Updated links
May 11, 2004 Homeschooling
I updated some of the links on the right. Some needed to be deleted, being now defunct, and I added some new ones in. Here’s a new find; I love women.
My formerly virtual friend B. is coming over today! I forget if her children are coming, too. I know she told me but it fell right out of my head. I think maybe one is? Or both are but are then leaving? Argh. My brain is in a sorry state. Noah is hoping that they come but we’ll just have to wait and see when and if they get here.
Noah has been making brilliant observations lately and tossing them off with nary a thought. He’s very good at reading people and he does so with compassion, like his daddy. He is much liked by the other children in our social circle and that makes me really proud. He is a Very Nice Boy.
Yesterday we were discussing whether or not education is a competition — he had an encounter with a friend who is very goal-oriented — and then we talked about the other ways people educate. Specifically in regards to his friend, we talked about formal, regular instruction. I told Noah that there are some things that are most easily learned that way — musical instruments for most people, for example. And I told him, too, that if he wanted to learn something, he could make a plan for learning it and we would help him figure out how he wants to do it. He declined politely and then said that he likes learning on his own best because he likes to surprise me later.
He does. Often.
Noah doesn’t like competition and he has a hard time when his friends want to entice him into a win/lose situation. He likes games all right but he’s not much for the “let’s see who can run across this room fastest.” He has a friend who’s more competitive and I think they’re good for each other since they’re both kind little boys and care enough about their friendship to work through their differences.
There is still some worry in the extended family about what exactly Noah does all day (he plays, literally, all day) and how this is going to help him as a wage-earner in the future. I have utmost faith in the way he does things but I’ll admit to nagging concerns since he is so much happier if I leave him be. I used to picture all of these great homeschooling unit studies-type things we’d do and it’s just not the way Noah works. He likes us to facilitate but only when asked. Mostly he likes us to get the heck out of his way.
It’s tempting to want to buy a million things to try and entice him to learn in ways that we can measure so it’s a good thing we’re on a limited budget.
I wonder how Madison will be. People ask me all the time if we’ll homeschool her and I always say, “I don’t know. I’ve hardly even met her yet.” J. is interested in homeschooling and we’ve talked some about this.
I’d like to say that homeschooling would work for every kid but since I don’t know every kid in the world, I would just be talking out of my ear.
May 11th, 2004 at 12:09 pm
Are you familiar with Montessori education? The way you describe Noah’s day is very similar to Maria Montessori’s philosophy. Basically, you prepare the environment, and the children follow their own interests and create their own work - it’s completely self-directed. I know that many people, even - or especially - parents of children attending Montessori school - have a difficult time with this devotion to the process, rather than the product of education. I wish that I had come out of school with the abiilty to better manage my self and my time - it’s taken me years to learn to do so.
May 11th, 2004 at 12:44 pm
My hubby was VERY concerned (for some reason) with WTH was my second son doing all day (he was 3, when he really started worrying). He’ll be 4 in August and because dh pushed for it, is in Montessori - four days a week/two hours a-day.
I wish my dh and I were more in sync wrt schoooling; I would love to HS! Extended family rips about it I could handle, but spouse is SO hard
Noah sounds like such a wonderful kid!
May 11th, 2004 at 12:54 pm
I was certain I would not homeschool, but wanted to read up on it anyway, because I enjoy education theory and am always looking for ways to improve my teaching.
Post-John Holt (as per your recommendation) I have all but decided to homeschool through about age 9, at least–my partner’s unquestioning agreement was the clincher (I really expected her to object)–if only because the type of school we’d want to send our kid to is A) not available where we live now and B) really expensive even if we move by school-age.
I realize that indeed, I learned more out of school, self-directed, than in school, as a kid. I just sort of always assumed that was how it just was.
But I don’t suppose it has to be.
May 11th, 2004 at 2:29 pm
I love reading what you have to say about Noah and homeschooling. I lost my hearing in kindergarten, and ended up schooling myself since I couldn’t understand what was going on in the classroom most of the time–a fact that I didn’t realize until much later. If I was interested in the class material I’d get A’s, if I was disinterested in the class material I’d find my own material and I’d know more on the topic than anyone else–but overlap would determine my grade.
Noah’s a lucky kid to not have to worry about something silly like grades getting in the way of him devoting himself to learning what he’s intererested in.
May 11th, 2004 at 2:56 pm
Homeschooling would work very well for Logan, unschooling in particular. Unfortunately I am not disciplined enough to be a good homeschooling parent - there’s not a very large network of homeschoolers in this area (there was in Texas and when we lived there, we intended to HS) and I am too introverted and too lazy about my introversion to seek out social contacts for my kids. I don’t know if homeschooling Adam would work as well because his personality is different. I think unschooling can really work. Logan has learned almost everything except how to read through unschooling (he asked to learn how to read, so J taught him using “Teach your child in 100 easy lessons”). Adam learns stuff without being formally taught too - the other day he shocked me by pointing to a stop sign and saying it was a red octagon! - but I think all kids do if their parents interact with them.
We’re lucky to have some good schooling options outside the home to compensate for my inability/unwillingness to find a network of people who would offer social contact for my kids. Both Logan and Adam at least seem like their giftedness requires a different schooling environment than standard public school. At the same time, I’m totally open to the possibility that someday we might homeschool for various reasons and I’d have to suck it up and find a way to make it work.
May 12th, 2004 at 12:46 am
Hey, Holly - I have a Logan too.
Dawn - I want to school Logan at home, I really do. I’d like to think that we’re teaching him already, he’s 15 months old and he’s learning a lot - he has to get that from somewhere. But I don’t have any experience with home/unschooling at all. I just know that his father and I both dropped out of high school, for various reasons having nothing to do with how smart we were, and we don’t want to inflict that artificial structure and hideous social pit on him. I need to do more research.
May 12th, 2004 at 2:22 am
When I was a little kid my mom and I would play backgammon and I never wanted to use the rule where you can jump on a single piece and put it on the wall… It just felt mean, and I remember once getting really upset when she tried to talk me into taking her piece….
So I get that non-competitive thing.