Sunday, December 09, 2007

Seinfeld

Much ado about nothing, Seinfeld was a very successful show about NOTHING.

So I had many rambly thoughts while I soaked in the hot bathtub sipping my wine. Of course most of them go down the drain, I need a waterproof laptop :)

I was tagged for a meme about a week in review. This past week is not the best one for me to talk about because I spent it in severe pain. I have had monthly problems since my first period when I was 12, who knew it would be a lifelong pain, pun intended.

I look at my kids and I am so thankful and blessed, I begged the doctors to give me a hysterectomy when I was 19 because I was so sick of the pain. I had endometriosis, I ended up in the ER a lot, they gave me a shot of demerol and sent me home. I went through 2 rounds of Lupron, it basically puts you into pseudo-menopause, yes with all the perks of mood swings and night sweats in my early 20's.

I never had to try to NOT get pregnant, it used to be a joke because I had to try TO get pregnant. Kieran was conceived by fertility drugs and Brennan was by temp and time, the dr said I had a 24 hour window a month to get pregnant. Jason used to joke about punching the time clock :) Here's the kicker, Cassie was conceived while I was breastfeeding Brenny, go figure! My 3 boys were planned but my Cassie was a surprise, my little princess, she fills the role just right.

So while I was in pain all week and trying to muddle through my kids didn't skip a beat. My boys even did the dishes for me one day before I got up. You see when kids have never been schooled, life is learning and learning is life. They spent time reading, playing, drawing, painting, building, asking, telling, spelling, writing, wrestling, and just being their usual selves.

For those who don't unschool... actually I don't think anyone reads here who isn't an unschooler but just in case...

They did math, history, geography, science, launguage arts, foreign language, art, cooking, home ec, shop, economics, spelling, reading, writing, heck who knows what else because I never break learning down into subjects.

We have a big kids atlas and Jared has been looking at it lately, it has the flags of all the countries on it. He has been drawing the flags and asking me what country it was. One flag he drew was Togo, I have heard of it but didn't know where it was. I had to google it, I asked Kieran and he knew it was a country in Africa. Whenever I have a history or geography question, I ask Kieran, he knows 95% of the time. Last year I asked him the question that the geography bee winner answered, he figured it out, I had no clue.

I am not a happy product of public schooling, I do know that I hated being forced to memorize and regurgitate. The thing is though that I passed the test and promptly forgot the information. My kids learn and learn for real, they have a want, need, desire or interest to follow and they fulfill it. Unschooling is so awesome and wonderful and when you really observe the learning and facilitate when necessary then you know what I'm talking about.

I can't begin to explain what and how my kids learn, they just do despite whatever is going on they still keep on learning and growing. They aren't stifled, they aren't used to be told that it's math time or art time or whatever time they just do it, live it, breathe it and retain it.

We have only had one car this past year so our daily outings haven't happened, so we couldn't get together with other homeschoolers. Who wants to do that anyway, I have no desire to listen to mom talk about how she can't get Johnny to sit down and do math... So how do you do it? Nope not interested, because I will not tell you what you want to hear.

So we have our friends come to our house and we do stuff on evenings and weekends. It doesn't matter, it's just a season of life, but the learning happens and you can't stop it! You could interfere and really mess things up but if you really and truly get it and see it and live it, you will not be disappointed or discouraged.

Want to know how I really feel, just ask me, I'll tell you.

9 comments:

justjuls said...

Okay - I'm going to take you up on this statement - Want to know how I really feel, just ask me, I'll tell you - and ask you - if you were with other homeschool moms and they were talking about not being able to get their kid to do math - what WOULD you say?

Just curious - I am in this situation all the time - and seem to be a minority - which is slightly intimidating. One on one I have these conversations all the time.

Somebody even said to me the other day, "you're an unschooler aren't you" I guess they knew from my blog - and that was pretty neat - it was said very matter-of-factly without judgment! Woo hoo.

justjuls said...

Oh by the way - did I mention that I always LOVED Seinfeld. Ha ha

Stephanie said...

I'd love to know too! I stumbled on your blog through either a blog circle or another posting somewhere else maybe? Either way, it's great for me. We've been homeschooling for 8 years now and started off very structured. It took us 8 years to get to our unschooling snuggly point, and I wouldn't go back if someone paid me. You're post resonated with me because I'm constantly hearing things like that, only now my friends are leaving ME out of the conversation because we're the token unschoolers. I'm trying not to take the comments to heart, but sometimes it feels like they use unschooling as a swear word! lol

Long and short - there's a new reader to your blog here that says thanks for the post. :) And, I'd love to know too how you'd handle the question if asked!

Stephanie said...

Ok I'll think about how to word my thoughts and try to blog about it later.

New Stephanie, do you have a blog? Your profile isn't public so I couldn't see it.

Stephanie said...

I do - and sometimes I remember to update it. :)

http://ourhomelearning.blogspot.com/

I have some readers, but not a lot that comment. I love comments, so if you stop by please do!

Tina said...

Used to be I would be quiet about stuff like that. Now days I am blunt and open. I don't know.... guess I am so comfortable with our life that I really don't care what others think. Or could be I've reached my saturation point on those endless cirrc. comments and questions. Either way I make others think or shock them. Both are a good thing. Still don't go out of our way for HS gatherings, though. Too much emphasis on "eddication" for us.

Sarah said...

I think I'm going through menopause...it's nothing fun about it. I hate it and so does everyone in our home--especially the moody part!

We were at a 4H dinner last night and was asked how long we plan to homeschool our kids--this is one question we are asked often, like the math, writing, spelling, reading questions. Our answer is always:
Homeschooling is our lifestyle. We didn't do it for academic or religious reason. We pursue on interests out of passion. So, there is no fuss or need to push our kids. For example, DD#1 mapped out every ingredient needed for a dessert to feed an army the day before, rearranged our limited-size freezer to make for the dessert, mixed/cooked/baked, whipped cream for topping...She did not need any help from me or dh. It was a hit. There was no leftover in the roasting pan used to take home (bummer.) Learning is a lifetime discovery and an integral part of us.

Grace Walker said...

Gosh, I loved reading this...but then again, I think I say something similar to this with every post of yours that I read, lol.

Anyway, I now want to watch Seinfeld...I've never seen it. Only bits and pieces of an episode once or twice. I don't know what was going on in my life during that time but I just never watched it. Oh yeah, I think that's when I got rid of all my wonderful 'secular' CD's because I thought it was wrong to have them and it was certainly not okay to watch certain TV shows. Yuck! I don't want any part of that ever again.

Anyway, I look forward to reading what you say about the math question too. :o)

Anonymous said...

Sorry you are having a rough time...I can relate. What wonderful treasures your boys are (doing the dishes). Have you tried Evening Primrose Oil? I never have, but I've heard it's good. :0) Shell (in NZ), not Aimee, lol