don't teach to the book or to the curriculum. I teach to the child, and it looks nothing like the educate I grew up w/.
And that's good... 
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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stellamaris
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| Posted: April 22 2009 at 9:08pm | IP Logged
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Cay said:
It doesn't always look complete, but it's my belief that our education is never complete.
This is an absolutely fundamental point. So often when I am overwhelmed it is because I am forgetting this one point-we continue our education throughout our lives and it is never finished! What we teach our children at home is only the merest beginning of an education. If we can inspire in them a love for learning and a desire to excel in those basic areas of human communication-reading, writing, and speaking-so that they too may experience the joys of learning and educating others throughout their lives, we will have given them the greatest possible academic foundation.
Kim, wrt reading aloud, I think it is wonderful you do this with your older children, but it sounds as if it has gotten to be a little time consuming! Can you start a section, and then they could finish it? Soon enough they will have to be doing all their reading on their own, and you want to be sure they are ready to both read silently at a fair pace and understand what they have read. I'm not sure why you think they can not handle this. There are two possibilities: 1) You think they are having trouble with the actual reading (as in, you have some evidence that there's a problem) or 2) You are just fearful there might be a problem. If it is #1, then you need to identify the problem now and work on remedial reading skills, unless you plan to accompany them throughout life reading for them. If it is #2, you can help your children to grow in confidence by having confidence in them. It is OK to fail and try again, but if you don't let them try because of your fear, they will not learn that lesson. They will come to believe that unless you can certainly succeed, you should not even try. When a parent has enough confidence in their child to let them risk failure, it helps the child to believe in themselves and to understand that one can always learn from failure and rise above it to success.
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to  dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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molly
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| Posted: April 22 2009 at 9:29pm | IP Logged
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Well as a more radical unschooler, I do get uncomfortable with the term being so loosely used. BUUUUUTTTTTTTT- I do like Real Learning or Us schoolers as more accurate examples.
I do not get upset over the term, however I do think it misleading to people.
I do not force subjects on my dc. I believe and have witnessed they learn as they need to learn. Math, for example! I have freaked out before and bought into they fact that they need it, only to end up giving very negative ideas about the importance of the subject. I have seen time and again, my dc desire to learn a math skill when they decided they wanted to do something that needed math.
I have seen them sit for hours discussing the periodic table with my dh, just for fun! Today, 5 of them sat with my dh and learned how one uses an Encyclopedia, just because we have them and they wanted to learn about them.
The unschooling topic (I think) gets heated and misinterpreted, because it gets thrown in with un parenting and a undisciplined lifestyle. I do not know exactly, but I do know I have seen amazing results by allowing my dc freedom of study and interest. Am I wrong, do they need much more than I think- maybe, I certainly know that I have holes in my public school education, but somehow I made it through college, and I consider myself well read and educated.
Bottom line for me, I would rather have an illiterate in Heaven than a pagan in Harvard! Seems obvious, yet is it?
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RamFam
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| Posted: April 23 2009 at 1:48pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth wrote:
I feel like I've written forever this morning and it's still probably clear as mud. Is that at all helpful, Kim? Leah? |
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Yes, very much! Thank you, Elizabeth. I have been trying for some time to formulate what exactly I wanted the end result of my childrens' education to be and I think you have helped me to concrete just that. Now I can relax a bit and not feel like I am locked into anything as long as we are moving in the direction of the end goal.
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Leah
RamFaminNOVA
Tom ^i^, Kyle (my Marine), Adeline '00, Wyatt '05, Isaac '07 Philip '08,Michael '10, and John Xavier Feb '13
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Unschooling Days
