Today we are...unschooling
Today at our unschool we are:
reading aloud
playing Roller Coaster Tycoon
playing monopoly
folding laundry
practicing piano x 3
practicing guitar
practicing bass
making beds
brushing teeth
cooking oatbran muffins for dad
memorizing
playing math shark
playing monkey typing
playing space invaders
going to the library
listening to 'The Two Towers' on tape
Alot of playing and practicing going on! I love unschooling it is soo morethanfine.
On a yahoo list lately someone was trying to define unschooling as un-everything; unlearning, unparenting, unintellectual, undisciplined. We tried to explain that unschooling is best left 'un-defined' lol or at least defined by the families and the learners involved. It isn't easily explained by axioms or generalizations and it does take a large measure of trust in our children that they actually will learn, because of us or in spite of us :)
I have spiritual reasons for trusting my kids to learn--I believe God made them to learn. I also trust God to help them learn and help me help them to learn and I trust God to guide them in the paths they will best follow.
It is so freeing to let go of the PS brainwashing and watch actual learning happen.
joy, joy, joy
I am repeating Annie Sullivan's quote because it is sooo perfect for unschoolers:
"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less slowly. Let him come and go freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table while a sweet-voiced teacher suggest that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of colored paper, or plant straw trees in flower pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences. "
Have a morethanfine day and I hope you get to spend it unschooling!
posted by Barb @ 11:40 AM
1 Comments:
"fearfully and wonderfully made" -- my view on unschooling is thats how God made us all and that my children will be led to what they want, like, and are good at [or made for] and everything else will flow from there.
I also believe that if they are allowed to flourish in their strengths, they will be better able and more willing to take on those things that are more challenging for them and will develop self-discipline.
That list of 'un's from the unschooling detractors just amazes me [though it does not surprise me]. I find it almost 'unfaithful' not to trust in your children and how God made them. Not to mention arrogant that it is the parent's job to know what is best for their child's learning and how to accomplish it -- why would God have made children so eager and adept at learning if we're supposed to control them? Why do they assume that the free will God gave us was not also intended [perhaps in a more limited extent] for our children?
Great post, thank you.
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