Unschool Monday
Nov. 15th, 2010 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckydipdaysjoining Mama Owl www.owlet-designs.blogspot.com in Unschool Mondays - hopefully this will inspire more regular posting as well as encouraging me to look at what the kids are learning!
We are just embarking on our unschooling journey having only decided officially to homeschool earlier this year - although seeing as the small people have taught themselves to walk, talk, eat and play by themselves I guess we have been doing it for their whole lives! Interestingly I find letting go of somethings easier than others. Reading I have no trouble trusting that if there are books around (and there are definitely books around!) and I read to them then they will pick it up themselves. This faith probably comes from the fact that I learnt to read at about 4 and can't remember ever NOT reading lol. Ianto is nearly 5 and I can see bits clicking into place. He is starting to see the difference between numbers and letters and can recognise 'his' letter and number as well as 'mine' and various other peoples letters. He has a great time playing with scrabble tiles and we talk about I being for icecream etc. When he is in the mood he will copy writing, identically - to the point that if he is sat opposite me copying something I am writing his will be upside down to him! Its all part of the process and I have complete faith that when he is ready he will sit down and start reading and - this is the important bit - because he has been allowed to approach it in his own way he will enjoy it.
Maths is something I struggle with though. I always found maths hard (apart from when using a certain maths book in year 11 which really clicked with me) and hugely frustrating. Not passing that on to the small people I will struggle with. Because I found it hard I find it difficult to trust that they will just pick it up the same way they would with reading. Of course the truth of the matter is the same - if I had been allowed to pick up maths in a way that suited me and in my own time then I would not have found it so frustrating! And the same applies to my small people.
I tend towards the radical side of unschooling a lot of the time too, purely from laziness I think lol. I don't restrict TV access unless we are at someone elses house and I sometimes have a flare up of "oh shit they do nothing but watch TV!" but the reality is that Ianto goes through phases. Right now he has the TV on a lot but he is coming out of that phase and playing with his toys more, going on the trampoline, going outside... Anouke isn't interested for more than 2 minutes at any time lol. So I breathe and try and let go of it. When we move the TV will be hiding somewhere because the only place to have it is as a focal point of the lounge room and non of the adults want that. The house will not be screen free by any stretch of the imagination though with almost as many computers as people lol.
And now Anouke's demands for boobie and food mean that my essay has to end!
We are just embarking on our unschooling journey having only decided officially to homeschool earlier this year - although seeing as the small people have taught themselves to walk, talk, eat and play by themselves I guess we have been doing it for their whole lives! Interestingly I find letting go of somethings easier than others. Reading I have no trouble trusting that if there are books around (and there are definitely books around!) and I read to them then they will pick it up themselves. This faith probably comes from the fact that I learnt to read at about 4 and can't remember ever NOT reading lol. Ianto is nearly 5 and I can see bits clicking into place. He is starting to see the difference between numbers and letters and can recognise 'his' letter and number as well as 'mine' and various other peoples letters. He has a great time playing with scrabble tiles and we talk about I being for icecream etc. When he is in the mood he will copy writing, identically - to the point that if he is sat opposite me copying something I am writing his will be upside down to him! Its all part of the process and I have complete faith that when he is ready he will sit down and start reading and - this is the important bit - because he has been allowed to approach it in his own way he will enjoy it.
Maths is something I struggle with though. I always found maths hard (apart from when using a certain maths book in year 11 which really clicked with me) and hugely frustrating. Not passing that on to the small people I will struggle with. Because I found it hard I find it difficult to trust that they will just pick it up the same way they would with reading. Of course the truth of the matter is the same - if I had been allowed to pick up maths in a way that suited me and in my own time then I would not have found it so frustrating! And the same applies to my small people.
I tend towards the radical side of unschooling a lot of the time too, purely from laziness I think lol. I don't restrict TV access unless we are at someone elses house and I sometimes have a flare up of "oh shit they do nothing but watch TV!" but the reality is that Ianto goes through phases. Right now he has the TV on a lot but he is coming out of that phase and playing with his toys more, going on the trampoline, going outside... Anouke isn't interested for more than 2 minutes at any time lol. So I breathe and try and let go of it. When we move the TV will be hiding somewhere because the only place to have it is as a focal point of the lounge room and non of the adults want that. The house will not be screen free by any stretch of the imagination though with almost as many computers as people lol.
And now Anouke's demands for boobie and food mean that my essay has to end!
