Comments on: The homeschool experiment — three month review

By: Octamom

Octamom — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:24:55 +0000

We’re on our 11th year of homeschooling–and it would be so neat to have a record of those early days like the one you are assembling here–love your heart, your honesty, your questions, your challenges, your ideas and successes! Best wishes as you continue the adventure!

By: TootieLizardTush

TootieLizardTush — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:45:53 +0000

One of the best lessons you can learn as a new home schooling parent is to de-school yourself. Your children do not need curriculums to learn. That is a public school concept. Nor do you children need to be graded or reach milestones, another public school concept. These things make learning a chore for your children, stress you out and will always result in conflicts as you try to play supermom/teacher keeping them on track with some imaginary goal invented by adults. Have you tried unschooling? Although I hate the label unschooling believing it a misleading title, I can attest it works better than any curriculum and both you and your children will be much more relaxed and much happier. Unschooling is letting your children learn what they wish to, when they wish to, at their own pace. Your job is not to teach them to memorize facts or figures. Your job is to teach them how to teach themselves and research for themselves. You will be surprised how far they fly with that. It is also an education of a life time because as adults if they choose to change their careers they will not be looking for worksheets or curriculums to show them how to learn what they need for their new career. They will already know how to research it all for themselves. They will make better decisions about the information they are reading and learn to consider the sources for themselves. Worksheets and curriculums and structured learning entirely stifles the idea of self processing information. There is a great book called The Unschooling Unmanual. Do a Google search for it. It will make all the difference in the world to your view of what home schooling actually is. You can also temper unschooling with the Charlette Mason method. Google that too:)

Don’t worry, all new home schooling Mom’s fall into the trap of trying to reproduce school at home with the same results as you are experiencing. After a couple of years of trying this and that, all based on curriculums etc you will eventually have the confidence to start throwing those curriculums out the window as useless. They don’t work in school and they don’t work in home school. Take the short cut and check out unschooling and Charlotte Mason now in these early days. I promise you will not regret it. There will be no more conflicts of personality or arguments and learning will be fun again for your children.

Best wishes to you all.

By: Pass The Torch » Family Communication Out of Sync

Pass The Torch » Family Communication Out of Sync — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:47:58 +0000

[...] to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks Two-Month Review — Some aha moments Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history Five-Month Review — What I underestimated [...]

By: Pass The Torch » Passing the Torch at Collector’s Corner

Pass The Torch » Passing the Torch at Collector’s Corner — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:53:42 +0000

[...] written a lot about the Science Museum of Minnesota over the past year. In January, I shared photos of the kids conducting DNA experiments, and in August I introduced you to Collector’s Corner. But Friday was our last visit for a [...]

By: Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment

Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 03:17:25 +0000

[...] Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones: The Beginning Week One – Starting with a Frazzle Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff Week Two – Just when I thought I knew what I was doing Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS! One-month Review D’s Review at One Month Week Five – Stress and frustration Week Seven – Flip-flopping curriculum Note to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks Two-Month Review — Some aha moments Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history Five-Month Review — What I underestimated Six-Month Review – Let’s Just Skip this Month Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS! [...]

By: Pass The Torch » Share your best homeschool tips - a call for bloggers

Pass The Torch » Share your best homeschool tips - a call for bloggers — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:24:55 +0000

[...] Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones: The Beginning Week One – Starting with a Frazzle Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff Week Two – Just when I thought I knew what I was doing Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS! One-month Review D’s Review at One Month Week Five – Stress and frustration Week Seven – Flip-flopping curriculum Note to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks Two-Month Review — Some aha moments Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history Five-Month Review — What I underestimated Six-Month Review – Let’s Just Skip this Month Seven-Month Review — Curriculum review D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS! [...]

By: Pass The Torch » Homeschool Tips and Advice - Share your best links!

Pass The Torch » Homeschool Tips and Advice - Share your best links! — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:44:44 +0000

By: Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment Results - Why we’re quitting

Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment Results - Why we’re quitting — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:18:54 +0000

[...] Homeschooling Experiment milestones: The Beginning Week One – Starting with a Frazzle Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff Week Two – Just when I thought I knew what I was doing Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS! One-month Review D’s Review at One Month Week Five – Stress and frustration Week Seven – Flip-flopping curriculum Note to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks Two-Month Review — Some aha moments Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history Five-Month Review — What I underestimated Six-Month Review – Let’s Just Skip this Month Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS! [...]

By: Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment Results - the STRUGGLES

Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment Results - the STRUGGLES — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:27:35 +0000

By: Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment Results - Why we started

Pass The Torch » Homeschool Experiment Results - Why we started — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:35:33 +0000

[...] Homeschooling Experiment milestones: The Beginning Week One – Starting with a Frazzle Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff Week Two – Just when I thought I knew what I was doing Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS! One-month Review D’s Review at One Month Week Five – Stress and frustration Week Seven – Flip-flopping curriculum Note to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks Two-Month Review — Some aha moments Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history Five-Month Review — What I underestimated Six-Month Review – Let’s Just Skip this Month Seven-Month Review — Curriculum review D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS! [...]