Rigorous or not?

[Jean in Newcastle]

I consider our schooling rigorous in content but not in effort. Not that we don't put effort into our schooling but it tends to be a joyful effort because it is born out of interest. We are not child led but my kids have learned to trust my guidance because they've seen the treasure contained in what we are learning - even the "boring" parts because they know that it leads to stuff that isn't boring.

 

I do want my kids to comprehend what we're studying because it can get to be frustrating pretty quickly if they try to build on what they don't understand. We do finish books because it seems silly to me to miss out on part of a book's message or content.

[joannqn]

It's hard to think about a 10 yr old who has no interest in learning.

 

There are some things that she enjoys: computer clubhouse, editing photos/videos, craft type projects, experiments, independent reading that she chooses, writing stories, watching our bug collection, playing, riding her bike. However, she just dabbles at these things. We gave her our $600 camcorder and bought her Adobe Premier to try and encourage that interest but she just goofs around with the camcorder and barely touches the program. She's edited a few photos for fun. She writes parts of stories but doesn't finish them. She doesn't do craft projects on her own but enjoys some of the ones that I do with them for history (ie. sugar cube pyramid).

 

I think my biggest mistake is that she needed acceleration that I didn't provide. I accelerated her one year and thought that was enough. When she complained that she knew everything in the book, I thought it was teaching a previously learned concept at a higher level and forced her to do it. I didn't know that she had already figured out the material years beyond the level I was making her do. After two years of that kind of torture, she just shut down. I'm trying to fix it. We've improved to tolerating school instead of crying about it daily. Some days, I'm tempted to completely unschool her but I'm afraid she'd end up playing on the computer or making silly Webkinz videos all day.

[LibraryLover]

I have to say that I do not share your beliefs, and your dd is not even my own. It sounds like she has a lot of interests, just not interests that some people would deem 'important'. I hope you can see your girl and her interests outside of a 'classical' ideal and respect her. Your dd is worth that. (She is TEN!!!) I have read your posts long enough to know that you are a good person, but I feel sad that you think your dd is not interested in learning when she so clearly is. You're buying a One Road mindset! Reject that. Your child is a baby, and I would support her interests. If you make negative assumptions about a child and her interests, she will know, and you might push her away.

 

My youngest dd (same age as yours) is interested in all things classical and 'intellectual', and she was a rad unschooler her whole early childhood. She probably did not do a fraction of the 'school work' your dd did as a 7 , 8, 9 etc yr old. People are who they are , and we need to see the depth in them, even when they are interested in subjects 'outside the box'. BF Skinner was flawed!

Edited May 22, 2010 by LibraryLover