I'm still here & looking for other families

Share everyday things like field trips, homeschooling experiences, or just anything that doesn't seem to belong elsewhere!

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Njmom
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I'm still here & looking for other families

Postby Njmom » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:20 am

Hello everyone!

Its been about three weeks now since pulling my dd out of ps, and we're still adjusting to hs.

I realized from the start that this will not be easy and seeing our dd had been in ps from k-6, she'll need to be unschooled for approximately 6 months, at least.

I've also come to realize, that I might need time to unschool myself? lol. It sounds nuts I know, but I've been involved with the ps system since 1990. It's hard for me to adjust to this. I used to get up at 5 a.m during the week and now I don't even hear the alarm go off! I'm lucky if I get up and going around 8 a.m - sometimes later. These late morning starts could also be caused from not sleeping well in the evening. I'll lay in my bed and worry about if I'm doing things right, or if we'll find other families that are unschooling as well? The latter comes to my mind quite often. I have searched around and the one's I have found listed are quite a distance away from us. In fact, there is only one woman on are block who say's she hs's, but from what I found out she does Co-ops, which is not the same thing, nor is it something I'm wanting to do in my future with my dd.

I think my worrying could also be compounded by the very fact that I'm on an even tighter budget now. I mean, we've always been on one because we sacraficed a lot as a family so that I can be a sahm. But, with times being as hard as they are now, I'm finding its even tighter and traveling great distances to meet other unschooling families is out of the question for us at this time. Given that, I have wondered if putting up a free website could help us, but honestly, I don't know if it will or not. I'm sure others here have been in similar situations, and I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts or suggestions.
Last edited by Njmom on Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you & Have a nice day!
Njmom

sartasd
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Postby sartasd » Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:32 am

I unschool in Florida. I homeschooled when my son was young, ages 5 to 10 and then He went to the State's deaf school for 2 1/4 years and tried the local PS for a few months. then came home to learn. my other child was 1st grade (K at home) and only was in PS for a 1/2year.

When I pulled them out, we first used various workbooks, library books, old material I already had and so on. We were very relaxed, and some days we didn't even open the workbooks. I spent the first few months just playing and spending time with my kids to see what they did know.
We then used samples from various resources to find something that they enjoyed and loved to do. They voted on getting their coor (what I call the three R's) from Christian light, the work was simple, something they can do alone or with me if they want me to do it with them. and they even could grade themselved using the answer books provided. (my son really like this idea of him checking to see how he did!) He is loving the freedom to learn on his own.

I also have several books cases full of books, and magazines, art material, and tons of other things they can get on their own and spend time doing.

We just finished doing a study on Japan. This was after reading a book by Allen Say. (My Grandfather's Journey) My dd made a book about Japan, things about food, Kimono's, life, houses, and school life in Japan, she used mostly pictures in her book.

My son did a study on Japan during World War II. He wrote a short report, and found pictures, and did a timeline and put it in book form like his sister.

We are now starting a short study on the Cherokee side our families. My husband's father is part-Cherokee, and my Grandfather is part-Cherokee.
We are also planning a trip to Cherokee, NC this spring or summer.

One thing I found helpful to de-school, going to the library and picking out books (they picked their own books and I picked a few that I hope they would also find interesting, I just put them with the library books on a shelf and most likely they will forget that I picked them because they are mixed with theirs.

Field trips to Historical places is also a plus during de-schooling. Find if there are free ones near you. Most Historical parks are free or really low cost. find some virtual tours online too. They can be fun too.

Sharon
Sharon

riccalo
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Postby riccalo » Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:09 pm

I think most homeschooling parents worry at least once in a while that they aren't doing things right, even parents who send their kids to public school worry about their children's future. These fears subside as the years go by, you and your family will be far too busy having fun and learning together to let the worries creep in. If/when the fears come back it would be a good idea to have a strong support group around you. The support group doesn't have to be just unschoolers; it could be family and friends or even other types of homeschoolers. There isn't a big community of unschoolers where I live, up until recently I was the only one in my village (as far as I know) that was unschooling my children. My sister's son used to be in public school, but she saw how happy my children were, the closeness we had as a family, and that my boys were learning a lot so, this year she decided to give it a go and unschool my nephew as well. Now there are two unschoolers in this small village, maybe that's all there will ever be and I'm ok with that. My children can play with any of the children from our neighborhood, pretty much all of their friends are in public school. None of their friends seem to care that they unschool and it doesn’t bother us that they go to public school. There is plenty of information and support online for unschooling that you might want to check out. Here are some lovely sites: http://www.homeedmag.com/ http://www.joyfullyrejoycing.com/ http://sandradodd.com/unschooling and http://familyrun.ning.com/ . There are loads of blogs written by unschooling moms and dads detailing their unschooling journey. Perhaps you could start one up for you and your family at blogger.com, you might meet people that way as well. Yahoo.com has plenty of unschooling groups, you might find one that would be willing to have meetings/gatherings closer to you and your family. You could even start up your own unschooling group at Yahoo. I'm sure there are other people near by that are looking for a group to join but haven't found one close enough…yet.


Best of luck to you and your family. :)
-Erica

Njmom
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Postby Njmom » Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:25 pm

Hi Sartasd,

Here's what my 12 year old dd did after I pulled her out. Within the first week of hs she wanted to purchase textbooks that she had been using while in ps. At first, I was surprised; not sure if I should or not. But, after hearing her explain to me that she really enjoys the material, I figured why not, she's read almost everything on my bookshelves, and that was just for fun. :) So, I went over our budget with her, showed her how much we could spend, and then researched where the best prices were. We had a lot of fun, and found some great bargains too!

I let her make her own schedule, which did included history, literature, science, math, career awareness, health, academic support, library, art, and phys ed. Her schedule is very flexible and works for us. We spend a lot of time together, so I know pretty much what she does or doesn’t know. And she works well independently, as well as with me. So I have no worries about her being able to get her work done.

I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on: How your son enjoyed checking his work, the projects they've done, you slipping in good reads from the library, as well as the information you provided about field trips. I'll have a look around. Thank you for sharing. :)


Hi riccalo,

Your thoughts & advice have sure helped me feel better, thank you! I probably should have mentioned in my original post, that I do have some support. Our relatives live out of state, and they now support us in our decision to hs our child. We have a few friends that are local, but their opinions of our choice to hs vary. Some agree with it, while others don't. I also didn't mean to have my post appear as though we just wanted to be with unschoolers. I agree with you wholeheartedly that having support doesn't have to be with "just" unschoolers. I have no problem with our daughter playing with some neighborhood kids, or even some of her ps friends. We're just looking for others to connect with as well. The more the merrier. So I'm sorry if it had appeared that way. I'll have to edit that subject title. :)

Anyway, I've checked out the links you have left (they are nice sites), thank you for sharing them, as well as the information about blogs and the yahoo groups. I see some of the yahoo group links are not working, and or the groups cannot be found which happens from time to time with any link or site. So in the meantime, I think I'll open up the website that my daughter and I have been working on together, and use it as a way to connect with others. I’ll add the link to my sig for those who maybe interested in taking a look at it. We welcome any comments or suggestions.

Thank you! Best of luck to you and your families too!
Thank you & Have a nice day!

Njmom

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MyLittle
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Postby MyLittle » Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:50 pm

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Njmom
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Postby Njmom » Thu Feb 25, 2010 12:16 pm

Thank you & Have a nice day!

Njmom

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Postby MyLittle » Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:16 pm

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