This week has been dominated by books. In my recent unpacking of
book boxes that have been closed up since the move in April, we discovered Erin's hoard of 'Little House' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I put them up in Rhiannon's room and last week she discovered them and we started reading "Little House in the Big Woods". Unlike other books of this length, she read a great deal of it on her own (usually she reads a bit and then abandons it unless I read the chapters day by day). She finished it in a few days. And now we are on to "Little House On the Prairie". She is loving the books. And now wears a 'night cap' to bed... just like Laura and Mary. Andrew dove into the book "Skybreaker" by Kenneth Oppel. The sequel to "Airship" which we both loved. I am reading it to him as we both love the stories. We can hardly wait until we have time to read together again. There is nothing like being immersed in a few good books. I love how the realities in them simmer on the edges of my thoughts during the day.And Kaetlyn and I had a meeting with the counsellor at her school as we get ready to set up her homeschooling program for the end of this semester. A whole new adventure. 3 kids at home. I figure either they will kill each other or they will work it out. Either way, there will be peace eventually...
And I learned something... again... this week. In 'unschooling' theory, it goes that you allow your children to find their own limits from within as well as their own passions, etc. This has generally been how I have let things be with my children. With Andrew it meant that I did not wake him up in the morning unless necessary and let him sleep until he had enough. Eventually this came to mean him waking up at 2 and 3 in the afternoon. We hardly got to see each other and I was really missing our interactions. So for the new year, I set a limit. I told him I would wake him up at 10am every morning. And I did. Starting this week. And it was awesome. I had my boy back again. It was so nice to spend time with him. Read with him. And he was happy. Relaxed. And I learned again how there is no 'one right way' to do things. How every kid is different and they need different things from us. I figure I'm in the right direction when they respond with happiness. And how my children respond is far more important than adherence to any one theory or philosophy.
3 comments:
I find unschooling interesting, although when I think about it for me, it scares me. The thought of having no structure in that aspect of my childs life makes me feel uneasy. I dont even really know why. I mean it makes sense, and there are a lot of things that I dont agree with in the public school systems. I feel torn because I also feel there are things in the public school system that I cant provide for my children...anyway its a dilemna Im not looking forward to facing...Sound like its working great for you though.
Unschooling doesn't mean no structure. It is child led learning or enthusiasm based learning. So if a child needs structure, then there would be structure - but it would come from the child's need and not the school's/teacher's/parent's need. So in our family, Rhiannon has structure because this is how she is happiest and learns best and Andrew has some structure but not much. And that is how he learns best and is happiest.
i thought kaetlyn liked regular school?
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