Then one day I decided to change things. We still kept it pretty relaxed and it worked. For a while. Until it didn't.
I began to feel stressed and I dumped that all over Princess. I have been struggling with this for the last couple of months. The more I pushed, the more Princess pulled away, spending more and more time playing Wii or computer games or Nintento DS or watching TV or DVDs. We've never set limits on these things and Princess has always found balance. But the more I pushed, the less balance there was.
A couple weeks ago I emailed Colleen at The New Unschooler because well, she's not so new at it anymore. Her words were so helpful, but the simple act of emailing all that I had been feeling caused a major shift in me and in Princess. We are now coming back around, full circle if you will, to (slightly radical) unschooling. It works for us. Princess and I are both so much happier. This may not be the path for everyone, but for us it seems to work quite well.
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7 comments:
Balance is hard, glad you found a happy medium. Have a great week.
Homeschooling is no different than parenting. There are days when you feel like you are right on track and then there are days when things seem to be crumbling before your eyes. The difference is that with parenting you have no choice but to soldier on, because you can't just give your kid to someone else to raise.
Being my child's teacher is hard because I always have that option to give up when things get hard. There is a perfectly adequate public school right down the street. The seeds of doubt are right there and I sometimes struggle to remember why we chose this path. Of course, when things are going well I can't imagine doing anything else.
Thank you so much for your feedback, Kelly. I totally get what you're saying. The thing is, I never thought about putting Princess into public school. There has been a time or two that I thought that, just not this time.
I had to accept that she is the learner and I need to work in the style that is best for her. And if I'm being honest, this style works best for me, too. I am an unschooler at heart. I was drawn to this style in the beginning, but being surrounded by those with other learning styles, I thought I was missing something. It turns out that I wasn't. :)
I hope my comment didn't come across as snarky. It didn't, did it? If so, I apologize. I didn't mean it that way. :?
You had to find what is good and right for you. In order to find out, you had to try something else, found it didn't work and returned to what does. It's one of many important life experiences for you... AND for Princess, who will always value and treasure the fact that her mom went outside the box to give her child the ability to explore. :)
Good for you! Now to go check out Colleen's site.
lisa
Thanks Freckle. I know that I always have you to support me. :)
Lisa, I've been keeping up with Colleen. It's interesting/comforting to see that even the seasoned unschoolers encounter their own uncertainty.
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