Comments on: Instead of School http://lillhawkins.com/2007/11/07/instead-of-school/ Unschooling, Writing and Living in Maine - Mostly Humorously Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:54:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Lill http://lillhawkins.com/2007/11/07/instead-of-school/#comment-388 Lill Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:59:00 +0000 http://lillhawkins.com/?p=132#comment-388 Can I live at your house, Jackie? It sounds like exactly the kind of place where a kid (or mom for that matter) could make a really neat life. I strew too, but don't tell my kids. They think everything they come up with is original with them.<br/>We don't have cable or dish either and hardly even watch PBS. We're always saying we're going to, but we seem to forget to turn it on at the right time.<br/><br/>Lynn, I have no objection to anything you do. I trust your judgement and I'll be right over for the cheese. Gee, I hope it's muenster. It's my fave.<br/><br/>Shine On,<br/>Lill Can I live at your house, Jackie? It sounds like exactly the kind of place where a kid (or mom for that matter) could make a really neat life. I strew too, but don’t tell my kids. They think everything they come up with is original with them.
We don’t have cable or dish either and hardly even watch PBS. We’re always saying we’re going to, but we seem to forget to turn it on at the right time.

Lynn, I have no objection to anything you do. I trust your judgement and I’ll be right over for the cheese. Gee, I hope it’s muenster. It’s my fave.

Shine On,
Lill

]]> By: Lynn http://lillhawkins.com/2007/11/07/instead-of-school/#comment-386 Lynn Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:24:00 +0000 http://lillhawkins.com/?p=132#comment-386 So, I gotta know. What's the group's policy on unhealthful snacks?? Sounds like I just may have to move to Maine!<br/><br/>Actually, I just dropped by to let you know that you've WON one of my cheesy awards!!<br/><br/>(I hope you don't mind that I linked your post about your late son. I think it's very beautiful. But, if you'd prefer that I not link it, just let me know and I'll pull it.)<br/><br/>Shine On :) So, I gotta know. What’s the group’s policy on unhealthful snacks?? Sounds like I just may have to move to Maine!

Actually, I just dropped by to let you know that you’ve WON one of my cheesy awards!!

(I hope you don’t mind that I linked your post about your late son. I think it’s very beautiful. But, if you’d prefer that I not link it, just let me know and I’ll pull it.)

Shine On :)

]]> By: jackie http://lillhawkins.com/2007/11/07/instead-of-school/#comment-385 jackie Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:00:00 +0000 http://lillhawkins.com/?p=132#comment-385 Instead of school, we: read, listen to books on tape, play games (Sleeping Queens, Mystery Garden, Blockus, Uno, and Apples to Apples Junior are current favorites), write letters to family and notes to each other, (the older two girls) take dance class, play computer games, draw, paint, sculpt, make all sorts of weird concoctions and homemade art materials, swim, play, care for our animals, grow a garden, travel, go to plays & concerts, watch TV (I freely admit that I'm not a radical unschooler and my kids are only allowed to watch PBS and videos from the library or Netflix -- we live out in the sticks and don't have access to cable -- and I'm not sure I'd want it any way), do errands, go on field trips, play with friends ... basically just live our lives as if school didn't exist -- which it doesn't for us.<br/><br/>I "strew" a lot, by which I mean that I buy, rent, or borrow lots of different materials that I think my kids might like -- dd1 (7) likes to do workbook math, so if I see a Barbie math workbook, I'll pick it up for her and she'll use it when and how she likes -- I'm there to help if she asks, but I don't assign pages. But, I also observe her using math in her daily life, and that's so much more important to me -- "OK, Livie and Annie (her younger sisters), we've got 18 marshmallow pumpkins in this package, so that means we each get six." I also get stuff like a handpainted sun-dyed scarf-making kit ($3.99 at Christmas Tree Shop -- woo hoo), Fimo, an Usborne sticker atlas, fat quarters on sale at the fabric store -- anything I think they might like, not strictly "educational" stuff.<br/><br/>I get many DVDs and books on tape, some they love and we watch/listen to them over and over, some they like and we'll do them once, and others we try and discard without finishing. Usually, if they like the story, it leads to some informal study of different subjects. One recent tangent led us from a story about the Gold Rush to geography (why did the mining company have to sail around Cape Horn to get from New York to San Fransisco), the periodic table of elements (what is gold made out of?), properties of metals (why is gold heavy? why is it soft? how do they turn it into jewelry?) The main thing I try never to do is to suck the joy out of the experience by requiring them to write a report on gold or write a revew of the book or make up quizzes or tests about the stuff we research -- I usually hear them telling someone (my mom or husband, the checkout person at Hannaford, lol) about whatever they learned and they always astound me with their grasp of concepts and memory for details. I figure, if it's relevant to them, they'll learn as much as they need to know, and that's fine with me.<br/><br/>We go to the library at least twice a week, where I choose some stuff and they choose whatever they want -- we rarely have less than 50 items checked out at a time. I am jazzed that even my 4 yo will say, "Let's ask Miss Kate (one of the children's librarians)" when we are interested in finding books on certain topics. Their standard response when they ask a question and I don't know the answer is, "Let's look it up on the internet!" And that's really what I'm after, as far as their education goes -- for them to retain their natural curiosity, and to have the skills to pursue their interests.<br/><br/>The other thing dh and I both do is pursue our own interests -- I like to knit, and spin and dye my own yarn; cook; bake artisan bread; and garden. Dh is an artist and computer geek who raises all our family's meat -- turkey, chicken, pork and beef and builds barns and redoes the plumbing and electrical work on our 150 year old house -- a never ending adventure. <br/><br/>Every once in a while I have a major freak-out, like yesterday when I realized my 7 yo didn't kow how to spell our last name. Yikes! But why should she? -- she signs letters to family and friends with just her first name, and I usually give her an address label for the envelope. So, I told her that writing her full name was one of the few things she absolutely had to know how to do, and she sat down and did it (with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as she is totally not used to being assigned work) and after about 3 repeats, she had it down. Freak-out officially over, I felt stupid for not trusting that she would do it whenever she needed to. I am so not a perfect unschooler, but the times between freakouts are getting longer and longer, and my younger kids almost never have to suffer through them -- poor dd1, lol.<br/><br/>Thanks for the great blog, Lill, I always enjy hearing what your family is up to, and I appreciate your perspective on many things. Instead of school, we: read, listen to books on tape, play games (Sleeping Queens, Mystery Garden, Blockus, Uno, and Apples to Apples Junior are current favorites), write letters to family and notes to each other, (the older two girls) take dance class, play computer games, draw, paint, sculpt, make all sorts of weird concoctions and homemade art materials, swim, play, care for our animals, grow a garden, travel, go to plays & concerts, watch TV (I freely admit that I’m not a radical unschooler and my kids are only allowed to watch PBS and videos from the library or Netflix — we live out in the sticks and don’t have access to cable — and I’m not sure I’d want it any way), do errands, go on field trips, play with friends … basically just live our lives as if school didn’t exist — which it doesn’t for us.

I “strew” a lot, by which I mean that I buy, rent, or borrow lots of different materials that I think my kids might like — dd1 (7) likes to do workbook math, so if I see a Barbie math workbook, I’ll pick it up for her and she’ll use it when and how she likes — I’m there to help if she asks, but I don’t assign pages. But, I also observe her using math in her daily life, and that’s so much more important to me — “OK, Livie and Annie (her younger sisters), we’ve got 18 marshmallow pumpkins in this package, so that means we each get six.” I also get stuff like a handpainted sun-dyed scarf-making kit ($3.99 at Christmas Tree Shop — woo hoo), Fimo, an Usborne sticker atlas, fat quarters on sale at the fabric store — anything I think they might like, not strictly “educational” stuff.

I get many DVDs and books on tape, some they love and we watch/listen to them over and over, some they like and we’ll do them once, and others we try and discard without finishing. Usually, if they like the story, it leads to some informal study of different subjects. One recent tangent led us from a story about the Gold Rush to geography (why did the mining company have to sail around Cape Horn to get from New York to San Fransisco), the periodic table of elements (what is gold made out of?), properties of metals (why is gold heavy? why is it soft? how do they turn it into jewelry?) The main thing I try never to do is to suck the joy out of the experience by requiring them to write a report on gold or write a revew of the book or make up quizzes or tests about the stuff we research — I usually hear them telling someone (my mom or husband, the checkout person at Hannaford, lol) about whatever they learned and they always astound me with their grasp of concepts and memory for details. I figure, if it’s relevant to them, they’ll learn as much as they need to know, and that’s fine with me.

We go to the library at least twice a week, where I choose some stuff and they choose whatever they want — we rarely have less than 50 items checked out at a time. I am jazzed that even my 4 yo will say, “Let’s ask Miss Kate (one of the children’s librarians)” when we are interested in finding books on certain topics. Their standard response when they ask a question and I don’t know the answer is, “Let’s look it up on the internet!” And that’s really what I’m after, as far as their education goes — for them to retain their natural curiosity, and to have the skills to pursue their interests.

The other thing dh and I both do is pursue our own interests — I like to knit, and spin and dye my own yarn; cook; bake artisan bread; and garden. Dh is an artist and computer geek who raises all our family’s meat — turkey, chicken, pork and beef and builds barns and redoes the plumbing and electrical work on our 150 year old house — a never ending adventure.

Every once in a while I have a major freak-out, like yesterday when I realized my 7 yo didn’t kow how to spell our last name. Yikes! But why should she? — she signs letters to family and friends with just her first name, and I usually give her an address label for the envelope. So, I told her that writing her full name was one of the few things she absolutely had to know how to do, and she sat down and did it (with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as she is totally not used to being assigned work) and after about 3 repeats, she had it down. Freak-out officially over, I felt stupid for not trusting that she would do it whenever she needed to. I am so not a perfect unschooler, but the times between freakouts are getting longer and longer, and my younger kids almost never have to suffer through them — poor dd1, lol.

Thanks for the great blog, Lill, I always enjy hearing what your family is up to, and I appreciate your perspective on many things.

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