homeschooling and fanboy-ism
Nathan says there is a certain “fanboy-ism” to people’s response to homeschooling: people were forced to endure school so they believe our children must be forced to endure it, too. I find this type of thinking to be sad and disheartening.
We put a lot of hope in the Montessori method, preparing ourselves mentally for a huge financial sacrifice if the school turned out to fit Noah’s learning needs. When it didn’t, I was crushed. I really wanted to see Noah thrive. Once I accepted that he was withering instead, I got over it and embraced our original goal: homeschooling.
What I’d really like to do is unschool Noah, and we are currently in the deschooling process. I think it will take a long time to free Noah from the trauma of having been to school. Fortunately, Montessori teaches children to uncover and pursue their own interests through repetition and extension of focus. At this point, it’s all about finding a balance between home and television–it’s easy to rely on a TV when your child doesn’t read on his own yet and is generally cranky in the afternoons.
If you are interested in learning more about unschooling and what a typical day and week would look like, read this article. Read the comments as well–you’ll see what I’m referring to above. Take some time to peruse the site, Family Hack , as well. When I come across resources and articles like these, I’m only more excited to be a homeschooler.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
as salamu ‘alaykum
I picked up two books at the library today by an author I’ve never heard of before. The books are Better Late than Early and School Can Wait. They are by Raymond S. Moore and Dorothy N. Moore. I am very excited to read them and the research about why it is better to hold off on the academic stuff until children are developmentally ready… which I think, not sure, he believes is around 8. I’m already following this approach. I was sold on it after reading John Holt’s books and a lot of evaluation of my own time in school and children all around. I tried teaching my oldest to read (did a few lessons) when he was almost 5 with the 100 easy lessons book (DISTAR method) and he hated it. It’s a method that works for many but I had to make it fun and even with my attempts he hated it. He passed the lessons and I was excited but I sensed his stress so I stopped. Right now I’m just relaxing, making sure he has tools around him to help him discover the world, making sure we are present to answer his questions, play games, and focus more on the Islamic tarbiyyah and freedom to be a child. We only get to be children once! I look at the kids who are his age… yeah, they’ve managed to read… but so many of them have lost the urge to play (natural play… hide and seek… building with blocks…building things with sticks…etc).
January 30th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
We are kind of doing the ‘unschooling’ method ourselves at this point of time – my oldest will be 5 in May and I don’t want to push her too much. I have a bunch of different preschool books (i.e. writing letters, numbers, activities, etc) that we work from – but not on any set schedule.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I know we can’t generalize all unschoolers anymore… but since John Holt coined the term, I think all these different books, separation of subjects, etc.., actually contradict the unschooling method.