I am completely drained.
If you have kids in scouts or other programs where a volunteer puts the program together, *thank* that volunteer for all his/her time and effort.
I am a den leader for my son's Webelos cub scouts. I have nine den meetings left until the end of the school year. Ten for next year until DS crosses over (to boy scouts, if he chooses.) Believe me, I'm counting down!
If I did not homeschool, this would be no problem. I take so much time putting a quality program together, it just exhausts me. It takes away from our school time on den meeting days, too.
However, I give thanks to Butch's blog, because it has given me inspiration and permission to relax somewhat. If you get the chance, visit her blog, scroll down a ways and on the right is a section entitled Classical Unschooling. http://www.intothesunrise.blogspot.com/ I have read those about three times now, and I'll probably re-read several times again.
So today, as I was doing my last-minute (or hours, really) preparations for scouts, I had DS listen to his SOTW CD which he can listen to for hours. He did, today, for hours. He also had his art book out and did some art. He also played with legos while listening. It's amazing because he really retains things he listens to on CD. He is really enjoying the CD. I was relaxed about working on scouts today while he was learning history. Normally I'm freaking out that we aren't doing X, Y or Z. Today I was able to breathe easy and relax. Thanks, Butch, for the inspiration.
I always cringed when someone mentioned unschooling. That's because I had a local friend who was an unschooler. The problem was that she was not an unschooler in reality, she was a non-schooler. She was a veteran homeschooler with years under her belt. She didn't do squat. She decided to put her last two kids in public school this year. Before she did that, she had to have a crash course this summer teaching her daughter math and fractions so that she wouldn't be behind in school. That's because they never did math.
So whenever I heard the term "unschooling" I always thought of the fundie friend. Butch's blog has finally described unschooling in a way that I can respect. Although I will never be an unschooler, as I'm too sequential and linear, as is my son, I *will* adapt some of the methodology. I will relax a bit. I will not stress out any more on scouts days.
I think I shall call it a night and crash.
3 comments:
You do realize that many, many people have told me, informed me, SCREAMED AT ME, that what I did wasn't "unschooling" because I didn't give them free choice to do whatever they wanted. I gave them the choice to do math activity a, or math activity b, or any math activity through z. Who gives their kids free choice to do just anything?
I'm glad you gleaned something from those articles.
I wondered about that....but I like your definition, I like the way you did it, so I'm going to look at your way as the logical model for unschooling, okay? lol
Math was the one subject that I could never figure out how anyone could unschool. If I left that up to DS, he wouldn't do math. Period.
And I have this to say: Who gives a shit what other people think anyway. If others don't think it's unschooling, too bad for them. (Can I say this here? Yes, I can, it's *my* blog) SCREW THEM. lol Your definition of unschooling is the first ever to make any sense to me at all. And as a parent, you have to be logical and you have to guide -- that's what being a parent is. Free choice just doesn't equate in this old broad's mind. Well, maybe for ice cream flavor, not for school.
Apparently, many people seem to believe that I care if they think I'm a shithead, as evidenced by some of the comments on my blog, lol.
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