Tuesday, January 6, 2009

CAUTION: UNSCHOOLING RESULTS IN THINKING CHILDREN


Have you ever heard the expression "be careful what you ask for?" When we chose to unschool we actually made the decision to teach our children to think and decide what they were interested in and felt was important to them. Right now Hannah my 15 year old is at a jewelry making class in downtown Heredia with her friend. She will be starting massage school on Monday. She has also decided to attend the beauty school in town when she finishes massage school.

In order to as she puts it "not look retarded" she works on math and language every day. She does enjoy the math and endures the language. She has never been a big reader like my other children were and still are, but she does a lot of reading on the computer.

When we were homeschooling our older children I was pretty uptight about them getting the three R's and making sure they were up to par with their peers. That was futile as well as silly. They all went to high school and college way ahead, no thanks to all my worries and nagging.

I have also seen this with my son-in-law. He completed the sixth grade living in Hondurus and went on to a tech school to learn how to make shoes. When he was 17 he walked to the U.S. and worked and lived there for five years. He worked as a roofer, cook, sheet rocker, painter, and repairman. He was deported four months after he and my daughter were married and has become a woodworker. He makes beautiful woodwork and loves to read.

About six months ago he decided to return to school and finish high school. They started him by having him go back to seventh grade and memorize his times tables. That took about one day. All the stuff we spend years trying to teach our kids he has learned in about six months.

After watching this I have decided no more worrying for me. They will learn when they are ready and in the meantime they have room in their heads for thinking about things and learning to try and make sense of the world as it is. I think that is more than most people even attempt to do these days.

3 comments:

Book Lover Lisa said...

Wow, Hannah is looking gorgeous and mature. Jared really fears that I have stifled our childrens thinking abiltiy by sending them to public school. Which I am sure is true, but I think they will survive. I think I became too bogged down in worrying if they were missing too much. Glad that Hannah is finding her way.

lafamiliahernandez said...

I am a recent arrival to CR (San Ramon, Alajuela) and have about a bazillion questions about homeschooling/unschooling here! Any info or experience you could share would be SO VERY helpful. What are the requirements if any, can students later transfer into a public or private school in CR or the US, etc, etc....

Roblynn said...

To answer your questions about changing and transfering schools. It is very difficult to get your permission from the consulate to educate your child herre. We had to get forms authenticated, notarized, etc. and still were not done when we deicded to pull out of the private school my daughter was in. If you send me your email I would be happy to email you about our experience. Our experience is why my youngest is going to prekinder in a few weeks.