tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997867103180948089.post1316888421695156277..comments2023-11-05T01:10:56.987-07:00Comments on School Is Hell: My Son, the HomeschoolerNed Varehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13922045819281944589noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997867103180948089.post-61669743182397704102008-02-19T14:43:00.000-08:002008-02-19T14:43:00.000-08:00Dear Reluctant,The reason your son has trouble rea...Dear Reluctant,<BR/>The reason your son has trouble reading "all that material" is probably that he hates it. He hates it because it does not interest him. It is drudgery. School has taught him that reading is not enjoyable. The only reason he does it is that he does not want to disappoint you.<BR/>Our son never learned that reading is joyless and nobody dumbed him down. The books he read were always his own choices -- never school books, never school lessons. We did none of that.<BR/>Do you believe that being on a school-type schedule is a good thing? I strongly do not. "Success" at school does not translate into success at life. Schooling only prepares us for more schooling, not for real life.<BR/>Suggestion: let him begin his real life now. Tell him that he is old enough to be responsible for his own learning -- whatever it is. Let him follow his own interests. He will always love you for it.<BR/>Best wishes, <BR/>NedNed Varehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13922045819281944589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997867103180948089.post-15173590359516654122008-02-19T11:57:00.000-08:002008-02-19T11:57:00.000-08:00Great post. Our kids have gone to public school, a...Great post. Our kids have gone to public school, and so far we've pulled only one out. He's in the middle of tenth grade, and I'm just starting to homeschool him. It's a challenge, but he does seem self-motivated. Perhaps its my own rather regimented personality that is driving him to follow somewhat of a schedule, but perhaps I'll relax with time. It's just that he's in HIGH SCHOOL, not a young child. I wish that he liked reading, like your son, but reading all his material each day takes him a long time. Perhaps by 40, he, too, will become a reader!The Reluctant Homeschoolerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16344663418885710401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997867103180948089.post-28102570643756839682008-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:002008-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00OK, let me qualify my post.Our son liked to read a...OK, let me qualify my post.<BR/>Our son liked to read and was good at it very early. He was good with language(s) in general. He did not sit around and calculate number problems...he did lots of sitting around reading. <BR/>Other kids do other things. Those other things can lead to "work" in various fields also and can lead to respectable college careers.<BR/>What I was getting at was that kids will find their way on their own with a little guidance, support and if given access to their interests, and as many choices as can be offered.<BR/>Our son happened to be good at what colleges do, so he got high marks. <BR/>I was not good at what my college did, but I was an exceptional athlete. I had to work hard to keep from flunking out, but was captain of the golf and squash teams. Later, I was professional in skiing and golf, while having many other interests and careers.<BR/>I did not enjoy reading until I was about forty.Ned Varehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13922045819281944589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997867103180948089.post-19968134943017402722008-02-16T16:46:00.000-08:002008-02-16T16:46:00.000-08:00As I begin the unschooling journey with my young k...As I begin the unschooling journey with my young kids, I see the intense potential in them. Just tonight, my 4 year old daughter flawlessly delegated bed-making tasks to my 2 year old son, in a way that made me wish for her skills. The best part is, we never asked her to make the bed.<BR/><BR/>Seeing this in my children makes me almost jealous at their untainted lives and loves of learning and doing.<BR/><BR/>Even better is their individual strengths and our willingness to cater to them. My son tries to count already, and does a pretty good job. But his language skills are iffy. While my daughter was speaking eloquently at just over a year. But a major part of it is rejecting "milestones" and embracing whatever it is that they are into.<BR/><BR/>So I never thought I'd have a princess-loving daughter and a monster-killing son, but it is what it is. And we love every minute of it.Keith Brainardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07849611545905792514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997867103180948089.post-85159657879169504612008-02-16T13:38:00.000-08:002008-02-16T13:38:00.000-08:00Your son sounds like he was an incredible young ma...Your son sounds like he was an incredible young man! My only hesitation with your post is that people will get the wrong impression that all unschooled children read at age 4 and become teachers in their early teens and go on to be in the top 1 percent of their colleges. <BR/><BR/>I believe that the one thing that sets unschoolers apart from traditionally schooled children is their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and their self confidence. My sons are very aware that they are not strong readers yet (ages 10+). But they know they will never be ridiculed or labeled because of it - they know that we are more than happy to read them Harry Potter and Roald Dahl and everything else that interests them. They love books, even as they recognize that they are still learning how to read. <BR/><BR/>This love of learning is most striking to outsiders. They see the confidence in my kids, versus their own kids and nieces and nephews who have been beaten down by the school system, who believe they are dumb, who hate books and the idea of learning. My kids know they have all of their lives to continue to learn and grow - they don't believe that if they are not reading 'at level' they are failures.<BR/><BR/>The greatest gift of unschooling is that the joy of learning continues forever.Garth & Sandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07356318237109137732noreply@blogger.com