Second generation Unschooling
The basic idea is that children are your allies, and are there to do what you do, not something else specifically called "childhood".
The hitch is that many kids aren't aware of what is going on around them. Ask them to "clean up their room" and they will be puzzled; they had never made a note of what the room was like when it was clean and so have no motivation to make an attempt to clean it.
You go; they follow.
It's hard to push a rope.
Most of what we've been doing is based on the Moore Formula http://www.moorefoundation.com/formula.html
Children often are not ready for formal instruction before age 8 (and sometimes not even until later 8). This does not mean that they don't need an education, they do, but only in an informal manner.
This means helping around the home and learning through every day life. Have children help you do whatever you are doing and see them start to learn and understand counting and fractions.
My mother had me help her mix her paints, my father let us help him build amazing things.
A tidy room may be as beneath perception as a room full of air. Rooms always have air, big deal, so? Education is largely about making a big deal about and taking the time to notice the obvious, to go through life on other than automatic, to do something other than sleepwalk your way back into the earth, having become old without noticing or really being alive.
Sometimes curriculum can be that lens, it's like the squares that artists look through to frame a painting or the veiwfinder on a camera. These are useful in their place and sometimes indispensable, but the real goal is to see what is squarely in front of you.Whatever *you* are doing, whatever *your community* is doing is what they should be doing -- in the way that respects their physical safety and childish limits -- but puts them into the center of activity that means the most to you.
My parents were activists, as am I -- Nicholas in his time and I in mine stuffed a lot of envelopes, called phone trees, wrote thank you notes. The best gift a parent can give their children is a good example, says my mom.
Read to your children good books with some real meaning and learning. That means -- information that *you* find toothsome and interesting. More than the content of the material kids with resistance issues need to *see* what eager learning looks like. It doesn't matter if they follow the content, it's your heart, your attitude, letting them notice what "being a good student" looks like when *you* do it.
Once your child is ready for more formal academics (because you showed themwhat formal academics is all about), let them mainly follow their interests.After all, if they have the interest, this may be what they will do in the future. They can get a head start on becoming an expert!
Yes, they do need to learn many things, like math, writing, reading, etc., but let them focus these areas as much as they can in their field of interest.
Along with academics, both formal and informal, should be service and work.Service is work without pay. Help clean an elderly person's home, visit those who are ill, bring meals for a new mother, do yard work for a friendwho needs your help. Even young children can do some of this work with you.
When the interest hits, and your child is ready, let them start their own business or go to work for someone else (even apprentice work). The lessons learned from having their own business are hard to be numbered. Dealing with people, counting money, computing a budget, costs analysis, problem solving, etc.
Study, Service, and Work are all necessary factors in anyone's overall education. Nicholas as of this moment is doing just that -- he's at a comic book drawing class at the local library. He's passing on his skills, doing what he loves.This approach worked for me, it's worked for the kids I've raised with specific use of curriculum as needed and modified to fit the personality and goals of each child at that specific time.
The basic idea is that children are your allies, and are there to do what you do, not something else specifically called "childhood".
The hitch is that many kids aren't aware of what is going on around them. Ask them to "clean up their room" and they will be puzzled; they had never made a note of what the room was like when it was clean and so have no motivation to make an attempt to clean it.
You go; they follow.
It's hard to push a rope.
Most of what we've been doing is based on the Moore Formula http://www.moorefoundation.com/formula.html
Children often are not ready for formal instruction before age 8 (and sometimes not even until later 8). This does not mean that they don't need an education, they do, but only in an informal manner.
This means helping around the home and learning through every day life. Have children help you do whatever you are doing and see them start to learn and understand counting and fractions.
My mother had me help her mix her paints, my father let us help him build amazing things.
A tidy room may be as beneath perception as a room full of air. Rooms always have air, big deal, so? Education is largely about making a big deal about and taking the time to notice the obvious, to go through life on other than automatic, to do something other than sleepwalk your way back into the earth, having become old without noticing or really being alive.
Sometimes curriculum can be that lens, it's like the squares that artists look through to frame a painting or the veiwfinder on a camera. These are useful in their place and sometimes indispensable, but the real goal is to see what is squarely in front of you.Whatever *you* are doing, whatever *your community* is doing is what they should be doing -- in the way that respects their physical safety and childish limits -- but puts them into the center of activity that means the most to you.
My parents were activists, as am I -- Nicholas in his time and I in mine stuffed a lot of envelopes, called phone trees, wrote thank you notes. The best gift a parent can give their children is a good example, says my mom.
Read to your children good books with some real meaning and learning. That means -- information that *you* find toothsome and interesting. More than the content of the material kids with resistance issues need to *see* what eager learning looks like. It doesn't matter if they follow the content, it's your heart, your attitude, letting them notice what "being a good student" looks like when *you* do it.
Once your child is ready for more formal academics (because you showed themwhat formal academics is all about), let them mainly follow their interests.After all, if they have the interest, this may be what they will do in the future. They can get a head start on becoming an expert!
Yes, they do need to learn many things, like math, writing, reading, etc., but let them focus these areas as much as they can in their field of interest.
Along with academics, both formal and informal, should be service and work.Service is work without pay. Help clean an elderly person's home, visit those who are ill, bring meals for a new mother, do yard work for a friendwho needs your help. Even young children can do some of this work with you.
When the interest hits, and your child is ready, let them start their own business or go to work for someone else (even apprentice work). The lessons learned from having their own business are hard to be numbered. Dealing with people, counting money, computing a budget, costs analysis, problem solving, etc.
Study, Service, and Work are all necessary factors in anyone's overall education. Nicholas as of this moment is doing just that -- he's at a comic book drawing class at the local library. He's passing on his skills, doing what he loves.This approach worked for me, it's worked for the kids I've raised with specific use of curriculum as needed and modified to fit the personality and goals of each child at that specific time.
posted by JulieB at
12:45 PM
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