Would like to hear Everyone's thoughts on Unschooling...

Not a parent — or at least, my daughter chose to stay in school when I offered to homeschool, and she’s grown-up now — I am a teacher/tutor.

Two things about unschooling: (1) Like many educational theories of the sixties, this sounds wonderful on paper and has a few leaks in practice.
In particular, the math levels are often very very shaky. The absolute minimum of computational arithmetic and money often seems to be the goal. People who believe in this as a way of life often are negative about math and science and technology in general, so this doesn’t bother them, but if you want your child to integrate into the larger society at a professional level as an adult, this is a large question.
There’s also the question in general of being able to work to someone else’s direction. Unschooling stresses independence, which is good, but again in many fields of endeavour you have to let someone else be the boss and do things the way you are told — for example in a hospital, a nurse simply has to follow orders and not suddenly experiment with new medications. Unschooled kids have learned to be self-starters, but they have not always learned to work with a system.

(2) Kids with learning disabilities *need* structure. Some parents can manage to provide structure while saying things are free choice, but most of us find that an external structure is ver helpful.
If you look on the reading boards and read posts from parents, those whose kids had the most difficult LDs and are improving the most ar ethose who enforce the most structure — highly structured cognitive programs like PACE and IM and Audiblox, highly structured auditory/language and reading like Fast ForWord and Lindamood Bell, highly structured math like Singapore or Saxon. There seems to be a pattern here.

You can aim at a reasonable balance, structured work three hours a day and unstructured for the other three hours, for example.

I agree, a reasonable balance. Especially since I have read and believe it to be true that these “different” kids often learn differently and need some freedom to engage on their level. Have you ladies heard of this? I have been reading the websites and have not heard much about it. They do need structure and also freedom to explore, and discover and learn for themselves. We do some of this and some of that in our hs we esp my ds is really blessed by our bush walks and by any kind of experimenting. Hands on, being involved, it is what works for him, it engages him and it encourages him. We do a lot of incidental learning i.e. learning as we go. A lot of the principles in the programs you mentioned can be accomplished in these ways too (I’m not knocking the programs at all they are great). Eg. Going to the park and throwing been bags/rolling the ball to eachother. On memory work, playing games that involve memory and say sounds like maybe “pairs” using cards with letters on them (just a few at once). Anyway there’s lots more having a regular schedule that strengthens their weaknesses and works on the academic building blocks too.

Hi Victoria,
My name is Lillian and I am new to the board. I read your message and I wanted to know what IM is when you made reference to highly structured cognitive programs. Also I have not heard of Audiblox. Please tell me more about both of these programs. Do you use all three programs when strengthening and retraining audiotory processing? What about Fast ForWord and lindamood Bell, do you do one and/or then the other? And lastly, when you refer to Lindamood Bell Learning Processes are you going to one of the licensed sites or are you integrating it into speech and language via a licensed pathologist (speech and language) over the long-term?

As far as the unschooling issue goes. I believe in your “reasonable balance” theory. However, Deb, if you have a child who really thrives and accepts a predominant role in his/her learning then, I say, let them go-gently guiding and directing the learning of fundamental and complex skills with less structured time. Whereas with a child who requires more structure, i.e., one who deals with ADHD or ADD give it to him/her in conjunction with a “reasonable” balance of more structured instruction. I think Victoria was right on the mark.

Trust in your knowledge of how you perceive each child learns best. All the while catering, interchanging and modifying your instructional approach to fit the individual needs of each childs learning style. Think of it as a dance. Let the child lead and you follow honoring your best judgement of how far and for how long you should follow.

I am seriously considering homeschooling my eleven year old LD son and my seven year old ADHD daughter. I will be asking for everyone’s help, because I don’t know what to do or where to begin. I’ll be in touch.

Lillian

Lillian,

I just want to say. You will do a great job homeschooling your children. You really have the perfect philosophy on how to approach it.

Audiblox is an excellent program. I will do it with my son this summer we started it but stopped to do vision therapy. I saw results in 3 weeks. (I have some issues with some advice given to someone from the audiblox customized program, but I won’t go there. You don’t really need to do the customized program.)

Audiblox and PACE are both programs that would fit into the cognitive enhancement category. They involve working on things like, logic and reasoning, sequencing, memory, visual spatial etc. PACE also has a cheaper at home program that you could do. (My memory deficit is causing me to forget what it is called.)

Fast forward and earobics (earobics is much cheaper and done at home) are programs that deal with auditory processing issues. The listening program also deals with some of these issues.

Vision builder is a program that deals with some, but not all, visual processing issues. There are also some books that some have found helpful for these issues.

Phonographix and lindamood bell address the specific and very important phonemic awareness skills needed to read. They teach kids the specific sounds in words and how to blend and segment these sounds in order to read. Some kids benefit from a program that addresses auditory processing first but some can learn the sounds adequately without such programs.

Interactive metronome is in a category all on its own. It addresses attention, motor timing and sequencing. It was extremely helpful for my son. It seems to work best for those who have motor/attention issues.

That is all my knowledge in a nutshell. I hope it helps.

Linda

Thanks, Linda. I really need the support, and it truly means a lot to me to hear from as many people as possible that I can do this. Your amazing nutshell has given me a much needed directional approach to this undertaking. Would you be willing to help me figure out how to homeschool my son? I don’t want to take up all of your time, but if you could even guide me to a text or something that you found helpful in deciding upon a curriculum, materials, structuring of instuctional, etc. I have found the Home School Legal Defense Association for the state of Tennessee and I have located several homeschooling associations in the area, but I would really appreciate having your perspective and input if at all possible. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and wisdom! Bless you, Linda and I’ll keep us all in prayer.

Warmly,
Lillian

http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/
This also includes information about HSLDA that the new person should know… there’s a lot of politics in homeschooling communities.

Hi Lillian,

Sue and others know more about the curriculum stuff than me. My target has been remediating the underlying deficits. I don’t homeschool and therefore don’t do academics outside of homework.

I will tell you I have heard good things about Singapore math and the landmark school’s material.

For reading, I would do phonographix to start and then go into a fluency program such as Great Leaps when you get to that level.

For gym, I would look into the YMCA. There was a homeschooling group at our Ice skating rink when I was taking my little one there.

I really don’t do that much academics but the academics have improved by leaps and bounds through remediation of underlying deficits.

I don’t use these programs myself and am merely quoting others. Linda F who *has* used many of them, has given you an answer; ask her more — she is a good person. Also use the Search option on the top of the page, not just here but also on Teaching Reading and teaching LD and Parenting LD — many many posts out there from knowledgeable people.

As far as curriculum, I’m an experienced teacher and would be happy to help you. Ask me specific questions by email and I’ll try to answer them.

I tutor reading and I have collected up a lot of my old posts on how to put together and implement a good reading program. If you want these downloads, just email me and ask for them.