By: adriana

adriana — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:01:34 +0000

Hello, unschoolers/parents
I have 3 kids: 13 years old/6 years old/2 &1/2 years old.
The eldest is a girl ,two younger are boys.
I have heard about unschooling about a year ago and even though it immediately stroke me that my heart just longs for it , I found myself very confronted with fears/worries/concerns etc. Two of my children are in Waldorf inspired school( which was my alternative to a public). Up until this moment I was “alright” with the school, but this year I am slowly coming to conclusion that it is about time to think of unschooling. My 13 years old daughter is considered “too social”/ disruptive/overly talkative. Us along with 3 other families were asked to voluntarily withdraw the children out of school(it is a public charter-so they do not have a right to just tell us off), since the teacher was experiencing a breakdown and was not willing to come back and teach in this class. The class faculty chose the teacher over 4 families and so 3 children left. I have stayed simply because I did not want to back off and did not want to let them get away with it. I demanded that my daughter stays at the school )and asserted that the problem is with the teacher rather then children, but that was not a way to go with them. Making it simple I conformed with the faculty and we agreed that my daughter needs to work on her talkativeness in the class while being evaluated and trained to pay attention. Few weeks passed by and I am just more and more miserable with myself. I feel that I am a looser that out of fear of not knowing what to do and the fear of going against the system – I left my daughter in a sick situation when she is being evaluated,pressured/made wrong for her truly strong social spirit. The worst out of it is that my daughter actually does believes that the school is right(well, no surprise -after Mommy has said so!) and she is wrong. Wrong for not being able to sit still in the classroom/ for passing a note to a friend in the class/ for giggling when someone says a joke/for every possible expression of a normal 12-13 years old child among her peers. And I am still paralized to take her out of school, I don;t know how to go about the unschooling with 3 kids:all so strong willed, all such a different ages:while one wants this , two others want something totaly defferent and have such a different age wise needs). I am afraid of failure, afraid I will not be able to manage all of that. Yet there’s a part of me that somehow knows that the unschooling brings a breeze, that this is a way to go.
Some other of my many concerns are : if I home school, how will the kids ever make it to college or universities, how is it law wise. The country I come from has a mandatory enforcement of schooliing .How is it here in the US?
And if my daughter ” drops out” of school at 6th grade but later decide to go to high school will she be “accepted “and “qualified” to do so? And if I do not want her to go to high school how will she learn all the things that I can;t help her with:i.e: math /algebra /chemistry etc?
If anyone can answer these questions I would greatly appreciate it. Also how can you succesfuly unschool a 12-13 years old with a 2 &1/2 and 6 years old in the same houshold?
All responses are welcome.
Adriana

Comments on: Being An Unschooling Parent

By: adriana