unschooling

the difference

/ barnraised / 4 Comments

A little story.

I can’t put books on hold at the library right now because my late fees went over $10. I need to go in and pay the fines. Homeschool parents and book addicts understand the pain. I used my daughter’s card to finish my hold request. Her fines are at $9.00. This is of utmost importance to take care of before all book access is cut off.

 

My daughter talks a lot about the girls at dance and their phone addictions. She doesn’t have a phone and we have limited technology/media use in our home. We often notice how others appear to be so caught up in it simply because we’re not so we pay attention to others more. She laughs about how the girls at dance hide in the locker room to be on their phones and then get in trouble for being late to class. They ask to go to the bathroom in order to check their phones. They text and Instagram each other on water breaks….when they are sitting right next to each other. One girl has tried hiding her phone where she can see it behind a fan at the ballet bar so she knows when a text comes in.

 

How are these two stories related? My daughter just told me that last night at dance a girl told everyone that she was “crying because she forgot her password and got locked out of her Instagram account”.  My daughter said “you were crying over that? My mom was crying about getting locked out of her library account”.

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drive

/ barnraised / 10 Comments

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“This is going to help me with getting published…

And, when I’m published I’m going to acknowledge you”

My response: “For being your mama?”

“For being a supportive mama and doing my editing”.

Quiet…clicks of typing

“How old do you have to be to publish a book?”

My response: “I don’t think there’s an actual age”

“Oh good, good, good!”

Back to the clicks of typing.

This is the morning scene and talk here. I’m literally typing this into my phone as she says it because I want to remember. I swear my kid makes homeschooling easy. I’m literally sipping coffee on the couch. “School” is still on break for us. These are the moments when I totally get “unschooling”. We’ve been talking about a little more computer use for her and starting typing skills since she is getting older-ish. This morning was free to be lazy, play with Christmas toys…she asked to use the computer and write in a “document”. Thus….

You go girl, you go!

This was the story she started working on yesterday while we sat with a banker making a retirement contribution and discussing where to invest it. So happy the guy had an inviting notepad and pen on his desk.

The horses gotta eat. Homeschool thoughts.

/ barnraised / 22 Comments

this moment multiplication

I have a friend who wants to homeschool, but is also scared of taking that step. I understand that. I have been there.

Atlas Educational writes about becoming the “guide” rather than the “teacher”. So many great ideas she has in that arena and her writing challenges us to start thinking about “schooling” differently in all facets. Every post she writes gets my wheels spinning and thinking. I love that blog.

When we first started to homeschool, I was nervous and insecure in some ways.

I clung to curriculum. Guides. Rythym. I read. I mean I READ devoured every homeschool, unschool, waldorf, everything-school book I could. I felt if I could gather as much knowledge as possible, we’d be ok.

Then, about a year in, I realized that we …were….ok. And I relaxed. I trusted. I started to break away from the curriculum, the PLAN.

We had fun.

horse multiplication 2

 

I saw my daughter learn. And I saw that she was self-driven.

I realized that I needed to be her GUIDE. Not necessarily her “teacher”. The role of teacher can be scary. The role of guide, not so much.

When I look back at our homeschooling, I see the times that I have LET GO and gone with where her passion, her interest, her drive takes her –those are the times.

The times, that she and I both feel inspired. And then the learning comes naturally. It can be scary. So in moments like that, I just breathe and then something happens… that reminds me that we’re okay and I’m guiding her in this beautiful life and she is excited to learn.

horse multiplication

Case in point, math scares me. But let’s be real, the horses gotta eat. We have to figure out how many bales of hay we need to order. And how much it will cost. My girl decided that she would pull out her toy horses. She woke up early one morning and took it upon herself to made little cut-out hay bales, put them all in a lovely pink feeding bucket…and we got to work. It ends up not being so scary afterall.

new homeschool