Thursday, October 8, 2009

Which District?

I'm registered with a school district that formerly supported unschoolers. I'm so torn now. My 8 year old is now required to provide work samples in order to get your funding ($1000 per child). If I write for him, long interesting journal entries come from his mouth. If he has to write its as short as possible. I remember this feeling well. So now there's self design, a homeschooling philosophy and method that I'm coming to realize may fit us better. They give funding (more) and support in a more unschooly way - observational and in a more real manner. At this point I'm seriously thinking of faking it for the boys' work samples.....another mother registered in the same district gave me some of her son's "printing practice" for me to pass off as my son's!
So my oldest son, who wrote a "One to One Mystery" this summer (based loosely around AtoZ Mysteries") but "theoretically" is not up to "grade level" with his "writing", will have to provide some writing. The more I ask him to write, the more he hates it. I want him to WANT to write, I don't want it to be a chore. It will ruin it forever for him. In addition, (love puns) he's probably not up to grade level in school math either. But I know intellectually he is ahead.
Recent examples of his thought processes that would qualify under "Self Design" philosophy....

At Bedtime: A: Mummy, why is the closest star way past Pluto?
Well, our star is the sun, we orbit the sun, if there was another star we'd be messed up.
silence
Mummy, is there life way out there?
Well, scientists are working on that (trying to sound intelligent here) and you know, conditions had to be exactly right for life to form on Earth and we don't know if those conditions are possible anywhere else.
silence
Mummy, but the conditions don't have to be the same, life somewhere else might be different and might not need the same conditions as we do........
UH, umm, yes, that's right, huh....doh!

Reading "Little House in the Big Woods"
Laura and Mary each save 1/2 a cookie for Carrie, which doesn't seem fair, as Carrie then get's a whole cookie.
Mummy, they should eat 2/3 each.

Picking up groundfall apples for the pigs on our route:
Mummy, what's 5x4
20
Mummy, (why do they always say Mummy? and wait for a response ARGH) what's 4x5?
20
huh
Mummy, what's 4x3/
12
What's 3x4?
12
Huh, really? It's the same....huh...oh cool.....oh
Mummy now starts to build 4 rows of 3 with apples to demonstrate the principle.....
"Oh cool, I get it, neat" stops me....

Hay, if we each get 1/4 we'll have a whole!!!

You don't want to know what books we've consumed lately....

Self Design here we come..........

And this is my oldest....my middle boy is such a spark, fire, fireball, firestorm............................

It's a windy day. We're at a park at the beach. He stands there with his arms at his sides moving his body from side to side "LOOK! I'm dancing grass!"

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

:)

When Damek slept over the other night in the morning before they were out of bed he and my son (Trevelyn) were talking about "one-quarter octopus one-quarter man, one-quarter spider, and one-quarter tyrannosaurus." Because you know, "you need four to make quarters, and two quarters is the same as a half" :)