Unschooling

Since there will be an unschool specific folder, you would have the option to read only those messages within that folder.

You've sure come a long way in the past several months!  You talked your dh into "homeschooling" and are now successfully unschooling! The homeschooling crowd seemed pretty supportive of you when you were starting out over there! I'm sorry we didn't meet your expectations. Perhaps having more unschoolers on the board will give it more variety and make it more inviting.

Brenda

http://members.ivillage.com/cl-phacademy

clpahcademy,

I honestly hold no malice to you whatsoever, however;

..."You talked your dh into "homeschooling" and are now successfully unschooling!"

Actually, I had already started "Unschooling" halfway through my DD's first year of HSing. We both realized, that HSing wasn't ideal, for us. In many ways.  As for my DH, he is still not "getting it", as to our loving "life learning", but it's impossible when he hasn't been "deschooled" as I have been/am.

As you went through the trouble of doing a "search" and reading through my post, (on the HSing board) you also should have been able to realize that it wasn't keeping my DD out of PS, or even my DH's opinion about it, that was really the issue. In my last post on that thread, I realized it was the issue of my DH and I not having enough "couple time", that was the main concern. (Where his frustration was coming from that is). And we have both realized that, and are trying to make more time for each other. 

..."The homeschooling crowd seemed pretty supportive of you when you were starting out over there! "

Yes, they did, and it was obvious in my replies, that I graciously thanked all posters for thier comments/ideas. As I stated in my post here in this thread that I started, I'm not against the HSer's in any way.

I am venting my opinion, as it is iVillage, that obviously does not "get it", where "Unschooling" is concerned.

..."I'm sorry we didn't meet your expectations. Perhaps having more unschoolers on the board will give it more variety and make it more inviting."

And (I) feel therein wil lie the problem. Again, HSing, is NOTHING like Unschooling. Unschooling is about no "set curriculum". HSing is all about that.

I left the HSing board, not because of the posters/members, but because the "content" was all about speaking about issues that AREN'T issues, for my children and I. Things such as; set curriculum,having problems with "making" children do their "school work" and how to help them complete such, just to name a few.

So really, trying to "merge" Unschoolers with Homeschooler's, I believe, will only cause any USer's who may try to post there, the same issue I had, in why I left that board.

There is NO RELEVANT CONTENT!

Here is a suggestion. Why not have all the people from iVillage, who AGREED to MERGE the Unschooling board into the Homeschooling board,  LIVE IN ONE HOUSE?

After all, they are thinking the same way really.

As in, THEY JUST DON'T "GET IT".

Everyone shouldn't have a problem with that. Should they?

But if/when they do, they will have to then realize, that THEY are trying to move UNschooler's into the same "house", as Homeschooler's.

And THAT, will very likely, make for "unhappy houseguests", somewhere, at some point...

As a "life learning", unschooling since infancy family, I have to say I don't agree with you whole heartedly. Particularly that:

"There is NO RELEVANT CONTENT!"

While I agree that I don't much need to read threads about "getting my kid to do school", I might like to see what math site peaked the interest of one kid the same age as mine or that another found horrible. I also think that every kid is so very different and being that I have four- I want a wide variety of ideas to pull from. As our kids grow their needs may change. Most people that I know that follow a more rigid school type of schedule also have many moments of "unschooling" too. I may learn a thing or two from them- what toys do they have, what games to they play, where do they go for field trips and adventure. Absolutely relevant content IMHO.

Unschooling is all that you say but more and different too. You may not use a box curriculum, but other life learners may. It seems to me that you have more of a problem with the semantics of the whole thing. Homeschooling is a general term to describe one who is educated at home (life) not in a brick and mortar building. Homeschooling looks different in every home, unschooling to school at home we are all having our children learn in an environment that is not an institution- thus home schooling.

I imagine this board is closing because it is a low traffic board- the general hsing board moves. As a former CL to a very slow board I can tell you it is a lot of work and a lot of stress to get/keep a board moving. This board has had some great leadership in the past and a lot of work was put into it. It was this board that lead us to homeschooling (unschooling) our children. If it is time for this board to go, so be it. It makes me sad, but I am glad that there will be a folder on the homeschooling board. It is far more appropriate to direct folks there than to a age/grade based board. Ivillage has merged boards often over the years- it always angers some more than others. There are always those who leave. I don't understand the anger. Ultimately this is a business, with business folk making decisions based on their own set of criteria. I don't agree with it all, I've been frustrated with some decisions made in the past, but it is my choice to log in here or not.

I will happily continue reading the threads I see as relevant to me over there. I subscribe using an RSS feed so it is quite easy to pick and choose the content that fits. The CLs there are fantastic, and the members that I have had the opportunity to get to know are also great- even if they don't unschool! LOL! The support that board gives is awesome and having an added unschooling folder will enhance it even more. Especially for the newbies coming aboard that may not even know that this is a working option.

I Blog Do You?

I too disagree. I was for many years the CL of the unschooling board, and have recently been part of several "inclusive" boards and board systems. I think that your "house" analogy isn't really the most apt, because in a house you are forced to share common spaces in close quarters. That's not the case with what's being proposed. Instead I'd look at the Homeschooling board, with its soon-to-be Unschooling Folder, as a village. It's a village where everyone can find the home that is comfortable to them, and yet they are welcome to wander around and make friends with others who live elsewhere, to visit with them, to drop in and see what they're up to. If they don't want to wander around in the community they don't have to. They can just stay home in their comfy little unschooling corner of the village.

I have totally unschooled children, and that doesn't preclude them from using some of the same resources that traditional homeschoolers use. For example, my 11-year-old is extremely interested in physics right now, so much so that he's been asking for structured resources to help him fill in some gaps and take his knowledge to a new level. The resources I dug up, which he loves, are things that I was pointed to by homeschoolers of a variety of stripes, from school-at-homers to unschoolers to eclectic types. I don't care where the resources come from, so long as they're available to my son who is an autonomous learner. And it was an eclectic homeschooler who turned me on to NaNoWriMo, a website challenge which has spurred my unschooled 13-year-old to write a 50,000 word novel in the past 27 days. So I love gleaning what works for me and my kids from a wide variety of sources. I do find relevant content amongst more traditional homeschoolers. Of course if I'm looking for reassurance about letting my 11-year-old learn cursive or not whenever he wants to, I'll not raise that issue in the "Unit Study" folder. I'll go home and raise it in the Unschooling folder, where I'll get input from those with a similar philosophy to mine. I think you can have both openness and the comfort of like-minded folk.

So I'm all for an open village with a "home" for unschoolers.

Miranda