Miss O and Dennis picked out their coloring books and got busy. Dennis chose to use markers-- double fisted at times-- while Miss O preferred the coloring pencils. Miss O colored perfectly in the lines while Dennis chose to draw pick circles on his page. He then proceeded to tear out his page-- at least half of it.
Alex has a very weak grasp that prevents him from holding a pencil correctly. He gets tired quickly and loses interest as his frustration builds--- so the Occupational Therapist gave me some neat things to have him play with at home. She gave us these little button like plastic thingies that interlock. Alex has to pull them apart and then lock the pieces back together to form a ring. This is very challenging for him, but this last time he did it, I only needed to help him with three pieces. This is huge progress for Alex!
Miss O is quite independent-- she did her own hair this morning. Yesterday, she let me do it for her.
Another neat activity that both Alex and Dennis enjoy playing is picking up these furry balls with plastic tweezers and dropping them into a bowl.
Dennis was tired of tweezing the tiny little hairs and thought it would be easier if he could just open up the tweezers wide enough to pick up the whole ball!
Alex enjoys music so much! It is not unlike him to ask me to take a picture of him while he is moving to the groove.
Miss O got in some computer time today. She is such a fast learner! She was repeating everything on Starfall right along with Alex. She was able to play many of the games, but what surprised me most was how she compensated for the language barrier. She is one smart cookie!
*******************
On another note, have you heard about unschooling? I watched this video and my jaw dropped open. I may not know much about homeschooling, but I do know that it is hard work and takes way more patience than I have. And I do still take the time to do something with my kids (see above)because I know that they thrive off of structure, activities, and opportunities to learn and their minds are like little sponges absorbing every new thing they are exposed to. But according to this video, these children are not being exposed to anything-- not even discipline-- bascially left up to make all decisions for themselves. Eat where they want, watch tv all day if they want, and raise themselves... that's what I got from the video. Hopefully, this is not the case with all families who choose unschooling for their children---- if so, I think they are doing a huge disservice to their children. I can go on and on about this, but I'll save us both the torture. It hurts my brain just thinking about it.
I guess I am just old school.
Homeschool or send your kids to school-- but kids need school!
21 inspiring thoughts:
That article is called "Radical Unschooling", which I think is true. That's not well-done unschooling. Just like there are people who do a bad job homeschooling, there are people who do a bad job unschooling.
Recently I have been reading a few blogs about unschooling families who live in their RV's, traveling around the country. Their children are not sitting in front of a tv eating doughnuts, they are truly learning all day, every day, with their parents support, but not official "teaching". It is very interesting.
Wow, I agree that so-called "unschoolers" are doing a serious disservice to their children. As a high schooler who has just stumbled upon your blog, I know that I wouldn't have the initiative to teach myself if I were left home to my own devices all day every day. In a school environment, though, I've been able to thrive and will go off to college in 2 years with confidence. I have difficulty picturing a bright future or employment for the children in the video...how sad!
I did see the news clip of the family in Massachusetts "unschooling" their fifteen and thirteen year olds. Those two and their parents are in for a huge shocker when the world doesn't revolve around what they want to do. While I don't agree that algebra is necessary for a successful life (I wish the nation and the states would provide a much more vocational approach to some children and maybe our drop out rates would drop.) I do think that having no chores, no limitations, is actually handicapping those two. I don't think this is a good example of what many unschoolers do.
That's funny! I've been following an unschooling yahoo group for a couple years just to hear their point of view. There are so many good arguments for both. I love LOVE the emphasis on respecting your child and respecting that they know themselves, which leads them to knowing themselves.... blabbity blab blab blab. It's very challenging to my way of parenting which tends to be very controlling. You could google Sandra Dodd...she has a great website with a lot of little essays about various subjects. I don't do anything unschool-y, but I have a healthy respect for those who try it with passion.
I totally GET your response to it initially and am not trying to convince you of any direction or anything, just throwing that out there.
I love your blog Christine!
Jill
This is so sad and disturbing. I firmly believe this is Satans way of getting into homeschooling and trying to destroy the current freedoms that homeschooling parents are currently allowed. Isn't there something called tuancy?! Not only are they not educating their children, they aren't teahing them basic boundaries, morals, nutrition, hygiene, etc! Satan would love nothing more than parents, expecially Christian parents, to allow their children to grow up and be unkempt, wild imbeciles!! Sorry for the intensity of my language, but this has deeply trouble this homeschooling mom! God is the One who created wisdom, knowledge, and authority.
Kelly N.
We homeschool. I have done a LOT of research, so yes, I've heard of unschooling. By and large I disagree with the idea. I just don't see AT ALL how it could work in High School. I am not one who thinks every child learns best by sitting at a desk with a textbook. However, there are some "boring" things that our children must learn. No adult has a life in any reality I know where they can do whatever they want and abide by NO rules. That is ludicrous.
I do think there are some successful unschoolers but truly, I think if they are doing a good job, they have to work harder than the rest of us to make certain that their child is getting exposed to various subject matters.
I am very curious as to how many UNschoolers make it into college and of those who do, how many make it through.
Very "interesting" for lack of a better word!
Pegs are another great way to encourage fine motor skills. Picking up cotton balls with tongs is another. There are some fantastic board games that help. We have one called Tier auf Tier (german) translated to Animal upon Animal. It's an animal stacking game. Not so much for strength as control and balance. And very cute. boardgamegeek.com is a great site for discovering good games. Try searching under their geeklists for games to aid in fine motor development.
I practically unschooled one of my kids for two years and he did amazingly well. We did have textbooks, though, a variety of them for various grade levels, he just did what he wanted, when he wanted. It worked wonders! He skipped two grade levels and learned to love learning. He is now in public school and is doing great.
I would never ever do this with my other kids. My one son is made out a completely different material than most people I know. He is extremely disciplined, has been since pre-school, and smarter than anyone I know. (His dad is pretty smart, too.) The structure came from his own personality, and it worked for him. I can't imagine it actually working with his brothers.
We didn't set out to unschool. It was going to be a temporary homeschooling situation. We just kind of ended up in a situation when my son was progressing faster at his own leading than when I was trying to teach him.
Wow! Since when do we believe everything we see on TV? As usual the video only showed you an EDITED (ahem) biased viewpoint (imagine that, bias and PC from the media). LOL
My son is 16 and we are unschoolers. He is light-years ahead of his gifted/advanced public-schooled peers (and this is based on state testing, not my opinion). Guess what? He has not touched a text book since 2002. Life is our classroom and frequent library trips our curricula. Yes, we have "school" books, but they are just one of the many tools we employ in our daily excursions. Our destination? Knowledge.
I will say that there are some pitiful examples of homeschooling out there, just as there are some pitiful examples of public schools, charter schools, & religious schools, along with the more often than not pitiful parents who dump their kids off on some pitiful teachers to babysit 5 days a week at taxpayers expense. Huh.
You could make any situation sound bad, if you tried hard enough. Parents kill their children almost every day: should parenting be illegal?
Seriously, how often do you hear the outcry to pull public schooled kids and homeschool them to shield them from atrocious public-school experiences? EVERY DAY our children (a precious gift from the Lord, I might add) are subjected to student violence, gang rape, teachers having "relationships" with students, rampant drug/alcohol abuse, & teen pregnancy to name a few and no one says, "Man, these kids are being done a great disservice in public school. Maybe they need to be homeschooled to protect them from such horrors." Our tax dollars are FUNDING these revolting & grievous crimes against children, yet no one is standing up demanding change.
To be continued....
Continued
What about the THOUSANDS of public schooled children who flunk state tests every year? How many public school graduates cannot even make change or fill out a resume? Shouldn't the school FORCE the parents to homeschool since the teachers aren't up to par? Maybe we should raise taxes and build better schools, hire more teachers, provide better training. No, let's blame the parents for those flunkies but leave the teachers and public school system out of it. That's how America works, people. Pass the buck, shift responsibility.
How about the kids who become killers BECAUSE of their horrible public school experiences? Dylan Klebold was an exemplary student from an "excellent" public school: guess a "good education" doesn't keep a kid from becoming a murderer. Massacre after massacre is happening in our public schools (mentally, spiritually & physically) but where is the clamor from the parents to make public school illegal? Hey, it's OK if the government fails our children, right? It should only be illegal if the parents fail their children.
And never think for even one second that just because you live in a good district, hand-picked your child's teacher, moved to an upper class neighborhood or send your kids to private school that you are free from concern. Quite the contrary, I'm afraid.
If they start passing laws that make it illegal to educate our children in a manner different from that of government-run public schools, what's next? Our religious freedom? Limits on the number of children we can parent?
I may not homeschool or unschool like the family in the video, but this is AMERICA and differences in opinion or style should NEVER be illegal. We are all imperfect, and sometimes our differences are greater than the rift between man & God. BUT one thing is clear: we have freedom to choose what we feel is best regardless of what others find acceptable. Period.
If I want to unschool my kids, so be it. If a family wants to have 19 biological children, so be it. If a couple decides to adopt 15 children from another country, so be it. Who are we to judge? Our country was founded by men & women who were different, who lived outside the box, who went against the flow. It is BECAUSE of their "peculiarity" & differences that we have America.
The next time you judge someone for doing things differently than you feel is acceptable, think again. I guarantee your "acceptable way of doing things" may be next on the freedom auction block.
Cindy
This un-schooling things is crazy to me. But, I have only just heard about it from this one TV show.
The media seems to always get the WORST family to do something out of the social norm and then put it out there to let everyone know how wrong it is. I quit watching.
But, my husband and I talked about how these kids are going to do in the work force when they are asked to do a job!-right NOW!! SCARY if this is going to be part of OUR future!!
Also, about Alex's fine motor. Isaac's OT had us put pennies into play dough and put it in a bowl. He had to then use one hand at a time to fish the pennies out. If that is too hard, try a bowl of rice. The idea is to use only his fingers and not his sight to find the object. Alex's is WAY CUTE!!
XO
Oh, and by the way, we homeschool AND we are living in our RV for a year. But if you ask me, kids need and thrive on structure, even if it is just a little. At least my 4 do.
XO
I can't imagine homeschooling without structure. Some times I tell my kids to go find something to do, but T.V or video games are not an option. Unschool fine. But atleast have the tools available to help your kids explore and learn. Throw out the T.V.., I can't imagine what my kids would learn if they were allowed to watch t.v. all day. Ugh, that would not be good.
On the other hand, I would like to here this families take on the report about them. The media is incredibly biased and I would like to know if they had anything to add that would not make what they are doing to their children seem so ridiculous???
Julie
I just wanted to share this blog about an unschooling family. I think what they is amazing!
http://nurturedbylove.blogspot.com/
We are a homeschooling family who has run the spectrum from unschooling to using the Community College. There are lots of ways to homeschool, and there are rare extremists. When we unschooled we had structure and limits--no TV at all, healthy options for entertainment and exercise, and plenty of time for reading and exploring the world. When our third child was born with a disability we had to revamp our schooling, so we became more "programmed". We were always relaxed about it though. I am still learning to trust my kids to know what they need--even my daughter with Down syndrome--and I'm in our 17th year of homeschooling! My approach is that I'm more of a coach than a teacher. My goal is to provide my children the skills they need to become independent thinkers and learners. I don't have to "make" them memorize things and study certain subjects--they naturally enjoy exploring the world and learn as they go.
I wasn't able to watch the video, but can imagine based on comments what it was like. I too was hyper critical of unschooling when I first learned about it. One thing I have since learned is that alot of unschoolers are simply child led studies. Meaning the parents see what things the kids are interested in (ie animals) and find ways to teach subjects relating to or through that avenue. Also they use lots of "real life" books instead of text books, and look for life experience or hands on models often. When done like this, these parents are actually doing WAY more work towards their kids educations then "the average" homeschooling parent. Again, I don't have an in depth knowledge about all this (though we homeschool) but I thought I'd add in what small bit of enlightenment I do have on the subject ;)
Yay Alex! Cool activities :o)
I think I first heard about unschooling through the Colfaxes
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1989/3/16/homeschoolers-are-at-home-at-harvard/
although their methods seemed a lot different than what was presented in this report. I don't believe they even owned a TV.
We are definitely more in the structured camp of homeschooling due to my personality and the number of children we are schooling.. It really is such a blessing to be able to homeschool.
Thanks for all of the comments! Nice to read the different perspectives.
Just wanted to say that I am always inspired by how you make it a priority to give each child in your care (respite or permanent) individual attention and love that meets specific needs. I don't know if you've ever used or played with K'Nex toys but they are phenomenal and may be right up Alex's alley for fine motor skill work. Chances are ALL the kids will be in on the fun because there are some really cool kits out there!
Actually, kids do not need school. They need mental stimulation and opportunities to learn, but in many cases, schooling and learning are complete opposites.
That story about unschooling was merely another smear job done in ignorance and designed to inflame people.
Most of the time I don't care, and I really don't this time, either, but it's important to realize that there is always more than one side to the story.
As an unschooling family, we've learned and done some amazing things, and yes, the kids can get into college, yes they can do math, yes they learn interpersonal skills and yes, they can and do grow up as persons of integrity and decency.
Just sayin'.
I'm the mother of a dozen children, and I have been homeschooling for 20 years. (I have "graduated" 6 of my children already, and have 6 still at home.)
While we have done a variety of methods of homeschooling over the years, we have not done the unschooling method.
While I am sure that there are families who's children learn well in that environment, I personally know multiple families who have really failed their children by not structuring their homeschooling. I know young adults who feel very handicapped by their lack of knowledge, and they don't know how to start learning math and language arts when they are 21. So sad!
I know families who have wanted to send their children to the community college and then been shocked that their child couldn't pass the entrance exam. When questioned about the curriculum they were using, I was told, "Well, we haven't really done any math since 6th grade." Yes ... that is a problem.
On the flip side ... we are NOT the highly structured, sit down at the dining table for 5 hours per day type of family. We have a LOT of flexibility. We use a LOT of "real books" versus text books. We use a LOT of hands-on learning and field trip learning. But, we believe that every child every year must be completing a math and language arts program. Not optional. Doesn't matter if the child "isn't interested" this year or not.
Laurel
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