I've gotten a worried call from my dad about Granville's schedule. His nocturnal schedule was described above in post 1. The kids were with my parents 2 days then went to their Dad's.
My Dad said, "I am worried about G. All he does is watch TV." I told him what G said he is really doing (see post 1). He protested, "No, he just looks like he is only watching." So I reassured him that G could never have said the things he said if he were not in the process of real interior exploration. I pointed out that in my opinion plenty of adults have never done the work G said he's doing! Books are written to help folks do it...G is starting to figure it out at age 13. I am starting to know for sure that that's worth more than all the 'education' there is.
We will spend 4 weeks with my parents, who generally remind me of how I used to be about homeschooling/unschooling. They truly mean well, but their fears make them push the kids. It used to be bad and for awhile I limited their access to the kids but they have caught on. I used to allow their fears to rub off on me, but I am trying to center myself, to let things like the above interchange remind me how wrong it is to do that to the kids and our family.
I have never been able to get my parents to read unschooling literature. This time I will take the book Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves. My parents are retired teachers (my Dad taught art at a local university and my mom taught kindergarten). They have had a real struggle with the perception that I have negated and rejected what they chose as a career. As I say, they have come a long way. I hope they may consider reading a bit.
I am so glad to be soon rejoining the kids. I hope to have some posts telling about our adventures in North Carolina.
Anybody have any comments on how to help my parents see what I see in the kids' lives? I have realized that my habitual intense, attentive listening, although usually good, makes people think that I am open to redirection! Ha, ha...not this time. But I also believe that 'forceful communication' is nearly an oxymorn, so I don't do that unless I have to swoop in and save a child, which I don't have to do much anymore.
Thanks for reading!
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This article is not an unschooling article, but when I first read it, I thought a lot of the comments in the article sounded like what we do as unschoolers (“We find that you can learn more when you’re given the opportunity to make sense from data and fit it with your experiences”).
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/public/comm/pubs/cals-news/upload/cals-news-spring-07-science-literacy.pdf
Maybe this can help you as a segue between teaching and unschooling. I hope it helps! My son, also, is now staying up until 3am and sleeping until noon. He likes to watch discovery channel until the 'infomercials' start. You are doing a great job trusting your kids!!
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