Jane encouraged me not to be hard on unschoolers, which was not my intent. I was thinking about two things in that last post and neither was that unschooling is a bad idea in itself. First: the conference I attended last fall involved a couple of people who struck me as rather extreme, and who occasionally slid into smugness in their extremism. For instance: one session I attended was led by a woman whose children never had a bedtime. She let them listen to their bodies and sleep when they needed to sleep. Who needs bedtime when you can trust your children? I do, that's who. I need bedtime in a big way, and I refuse to see it as a moral failing. Different people need different levels of structure, and I need that "." at the end of my day with the kids. I'm not a bedtime tyrant, but I am less effective (and a whole lot less pleasant) as a mother if I don't get a quiet hour with all the kids down for the night.
Two: I'm not sure I could be a good unschooling mother. I think if I didn't have specific goals for the morning, too often 12:30pm would find me slouched guiltily at the computer, with coffee spilled on my pajamas and my children clamoring for lunch and attention. A crucial part of the "listen to your child and he will tell you what he needs" philosophy is the "listen to your child" bit, as distinct from the "blog until interrupted by bloodshed" approach which I fear would be the dispiriting default around here. What works for us (mostly, although I certainly admit it hasn't worked as well this year as it did the preceding two) is to have focused time after breakfast when we work on school. I guess it's tied to my first thought: I need a certain amount of structure in my days. Any unschoolers out there to comment?
My husband picked up a copy of Alfie Kohn's What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? at some point (he doesn't always tell me when he buys books, see, because I have this irksome habit of asking which of the overflowing shelves he's planning to put them on) and I've been reading it today. It's interesting stuff, all about the state of public schools in this country and the effects of standardized testing. (Alfie Kohn is an interesting guy -- I have mentioned his Punished by Rewards a couple of times here.) He mentions homeschooling only in passing, but of course I am thinking about what we'll do next year as I'm reading. Worth picking up if you see it in the library.
Speaking of libraries, my usually non-confrontational 5yo is going through a tough-guy stage. He launched himself into the storytime room at the library today with a ninja kick combo. And a loud ninja yell -- it would probably have been better received had we not arrived five minutes late and interrupted "Itsy-Bitsy Spider." Oops. Next week on time.
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