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IsabelC

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Everything posted by IsabelC

  1. We call ourselves classically inspired unschoolers (I don't get too hung up on definitions, and I recognize that different people define things differently, but it can be useful just as a form of shorthand to give someone a quick idea of what we're doing). We don't do radical unschooling where everything is child directed: we place boundaries around things like when/whether they can have screen time, when they go to bed, and what choices are available in food. But as far as education is concerned, we go as close to unschooling as we feel comfortable with. Anyone who knows a bit about unschooling would be familiar with the concept of 'strewing', which basically means offering interesting things to your children, whether that is taking them on trips or simply putting an interesting object in the house where they will see it. We use TWTM as a guide to what to strew. So for example, my 6yo ds loves being read to, so sometimes I will let him choose books, but other times I will choose SOTW or other selections from TWTM. We are offering a lot of the learning in the classical curriculum, but we generally don't make the children do it if they aren't interested at that time, and we don't do is as a formal lesson. So with my example, where a 'real' classical parent would read chapter 16 of SOTW and then ask the child to narrate what she has learned, create a page in her history folder and perhaps find some extra books or activities to complement that, I just read the chapter and see where it takes us. We might simply chat about what we've read, or he might want to hear lots more about that topic, or we might do a practical activity. He decided to make an Assyrian style siege engine out of Lego and try breaking city walls with it. With his dad's help, he tried this with several different styles of wall, thus also learning something about the technique for building strong walls. They wandered outside to check how the walls of our house are constructed, and a bit of conversation about practical vs artistic architectural features ensued. We started off wanting to avoid requiring him to do anything, however I was not comfortable with his lack of interest in reading. As an earlier reader myself (I'm not sure when or how I began reading, but I know I could read chapter books before starting school), I was getting stressed that he didn't seem that inspired. Of course, I know that some unschooled children don't read until they are, say, 10, and then they spontaneously learn in a couple of weeks. And I understand that, outside of the school structure, it is possible to teach almost everything else without the child reading. However, I still thought he was missing out on a lot, so after talking it over with my husband we decided that we would try short daily reading lessons. This has worked well so far, and we are planning to add another couple of more structured activities, but I'd still say it's more unschooling than anything else.
  2. It does represent Christianity, but only Christianity as CS Lewis interpreted it, which might be substantially different from other Christians. If you are reading it to / with your children, though, bear in mind that the symbolism is not as glaringly obvious to children as it is to us. So if you like the books, I wouldn't avoid them just because of doctrinal difference.
  3. Yeah, that. Words are tools: a word can't be bad any more than a pencil or a hammer can be bad, but it is possible to do good or bad things with them, as with any tools. If my child were to shout "Go to Hell!" at me, it's the disrespect and unkindness that would be an issue, not the exact words used. As for appropriateness, I guess that is a matter of taste, opinion and religious beliefs. Coarse language doesn't bother me much, however I do try not to say anything that is going to be offensive to the person I'm talking to.
  4. Probably the 20 lesson one just has longer lessons than the 100 lesson one. Or it doesn't teach as far. After all, how do you define being able to read? Average adult level? College level? Newspaper level? (I don't know about the US, but in Australia, newspapers are apparently written to be read at grade 4 level!)
  5. We are of the 'start them asap' school of thought. As soon as they can get a spoon to their mouth accurately (as opposed to the food going all over their face), they can use a knife. It you're starting with a tiny tot, you can put your hand over hers and control it quite firmly, then more lightly, then move onto just hovering your hand very close so you can react quickly to any danger. Once you can see the child has got an idea of the technique, you can just watch her from a little further away until she is competent to do it without supervision. It's worth using properly sharpened knives for cutting, too. Some people mistakenly think that a blunter knife is less dangerous, but in fact a sharp knife is safer because it needs less force to use and can be more easily controlled. You can also demonstrate the safer techniques, eg when using a large knife to dice a vegetable, a rocking motion is safer than the "speed karate chop" method. My 6yo and 4yo happily chop fruit and vegies. We don't let them get stuff out of the oven, though. However, this is mainly because our oven is wall mounted and quite high, so they would have to stand on a stool and reach up over their heads. If we had a floor level oven I would let them get something light, such as a tray of cookies, out under supervision.
  6. That looks repulsive. I mean, plastic surgery used to be for fixing stuff like that, not disfiguring a perfectly fine face. And I don't even want to know what's with that man's tongue. This is the sort of thing that makes me happy to live in a cultural backwater :) Oh well, I guess if it makes them happy...
  7. I don't agree that every child should be forced to do advanced math and science. Yes, I think everyone should ideally learn enough to be a competent citizen and run their own household (assuming they are not too disabled to expect to do this), but seriously, who uses college preparation level math in real life? If one of my children wants to learn a trade that does not require calculus (and most don't) then I'm happy for them to not study it. As long as they know enough to do things like balance their budget, pay their taxes and other things that would be covered in an applied math course, they are functionally numerate. However, having said that, a child in grade nine (or at grade nine age) would normally be having discussions with her parents about what she wants to do post homeschool, and working with their help to prepare for it. If this young woman has expressed an interested in veterinary science, why on earth are the parents not guiding her to study what she'd need to do this? I find it sad that some young people may not be allowed the chance to learn things purely because their parents see them in a housewife role in the future. If she does the science and math and eventually qualifies as a vet tech, she can still quit work later on if she wants to concentrate on marriage and children. But if she isn't qualified for any job that interests her and things turn out differently than expected, then she will be stuck with very few choices, and will not necessarily have another chance to do the learning. As for how to respond, that's difficult. How much you can usefully say would depend on how well you know the family. If she is limiting the children's educational opportunities due to religious beliefs, would it be possible to ask the relevant spiritual adviser within your denomination to approach her?
  8. Right, that makes sense. Yes, our books do introduce the odd word that is listed on the back as a 'special' word. However I don't call them that, I just explain the unfamiliar rule as we go. I'm trying to follow Elizabeth's suggestion of avoiding sight words. As for levels, I was mildly curious, but I'm not that bothered as I can see my child is making good progress.
  9. Sorry, but ballet dancers do work very hard on their strength and flexibility (hence so much barre work before actual dancing). Plus they tend to be of slim build to start with, so genes are on their side.
  10. I really like your list. I would add Respect for themselves, others (especially elders of the community) and the environment. The courage to be different and to stand up for themselves and others if oppressed. Understanding that some things are worth doing even if they are not easy and not fun. I guess you kinda covered that under discipline and responsibility. But sometimes I think parents and teachers try a little too hard to make everything fun. If it's not fun, they shouldn't be learning it, etc. Whereas in later life there will always be something that isn't fun but is right to do, ikwim. And finally, I would like them to understand how consumer culture works and respond thoughtfully. I don't mean they should live on home grown mung beans in a cabin in the woods (although I don't mind if that's what they want to do!), but btst I don't want them to end up being the sort of person who gets evicted because they spent their rent money on the latest bit of junk they saw on television. Btw, isn't it interesting that so many 'lessons' people are listing are non academic ones?
  11. Ds and dd1 both started to go without parenting to sleep at around age 2. At age 6 and 4, they still like their evening rhythm of stories and cuddles with me and their daddy, but once we say goodnight they usually go to sleep and stay asleep all night. Dd2 is 12 months old and still sleeps next to me; she will start going to sleep on her own whenever she wants to have her own bedroom. I have never really found parenting them down to be a hassle though. The way I see it, it is always going to take a little while to get a child to sleep. You can choose to spend this time cuddling, rocking and breastfeeding (or cuddling, chatting, telling stories and singing when they are a bit older). Or you can choose to spend the time telling them to go to sleep, walking in and out of their room, getting frustrated, listening to them cry etc. I know which I'd rather do :001_smile:
  12. Um, I personally know at least 10 women who have had VBAC (and VBA2C) at home. But this isn't a birth site, so I'll shut up about it lol Sorry, that was very OT in any case. So getting back to the topic of whether families should be so large and how it is possible to care for the children appropriately. I find it very interesting to see how everyone seems to have a very decided opinion about it. Why is there a 26 page thread about a woman most of us have never met being pregnant? Why do so many people have such a fascination for the Duggars (and other 'mega-families') and respond with such emotion? We all (I would hope) consider our options carefully and do what we believe is the right thing to do under the circumstances we are in. So why do we get so wound up about what someone else decides to do? Given that nobody is making me have 19 children, why on earth should I care how many Mrs Duggar has? Not going to comment on anybody else, but for myself, I think I should wait until I'm a perfect mother before I start criticizing other mothers (yk, logs in eyes and all that). Just something to ponder...
  13. Um, that's the problem with the average history book ;) We have got plenty of wonderful Aussie stories, I'm just really looking for a 'spine' for the history bit. Anyway, we're going to try Our Sunburnt Country and just add on the bits it doesn't cover. I want to include some history local to our state and our area as well, as suggested in TWTM I think. (We live in Tasmania, and our culture and history differ a little bit from mainland Australia.)
  14. OK, now I'm confused. From these posts it doesn't sound like the RRL is a level at all. Yet the Readers we are using, which are heavily phonics based, have each book labeled with a RRL :confused: Unless it means something different in Australia to in the US?
  15. I suspect that they can handle a bit of criticism. After all, they have chosen to put themselves up for public scrutiny with their television appearances, website, book, etc so it is to be expected that some responses will be less than positive. I would never presume to proclaim some arbitrary limit on the amount of children a couple should have and raise, but personally I am very happy with my smallish family of three kids.
  16. I'm all for having high expectations of your child, but naming his Jesus Christ is just going too far :lol
  17. I am hoping that with more birthing experience than any obstetrician around, she might choose to have this baby at home.
  18. Also I forgot to respond to this before, but my child had a lot of trouble sounding out despite being taught initially a b c and not ay bee see. He would look at 'cat' and go "kuh-a-tuh, what's that?" (kinda difficult to convey without the pronunciation guide type characters). Just in case anyone else has this problem, it's worth teaching the child to whisper the sounds that are hard to make without adding anything extra. Eg the letter P tends to come out as something like 'puh', whereas whispering will get more of a 'p-'. Similarly with T.
  19. Hi everyone, I'm mainly just popping back into this thread to say thank you for the advice and encouragement, and also to ask another question. I am pleased to report that my son has made a huge amount of progress with his reading since I last posted on this forum. We ended up doing daily practice using a combination of 5 different resources! I know this sounds crazy and disorganized, but it's working. We drilled the Letterlander cards like mad until he could call out the basic sound for all the letter in about half a minute, now we just go back to them occasionally for games. We do the Fitzroy Readers, one book every few days and reviewing the 'old' ones in between. We supplement this with the sentences, word families and little stories from the Ordinary Parents Guide. On alternate days we work with the Magic 100 Words cards, but instead of teaching them as whole words, I explain the rules and exceptions as we go along (a few cards I have just left out for the moment). Then he gets extra drill using the ABC Reading Eggs Online lessons. So altogether that is about an hour of phonics and reading per day but in two shorter sessions, plus random extras like reading the road signs when we're out driving. Whew! But anyway, something is working because not only can he now basically read, but he doesn't start having meltdowns the minute the reading materials come out anymore. So another quick question. He still periodically gets mixed up with the similar letters b/d and n/u. Are there any special shortcuts to get past this, or is it just a matter of constant reminders and repetition?
  20. I know that some people here a reading experts, so hoping you can help. I am after a quick summary of reading recovery levels: what are they (are they different from plain old 'reading level'), how many levels does it go up to, and what level should be aimed for in what grade / age group? Thanks so much.
  21. IMBD is a useful resource for doing a quick check on a movie. There is a parents' warning section that details whether the movie has violence, sex, coarse language or whatever. (Obviously it's still good to watch it yourself, but IMBD can help with weeding out things you can see straightaway are unsuitable or too old for your children).
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