Hmm.. Unschooling?
The more I sit down with my daughter and review the things she knows, the more I wonder if “unschooling” is actually a better choice for us.
The other day, I saw a news article focused on tutors for preschoolers. Evidently, parents feel their preschool children are already behind.. before they’ve even reached “school age”. A friend of mine revealed her kindergartener is already learning cursive and how to write short stories.
In kindergarten, I was just learning how to write the full alphabet and numbers one through one-hundred. Kindergarten was more of a creative fun place to ease us into school. Somewhere between then and now, preschool has become a “must-have”. Three-year-olds are already sitting behind the desk.
Is it me, or is childhood being cut short?
A couple months ago I looked into getting my daughter into a Mother’s Day Out program. It was then I realized MDO has now become school time. At three years old, my daughter would be learning how to write every letter (capital and lowercase) every letter in the alphabet. Oh, and she’d already be behind.. since we’d be starting late. She’d need to catch up.. and quick.
I started to panic. What? My child is so behind! Everyone else’s child is smarter! I seriously need to get my butt in gear and shove all these lessons down her throat so she doesn’t feel stupid!
Then a load of research became public revealing the truth. Studies compared children on “fast-track learning” to children on traditional learning and by the fifth grade, they were all on the same level. I’ll try to find these studies online so I can post links.
When I begin to get a little pushy with things, my daughter reminds me (without realizing it) that she will learn things in her own time.. when she is ready. You really can’t force someone to comprehend something that they are not mentally capable of understanding just yet.
20071018 5:24 pm
Have you spent much time reading up on unschooling? Go to these two sites: http://www.sandradodd.com and http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/ – I promise you’ll be captivated for hours!