Yeah, well, it’s been a wee bit crazy at Chez Spacefamily, so I haven’t been around much here. I have been on facebook and a friend challenged me to do workouts everyday, and I am trying to eat better (does it count if I have a salad and then Doritos?), and the kids have mucho activities and grandparents were here and hannukah…. I could go on, but your brains would explode. If anyone is still reading, of course!
I have a IRL friend who moved far far away, as in not only the west coast, but to CANADA’s west coast. She is homeschooling her kids, but in a new way called "unschooling" (ie- no set curriculum,class time etc). If you are interested, her blog is here. We don’t always agree, but I find her way of thinking interesting and sometimes wish it for my kids.
Our kids are fully packed. Most of my friends think we are crazy for letting them do too much. Sometimes I agree, but other times I don’t.
Soleil has: hockey (her choice), violin(her choice), Girl Scouts(her choice) and Hebrew School (our choice)
Luna has: figure skating (her choice), Girl Scouts(her choice) and Hebrew School(our choice).
Luna used to have piano, but she got fed up with it and we decided it wasn’t worth forcing. She now wants to learn guitar or flute. I am voting guitar since flute is something she can take in school and she is pretty good at coming up with songs. I can imagine her wanting to play around with chords and singing even if she doesn’t know music theory.
What does this have to do with my friend? I think about choices. Dr. Jay made is clear that he wanted the girls to learn about their Jewish heritage. Not just the religion, but the ethnic portion of the culture. How it is mostly recently that Jews are intermarrying, what have Jews done historically and what do Jews feel are their obligations to society (note: all forms of Judaism are different, but our temple is very big on culture and social help and giving back to society).Ok, I am good with that, even though I am atheist.
But the ice hockey? That was Soliel’s choice after seeing her cousins play. The figure skating? Once we got Luna on the ice, she was off! She started at age 3 and never looked back! Violin? When Soleil was 3, she saw a violin for the first time. From that point on, she wanted to play. We made her wait until she was 6 so she would be a bit more patient…
The girls have also done soccer (one wants to continue, one would rather try karate). We try to allow them to do what they choose. I don’t want to force them into something specific, although I did with piano and that was probably a bad thing to try.
My friend is very good with allowing her kids to choose their way. I do make my kids go to our public school. We will need to evaluate this as life continues. I’ve mentioned this before, Massachusetts is one of 5 states that does not consider gifted as a special need. Therefore, despite Soleil’s need for an individual education plan, she is left out. We may need to deal with this as time goes by. Luna is also gifted, but the principal at her school wants less pull out classes and more integrated approaches. This frustrates the hell out of her and I hear it EVERYDAY.
I don’t think I could do unschooling. I am not patient and I would want to teach in more structured settings. But then again, we discuss everything and anything in our family. When a girl noticed that "everything is made in China", we discussed why. I asked how much they thought groceries for a week cost. The answer they gave was $10-$20. When I reported closer to $100-$150, they were shocked! And then discussing world wages shocked them more. So maybe we do unschool.
Anyway, most of this is just food for thought babble. I am tossing ideas around in my head. I need to think more about everything.