the network for radical unschooling families

Me again, sorry got another question

Sorry guys but I got another question.

Both of my boys are involved in Awana at church. At the beginning of the year I asked them if they really wanted to do it again. They both did. At first I would fight them to do the work. But since going to unschooling I told them that I was no longer going to force them to do their sections. I remind them but I don't force them. I told them it is their choice as to rather they do it or not.

Well last night they were not ready and a leader informed me that Thomas wasn't ready this week. I explained as to why.Then he proceeded to tell me that he was suppose to find 5 cities on a globe but he guessed that I haven't covered that since it took him to long to find them! I have to say I was disappointed and almost hurt. How dare we not cover how to read a globe..yet..

I guess since we unschool my kids are suppose to be better then everyone else???

I am beginning to see them grow and that is so cool. A couple of days ago I gave them each $1 and they had their own money. I took them to the dollar store and they got to buy stuff. But through this Jon asked about money value. So we discussed in the car on the way there about nickles, dimes and quarters. We then figured out how many dimes are in a dollar and so forth. This was not a forced conversation just a normal everyday conversation. I decided yesterday we needed to get out of the house. So we packed up a picnic and went to a park around 9:30am. Normally after the picnic we would go home. But around 12:30 the boys were bored and wanted to go to a different park. I agreed so we packed up the car and left. On the way to the other park they asked if they could go to the discovery center. On a normally day I would so not today you already been to a park what more do you want. But...since unschooling I decided why not? So we went to the discovery center. Everyone had a great day full of fun and even some growing!

I am so glad we found unschooling and love seeing the changes in our family. I cringe every time I hear a parent threaten their children. I have learned how to handle my kids in a better way with respect. I no longer yell. I no longer threaten. It is so nice to just be able to talk to them and work out our issues. Everyone is happier. Even hubby. :) He has become very involved the last couple of days. Asking how I handled situations and how unschooling works. He is very supportive now and thinks this is the best thing we have ever done for our family! Thank you everyone for helping me figure this all out.

Amanda

ps. Emily is doing much better with the potty. In fact no accident the last 2 days :)

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jill Larson on March 3, 2011 at 10:07am

Happy children, happy learners, happy life.. I have been cramming schoolwork down my kids throat the past 5 years just so I can make sure the county doesn't force them into school! I have spent some days arguing with my oldest son to do certain worksheets and subjects. I don't want to spend my childrens entire childhood fighting with them to do schoolwork! As long as they are learning, who cares at what rate they learn certain things? I think society puts too much pressure on how everyone else is raising their children instead of focusing on their own children. I've met some public school kids who don't know as much as my boys do.. yet I'm the one that gets the odd looks when I say that I homeschool. I can't wait to see the looks I get when I tell people I unschool! There is nothing wrong with the method any of us use to raise our children. The "normal" schoolers would prefer that we bog our children down with boring textbooks.. my oldest son has already said he wants to be a doctor.. with unschooling, this works out great! He can study math and science to his hearts content with the rest of the work on the side. Most importantly, it means I won't have to spend the next 7 years fighting with him to do it!! 8)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sandra Dodd on March 3, 2011 at 10:10am

-=-

-=-I guess since we unschool my kids are suppose to be better then everyone else???-=-

Maybe you could at least look over (or ask them) what the next Awana activity will be. Unschooling doesn't mean leaving kids to learn on their own without parental help. If it's something you can't think of a way to play with or address in a non-schoolish way, then maybe just make a suggestion without enforcing it, like "Maybe you should read about that," but not check that they do it. But maybe YOU could read about it, and tell them the most interesting parts you found. Maybe they'll ask more, maybe they won't, but they would have that one tidbit.

If you knew there was a find-city-on-globe thing coming up, you could play with maps and globes in various ways--not teaching to the test, but just seeing how familiar they are and where their confusion might be. And maybe it was five Bible-named cities and you could have helped them.

Sandra

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amanda Mendenhall on March 3, 2011 at 10:40am

Thank you for your input.

As far as Awana goes, it is a memerization of verses. I remind them daily and I do ask if they would like help. Both decline any help. Now even though I didn't help them this time around, Thomas did do 2 sections, which is 4 verses. To be honest I was proud of him, I didn't have to fight and argue with him about it. My problem is with the leaders. They think since we are homeschool/unschool that they are suppose to be better then everyone else. I am also an awana leader to the girls and 99% don't have a section ready when they come. I guess you could say when people say stuff like that, I begin to question myself as to if I am doing okay as their mom or not.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Meredith on March 3, 2011 at 2:13pm

It might be helpful to comment to the other leaders that you're homeschooling for social reasons or spiritual reasons as opposed to academic reasons. They'll likely still be confused and have a ton of misconceptions, just different ones.

Here's a question - do the other awana leaders also have kids in the awana classes? Some people tend to "ride" the kids of teachers harder than other kids. It may not be a homeschooling thing at all.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amanda Mendenhall on March 3, 2011 at 2:32pm

Good question! I never thought of that. None of the leaders have kids in there. Thank you. That has helped me see this for what it is.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cindy Miller on March 3, 2011 at 4:07pm

Hey Amanda,

Our boys do AWANA also. With my little guy (5) we go over it the day before and the day they meet. If he doesn't have it memorized perfectly I don't worry about it. He mainly just loves that we snuggle up and I read the sections to him. Our club gives them extra bucks if their parent signs off on the verses so with my older son if he can say it to us then we sign it; if he can't we don't. Then it is up to him if he gets the extra bucks or not. We are fortunate that he loves learning the verses so we remind him but don't nag him about it. Also, I do believe that when the leaders know you homeschool that they might expect more. But I also agree with Meredith about the fact that they just might expect more of your kids as you are a leader. Not really right either way. I'm more concerned that they are learning their verses so as to know God's word and not so they please their leaders. Bummer that the leader made that comment to you.....remember to breathe and cover it with grace.

And the fact that you are concerned about your kids and how you are raising them means you are a GOOD mom!

P.S. Kudos for Emily!!! :-)