.....than early" approach etc etc.


I would really appreciate it if everyone who educates their children in a more relaxed form would please describe a typical homeschool week. Please tell me how long you have been homeschooling. Also.. please explain why you educate your children in this manner.. Why you feel it's best. My relaxed method and approach to educating my children has come under fire in our custody battle. What you share in this thread might be helpful to me during the next hearing. Thank you for taking the time.

I'm so sorry you are going through a custody battle and have to defend your schooling choices to an entire courtroom!! No fun! I don't think I'll be much help as my children are so young yet. Blessings to you during this very difficult time!!

Growing without Schooling (I think that's the name of it) would be a great resource for you. Anything by John Holt. Sorry I'm not an "expert" and experienced enough to help you.

:hug: to you, mama!

One of the reasons we homeschool is for flexibility so our weeks aren't typical.

I do have certain goals I like to see reached each day and year but we are pretty flexible.

Here are some examples, I try to make sure we do "school" at least 15 days a month. This means that we will do on average 180 days of school a year because we school year round. For a day to count as school we have to complete certain things. Because the boys are young I expect them to complete the 3 r's to count as a school day. That means that we do some type of math every day, we do some writing in our handwriting book and we also do some phonics/reading. If things are hectic then that is all we do and call it done. If things are slower then we will add in extra reading, history, science and anything extra interesting. We are big readers here so we try to make learning fun and encourage lots of reading.

Now there are some exceptions to my 3r's rule. If the boys don't do that work but we attend something educational (homeschool coop, educational seminar, field trip) then we will still count that as a school day. Also we do some things with dh that we count as school even if they don't finish their 3r's. For instance, one day a week dh does a Bible study in an assisted living facility. We think this is a great time for the boys to spend some time with elderly people and to learn to respect them and love them. The boys don't go every week but they do go quite often. Sometimes they will take workbooks to work on during the car ride or the Bible study but we are pretty flexible with them on those days.

I just think that school is about so much more than book learning. Someone can have all the knowledge in the world and still not be compassionate. I want my children to learn to think for themselves but also to be compassionate individuals who value other people regardless of their age.

Also I am a big believer in teaching reading and then allowing a child to learn lots of things for themself. Dh had a professor in college who said if you could read you could do anything. He proved that to be true, he was a music professor with no real mechanical training. He got a book about building an antique car and built one. So I believe my job is to teach them to read well and to love reading and then I make sure we have lots of fun and good books for them to dig into.

One of the reasons we homeschool is for flexibility so our weeks aren't typical.

I do have certain goals I like to see reached each day and year but we are pretty flexible.

Here are some examples, I try to make sure we do "school" at least 15 days a month. This means that we will do on average 180 days of school a year because we school year round. For a day to count as school we have to complete certain things. Because the boys are young I expect them to complete the 3 r's to count as a school day. That means that we do some type of math every day, we do some writing in our handwriting book and we also do some phonics/reading. If things are hectic then that is all we do and call it done. If things are slower then we will add in extra reading, history, science and anything extra interesting. We are big readers here so we try to make learning fun and encourage lots of reading.

Now there are some exceptions to my 3r's rule. If the boys don't do that work but we attend something educational (homeschool coop, educational seminar, field trip) then we will still count that as a school day. Also we do some things with dh that we count as school even if they don't finish their 3r's. For instance, one day a week dh does a Bible study in an assisted living facility. We think this is a great time for the boys to spend some time with elderly people and to learn to respect them and love them. The boys don't go every week but they do go quite often. Sometimes they will take workbooks to work on during the car ride or the Bible study but we are pretty flexible with them on those days.

I just think that school is about so much more than book learning. Someone can have all the knowledge in the world and still not be compassionate. I want my children to learn to think for themselves but also to be compassionate individuals who value other people regardless of their age.

Also I am a big believer in teaching reading and then allowing a child to learn lots of things for themself. Dh had a professor in college who said if you could read you could do anything. He proved that to be true, he was a music professor with no real mechanical training. He got a book about building an antique car and built one. So I believe my job is to teach them to read well and to love reading and then I make sure we have lots of fun and good books for them to dig into.

I TOTALLY agree with this!

We are relaxed, pretty interest-led. My ds is 7, in 2nd grade, and has always been hs'ed.

We do it this way because I want my ds to love learning and find joy in discovering something new to him. The times I have tried pushing my ds to be interested in something he isn't, he totally put on the brakes, just did what he had to do to get through it and get it over with. I could tell it was pretty much just going in 1 ear and out the other, and a waste of time.

Last year we were reading through SOTW 1 and I could tell he really couldn't care less about it, so I put it away. We came back to it this year and he *loves* it! It was just a matter of him being ready for it.

Recently, I introduced the concept of division to him through a story and he really enjoyed it and asked for lots of different problems, so I gave them to him. He thinks division is really cool now. If I had forced to him to sit and do the problems without his interest being there, I think he probably would have hated it and think of division as just something else he has to get through.

Like Robin, I try to do the 3R's every day. Some days for math that might be my ds playing a math computer game or us playing Monopoly or card games together, or measuring ingredients for cookies together. Somtimes he asks for me to write out problems for him to solve. He loves it when i make up word problems about favorite characters.

He enjoys reading, so that's easy.

Writing ~ this is one thing that my ds doesn't care for. My ds has a science notebook, so after I am done reading our science book for the day, he usually writes down a sentence about what we have read. He loves science, and knows how important it is for scientists to keep good notes so it works well.:) One day he even copied half of the periodic table into his notebook, just because he thought it was cool and "scientific". :lol: I also have the HWT cursive book for him and he likes that too.

For science we use Noeo Chemistry. As I said for history we use SOTW. He really enoys both of these, and it is great to see that spark light up in him when he is really engaged in what we are studying.

HTH and good luck! :hug:

Mine are also young (5,6 and 7). I don't worry about the 3 R's being done daily (or even weekly :p).
We do more of a unit study approach, but I am VERY flexible with it. Each unit is about 3 weeks long, but can easily take us 5 weeks. If they are having trouble staying focused with that particular unit, I will modify it or move on to something else.
If the kids have a bunch going on during the day, I don't worry about school (like Tuesdays last fall.....Caroline had dance class in the morning, all three of them had scouts around lunchtime and then Joseph had a junior master gardening class in the afternoon....you couldn't convince me that those don't count as school.)
We are very lucky. Texas has NO requirements for homeschoolers. We are considered a private school and because of that we do not have to meet any standards or complete any testing.
We do "school" year round, so that if life happens, it is not a big deal to miss a few weeks. (I know that it is very difficult for us to do anything that month between Thanksgiving and Christmas because of all of the end of the year activities....parties, parades, shows, etc. So I decided last year that we wouldn't even worry about school during that month....that is our time off.) I don't stress on a daily or weekly basis on how much we did though.
If I have decided that we are going to do "school" at a certain time during that day and I go in and Joseph (7) is working on his webpage or the girls are copying words from the dictionary...I let them be. ;)
I think basically, our curriculum is here for when they can't constructively do something on their own...and I DO use it and the LOVE it. I just let it fit into our lives, I don't force our lives around it. Because it is all very activity based, if Joseph wants to do the five senses with the girls or the girls want to do earthquakes and volcanoes with Joseph, it is very easy to accomodate that.
I can't imagine what I would do if my unorthodox ways were brought under fire. I am so sorry that you are having to justify what you do with your kids to an outside party. :(

First, let me say that I"m so sorry that you have to deal with this. :(

We are relaxed/unschoolish.

We do it this way because there's NO REASON to attempt to force-feed children information that may or may not be useful in their daily lives. We believe strongly in letting children own their "education." If they choose what to learn and follow their interests, they will remember what they have learned. My seven year old knows more than most kids about some topics, and less than most (schooled) kids about some topics. Just like I know more about some things than you do, and less about other things.

Typical Week:

*We read together each day (my kids are 4 1/2 and turning 7 next week, btw).
*I ask Justin (7) to read aloud for a bit most days... he's not a fluent reader yet, but he's getting there slowly.
*We do crafty artsy things most days (window painting, regular painting, drawing, etc)... lots of times I will read them a book and they will draw a picture to go along with it.
*They might watch a documentary on TV... right now we're watching the BBC Planet Earth series. It's excellent!
*Lots of playing outside and digging in the dirt... kids need to do that!
*Bible study on Wednesdays.
*Playdates usually at least twice weekly.
*We go to the produce stand together once per week and in the process learn about seasonal fruits/veggies, nutrition, etc.
*We go to the library together weekly.
*We go for walks in the neighborhood (we also can walk to a park, library, grocery store)
*We go on field trips/real life adventures.
*Justin knows how to use google to look for information for me to read to him.

Right now, Justin is into pirates. We have books from the library about pirates (and some we own). He has a pirate ship with toy pirates that he plays with and replicates scenes out of his pirate books with. Rebecca (4 1/2) is into being "fancy." She can write her name and occasionally tries to sound out words. We won't start any formal "learning to read" stuff for a while with her... I tried at 5 1/2 with Justin, and it just didn't click until he was about 6 1/2.

And a huge "Yeah that!" to Robin's last paragraph about reading. Absolutely! Once you can read, you can access all sorts of information, and you will do so throughout your life!

Sherrie,

I want to say this kindly, because I've followed your story, horrified.

We can get a hundred mamas on here, telling their relaxed or unschooling schedule, reasons for unschooling, etc, and I don't see how that could make any difference in court. A judge who believed unschooling detrimental would just think, "so she knows other wackos who do the same thing. So what."

I don't mean that to sound harsh. The good new is, you don't need anecdotes from other families, because there is actual research on your side. You need to get copies of that research.

The guy who did research that showed that homeschooling WORKS, and unschooling works just as well as other approaches, and the educational level of the educating parent did not affect outcome, is Dr. Brian Ray. Here is his website: National Home Education Research Institute - Home (http://www.nheri.org/)

I don't have much time today to poke around there to find his huge landmark study, but I'm assuming it's one of the downloadable pdf's. If you are crunched for time, I'll bet if you phoned the institute and explained your situation, they could point out the most appropriate research for you to hand the judge. Or actually, this might be an excellent thing for your new lawyer to do, as it would arm him with facts and figures to bring out when he speaks.

I wish you the best, Sherrie, and am rooting for you :hug:

Thanks everyone.

Kim ~ I already have plenty of evidence which supports homeschooling as a superior means of educating our children. I have the attorney for the Education Alliance on my side as well.. who will be working with my attorney on the homeschool issues.

This is not necessarily for the judge. I have a list of things I'm wanting/needing for various reasons and this was one of them. I appreciate everyone taking the time to reply. :)

Thanks everyone.

Kim ~ I already have plenty of evidence which supports homeschooling as a superior means of educating our children. I have the attorney for the Education Alliance on my side as well.. who will be working with my attorney on the homeschool issues.

This is not necessarily for the judge. I have a list of things I'm wanting/needing for various reasons and this was one of them. I appreciate everyone taking the time to reply. :)

That's great, Sherrie :hug: . That one occurred to me since it was research specifically stating the approach didn't matter - unschooling produced the same good results as other approaches. I know that can be hard for "outsiders" to homeschooling to wrap their minds around.