Our Brain's ticking, and we're thinking.....

Homeschooling 2010

2011-02-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

Oh dear...I have been so slack in maintaining my blog. But I have good excuse...we have been very busy thru out 2010. It was truly a year filled with travelling and exploring new places. We came back from Malaysia Jan 2010, after a long 6 months stay. Junior really did had a good chance to be immerse in the language of Malay and Cantonese. This has help us progress now comfortably into our Malay language lessons.

Music is coming along really well, and this has continued onto 2011 strongly. Casual drumming lessons is now leading possible exams. Electric guitar lessons has also develop confidently...and this has led to possible bass guitar lessons in Spring term 2011.

We have been busy travelling as we had many overseas visitors descending upon our humble home. We made this epic journey Aylesbury (Roald Dhal Gallery) - Liverpool (World Musuem, Beatles Musuem) - Edinburgh (Dynamic Earth, Royal Scot Musuem, Obscura and a few more) - York (more musuems!!) TWICE in 2010 LOL!!

Then we went to Paris Disneyland, which itself was a very educationally experience for Junior as it really did involved all the usual meltdowns. From new beds to crowds to long journey (we drove)...he surprised us by taking it all in his stride.

Nearer to home, we had the glorious opportunity to see apple trees at its finest. We visited the West Dean a week before its 2010 Apple Festival. It was a beutiful day, and we all had a grand time ohhing and ahhing at the bountifully laden apple trees, from the deepest red to the palest yellow.

Reading is coming along still fine - we're still doing bedtime stories, and I thought it'll be a good idea to start dwelling into the world of classical authors. So, Enid Blyton has been a very entertaining host for many nights with her tales of Mr Pink Whistle and Mr Muddle. I was hoping to join the Famous Fives in thier many awesome adventures, however Junior is absolutely not a mystery person...so we never went on any intrepid adventures of the Fives...but we did discover Jules Vernes...and away we went, adventure 20,000 leagues under the sea. Journey to the centre of the earth was the next journey we took...somewhere along the way, we got distracted by Jack London with his Call of the Wild.

Presently, we're quite tickled with Don Quixote silly notions, dreams and antics.

And Santa's present of a brand new Ipod was a fantastic move - lots of Ibook reading goin on.

Daily basis, still lots of playing on the floor - sticks, legos, transformers and cars. And we have implemented a daily schedule of "what to do" which is very helpful in helping both of us in organising ourselves. Ironically. We are supposed to be autonomous...but I do think in our instance, the autistic nature makes it difficult for us to be 100% autonomous - we're just too disorganised to be 100% autonomous. We're so bad in organisation skills and transitioning makes it even harder for us, that so much so, inertia seems to set in quiet easily into our lives.

Oh...yes, Matheletics. Started in 2010...slow and painful, but momentum has picked up in 2011, and now, Junior is happily working on his Matheletics on his own. Still working in Yr 3 (Junior wil be in Yr 5 this year) but I am happy to allow him to just play around until we moved his level up to Yr 4 in Spring term.

We ended 2010 and started 2011 with a very auspicious stay in a Buddhist temple in Doncaster and joined in a 5 day retreat. We saw Junior rise to the challenge of new environment, starnge beds, unfamiliar people and he did so well. He was chatty, confident, mingle well, stuck right in with the chores aroudn the centre...polite and most of all - not a single moan about lacking of tv nor the laptop. Tho in all honesty, he did have his Ipod with him...but even that, it was left behind in the bedroom, in favour of the great fantastic woodland taht surrounds the centre. Lots of activites to be part of - chopping trees, dragging logs, stackinglogs for firewood and many more.

Yes, it was a busy 2010...but now, it's Feb 2011...and today, I am feeling like we're not accomplished much since the Jan this year. And I am feeling very restless!!!

We spend alot of time cooped up in the house, the bad cold weather is not helping...we dont leave the house unless we necessarily had to. Our schedule is the usual - afteschool club @ Disability Challenges (twice a week), music lessons on Tuesdays, meet with local HEers Wednesday at nearby playgrd, swimming on Fridays.

Consolation is Junior's not been near nor touch the Xbox or Ps2 the past 3 months or so, interestingly. But lots of online gaming goin on...tv watching...youtube watching....late nights as we seems to have problems sleeping at night.

We have been making headways with writing slowly - just introduced cursive writings, after me giving up trying to make Junior understand the importance of writing certain alphabets in a certain way. I reckon, with curvises, he can clearly see how if he writes his alphabets in his own unique way, is not gonna be condusive to easy writings.

..And that's it really. Guessed, some travellings is required to help dispel this sense of restlessness...but again, with the present horrible weather...we seems to prefer warm cosy snuggling at home.

Evidence that Playing is good and educational enough!

2009-12-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

"By preschool, the brain can handle larger numbers and is struggling to link three crucial concepts: physical quantities (seven marbles, seven inches) with abstract digit symbols (“7”), with the corresponding number words (“seven”). Lessons like the one Ms. Andzel taught are meant to fuse this numeric trinity, which is crucial for understanding basic math in kindergarten.

Children begin recognizing geometric shapes as early as 18 months, studies find; by preschool, the brain can begin to grasp informal geometric definitions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/health/research/21brain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

Education acquired thru everyday living

2009-12-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

I always said...when there's a need for it..Jnr will learn it.

So far, he's proved me right. Everytime someone question our homeschooling decisions, whether we're qualified enough, whether Jnr will be learning the right thing, blah blah blah.

My standard answer is "Look at him...is he coming across to you as stupid, ignorant and mute? Uable to understand you or communicate sort of boy!!??" The answer is always inevitably a dragging "No..ooo.... BUT what about exams?"

ARRRRGGHHH and LOL!!!

Well, I will say to the person...do you think Jnr is smart enough for you? Did he not asnwer all your questions? Did he not entertained you of his latest car and speed passion? Did he not informed you of his pocket money budget?

The answer is yes....BUT what about exams?

I replied "What is the exams for? What good doe sit do? Did Jnr not past the exam you just imposed on him? Surely he must have passed with flying colours for he answered each and every of your questions wonderfully....you seemed happy with the conversation you had with him. Jnr has proved to you he is an intellectual, intelligent child who is able to answer questions and conduct conversation in proper grammer. He has not provide you any reason to think I am failing him...so why would you still be so worried about me not teaching him anything LOL!?"

"But...."

The moral of this story is...there will always be a BUT. People has been led to think exams is a must and is a very important component of our lives. The people believes to be examined and measured is the right way forward, to be able to categorised each other so that each other knows where in the society one stands.

These people will forever be blinkered and unable to see alternatives....despite it being smack right in front of thier face.

The proof that osmosis learning works ....is in the pudding, as they all say. Just looking at Jnr...I can see he is growing up fine....just like any "school going" 9 yrs old, if not better I dare say.

Informal Learning: An Interview With Dr Alan Thomas MSc, PhD, FBPsS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakCOKJ9AUE

The Importance of Touch

2009-12-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

I am a true believer in touch-healing. I love massages not only for that momentary 1 hour of "me-time peace" it brings to my mind...but also that noticeble beneficial healings tp my body and skin, that inevitably trails after that one massage session. In short...massages to me is therapy. And regular therapies is what I offer to my son.

I am constantly either massaging DS's feet when we're watching tv, or stratching his back, or rubbing his back whenever I'm near him. It is second nature to me for I am a very tactile person. Becoz of this, it is hard for me to say if any of this "touchings" is healing or beneficial to DS for it is an ongoing thing without any observations.

Until...recently, due to a death in the family, staying in a different country, I have totally lost my routine, and having to spend alot of time apart from Junior, I then realised Junior is beginning to get very hyper and out of control again. I then realised the lack of "contact" between us of which i quickly resume my mini massages for him.

Strangely enough, preceeding this phase of hyperness, I have failed to recognised Junior's own recognisaton of his tactile sensory needs...many times he has asked me to be just sitting next to him...he just wants to be close to me. Even in the morning, he would rather stay in bed with me, snuggle up. Bedtime was all about lots of lots of back scratches, unable to switch off. Junior was exhibiting signs of clumsyness as in he is beginning to be bumping and banging into things. His energy level is high, un-able to control his power in most everything like crashing into us when walking or running to us, constantly rolling and playing on the floor, shadow fighting with lots of flipping and rolling on the floor.

How silly of me to have missed all these signs of his skin sensory is seeking input/ feeding.

So, it is back to whole body massages for Junior, and mini foot massages too and lots of bear hugs too.

Intro into Autonomous Education

2009-11-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

Crossposted with permission of author. K xx

-----Original Message-----
From: UK HOME EDUCATION SUPPORT LIST [mailto:UK-HOME-ED@...] On
Behalf Of Jennifer Moore
Sent: 19 November 2009 02:40
To: UK-HOME-ED@...
Subject: FAO media teams & bloggers

Hello all

"MPs told of research which Badman ignored"

"Badman ignored relevant research, MPs told"

I think the AEUK submission to the select committee would justify a
little headline like that, and I wonder if AHEd &/or the EO media team
&/or anyone else would like to hang a press release on its recent
emergence into the public domain...?

And, in general, I'd like to see that document become more widely known
and referenced. We put a big load of work into it, and I think it's
potentially useful as a general intro to autonomous education in its "UK
home ed" manifestations. So any bloggers who'd like to flag it up &
link to it, who haven't already, please do go ahead.

It's at l>

and Raquel already set up a shorter url too: http://bit.ly/T44rp

Feel free to cross-post this email.

Jennifer

--
www.uncharted-worlds.org/blog/

Unschooling an aspie kid.

2009-10-12T02:02:00.000-07:00

It's coming to 3 years of unschooling Junior and...we've been thru alot. When it comes to asperger, I can see that as much as Junior is very capable of mature reasoning and self directed learning...he is also very prone to childish logic.

To how i observed...Junior is a 9 years old with an emotional capacity of a 5 years old. He is still snuggling my chest for comfort...to a point sometimes grabbing my breast in public! On a bad day, he is so nervous that he can't go wee or anywhere...without me standing by his side. So, on a "down day" Jnr is a fulltime job...from helping him finish his meal to accompanying him everywhere in the house because he is too nervous to be alone....to helping him calm down enough to switch off at bedtime by scrathing AND reading to him so he can fall asleep. It is days like these that no one seems to understand how limiting an asperger child's world is....how tiring it is caring for an asperger child....simply because other people don't live thru it...hence just cannot comprehend the possibility of a 24/7 cling-on 9 years old.

Junior is capable of GCSE's level work. I use the word "capable" is because... we are aware Junior is capable of understanding GCSE's level of work tho we don't do any of them. It is the occasional "Eureka HEing" moments that he comes up to me and discussed certain things. It is his Eureka moment....when certain concept clicked with his brain.

He's been reading lots of wikipedia...it is his new favourite "thing" to do. So far, to my knowledge... he's been reading about cars history and locations, history of fast food (KFC in particular) and coffins.

We've been doing lots. We've been learning Malay language and Junior is picking up conversational Malay rather well. We're learning about the nature of tropical climates, comparing the 4 seasons in UK, to the year long summer weather in Asia.

He's also playing on both Toontown and Runescape simultaneously.

Junior is showing us that he is learning lots despite us parents not telling him what to do. He has shown plenty of signs of maturity and responsibility...like helping his little cousin with her games by reading games instructions for her, helping her do her maths homework LOL and many more!! He brought up and we discussed about "working for a living" and what job would he like to do when he grows up. So it does seems like my kid IS growing up fine and dandy...just by living his life the way he deemed fit.

Well, I summarised our unschooling journey so far to be happy, satisfying and still "the best decision ever" we've ever made as parents.

Making autism ‘normal’ won’t help my son...

2009-10-12T01:57:00.000-07:00

Making autism ‘normal’ won’t help my son. It may reduce the stigma but it trivialises the learning difficulties and isolation sufferers endureMichael Fitzpatrick

In the 15 years since autism was diagnosed in our son James, the public status of the condition has changed dramatically. In the early 1990s autism was still regarded as a rare and obscure disorder, associated with “mental handicap” or “retardation” and life-long institutional care. Today autism seems to be everywhere. It has become a common, even fashionable condition, linked to talent and creativity or simply making people interestingly different. But the fact that everybody now talks about autism does not make life any easier for people affected by it.

The higher profile of autism cannot be attributed to scientific advances. Though there have been impressive developments in our understanding of the genetics and psychological features of autism, neuroscience has yet to make much headway in elucidating the mediating links — or in suggesting therapeutic interventions. The increased awareness and wider diagnosis of autism appear to be largely the result of a cultural trend towards redefining human differences in terms of disorder. The question we now face, as James embarks on the transition to adult life, is: have things really improved for people with autism?

There can be no doubt that in many ways we have made progress. Parents are no longer blamed for making their children autistic through their frigid personalities, as they were as result of influential psychodynamic theories in the postwar decades. Behavioural and educational programmes have been developed for children at home and at school, though access to these remains uneven. And though there is much talk of provision for adults, including help with housing and employment, the reality remains one of a constant struggle for services.

On the other hand, the apparent upsurge in the prevalence of autism has provoked the notion of an autism “epidemic”, fostering fears and anxieties that provide a fertile terrain for irrational theories. These include the idea that autism is the result of demonic possession (as popularised in the book and film Horse Boy) or, in a modernised version of the same atavistic prejudice, that it is caused by vaccines or some unknown environmental toxin. The depiction of people with autism as “dead souls” or “metabolic train wrecks” — both familiar themes of the “unorthodox biomedical” movement — is disparaging and dehumanising. Rogue scientists and unorthodox practitioners, together with credulous journalists and celebrity parents, have all helped to promote these theories and the associated therapies, which they claim can produce miracle cures and “recovery” from autism. Desperate parents have become customers in a multimillion-dollar global enterprise.

The cultural fascination with autism is reflected in the plethora of films, novels and soaps featuring autistic characters. Yet, with some notable exceptions, such as Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or the Australian film The Black Balloon, popular depictions of autism tend to be voyeuristic or sentimental. Autism seems to offer endless scope as a metaphor for the discussion of contemporary anxieties about masculinity, fatherhood, the family. Reflecting on the “outlandish, offensive” misrepresentations of autism in film, writer Stuart Murray (also the parent of an autistic child) concludes that “overall, it is debatable how much progress has been made in cinematic depictions of autism since the foundational success of Rain Man”.

The concept of the autistic spectrum, including people with Asperger’s syndrome and “high-functioning” autism as well as those with “classic” autism, who usually have severe learning difficulties and more profound social and behavioural problems, has helped to reduce the marginalisation of people with autism. But the tendency to label as autistic every computer geek and eccentric scientist, and every obsessive train-spotter and stamp-collector (compounded by the vogue for identifying historical figures and even contemporary celebrities as autistic) carries the danger that the spectrum becomes stretched so wide that autism loses its distinctiveness.

“Normalising” autism may reduce stigma, but at the risk of trivialising the problems of those with more severe learning difficulties and also of underestimating the extreme aloneness that results from the social impairment of autism, even in higher-functioning individuals.

When James was found to be autistic, as a GP I knew virtually nothing about it. Recently a woman at the supermarket checkout, noticing his odd behaviour, asked if he had Tourette’s syndrome (familiar from Shameless and Big Brother). Yet, though everybody now knows the labels, the prospect of continuing high unemployment and public spending cuts mean an uncertain future for people with autism. The National Autistic Society has sponsored a campaign to increase awareness of adults with autism — but it remains unclear whether resources will be provided to meet the needs that are identified. The “autism angle” may provide publicity for the new Sherlock Holmes film or for the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, but for families like ours the struggle is set to continue.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6870232.ece

Michael Fitzpatrick is a London GP. He is speaking at the Battle of Ideas satellite debate, Age of Autism: Rethinking “Normal”, at Foyles Charing Cross Road, London

We're into fast cars.

2009-07-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

The month of June had been really full on with eating, sleeping and dreaming about cars, cars and more cars.

I was explaining about the benefits of asperger to my mum. I have finally managed to convinced my family that my mum, my brother, my sis and me....we're all on the autistic spectrum. One of the positiveness I pointed out is our narrow obsessions with things. Like me now, my obsession is finding out all info on adult aspgerger.

My son's obsession is finding out all about fast cars. Three weeks ago, he was just only beginning, exploring, gathering info via the library books, the internet and watching Top Gear every morning. This week (week 4), he is a walking encyclopedia on cars. Ask him anything about cars, and he will rattle on and on and on.

He is constantly pointing out the different cars to me as we're driving along. And I have managed to help him tune into his "lessons".

I was given a copy of the ACE curriculum's timetable, with rows for days and subjects for columms (Maths, English, Word Building, Literature and Creative writing, Science, Scial Studies and Bible). I just love the simple and colourful layout. I got hubby to colour copy enough to last for a whole year.

I have taken to printing on the back of the schedule, outlining our lesson philosophy/ framework for the week. I then fill in the individual boxes, translating Jnr's "work"/ discussions/ readings in educationese language.

So for instance, on Monday, I'll penned in:-

* Maths (charts; timing his races, and working out the time differences on each race);
* English (lots of discussions on driving techniques)
* Word building (using lots of new technical words to describe the driving and the condition of the route)
* Literature and Creative writing (tho we didn't do any writing but we are reading alot of books on cars plus working our way thru the DS 1000 Classic Stories every night)
* Science (we're reading and discovering the science of aerodynamics and physics; we're discoering scientific words like momentum, friction, downforce, gravity and many more)
* Social Studies (geography and history of car invention, manufacturing and racing history)

Anything new covered, will be scribble down too on the back by the end of the day. This way, I find, I won't forget...and I will always have a record of his "lessons" should I need it.

Unschooling Food, Money and Personal Hygiene.

2009-07-02T12:08:00.001-07:00

This is cross my mind this morning and I had to share it. Hopefully it'll bring
some comfort and possibility to some on this list.

FOOD.
-----

Well, the philosophy still stands. If we buy it, then I have to be prepared to
let him eat it all, at any rate he wants. Tho I don't stop him from eating it
all at one go, I do suggest to Greg perhaps after 2 bags of crisps, allow space
for dinner and finish off the 3rd bag or 4th bag afterwards. Or keep it for his
midnight snack. This normally works, the idea of having something to munch on at
11pm before bed, seems to entice him enough to stop at bag no 2.

So, the past 2 weeks, Greg's been buying and eating crisps for breakfast (before
his regular breakkie), lunch (before his regualar lunch), have his regualr
dinner and crisps for midnight snack.

Chewing gumn is another fix he is hooked on. And those aspartame do kick off his
hyper activeness. We're very sure of this becoz we know Haribo gummies don't,
chewy sweeties like Fruitella don't, sugar lumps don't but give him a sugar free
gum, you'll see his senses heightened and give him another, Greg is be
absolutely buzzing like a busy, busy bee!! LOL!!

But again, if he buys a box of chewing gum, I am fully prepared to let him
finish it at his pace. As always, I will suggest that if he has too much, he'll
be "aspie drunk". It is Greg's choice to whether lose himself into such state or
remain "sober" of which he's now discovered a choice of jaw compression
actitivities he can indulge in - Haribo Starmix or Knex sticks (the rubberised
bendy Knew stickes from his beginner Knex set) Greg has tld me that it calms him
down when chewing on these 2 things. But he has yet to share what do his aspie
drunk do for him.

Aspie drunk is what me and Greg refer to that feeling of "losing control his
brain (I recognisegd it as impulsiveness)and feeling like wanting to do lots of
things (I recognised it as erratic behaviour)"

In short, HYPER ACTIVENESS.

I do explain Greg my perspective of him during his aspie drunkness, and he
explains his internal emotional perspective to me. We reckon it is no different
to how a person will behave when drunk. Losing control and senses of one's
judgement and balance...hence the word "aspie drunk" becoz we refer to these
behaviours as part of his aspieness.

So yesterday, he's decided not to touch his box of chewing gums, but instead
chewed on a new Knex stick.

Personal Hygiene
----------------

Greg hates showers and brushing his teeth, just as much as any other aspie kid.
But he doesn it, with much moans and groans and complains. I cannot say we're
unschooling in this department but showering and brushing teeth is definetely a
non negotiable issue. But what I do is I am constantly explaining to him why we
need to do it.

We talked about how important his new teeth is for it's meant to last him a
lifetime. We talked about how important fresh breath becoz it doesn't turn
people off when we talk to them. Bad breath can gives people a wrong impression
that we're dirty, which we're not (and he very quickly points out that he
showers everyday! LOL!) And I do re-inforce the idea of "bad breath turning
people off" by deliberately not brushing at night, and eat something stinky
before bed like cheese, and talk to him closely first thing in the morning
before brushing my teeth. Most definetely do the trick about turning Greg off
LOL!!

To support his sensory needs, we do try lots of different tooth brushes, for the
fun of it. He's settled for an electric one which he alternates with a regular
one. We alos experiment with lots of different tooth paste and chance upon an
organic one which is a smooth trasnparent gel instead of the white gritty paste.
For me, this gel like consistency takes some geting use to , it's like baby
tooth paste but a minty version. In the end, we edned up with 2 toothpaste, the
white gritty one for us, and gel tothpaste for Greg.

He stills moans everyday, asking why should he shower when he showered the night
before. I still tells him, it is his choice, either shower, then he can snuggle
next to me in OUR bed, or don't shower and he can sleep and deposit all his
"germs and gritty sand particles" that he collected during his daytime charging
arond playing.....ON HIS OWN BED, next door in his OWN room. NOT IN MY BED.

And very often, once he is in the shower, he forgets about his moans and very
happily plugs in the bath plug and wil be playing away for the next half hour. I
do buy lots of bath toys. We have multi coloured bath bombs. We have a huge
basket full of toys, syphoning tools, measuring cups, toys syringes. I am
looking for some bath coloured tablet in the shops...I saw some crayola ones,
once a upon a time but can't find it now. I do hate shopping online but looks
like I have no choice.

MONEY
-----

To how i understand from an teenage aspie support forum, it seems like aspie
kids commonly has no sense of budgetting. They either blow the whole lump sum in
one go and moan for the rest of the month till the next payday, or some of them
have no cpmprehension of money and never spends any at all (tho this is a
minority)

My kid is the spend everything and moan forever type LOL!!

He will blow his whole £20 (plus any loose change that his dad gave him every
evening) on one thing...and then realised he's now broke. And then start wishing
he hadn't blown the whole lump sum on "this toy" (which he now decides is sucha
waste of money!)

And then he'll spend the rest of his afternoon, picking at the new toy's fault,
justifying how it is not worth the amount of money he's paid for it. And then
the next few days will see him adding salt to his own wound by goin on the
internet, checking out all those other toys that he could have bought, or how he
could have 5 different toys instead of just spending it on ONE. Then he
degenerates into a lump of self pity and keep saying what a stupid decision it
was to buy "THAT so not worth it's price TOY", eventually, starts calling
himself stupid for not thinking properly.

Then he'll start asking, what can he do to get extra pocket money. I points out
that his egg runs gives him generally £3 of profit. He thinks it is not enough.
Then he suggest car wash, which I agree to, but he''ll want to do it now (many
times, this is at some silly timing like bedtime or when we're on the way to
somewhere. Any suggestion to do it tommorrow morning is declined)

Then he'll start declining if I offer to pay him small money if he helps with
the laundry, or helped pick up his toys, for really, we don't have many things
that he can do, just so to earn extra money.
And he wants BIG money, not small money that he'll have to save up to form a
decent amount.

And this circumstances repeats itself every month.

Two days ago, we're in the mall. As always, Greg is moaning about how broke he
is, how he is unable to buy anything despite me offering to give him £2 to
spend. I am beginning to think how spoilt my child is!!! And I really can't face
this dilemma anymore.

So, I've decided. Instead of me paying for his food and drink and all. He's to
pay for it himself. I'm giving him £10 everytime we're out and about. He's to
pay for his half of his share. He's to pay for his meal, half the parking fees
and petrol which works out to be roughly about £5 average. I worked it out, that
the balance £5 should eseesntially buy him either a decent toy, maybe with
balance left over, which can be save for next trip or he might decided to blow
it all on a 2nd toy. Or if we're near a games arcade, he should be able to play
a game or 2.

All in all, theoratically, Greg should be able to feel fulfilled, and happy, and
in control over his own budget. And still not feel sad and despair over his
decisions, becuase there will be another £10 coming his way when we next go out
again. Hopefully, this will teach him a better sense of budget.

With Greg sense of "big money", he might surprise me by not spending his 2nd
half of the £5, but to use it just for the sake of buying something, but to save
it for a more desired toy in the future.

So, how's everyone getting on with thier aspie journey?

BWS
SharonBugs.

Rubber Gym Ball and Earphones

2009-06-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

Finding out about Jnr's sensory issues was such a blessing. For the first time in our lives, we could see Jnr seizing back control over his impulsiveness. He no longers complains about having no control over his brain. Doing things he knows not to, but yet cannot stop himself. Or crying in anguish about having an evil brain inside him, egging him on.

The past 2 weeks have been nonstop busy busy busy. It is almost like Jnr's suddenly got switched on inside. Supporting him with all my knowledge and understanding of therapies, I see my son growing and expanding his world, rapidly. He can focus now. He wants to do things that he never used to want to do. He wants to socialised, he is keen to do everything. I don't know which part of this is naturally unschooling, or is it because his therapies has calmed him down so much, that he can actually asked for something to do, plan for it, and follow it thru.

Today, I am SO PROUD! We were at the shoe shop and the shop manager asked Jnr why he was not at school. Jnr replied loud, calm and confidently ... "I don't go to school. We're homeschoolers. I do my lessons at home" For the first time, my son was able to answer someone's query, clearly and confidently, without me having to help with words.

Who would have thought, rolling a big rubber gym ball over Jnr, and slipping a pair of earphones over his ears, can make such a huge difference to our lives. And he is very excited and looking forward to practising his writing, when his pencil grip arrives. Everyday, he goes riding on his little canary yellow bicycle, giving him the much need joint compression exercises.

In saying that everything is going swell, Jnr is beginning to show signs of set backs. Maybe, tiredness is finally setting in; or maybe as Jnr always predictably do, for every step forward, he takes 2 step backwards, before pushing forth again.

I have always view my son's regressions as a good sign indicating posititve development going to happen, or sometimes, already happened.

We have always embraced Jnr's diagnosis positively. I think we welcomed it, becoz finally, we have confirmed idea of what we're dealing with. It has made life so much more easier and predictable to a certain degree. We have used it to guide us positively thru all his challenges.

Which is why it gives me a rather rude shock when faced with another mum, who refuses to acknowledge thier child have obvious challenges. Why?

BWS
SharonBugs.

June 2009 - another milestone in our lives and.....

2009-06-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

What have we been doing recently? Well, nothing much other than Jnr is really keen on company and desperate for friends. He has been constantly complaining that he is lonely....baggering me for a sibling.....a dog....even suggest that we adopt one of those poor kids in Africa LOL!! I think he must have been reading my Grazia mags about Angelina and Madonna LOL!!

So we have been busy, diligently attending each and every homeschooling gathering...and Jnr have truly been enjoying himself playing with other children.

But the recently milestone achieved in our lives has nothing to do with lessons.

We are becoming more aware of Jnr's challenges as he grows another year older. We've finally found the last puzzle to his erratic hyper active behaviour. It is not the diet, it's not gluten, it is not about lack of structure, it is not sugar tho aspartame is still very much an enemy. It's now confirm - it's his sensory intergration.

Jnr suffers from multisensory intergration dysfunction (SID or just SI as it's commonly known).

This explains his constant tripping over his own 2 feet, him constantly flinging himself and rolling on the floor; banging and jumping on the bed and sofa; his headaches and his many erratic moods. Now we truly understood why his hyper activeness switches on and off like a light switch. It is his sensory re-action to his environments.

The occupational therapist have managed to resolved Jnr's issue with writing IN ONE SESSION!!! It's a tri-angular special rubber grip that is slipped onto the pencil. Jnr amazed me and his dad with the most perfect, straight, even-sized and shaped alphabets as he copied off what therapist wanted him to.

While he thorougly enjoyed and and thrived on the challenge and breeze thru his speech assessment 2 months ago, this time round was a totally different story.

He really struggle thru his occupational assessment, doing simple task like drawing and writing and walking and jumping; stopping halfway refusing to continue. Jnr very immediately repond to his stress environment by being comical and started flopping and dropping himself onto the ground, launching and flinging and rolling himself on the soft padded floor. It was his sensor requiring extreme feelings to help himself digest what is goin on.

This has help me see why and how he used to struggle in school, in the fair group and in the mall or supermarket.

So I've learnt deep pressure therapies. Him wanting to chew gum is supposed to be beneficial for his hypo sensors in his mouth. And when he starts to constantly jump and bounce on sofa and the bed, then it's time to do some deep pressure therapy. This requires Jnr to lie down on his tummy, on a long cushion and me bouncing and rolling a rubber gym ball over him, applying pressure. Amazingly, this child can actually lie still, absolutely motionless for 20 minutes. With regular sessions, my beloved genius child will soon learn to face and accommodate his world better.

So, with this in perspective...we've been busy learning to help Jnr learn and manage himself better. Being so used to the erratic hyper active child...life is so strangely calm and complacent...so much so that I am beginning to wonder if we will ever be doing anything new, exciting and different ever again LOL!!

But then this calmness has allowed my body to fall back and relax and all my tiredness is coming to the surface and manifesting itself under the guise of flu-like symptoms. Yeah...maybe it good too that we're not doing much exciting and new stuff....perhaps that will surface when I'm healed and ready.

For the time being now...we're just focusing on Jnr's sensory needs, growing stuffs in the garden...Jnr practising his skateboarding...RC Car driving...and simply just enjoying these sunny summer days.

April 2009...a month full of excitement.

2009-04-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm convinced sunny days has positive effects on DS. All of the sudden, it's like he's woken up from his long winter slumber, and is now all energised, ready for an exciting summer.

The sunny days also seems to make him want to do more things. So far, he has express his wish to rediscover old interests like wall climbing and dry slope skiing. He's also pushing for some go karting sessions. Driving seems to feature strongly in his mind lately.

He's keen on seeking out other children to play with too.

He's been playing on the keyboard, practising new songs.

We've started his own egg run, selling free range eggs to the neighbours. This venture is coming along nicely, netting Geckco Jnr an average of £3.00 profit every weekend.

Best of all, he's outside enjoying the sun. Everyday, he can be found playing on our driveway. Yesterday, he was really cute. He laid on our rug, on the driveway, sun tanning LOL!!

Then he decide it'll be fun to watch the world go by, so he got his little wooden chair, a mini can of coke and a Panama hat on his head, plonk himself on the pathway and watched the world go by.

Today, we spent the afternoon at our friend's garden. It felt so good, laying on the grass, looking up at the clear blue sky. There was a few hoveflies hovering over us, which trigger off discussions amongst the adults and kids about what do hoverflies eat, hummingbirds, snails, lobsters and nits lol!

Yes, April has been a satisfyingly busy month.

A Brilliantly Written Fairy Tale

2009-04-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

For those who's not familiar with the UK Home educator fight to defend thier autonomous rights to educated thier children wihtout any official interference, this easy to digest tale pretty much sums it up.

Many thanks to Renegadeparent for allowing me to post it here.

------------------------------------------------------

15. April 2009 08:00

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

Once upon a time, there was a Baroness. When surveying her kingdom of schools and teachers, she came across a small community of parents who had legally opted to retain their independence.

She recognised that the people in question were but a minuscule community within her kingdom, and she paid lip service to their efforts thus far.

"Parents are able, quite rightly, to choose whether they want to educate children at home, and a very small number do. I'm sure, the vast majority do a good job," said she.

But the Baroness did not quite trust them. She could not guarantee their protection from The Unknowable Dangers, and she was concerned that, without her superior knowledge and wisdom, they would never be able to rise to the elevated status of People of The Five Outcomes.

"However, there are concerns that some children are not receiving the education they need. And in some extreme cases, home education could be used as a cover for abuse,” she maintained.

And so she appointed a good man of fine teaching stock, Sir Badman, to undertake a quest to ascertain exactly how untrustworthy, dangerous and out of control these people really were. She named this quest The Review.

"This review will look at whether the right systems are in place that allow local authorities and other agencies to ensure that any concerns about the safety, welfare or education of home educated children are addressed quickly and effectively,” she pronounced.

The righteous Sir Badman was keen to make the ignorant, wayward people (who had elected to educate their children themselves for reasons incomprehensible to him) understand that they had responsibilities as well as rights. He, like the Baroness, wasn’t at all sure that mere parents were capable of raising their own children.

He proclaimed: "Legislation affords every parent the right to choose to educate their child at home but with those rights go responsibilities, not least being to secure a suitable education."

And so Sir Badman was tasked with making recommendations in order that this lost and disenfranchised community could be governed accordingly, For Their Own Good. Because Of The Children. With Non-Negotiable Support. In The Fight Against The Unknowable Dangers.

Preparing the brave and noble adventurer, Sir Martin Ward (deputy of the Realm of School and College Leaders) helped Sir Badman into his armour, chanting The Ancient Song of the Risk Obsessed:

"There have been concerns about a small number of cases where this option has been exercised to the detriment of the child."

And this is how the Review began.

Once Sir Badman and his loyal band followers had been dispatched, the Baroness retired to her chamber to rest.

Responsibility for every single child in the rest of the kingdom weighed heavy on her shoulders, for it was her duty was to ensure that each one be protected from The Unknowable Dangers to become a Person of The Five Outcomes. In concentrating her people’s taxes on a handful of children, whom she knew to be no more at risk than any other child, she began to feel quite faint.

How was she possibly to care for every child, when she was but one Baroness who had delegated parental responsibilities to loveless institutions and bureaucrats, forsaking above all others their actual parents? She paced to and fro, wringing her hands in dismay.

Presently, there was a knock at her chamber door, and a messenger appeared in the door way, clutching a scroll.

“Baroness, baroness, I bring you the news of the kingdom -

The quality of human input is far more important for our children’s learning than the equipment in our schools. The sages are now questioning the wisdom of Building Schools For The Future!

Our children no longer roam the forests and fields, breathing the sweet air, adventuring and exploring. The sages are now questioning the wisdom of attempting to offer full protection from The Unknowable Dangers!

School activities are now so prescribed that teachers are little more than administrators of minutiae and children are little more than empty vessels to be filled with piecemeal knowledge. The sages are now questioning the wisdom of the all-reaching National Curriculum!

The formative years of our children are being jeopardised through substandard nursery care as resources are stretched to breaking point. The sages are questioning the wisdom of pushing extended state provision for such small children!

Your desire to test and instil literacy and numeracy in children before they are all developmentally ready is seriously disrupting primary schools. The sages are questioning the wisdom of schooling at such an early age, demanding more time for play, creative activity and self-directed learning!"

The Baroness took a step backwards and sat down on her bed. No sooner had she done so, there was another, more urgent knock at the door. A messenger burst into the room.

“Baroness, Baroness! I bring you news of the kingdom -

The Teachers in our schools are complaining that they can no longer control our children! They are running riot! They cannot hold a knife and fork, or dress themselves, or express themselves, and they are frequently violent! This destructive behaviour is wasting weeks of school time every year. Even the parents are physically and verbally abusive. They say that that you demand too much from them which they cannot possibly deliver. Relationships with children are deteriorating due to fear, mistrust and discordance. The teachers say similar. They are requesting payment increases in lieu of protection. Social workers are overworked, under-resourced, inadequately trained and stifled by bureaucracy. No-one is clear of their roles and responsibilities. All feel powerless and under attack!”

The Baroness sank backwards, clutching the coverlet in dismay. There was a third knock at the door.

“Baroness, Baroness! I bring you news from the kingdom - your officials have been forced to take unprecedented action to subdue civil unrest...

We have drafted in support from ex-marines, prison officers, bouncers and policemen to patrol our classrooms and maintain order amongst our thuggish children.

We have initiated withdrawal rooms to isolate the worst offenders and protect their peers as far as possible from violence and disruption.

We are jailing those parents who do not ensure that their children attend school regularly.

We are preparing a programme of compulsory service for older children.

We are introducing child protection home inspections for under 5s who are looked after full-time by their parents.*

We expect that these measures will regain some control; but they are indeed costly and not without risk. This escalating situation will, no doubt, continue to have a profound effect on the ability of our children to become People Of The Five Outcomes. It is, however, a price we must be willing to pay.”

The Baroness rolled over and lay face down, a tear trickling down her cheek.

Moments later, there was a quiet knock at the door. A fourth messenger walked quietly over, head bowed.

“Baroness, Baroness, I bring you some news from Sir Badman. He has completed the first part of his quest and wishes you to know the following:

“The community places a high premium on the quality of human interaction. They believe that parents understand and love their own children better than anyone else. Their children roam the fields and forests, breathing in the sweet air, adventuring and exploring. Unencumbered by the demands of school, these children have more hours in the day to pursue diverse areas of learning. Parents are as engaged in the learning process as their children. The ratio of adults to children is remarkably low at all times. Children are able to learn at a developmentally appropriate place, which varies dramatically from child to child. There appears to be plenty of opportunity afforded for play, creative activity and self-directed learning.

But, Baroness, the value of such things cannot be measured. A tangible outcome is often not provided. Many of our boxes remain unticked. There is no consistency of approach. We cannot be sure of equality for every single child. We cannot guarantee that they will be safe. We cannot control everything from top to bottom. The status quo will not remain.”

And the Baroness thought back to the classroom patrols, and the withdrawal rooms, and the jail sentences, and the compulsory service, and the home inspections.

And she gazed upon the Five Outcomes, woven into a richly coloured tapestry that hung from her wall: Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution, Achieve Economic Wellbeing.

And she sat, and she stared, but she did not quite see. They were only words, after all.

And then she tossed a coin.

* I made this one up, kind of.

Will they ever get off the gamebox?

2009-02-12T04:12:00.000-08:00

The most common fear in parents when dealing with autonomy of the video gaming.

We've all heard about de-schooling, whereby parents are encouraged to allow the child re-discover themselves. No schedule, no lessons, no expectations. Just pure freedom to let themselves go and re-discover thier own intrinsic motivation, without us diverting them off thier natural course.

Well, my story today is about me and my kid's journey of video gaming, so far.

Today, I had the opportunity to say, Yes, they do get off thier butt and ask to do something new. They can and is capable of wanting new things(and not necessary just new video games) and new experiences. They are capable of getting fed-up playing infront of the tv and yearn for a change of scenery.

Gecko Jnr shown me this. On and off in the past 2 years, he will have a glut of video gaming which will last anything between 3 weeks to 3, 4 months or even more.

But then, there will come a day that he's satiated and decided the video games is boring (HORROR!!! I never thought I will ever hear that word- video games, boring!!?? LOL!). This is the time, he'll ask for new experiences.

Last year, he asked for sailing classes and an electric drum. Unfortunately, he is under age, no sailing school will take him in, and as for the drum, we just didn't have the budget.

This year, he asked for fencing classes, which he will be starting this week, and an electric keyboard, which we can afford.

Yesterday, we spent hours infront of his pc, playing his old Tanko construction game, demolishing, building and moving all those diggers, cement tanks and platform trucks around his little Tanko city.

Now, if you make an effort to disregard everything, and just focus on your child even for just 1/2 an hour, you'll realised lessons can be derived from such simple, unscheduled and un-coordinated situation.

Yesterday, Jnr not only paid alot of careful attention planning his city (could be age-related), but he was also very interested in naming all his buildings, in very creative ways. He was doing what is known as "divergent spellings", as described here in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling#Divergent_spelling

There was Cipperz Fish Monger. I said to him "Chip-pers?" He said, "No mum, it's not spelt CH, it's spelt "Ci", so it's pronounced "Kippers". Good point LOL!

Then there was Padd Lokk, well, I'll let you figure it out what do this shop sells.

We also had the opportunity to discuss and understand the concept of singular and plural as in where the apostrohe stands, before or after the "s", means different quantity.

Then we went out for the afternoon, catching up with friends. We had a great time.

Came home after dinner, Jnr went straight back onto his pc. He started another game called Star Wars Pit Droid Puzzles. It is a game of planning and sorting, ensuring all the tiny multicoloured pit droids (they looked like colourful worker ants)
ends up in the right spot. Kinda like The Lemmings.

Jnr was soon busy clicking away, placing directional signs, syphoning the Pit droids to thier individual colour post, adding in self-spraying paint stations to change the colours of the Pit droids to match the station they are heading to. And so much more.

It was really interesting to observe how his brain works, planning, assessing and implementing his solutions, as his little fingers were tapping away on the keyboard and clicking away at the mouse.

His divergent spelling continues on thru this game. As he progress thru the night, he was saving and labelling his many creations with very creative names, and spellingz.

So, will they ever unstuck themselves from the gamebox?

My answer is, yes they will. If you just be patient, and still continue to offer an array of choices, like foods, drinks, parks, window shopping at the local toy shop or go check out some new games? For you'll never know when will be that day when your offer will seem much more enticing than that boring old game that they have been sitting in front of, for weeks.

A trip to the local pizza place to pick up a pizza for lunch (i know there is such thing as delivery service, but the objective here is to entice them to go stretch thier legs abit and take a break.) A short trip to the local shops to buy a loaf of bread, with a reward of a lolly or ice cream, for everyone needs little incentives to entice them to do something, sometimes.

I am convinced Jnr's interest in fencing classes is from him playing Pirates of the Carribean for weeks. Therefore I can't complain about video gaming for it has helped spawned many new interests, discussions and not forgetting the numerous opportunity and platforms to explain "lessons" to my kid.

Socialising in the 21st century.

2009-02-07T15:27:00.001-08:00

It's been exactly 2 years 3 months now since I last view the gamebox as evil, mind numbing and bad for my child.

Ever since the beginning of our homeschooling journey, when Junior opt to deschool via his playstation, I have research the internet for thoughts and opinions, read lots of books and held lots of discussion with Papa Gecko. I am now, a very strong supporter towards gaming as the 21st century tool of learning. My past blogs have mentioned the lessons spawned from just psp games, and I have written about how our children's world will be so technology based, so much so, any screen or gadget is as familiar to them as our microwave is to us.

Now, Junior has asked for an Xbox, simply because it can be connected to the internet, enhancing the experience of his gaming. It is about interaction with many more people will playing your game, or playing the game with another person somewhere in the world. It is actually online community, but this is thru the gamebox, instead of the computer.

This Xbox wanting started when his best friend was given one for Xmas. And eversince then, his best friend has made more friends online and is now more keen on playing and communicating with his new online friends, neglecting Junior in the process.

I can see now how if Junior don't have one, he is effectively being left out, an outcast, separated from the "online playground". Which makes me think, is this how socialising will evolve for our kids?

It is already happening, people are socialising online. With the numerous online community like War Craft, Second Life and Facebook and many more.

I enjoy Facebooking. Now that I'm on the other side of the world from my family and friends, it helps me stay connected to them. I don't feel isolated anymore. I'm always up to speed with everyone's plans and vice versa.

So this is it. Could it be that, to not be able to play Xbox Live online, means that Junior is not part of the social fabric that's being weaved now?

I do think so, well at least when it comes to his best friend. I'm thinking perhap, if they can't meet up in human form, they can still meet up and play together in cyber form, in thier cyber playground, right?

Well, at least for sure, if this social connection is established, it doesn't matter where in the world we are, Junior will still be able to keep his best friend.

As always, Junior is pushing me out of my boundary, kicking me out of my comfort zone, and dragging me into new territory. He's opening my eyes to new perspectives. Just like he did, 2 years 3 months ago.

While I'm supposed to be homeschooling him, it seems like he is unschooling me instead LOL!

Our free online learning resources...

2009-02-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

If you're stuck for ideas as to what to do, here's a list of the websites, that we dip in and out, approved by Junior as in "it is exciting and fun enough", worthy enough of his attention.

Some of it is really for my reference.

Maths
-----

http://www.math.com/school/subject1/lessons/S1U1L2GL.html#

http://www.visualmathlearning.com/index.html

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math.html#geometrygames

http://home-ed.info/Resources/maths_resources.html

Science
-------

http://www.sciencewithme.com/index.php

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/index.shtml

French
------

http://french.about.com/od/kidsmusic/French_Music_for_Kids.htm

History
-------

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/

History Timeline, mostly for grown-up reference.
http://www.historyexplorer.net/?World_History_Timeline

General topics
--------------
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/questionaut/

Yesteday, we did this -
http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-
movies.php?movie=Pirates

It is an animated story about history of pirates, and there's a questionair at the end of it.

And if you still have no clue where to start, and would prefer a curriculum guideline of some sort, here's a good link.

Curriculum with it's objective and purpose explained.

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes3/?view=get

Freedom of Choice to live our lives, the way we deemed fit to.

2008-11-25T00:19:00.000-08:00

We've stopped over for a few days at Nottingham at my girlfriend's house for a couple days before continuing forth towards Scotland.

This not only gave us a lovely opportunity to finally catch up with our friends, it also provided Jnr an opportunity to be up close with a dog - a dalmation as big as him, and interestingly, an unexpected insight to how well we've done, unschooling wise.

For a start, we were very pleased to see how comfortable and confident Jnr was with the dog. He was touching, teasing and playing with the dog. I am almost expecting him to roll over with the dog LOL!! 2 years ago, Jnr would have been climbing all over us, trying to get away from the dog. He would have been nervous to a point of panicking.

And then it was the affect Jnr had on my girlfriend. This girlfriend, is married but by choice do not have kids. She was clearly affected by Jnr's very opened directness, confidence of his own decisions and his own freedom in choices.

It was quite amusing to see how my girlfriend is trying very hard to comprehend the sheer "this feels so wrong and unbelievable" fact that my 8 yrs old does what he wants, sleep when he wants, eat when he wants and basically is in control of his life to a large extend.

This incident has basically got me thinking and realised that yes, the backbone of our unschooling philosophy has evolved.

We have started out homeschooling with the objective to learning without school. To learn naturally without boundaries, no schedule and no timetable.

And then we morphed into unschooling. By starting to encourage learning from just living our lives. No co-ercion. Academic learning just happens to be a "by-product" of our daily lives. Like learning to count, ad, subtract, multiply and divide is just another skill Jnr learned from his decisions on how best to spend his pocket money. And now, we even have a DS Brain Training competition going on between him, his dad and me. More maths and spelling trials LOL!!

We encourage any shape or form of self directed interest be it tv, books, video games, the internet or toy purchases and many more. My kid loves toys, every kid does, who doesn't? Even i love toys.

Everything is a Yes and a Possibility.

Every toy or new game, online subscription or trip is a possible Yes to Jnr. It's just a question of how and when. This allows Jnr to understand that every toy he wants is possible, and have the confidence that he will get it, and to use his own mind and skills to analyse and deduce the available resources to match that thought process from "thinking, to wanting to achieving that object of desire". This gives substance to that "waiting period", giving it more reasons and sense, making it less painful.

The saying "when there's a will, there's a way" applies here.

Learning with no boundaries. Because time is no longer a concept applicable to our lives, because we choose not to have it. Therefore Jnr is not bound by any time frame to finish or accomplish any activities or projects. This has allowed him to "buzz" like a busy bee between projects of his choice. Some big, some small, some is accomplishes within half an hour, and some is a constant headache and is constantly put on the back burner, brought out only when he's got a better theory.

But nevertheless, he knows time is plenty, and he has the joyful freedom to allow his mind flow and form, in any direction.

As such, what he is capable of thinking, he is capable of materialising. He knows he is capable of translating his thoughts into it's tangible form because, he knows he has the freedom to progress into any "doing" that he feels is right.

We have realised that because we have relinquish our parental "right to control his life" back to our son, we have allowed him endless opportunity to practice living life, making good decisions, making bad decision, repeating mistakes until he had enough and decide an alternative is required, exhausting his own theories before he's willing to be open to someone else's idea.

No mistake is a bad mistake. It is just sometimes painful, messy and frustrating. But always a lesson in disguise.

All decisions are decisions. It can be a good or as bad as he deem it to be.

But most of all, as we are all individuals and it's a free world, so mummy, daddy and Jnr is entitled to thier "very own" opinion, which is entirely acceptable and perfectly ok. He just have to learn to argue his case convincingly to mummy and daddy, and I have to say, he is beginning to show very good debating skills and is beginning to win us over, more and more now LOL!!!

Over the past 2 years, he has become a very well informed, focus, comfortable, confident boy, aware and wise about the world around him.

Which explains why he has no concern or apprehension stating to my girlfriend that he doesn't need to sleep yet because his mind is too busy completing his game on his DS LOL!!

Yes, I am convinced that Freedom of Choice is a good platform for my son to approach life.

Home Ed. Stories UK

2008-11-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

I seems to be having a problem with my blog. Alot of it's facilities dissappeared hence i'm unable to link my blog to Clara's Home Ed stories uk. No wonder alot of my stuff is missing from the page LOL!! Ohh..speak kitchen gadgets to me anytime, but put me infront of a techie issue, i can fee....eeel my migraine coming on LOL!!

So for now, until i figured it out, here's the link
http://homeeducationstoriesuk.blogspot.com

What are we reading...

2008-11-21T04:15:00.000-08:00

We always have a few books on-going.

We have finally finished that long story about the Trojan Wars and Helen of Troy.

We were reading George and the key to the Universe by Stephen Hawkings. But unfortunately it belongs to someone else, so we had to return it. I'll have to get a copy form the library soon, but then I'm thinking it might be worth buying a copy fr ourselves.

We've starting The DiVIDE by Elizabeth Kay. Jnr seems to enjoy this story and he has checked out the back cover and mentioned to me of her other 2 books. So I've took note of this and will remember to get it.

On the side, we have another story by Charlie James called FISH. Well, it is about a boy eating some fish crisps that his father (a fish food manufacturer) invented for aquariums usage. We never got further than 10 pages, so not too sure yet what this book is all about. The sypnosis mentioned something about an encouter with a killer whale. Which is why I picked this book, because Jnr loves Orcas.

Pyjama Jones by JA Jennings. We are still struggling thru this story. We just felt that the story doesn't match up to it's exciting title and book cover. Jnr picked this book up, following his fascination with Indiana Jones's adventures. But the it's details and long -winded description is becoming very draggy and...long winded, frankly speaking. We're thru to pg 34, out of a 180 pages book, and we have yet to feel any real exciting adventure other than non-stop description of a mummy tomb and an Egyptian burial. Really, a rehash of what we have already knew from numerous documentaries.

Everything's going swell.

2008-11-08T02:57:00.001-08:00

It's coming to our 2nd anniversary of the day we took Jnr our of school.

We have been deschoooling-transitioning to homeschooling to dipping our toes in unschooling for the first 8 months. Followed by 9 months of rocky transition of letting go of expectations of results, of me learning to saying Yes more and less of No, me learning to not let any opinions or rules stop us from doing alot of things. And most of all, no co-ercion or structured lessons.

6 months later, life settled into a comfortable "confident" routine which is leading us to our 2nd anniversary of "education without school" in December.

Jnr is happy and confident. He is very aware of what is happening and is constantly absorbing up everything around him. I have managed to bridge my existance equally to his. So most of the time now, I do look at him equally, as a human being and not so much of as an adult to a child.

This dynamics gives an automatic provision of me allowing him plenty of freedom and space allowing him plenty of life decisions practice, promoting maturity and confidence. Inturn, it allowed me plenty of opportunity to understand and know my son.

We have relinquished all workbooks and don't do any curriculum or syllabbus anymore.

Our learnings can be found via playing. From pc educational games, reading lots of stories, playing with ps2 games and setting up train sets and building Lego.

Recently, Jnr's into Nintendog. So he can always be found training, feeding and grooming his 3 Nintendogs called Cutie, Nacho and Waffles. He named them all, on his own. From a kid who doesn't like animals, I am so proud to see him blossoming into a pet owner wannabe. We're even talking about having a real pet.

We're also into video watching on bed now. So we're catching up on lots more stories via the video. Yesterday, we've finished watching The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

I've realised I've have successfully merged into unschooling when I am able to approach everyday as a new, unexpected day. My days now is like a new present unveiling itself. Everything my son does, is an eye opener for me.

Like what I wrote in response to another unschooler's plea for help.

Your child is a Flower. It will unfurl and blossom in all pace and directions. You will not tell the Flower that it's unfurling the wrong petal, will you? Or tell it that it is blossoming only on one side first, and that it's wrong because it's supposed to blossom sysmetrically, will you? Will you tell that flower that it is blossoming wrong, and turn out ugly?

Of course not. You step back and wait patiently, having full confidence that the flower will bloom fully.

So think of your child like a Flower blooming his/ her petals in different direction and paces. Every day of tv watching, or ps2 playing is just petals unfurling.

Eventually, your beautiful Flower will unfurl each and every petal and become a balance Blossom, in perfect sysmetrics.

My advice to get to this stage of happy and confident unschooling life?

Patience. Lots of it. It will be very very testing, difficult and rocky in the beginning. When will it get easier, is entirely up to you.

Determination. This is what you want. Wanting the best for your kids is what you want. So, Never give up no matter how difficult and hard.

Confidence. That you will get there eventually.

Focus. When the going gets tough, regain your perspective by focusing why you're doing this in the first place. Look far and imagine what sort character you will wish for your kid. I always visualised a happy, confident and content man. That's my focus.

Be Free. Let go of all your dos and don'ts and start being carefree with your decisions. If it won't kill your kid, then why not try it out?

Be adventurous. Until you try something out, you won't know the result. How would you know eating cupcakes all the time will make your kid sick, unless you have tried it?

How would you know your kid will stop staring at the tv? You won't, until you've tried it and trust me, they will stop staring at the tv. It's only a matter of when. So how would you know how long will it take your kids to get fed-up and walk away from that tv screen? Well, you won't know until you've tried it.

Genghis Khan

2008-10-06T09:58:00.001-07:00

Jnr's fascination with ancient history is still going strong. So I'm capitalising on this opportunity to introduce another famous ancient ruler - Genghis Khan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28OLBrW6PSM&feature=related

Interestingly the dvd that we rented came in only one language - Mongolian.
So we watched it in Mongolian language, with English subtitles.

On the Trail of Ancient China

2008-09-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Jnr has a strong fascination with the late Empress Dowager Tsu Hzi. After much rooting around on the internet, this is what we found.

We found a whole series of documentary on the Forbidden City and it's long line of Emperors and Empress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCefoa3CFUQ&feature=related

We're museum-ed out!!

2008-09-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

We went to Colchester for 2 days early this week.

First stop was the Natural History Museum, housed in an old church. It was small but interesting enough to keep Jnr occupied. There's alot of info on stag beetles and there's a huge electronic metal stag beetle that moves when you press it's switch.

We then moved onto the Colchester Castle. It's a castle, and naturally it is intersting to be walking the same passage ways, and touching those same stone walls that's been standing for over 2,000 years. Sadly to say, this is only my opinion, and not Jnr's LOL! He was only interested with the moat, of which he had a fabulous time playing in. We got in on home-ed rate of £2.90 for child/ FREE for adult. There's a Chinese artifacts exhibition going on but not very impressive and very basic.

We then visited the Holly Trees Museum, which is on the same ground. Unfortunately we never go the chance to stay long because Jnr spotted the playground at the back of this mansion!

We didn't make it to the Temperly Clock Museum, which was shut on Sunday and Monday.

The next day, we went to Ipswich Museum, about 20 minutes drive away. It was FANTASTIC. It's natural history section houses a life size woolly mammoth, tusk and all. Stuffed Giraffe, Rhino, Zebra, Lion and many, many more. A truly magnificent showcase of the old Victorian hunting passion and taxidermy. Lots of artifacts that links back to the old colonial world of Africa and Asia. We had a very informative afternoon and Jnr was hooked every step of the way. And it's Free.

The parking was expensive tho. But I supposed I can't complained considering the 2 day's visit is basically nominal cost.

Tracey's Poem

2008-09-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a lovely poem, courtesy of a fellow unschooler.

> We want to autonomous
>
> We want to be anonymous
>
> We want to run and play and shout
>
> And not sit still filled with self doubt
>
> We want to learn in our own time
>
> Surely that can't be a crime
>
> Our lives are filled with praise and love
>
> Not censure coming from above
>
> And most of all we love to learn
>
> It doesn't stop at the end of term
>
> We carry on learning every day
>
> It's nothing new it's just the way
>
> That generations before us learned
>
> About the way respect was earned
>
> So here's our plea to the powers that be
>
> HOME ED WORKS SO LEAVE US BE!

Naomi Aldort "If children played all their childhood, they would be ready for life"

2008-09-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

Another book to my collection.
Naomi Aldort, Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves.

I'm so pleased to have found Naomi Aldort. Even tho I'm reading what I already knew, her writings comforted me by re-affirming my unusual ways of parenting my child, and unschooling him. She help me word my thoughts in a more professional way, so that the next time I'm to share about our unschooling, I'll come out sounding more focus and polish LOL!

She's so spot-on with this line:-

-----------------------------------------------
"For me, child rearing has been a continual test to my ability to trust. Should I physically make sure that my child learns to crawl? Walk? Talk? How about "Talk and Walk Class for Toddlers 101"? Interestingly, language is the hardest thing to learn, and children do it all on their own. In fact, the speediest learning in humans occurs in the youngest years, when children generally play all day. Maybe nature didn't goof - maybe I can trust.

So I trusted in nature from day one and noticed an interesting thing: children play, and their best learning happens through play. Children are designed to be curious. From birth on, they want to know and figure out everything. Children are driven to succeed. They are constantly challenging themselves and can actually accomplish it all through a biologically implanted process that we call play.

If children played all their childhood (I mean it), they would be ready for life. They would be emotionally strong (providing no other damage has been done), and would have all the basic skills to handle life."

------------------------------------------------------

She has just helped me by pointing out why I'm so sure and steady about my child's continous playing and no worries about lessons or colleges and uni.

This is the very core of our unschooling, Play equals emotionally strong for life.

Searching for a sport activity.

2008-09-14T15:10:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get a sporting activity that we as a family can do together.

Today we've went kite-ing. Papa borrowed a kite off his office mate, off we went to the local kite-ing hill. Jnr's not very happy today, and was moaning all the way as we make our way to the top of the hill. But he was enthusiatic enough tho, to go running over towards the horizon to see what's over there.

Anyway, found a sppt we liked, and after much un-tangling and laying out of the kite, we're ready and Jnr's kinda gone bored with it already, even before we started. The wind was not blowing at all, but the occasional breeze was enough to get the kite up and swooping and crashing to the ground. We met 13 years old Khalid. He was also kite-ing, and he help us by showing us how to do it. He was a very helpful and informative young man.

After a few chase after his dad, Jnr gave up and slump to the lovely soft grass and just lay there, slumbering on the ground. He was complaining about a pain on his calf, so me and Papa ended up piggy backing him all the way back to the car, which was a rather long way, and Jnr's grown over the summer and is no longer tiny and light anymore.

Well at least we've accomplished something today. We've tried kite-ing and decided it's not it. Next time, we'll try golfing. Jnr has consistently stuck with golfing, so maybe it's time we take him seriously and buy him a proper golf set and take him onto the golf course.

On the way home, Jnr complained about feeling bored. I do agree, I am feeling bored too. Time for some new interest but what?

I'm losing grip on our unschooling ways...again.

2008-09-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

We're going through an academic drought.

It's been roughly 5 weeks now (I think) that Jnr is resisting any form of pc curriculum. He still insist that he likes Time4Learning but has yet make any attempt to take me up on my offer to visit that site together. I admit I am beginning to feel shifty and unsure about this, but i supposed I can "wait and see" alittle bit longer.

I'm wondering why this is happening. Maybe perhaps we have learnt everything there is to learn, for now. Maybe he's taking a break before the next level of realisation kicks in? Well whatever it is, it is obvious his interest is focus on playing. I can't say we're not doing much, for we are doing lots. Like watching more tv, creating more Lego structures, talking more, surfing more internet, playing games (interesting enough video gaming is on the low side too) I am wondering if this laid back attitude coincides with this learning drought? Maybe I should try board or card games.

Anyway I can't see anything new academically for him to learn for now, so I'm thinking really, maybe in school they are doing more about mastering thru practises, rather than learning new stuff? Maybe this is why we seemed like we're not doing much.

I need to re-assess what's the defination of learning. I am sure he is still learning on a daily basis, but just not dipping his toes into any academic part of learning. Ohhh...I really need to start working on letting go some more!!!

The level we are on right now:-
Maths (addition, subtraction, division and multiplication). On-going money maths, calendar dates maths.
Reading and history goes together, for reading from books is an on-going process.
Science is an on-going lesson too- we're still experimenting with fire.

We are talking about different ways to make money for son is money obsessed for the moment. So we have been looking at different type of jobs Jnr can do when he grows up. Working for The Lego Company could be one option.

Is there such a thing as A Good Meltdown?

2008-08-23T07:55:00.001-07:00

An unschooling mum wrote this in one of my unschooling list.

"As much as I hate to admit this, I do still find it difficult
sometimes to support him as wholeheartedly when surrounded by adults
who see his behaviour as wrong or anti-social or inappropriate, even
when I know it is perfectly appropriate for him and I see that he is
developing into a more capable, happier person"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To me, all kids go into meltdowns of tears and tantrums. But perhaps our aspie kids do it more frequently and intensely. Yes, sometimes, no matter how patient we are, other people's judgement can get to us.

Despite our best intention to avoiding such scene, it is still part of life, for we cannot isolate ourselves completely! It is still part of our child's learning mechanism, these meltdowns- it is merely an alarm of senses overload. What overloads them, we cannot be for sure everytime. But at least I know my son's mind is practising "coping" defenses.

I've learnt to do this. Immediately 100% attention on my son, and blank out everything around us.

I'll just stay focus on embracing him in my arms (sometimes arms flaying, wild eyed and shouting and all) lots of back strokes and gentle re-assuring murmurings of "it's ok, hush...sh". I have to allow the emotions to flush thru his system, for once opened, the emotional flood gates cannot be shut.

The tears is another stress releasing mechanism. Sometimes, it's big heart renching tears. Sometimes it's angry tears!!. And sometimes, it's all about frustrations. But he will calm down and have a chat about it. But it's when he says "it's ok mum, I'm fine now" and acknowledge that it was just him repeating the same old mistake again, I knew we're not far away from having 1 less meltdown.

It is all about providing him a safe environment to "meltdown", without any attacks from anyone or anything!!. And one day, he'll learn to control and not overshot that threshold again! Yes, it seems now that we're unschooling and perhaps he is growing up, the meltdowns are getting lesser.

You'll be surprise that when you exhibit such strong nurturing body language, the people around you will either ignore you because thier sense tells them that "the problem is being attented to and it's non of thier concern". You might get the occasional few gentle souls who wish to join in the fuss LOL! and contribute thier "love and empathy", especially old ladies.

But very rarely anyone would want to interupt such an intimate moment, if anything, they mostly walk past respectfully.

I find that people are ready to join in a "I told you so" reprimanding session, whether by snide remarks or body language. But because the human senses is programmed to response to distress signs, like a child crying or getting out of control, their senses is telling them that something is wrong. Hence I believe, if people is sensing our escalating stress in trying to calm our child, they will feel the need to "help us get the situation under control". They will even feel the "need to take over" by telling us what to do, especially when they assume we are losing control over our child because our child is responding even more loudly to all these negative vibes.

The only way I can stop my body language vibrating such negative signals, "inviting all unwanted help" is to shut-down by huddling up to my child. I don't think of anything, but focus on that moment. For I understood that the meltdown is a result of my child's mind reaching a threshold- an achievement, a celebration, a positive thing to happen (of course i would have prefer it to happen in the comfort of our home LOL). I understood and accept that "For every meltdown, there is progress" Hence my body language is exhibiting positive signal "everything is ok and under control". Bearing in mind that my sensitive child is also picking up these signals up too.

My child do regress, either before a big leap forward, or after a good few months of progress- 2 steps back for every step forward. Then perhaps his meltdown is just another step backwards, before he makes that step forward. I see this as his mind practising to cope.

So, yes, I do think my son's meltdowns are good. Meltdowns are so good that I do occasionally treat myself to one, like yesterday night LOL!! I meltdowned by submitting to a black, self pitying, foul mood and started lecturing son about his self-centered, selfish and complaining attitude, that I'm so fed-up, I'm going to bed NOW and watch Mulan on the laptop. Needless to say, son soon joined me in bed, and cuddled up as we watched the behind the scenes of the making of Mulan. He apologised for making me feel so sad, and I apologised for being angry at him. We made up by promising each other that we'll try to be nicer to each other.

Let's Talk Money ...... calculator style!!!

2008-08-20T07:03:00.002-07:00

Lately Jnr's into calculators. From counting how much money he'll make in a month to how long more does he has to wait for his birthday. He calculates how much he needs to buy another Lego set, and how much extra he needs for the 2nd set. He calculates how many hours till payday, and he also calculates how much pocket money he would have had when he reaches 18 yrs old. Which subsequently got him depressed because he's thinking How wonderful!! What a huge amount of pocket money! If only he didn't have to wait till he's 18!!LOL!!!!

First, Jnr decided that he were going to work in Tesco where he can make a fortune of GBP800 a month! Then he can buy any toy he wanted!

Then he's decided he will be a toy shop owner. This way he gets to play with all the toys in the shop. He is also gonna be a kind shopkeeper by all childrent to come and play with all the toys in his shop. So we've been discussing about how much it'll cost to set up such a toy shop.

And then, Jnr decided that he'll be a pilot so that he can travel everywhere by his very own small plane. So, lots of saving up to do in order to buy that plane too!!

So as you can see, Jnr's calculator has been very very busy lately.

He also worked out how old he was in terms of hours. Because he reckon if we were to pay him by the hour, he'll be RICH!!! LOL!!

Ah...No, I don't think so LOL!!!

Anyway, Jnr is 24 hrs x 365 days x 7 yrs = 61,320 hours old.

MamaGecko is 332,880 hours old, which really impressed Jnr LOL! And I think I really deserved to be paid by the hour, being a fulltime housekeeper, chef, mother, wife and educator and all! LOL!

Sharks, Mammals and All.

2008-08-20T07:03:00.001-07:00

We have safely cruised thru Jnr's obsession and fascination with sharks and killer whales. So far, we've learnt that killer whales are known as Orca, and that sharks are afraid of dolphins because dolphins with it's bulbous nose will attack the shark on it's soft underbelly. And that sharks are fish, because they have gills which explains that they need to continuosly swim in order to flush oxygen laden water thru their gills; and that they drown if they stop swimming- like those that got caught in fishermen nets. Most sharks lay eggs that comes in very interesting shape and sizes, but some sharks do give birth to babies.

Whales and dolphins are mammals because they have lungs, which explains that they come to the surface of water all the time to breathe. Jnr reckon that is why dolphins keeps jumping out of water when they swim- to catch their breath! And all mammals give birth to babies including these magnificent creatures.

We watched the Free Willy movie, which had us discussing why if the whale is a mammal, why can't it survive out of water? It just so happened last month, there was another great big whale beached on the River Thames, which unfortunately died despite massive effort to relocate it back to sea. This lead to discussions of the evolution and size. Which was interesting enough backed up by the Walking With Beast documentary about whales being originally aggresive predotary, snappy crocodile-like land creature which eventually evolved into this gentle creatures like the big humpback whale with thier soft fringed-like teeth. As always, Jnr is very short on attention but nevertheless his obsession allows continuous little talks and snippets here and there about whales' size, fats and bouncy, gravity and evolution.

Intersting link about whales
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/gwhale/AdaptationsHead.html

Playing with FIRE!!!!

2008-08-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

Current Obsession : Fire

Activities : How to light a match
How to hold a lite match without burning your finger
Looking at the dynamics of a match, what's that funny smell?
Glass over candle experiment

Observation :
That funny smell is called sulfur, same stuff fireworks made of. Jnr remembered that fireworks was first invented in Ancient China. When the bamboo chopstick got on fire, it demonstarted to him how the chinese invented candles, which is bamboo stick with moulded wax on it.

Melting wax and burning paper towel
That paper towel mixed together with melted wax together burns longer (oil lamp)
That paper towel wrap around wax coated satay sticks makes burning torch.
That wax is a reversable item. Melt into liquid, cools to solid form again.
Paper towel is a irreversible item. Burns into ashes. Cools into carbon form.

Wax is what was used in the special effects of the melting face scene in Indiana Jones. The melting head was just many layers of colour wax, moulded onto a skeleton frame.

This activity proved that Fire indeed is a very useful item, however it can also get out of hand very easily. Hence I'm pleased see that Jnr knew what was required to put out an out of control plate of burning wax. Put a wet towel over it.

We looked at the "glass over the candle on the plate" experiment, and observe how the lack of air will extinguish the flame. I then put some water on the plate, and repeat the process again. This time, when the candle goes out, water was being sucked into the glass. Which suggest a sucking motion was in process due to the flame going out.

MamaGecko made her own candle using a toilet roll with a birthday candle in the middle, and pouring all those melted wax into it.

I think we've learnt about the relationship between oxygen and fire. Science once again proved to Jnr that there's always a method or reason behind everything we see, and science certainly play a big part in all of his favourite movie special effects.

So the question being asked and discussed is how was fire first started, and then discovered. How did humankind stumble across fire in 10,000BC? Was it by accident that the caveman realised that fire changes the condition of raw food?

Next lesson:- We've seen on discovery channel how to start fire by rubbing 2 pieces of dry wood together. But how do one start fire using a magnifying glass?

History lesson: The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Movie

2008-08-16T12:33:00.002-07:00

To my opinion, the scenes were not as good as Indiana Jones. But nevertheless, it is still a great show to catch. This show basically showcased alot of the ancient chinese inventions - crossbows and many more. It covered alot of the Jnr's history understanding. The Terracotta warriors' formation got him excited enough to suggest that we should to see the real thing in China, someday.

A Homeschooling Song...

2008-08-16T12:33:00.001-07:00

Here's a rib tickling and inspiring song, courtesy of one unschooling mum, posted on one of unschooling groups.

I Will Survive (the first year of homeschooling)
Originally written and produced by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris
Originally performed by Gloria Gaynor
Mercilessly altered with apologies by Natalie Criss
======================================

First I was afraid
I was petrified.
Kept thinking I could never teach
'Cause I'm not certified.
But we spent so many nights
Reteaching homework that was wrong.
I grew strong,
so now I teach my kids at home!
We study math
and outer space.
I just kept on despite the fear
with a big smile across my face.
I bought a set of Base Ten blocks.
I bought books with answer keys.
My parents think we're nuts,
but they don't even bother me

Come on, let's go walk out the door.
We're on the road now,
'cause we're not home much anymore
My friends would laugh and say we'd be unsocialized.
I heard one mumble
that I'd give up by July.
Oh no, not I!
I will survive!
As long as I know how to read
I know we'll be alright.
I've got all my life to learn.
I've got energy to burn.
and I'll survive.
I will survive.

It took all the strength I had
not to fall apart.
Decided to attend
a play date at the local park,
and I met oh so many moms
who offered eagerly to help.
They used to cry.
Now they hold their heads up high,
and so do we!
My kids are cool!
They're not those chained up little people
stuck inside at school.
So if you feel like dropping by
and just expect us to be free
you'd better call ahead first
'cause we're probably busy

Month 20 of unschooling....

2008-08-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

We're still plodding along. Currently there's lots of Lego building, Bionicle building, movie fascination which suddenly saw me and Jnr going to the cinema 3 times already this month. Jnr is also keen to work with his pc syllabus without me having to negotiate with him to do so. He alternates between JumpStart Grade 3 which he really loves because of it's cute cartoon characters to DK's ClueFinders Grade 5 which we find alittle more challenging than the Grade 4 disc. We found this Grade 4 program more like a gap filler, with syllabus very similar to Grade 3, which was boring and slow.

We've bought the ADi's Complete Learning Pack for Year 4, but haven't got the chance to check it out yet but it does seems promising with it's cute-looking alien boy name Adi. My son has a thing for cute and funny characters.

Schedule - well, we're still working along a pattern of nonstop learning thru the pc for weeks, and then a sudden long stretch of not learning at all.

I am still constantly on the lookout for different ways to support Jnr's education. One of my HEing friend's 8 yrs old son started his own blog which I thought was a brilliant idea, so I've copied that. I suggested to son to start his own blog about his toys, predominantly Legos, and lucky me, he's sold on the idea. Hence AllAboutMyToys.blog begin.

Seeing him working on his blog made me realised that my son did learnt alot over these past 20 months. And that alot of his learning is all self- directed. Which got me thinking:-

What is he learning? I understand that he is learning, just by living life as he knows it, but will there be evidence that all these life skills can actually be translated into something academically tangible?

What I am trying to say is, school is trying to prepare it's children for life, by teaching them as much life skills as they can, their only evidence that a child has "absord a fairly reasonable level of " life skills that's been pitched at them, is exams results. But we're still not sure if the skills they've picked is more for passing exams or do they really understand what they've learnt can actually be applied to daily life?

I am now very interested to see evidence of my son applying his learnt skill to his living environment.

I supposed his blog about his toys is 1 evidence. The language skills that he's picked up has allowed him to be able to express his opinions, and write it down.

What other evidence of learning can I see?

Well, the freedom to buy whatever he wants has manifest into tremendous counting skills. Nowadays, he can very confidently calculate how many weeks of savings, or how much £ short he is, with regards to that slightly more expensive toy that he wants. He's beginning to start talking multiplications, and is able to multiply easily with 10s, 100s or 1000s. He's taken to calculating his pocket money in terms of annually- I think the idea of having a huge lump of money at one go really excites him, so much that he's suggested to me to give him the balance of his pocket money for the 2nd half of the year in one go LOL!!

Nowadays, my son is constantly looking for ways to make money- from laundry to selling me little Lego figures that he's made, and he has sold me many!! The deal was once sold, these figures were mine to keep. If he wants them back, he'll have to buy it back from me. Today, he didn't have the money to buy back a Lego Royal Mail plane from me but instead, he's offered to barter trade 2 newly bult Lego airplanes for it. A done deal!

We now have questions like how many days in such and such a month. Or how many hours in a month/ year? Questions about how long a journey will take which allowed the explanation of miles/ hour. And alot more questions, that has no link to the question or discussion before it. He is definetely learning in many parellel sequences, and all these parellel learning is moving asycrony. It seem like something in our discussion always trigger off an awareness of something totally different.

20 months on, we are now beginning to see the wonders of unschooling. We now see what every homeschooling experts is saying - "intrinsic learning". It will be really interesting to how all this little titbits fall in place, forming a bigger picture.

Understanding My Asperger Child

2008-07-01T12:05:00.001-07:00

http://www.nellefrances.com.au/tips.html

Homeschooling - How, Which and What

2008-07-01T11:48:00.002-07:00

Links to help you to explore and choose your first step into the wonderful world of homeschooling. Bear in mind most homeschoolers always end up on a different path, compare to when they first start. That's the beauty of homeschooling- the opportunity of choices and the freedom to change according to our ever changing needs. Because of this flexibility, whichever one you've decided on, can never be wrong.

Pick the curriculum or philosophy you feel most comfortable with. It may never exactly be the "best one", but nevertheless it will serve well as a comforting "stepping stone" into the new world of your homeschooling.

Links that I feel helped me alot, and still do for I still dip in and out of them now and again for some new ideas.

http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/guide/styles.asp

http://www.eho.org/

http://www.smartkidathome.com/Story/Eclectic.html

http://members.aceweb.com/paden/links/styles_methods.htm

Aspergers Link

2008-07-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.nellefrances.com.au/tips.html

Recognising Asperger

2008-06-23T12:45:00.002-07:00

I could never work out how is it that I was sensitive enough to my son's needs. How natural it was for me to respond the exactly rtight way to his ASD needs, before we even know he was an Aspie. A right word to say or a soothing gesture, a hug, acknowledging and accepting his sadness or frustrations, cuddling him gently, stroking his sobbing, angry soul when things get too much and overloaded.

It surprises me to know, all the things that I've been doing was actually helping him with his ASD. All of these things that I naturally did, was the things that I would have to learn upon diagnosis of his ASD, according to the doctor. But somehow, I've already had a good headstart by already practicing half of it, many years earlier.

I always wondered why is it that my husband finds understanding and accomodating our child such a alien thing to practice. What was it that I could see, that he can't?
It was obvious that son is always prone to knee his dad, but yet hubby never quite learn to expect that or learn to avoid it.

Again and again, I asked, why is it so difficult for hubby to try to understand what was son saying? Is not like son was speaking a foreign language, but somehow, it does seems like hubby and son is on a totally different wavelenght.

Well, it turns out hubby is also an Aspie. But yet, it is possible for Aspie alike to be on a different wavelenght?

Well, it seems like it. I'm also beginning to recognised and now accept that I am partly responsible for son's ASD condition. All this while, I was reading on ASD's characteristics, all those hands flapping, sensitivities, social difficulties and all, little did I know that I was exhibit this characteristics more than my son!

I do flap my hands when I get excited. But I always thought I'm just a very animated talker!

I do pace the floor when talking in excitement. Well, I just didn't realised it.

This also explains why I don't have many friends, maybe one or two, if they are even classified as friends, for they always seems to fall out of touch sooner or later! And why I find making friends such a difficult thing to do. Plus also maybe this could explained why during my early days, all my friends were mostly guys. Maybe because it was easier to understand the more practical and direct mannerism of the male behaviour.

While researching for more clues on sensitivities for my son, I forgot I have issues with smells and bright light too.

And how I hate to be rushed. And how I hate changing my routine or having last minute changes to any schedule. It drives me up the wall because it totally throws me off my track, I become momentary lost, and will need time to re-gather my perspective before re-gaining my focus.

Perhaps this also explains my deep interest in science and history, like Pyramids and Maths. But the strange thing was, I was really, really bad in Maths during school. I flunked my Maths throughout my school days, but I never did hate Maths. I just knew, and accepted that I was very bad at it. But somehow, the idea of chemistry and physic intrigued me. I was fascinated by how it is to be possible to predict results, simply by manipulating numbers. I loved datas. It's amazing how a bunch of numbers can show you a pattern of consumerism and behaviours. I wanted to do chemistry and physics. But of course, according to the good old school system, I couldn't possibly handle physic lessons for my Maths' comprehension is so bad.

Well, I'm doing Maths now with my son, and I'm enjoying every lessons because I can see clearly now, where it all went wrong for me. I just didn't understand what the teacher was trying to teach. Bearing this in mind, remembering how confused I was, not understanding what the question was about, and how even more confused and lost I became, as I meandered into the maze of maths, I now understand how to help my son with his confusion of maths. I know understand how to re-word questions, or sometimes, it's better to just wait a little bit longer for the level of consciousness to click in, before comprehension can take place.

I also know understood why I was always alone during my childhood. I clearly remember walking round my old school which used to be an old convent building. In fact it was called The Holy Infant Jesus Convent School, used to be run by nuns during the 19th century. I could remember exploring every corner of this great old building. And I loved it. I have my favourite corners to hide in, one of it was at the old chapel on the first floor. I remember it to be this great big hall with polished dark mahogany timber floors, and great big white wooden french doors, with it's wooden slat shutters. Light filtering in thru the brushes of pines needles of the tall fir tress that lined the entire lenght of the chapel. I would stick my legs and my face thru the balustrades, a feeling of being high up and hidden, spying away at everyone on the playing field below. Sometimes it'll just be the students playing tag, sometimes it'll be teachers walking by, and a couple of time, Ms Muthu, the big and fearsome Indian headmistress, striding heavily along with her dreaded cane beside her. Oh yes, she'll not think twice about caning anyone caught misbehaving. I felt protected, hidden away in this cool and quiet sanctuary, away from the afternoon heat, and the hustle and bustle of everybody's expectations.

At the far end of the chapel will be the lonely body of Jesus on the crucifix, suspended high above the altar with it's embroided covering, candles flickering. I always thought what a contrast it is, him hiding here in the cool dark tranquility of the chapel, compare to his mom, The Holy Mother of Mary, standing high up in full glory, right at the front of the building, and the top most point too. Every day, the sun will shine bright and full on her, which she reflects back down to us common mortals, with her arms spread out in a welcoming manner, her smile serene and gentle.
I always thought how beautifully smooth and white her face was, and I especially liked that blue that she was wearing - it was powder blue, till this day, still one of my favourite colour.

Yes, those were the days I now recognised to be traits of Aspergers. The thing was, I wasn't feeling lonely. I didn't feel I was missing out on anything. I was just happy and contented to be wandering around this great old building, recognising each and every corner of it's structure. Every curve, every corner, every column, every archway, every room, every courtyard, and most of all, each any every one of those the old wooden french doors, with it's peeling paint and it' rakety shutters, like sleepy eyes, too heavy to be keep opened.

Yes, I'm convinced that my son is very similar to me; that he's happy with his own company too most of the time, keeping himself occupied with his own interest - his RPG games.

An Insight to how ASD works

2008-06-23T12:45:00.001-07:00

I can across this article which I feel gave me a good insight of possibly how my child's ASD works. I hope this can help make sense for some of us and also to understand, and hopefully help plan our children's education better.

http://www.geocities.com/autistry/gould.html

Unschooling with computer games.

2008-06-16T03:16:00.003-07:00

I've came to accept that Gecko Jnr with his ASD is just not capable to handle any sort of learning that's to do with writing and workbook. It's just too much stressful for him to concentrate on such boring and un-enticing 1D environment of a piece of flat paper with rigid printings all over it. He needs 3D images that can presents cause and effect results, and not forgetting all those lovely sound effects too!

Hence we're going full scale multimedia learning by installing the ClueFinder Adventures Yr 3, 4 and 5. Gecko Jnr is quite happy switching between these 3 grades, searching for something interesting to do. Sometimes he'll get hooked for an hour or so for it can be quite brain-intensive work all these mental maths, but yet there are times after all those searching, he walks away from it, accomplishing nothing. Sometimes he picks something that's just too difficult for him, and get frustrated and angry, working thru it. The graphics is not funny and entertaining enough to sustain son, but the mental challenges seems to be enticing enough for him to continue. We'll just have to wait and see if Gecko Jnr will stick with this program.

This is something we've just discovered. Just because Gecko Jnr is very much a computer games person, this doesn't mean he is interested in just about any type of computer games. After much buying and installing of pc games over the years, we've realised that son's actually drawn to and stayed with pc programs that have cute and funny characters, like Jumpstart Program. We've used this program before during pre-school age which worked brilliantly for Gecko Jnr.

Hence we've also installed the Jumpstart Math Advance for Grade 3, which he stayed on for 1 1/2 hours yesterday.

We're also checking out the Dorling Kingsley's History explorer CD, with it's timeline from 5 locations and era from Eygpt, Inca Empire, Imperial China, Medieval Europe, right trhu to the 1920s Age of Industrial. With lots of colourful graphics and effects and enough funny "graphic reactions " to keep Gecko Jnr going.

Anyhow, it just seems inevitable our collection of workboks is destined for ebay.

As always, I still love reading, and son still love being read to, so we're still working thru many interesting books before bedtime.

Topic we're covering - The Illiad, God of War(History); Pollinators/ Seed Carriers/ Tree's re-production system/ Sharks (Natural Science); ClueFinders Addition, Subtration and Multiplications (Maths).

Unschooling with the PSP - God of War

2008-06-16T03:16:00.002-07:00

Well, we've moved on to another game - the God of War. Got to meet lots of Minatours, a couple of Medusas, many Immortals, and that lady Aphrodite seem rather nice too.

In conjuction with PSP learning, we've been reading stories from The Illiad by Homer. Son thought it was rather funny that this great philosopher had the same name as the great Homer Simpson! LOL! And how Argos was actually not just the name of a catalouge shop but the name of the land where Diomedes of the Loud War Cry hailed from.

The God of War game might be bloody and gory, but nevertheles a very intersting way to be immersed into a Greek mythology environment. Lots of logical challeges like that gets the brain juice going too.

Unschooling History

2008-06-16T03:16:00.001-07:00

Hi Julie,

How's the eyes getting on? So what have you guys been up to?

I've got an interesting article here for you about homeschooling and socialising http://www.drlaurablog.com/category/home-schooling/

Well, i did my arts and painting session, but unfortunately as always, Gecko Jnr graciously declined to join me . Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise considering my son do not like the sensation of glue or anything sticky (other than playdough) on his fingers. What have you guys been up to? This is what we did, and hope it might be of interest to you. Gecko Jnr's into his latest PSP obsession with a game called 300, March to Glory. It's a story about one particular battle (don't remember the name) during the ancient history of the Persian Empire/ Greece, between King Leonidas and King Xerxes. And we've managed to Wikipedia it, had a good read and a really interesting discussion. I was struggling with all these Latin names, and surprisingly Greg corrected me on all of them, for he's learnt it all from playing the game on his PSP, LOL! Well, another example of learning without realising it LOL! Anyhow, we've managed to track Persia (now Iran) on the map.

Yesterday, feeling all fired-up, I went to the library to get more books and got the dvd for the movie 300. We watched the movie, learnt (absord more like it) fantastically alot in just 1 hour, about how people dressed and talk in the olden days, we noticed the different apperance and dressing between the Greeks, Persian and all the diffrent nations that came forth to war, under the one king from Eygpt. Very intersting for I managed recognised a few, all with thier distinct and unique talents, the Mongolians, the Indians with thier elephants, and many more warriors from the vast Byzantine empire. Got to know about the different type of battle tactics and weapons utilised in the olden days and believed it or not, mode of communications (from the used of messengers on horses to the sound of the horn to trigger off the next round of assault (arrows, lots of them) before the invention of tele-communications LOL! If one can overlook the violence and gory of the movie (it is a battle movie afterall), I think this is a fantastic movie to showcase the magnificence and richness and brilliance-ness of our past ancient history. In those days, it truly is about how much have you got to show for. And it shows why all those kings and ruler send thier vast armies to conquer other countries, to capture and owned the most precious commodity of all. Other than land, human power(armies, slaves, philosophers and citizens) must be one of the most valuable recources, for with more soldiers and warriors, one must be truly stronger and capable of expanding one's empire. How intersting it is compare to today's method of battle and monopoly.

Today, when we're talking about some conquerer, we're talking about someone's genius-ness in opening new market and cornering market shares, like Bill Gates and Richard Branson (yes, all these tycoons is nevertheless Kings of thier own right, isn't it?). It's still all about power and money, isn't it? Last week, I was feeling defeated and low, about to start considering sending Gecko Jnr to part-time schooling. But I think this is one of those few moments that makes me feel we are on the right track to educating Gecko Jnr.

During my foray in the library, I've even manage to find 3 different books, all with different "fun-based" methods on learning Maths. Plus I've managed to get a huge and thick encyclopedia, which I believe will be residing with us for a long while. I just need to remember to keep re-newing.

Well, so far for now.

Hugs and Best Wishes,
Mama Gecko

Homeschooling ASD

2008-06-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

This was posted on the ASD Homeschooling group that we're part of.

GOD CHOOSES A MOM FOR A DISABLED CHILD
By Erma Bombeck

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures, and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen? Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth; son; patron saint, Matthew.
"Forrest, Marjorie; daughter; patron saint, Cecelia.
"Rudledge, Carrie; twins; patron saint.... give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."

Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child."
The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," smiles God.
"Could I give a handicapped child a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence. She'll have to teach the child to live in her world and that's not going to be easy."

"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, there is a woman I will bless with a child less then perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word.' She will never consider a 'step' ordinary. When her child says 'Momma' for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations.

"I will permit her to see clearly the things I see --- ignorance, cruelty, prejudice --- and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in midair.

God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

What do we teach in unschooling?

2008-05-30T08:38:00.003-07:00

Well, to me, unschooling is all about learning and being together with my son. To unschool him would means to allow him to be himself. To allow him to be the master of his life. Many a times I wished and itched to step in and rein in his obsession; but I've learnt that to impose any restrictions on my son would mean him rebelling against it. So my philosophy is why create a battle when we can resolve this amiacably? Not that I am being a bad parent by allowing him to do whatever he wants, but instead I am being a good parent by allowing him to learn how to make good decisions, by making bad decisions. DS know should he need an opinion, he can seek counsel with me. By allowing him all the space he wants, he will soon get to the bottom of whatever he is obsess with, and will move onto newer pastures. By not focusing on controlling DS, I am free to concentrate on what I want to do, and get on with it. And DS will learn to moderate himself if he wants to aligned himself to my routine.

All of the above have made my child believe nothing is too small, too big, too silly, too serious, too difficult, too impossible to explore and everything can be discussed.

Now that all mental barrier to learning is remove, it is my job then to bridge any handicap that my child presents, mentally or physically. If he cannot spell, I will spell for him. If he cannot draw, I will draw for him. If he doesn't want to write, I will scribe for him. If he cannot stop for food, I will feed him.

The objective is to help him reach his goal, and accomplish that, he will, despite numerous handicap, place there by himself or society.

Example:-
My son will read any book from a very early age, despite the fact some of the books he picked is too mature and deep for him. But nevertheless, it never stopped him from picking up a very thick and heavy book to take home. Because he knows I will help him carry this book home, and I will read this book to him. Hence, he knows, no book is too difficult and too heavy to access into.

By unschooling means to dis-regard all the conventional thinking and follow our own instinct. Only by unschooling can we feel free enough to break away from all those chains imposed onto us, and finally see sense in learning about living and life, in it's natural order.

Homeschooling and Socialising

2008-05-30T08:38:00.002-07:00

My child is happy being on his own. He plays on his own, he doensn't really do crowds, and at times should he fancy company, he'll then ask to visit a friend or 2. Really, it is about socislising at his terms. Which explains forcing him to socialise in the school grounds, whether he likes it or not is more detrimental to him than beneficial.

And I have great confidence that he'll grow up to be a happy, confident and friendly soul, perhaps not the loud and animated type, but the quiet confident type, for he do respond and chat with anyone who approaches him.

Great article about homeschooling and socialising

http://www.drlaurablog.com/category/home-schooling/

Unschooling at work via the PSP

2008-05-30T08:38:00.001-07:00

We have be unschooling for 1 /12 years now, and it's amazing how time flies. We started out by de-schooling with the PS2, as evident with my first few blogs. And between that time till now, we have few but significant examples of how unschooling is working at it's best, via the computer and handheld games. My child is a computer junkie and his day to day is occupied by this ratio - 50% computer/internet: 30% tv: 20% toys (lego/transformer).

DS has been on his late-night pc games routine again. Been on the "I hate Maths" and "Star Wars Droid factory". He's also playing alot of his "Spelling Challenge" on his PSP, and is doing very well on spelling for a kid fo 7 yrs old. His Transformer game also instigated the discussion of the Hoover Dam.

The past 4 months he's been playing the 300 game on his PSP, on and off. Because of this fascination with all the blood and killing, he's took to YouTubing for some home-made movies. Instead of blood and gore, he found music videos with the Spartan character- hence learned about music video and rapping. Along the way, he's also found Jaws LOL!

Anyway, based on DS's fascination, we wikipedia the 300 spartans, and out came the true history behind this show. I was struggling with all these Latin names, and surprisingly DS corrected me on all of them, for he's learnt it all from playing the game on his PSP, LOL! Well, another example of learning without realising it LOL!

300, March to Glory is a story about one particular battle (don't remember the name) during the ancient history of the Persian Empire/ Greece, between King Leonidas and King Xerxes. We've managed to track Persia (now Iran) on the map.

Feeling all fired-up, I went to the library the next day to get more books and got the dvd for the movie 300. We watched the movie, learnt (absord more like it) fantastically alot in just 1 hour, about how people dressed and talk in the olden days, we noticed the different apperance and dressing between the Greeks, Persian and all the diffrent nations that came forth to war, under the one Eygyptian looking king.

Very intersting for I managed recognised a few of the clans, all with thier distinct and unique talents, the Mongolians, the Indians with thier elephants, and many more warriors from the vast Byzantine empire.

Got to know about the different type of battle tactics and weapons utilised in the olden days and believed it or not, mode of communications (from the used of messengers on horses to the sound of the horn to trigger off the next round of assault (arrows, lots of them) before the invention of tele-communications LOL! If one can overlook the violence and gory of the movie (it is a battle movie afterall), I think this is a fantastic movie to showcase the magnificence and richness and brilliance-ness of our past ancient civilization.

In those days, it truly is about how much have you got to show for. And it shows why all those kings and ruler send thier vast armies to conquer other countries, to capture and owned the most precious commodity of all. Other than land, human power(armies, slaves, philosophers and citizens) must be one of the most valuable recources, for with more soldiers and warriors, one must be truly stronger and capable of expanding one's empire.

Today DS created his own comic with the Spartan/ Persian storyline, (with a Jaws-twist at the end) for his dad. He dictate and drew all the pictures. Not bad for a kid who doesn't like writing.

Our lives is full of screen time!

2007-11-02T03:27:00.000-07:00

Ask yourself this question.

How can I "NOT" allow my child to be fully acquainted with the electronic screen?

Oh well, what can I say. In our household, we have 2 laptops, 1 desktop, 1 big tv and a PS2, and Jnr and me is wishing for a Nintendoo DS, and PapaGecko is hoping for a Nintendo WII.

I truly believe in the idea that electronic screens is now very much part of our lives, and will continue to be a very common encounter in our future lives, especially our son.

I see the tv as a more effecient educational tool, like a singing, dancing and entertaining version of the good old paper and cover encyclopedia. And wiht all these satelites, our access to knowledge is boundariless!

And with all these advancement in technologies, like humankind sending moonbuggies out to another planet, and observing it's activity via the screen again from earth. Or that special multimillion dollar electronic arm that can be control from inside the space station, to help do all those dangerous fixing of the space station. Again, it's being controlled by an astronaut viewing a screen with a joystick on hand, and because it's so expensive, you wouldn't want someone who's got bad hand and eye coordination to handle it! The choice would be an obvious someone who's had game console experience! How about keyhole surgeries? Again, you wouldn't want a surgeon who's never been near a game console before, starts operating on you via looking at a screen, a experience totally alien to him, would you? PDA phones, self scanning cash tills, and many more.

Look around our lives now, we are never far away from an electronic screen. People working in call centers is constantly in front of a computer screen, traders in the forex exchange pit is intensely infront of thier screens, animators working on the latest Disney feature is constantly working infront of the screen, and lastly but not least, PapaGecko, in his very ordinary job of an IT consultant, is working infront of the laptop's screen, everyday. I believe our children lives will be even more drenched in electronic screens everywhere.

We adults growing up without all these technologies, finds it scary and perplexing. We're constantly asking ourselves "How does it do that?!!" "WE" are the ones who are finding all these tvs and computers scary because we had limited chance to live with them, explore them and grow with them. This concept of learning via looking at a screen is so unfamiliar, hence we don't know what damage it can do, hence best to shut it down first, before it gets worst. This is a vey natural human reflex, it's the "sense unfamilairity, lets' flee" nature way to preserve our lives.

But how can we possibly understand the characteristic of such machines and anticipate thier immense capabilities and possibilities, if we are not allow such long hours of exploring and learning of such machines? So, do we really want our kid to have this same kind of fear and uncertainty? Don't forget, our children's world will have more screens and machines than ours, so much so, we could possibly create limitations, and un-nessaccery fear in them towards such technologies. All because we adults didn't understand it, didn't want to step out of our familiar and predictable zone. Hence we weren't gonna explore it with our children. Hence it would have been so easy to just accept what everyone is saying "too much tv or computer will zombiefied our children!" "It's bad, it'll teach them all those bad thing" Well, at least it's general consensus that the tv and computer is a teaching device!

I for one, felt, it was so stupid of me to listen and agree to all these other people's saying and not actually finding out for myself, if it's really true or maybe not? So I've decided to find the truth, hence, off with the time limits and on with the games.

Well, the results is , my son binged and gorged on the PS2, including the "baddest" Grand Theft Auto, and he's now not interested in it anymore. Infact, he's now after the Nintendoo DS for that puppy training and brainiac game.

His computer skills has lead us to this scenario. My 7 yr old is so proficient with his laptop and internet and is now communicating via spelling (and learning t spell more words day by day) and typing (his typing speed is picking up!) with another Toon friend in his Disney online community. Where else his peers are still struggling to even understand how to switch on the computer, learning how to type, never mind comprehending the vast world of the internet. My child is now very aware if he wants to know anything, all he has to do is Google it! There is no limit to his need for knowledge! He still needs to be reminded about gvng his eyes and brain a rest in order not to get those bad headaches (result from sitting infront of the same screen for too long, so now he alternate between laptop and tv).

His mind is now attracted to the idea of animation and film making. He's excited abut how you can draw something in the screen, the computer animation program can make it move. But he's not necessarily interested to find out more and why and how it does that. He is aware that's the characteristic of animation program, and what it can do or cannot do (and sometimes questioning "wouldn't it be better if it can to this too?". This to me, is the emergence of a possible need to "design" something better! He can get me to video him climbing that monkey frame, down load it onto the internet for his grandma (across the world) to see. Because of our Skype chats, he's aware of how everypart of the world have different time zones, and why.

Now if these lessons is not helpful to him when he's an adult, I don't what is.

So ask yourself the same question again. How can I "NOT" allow my child to achieve his full capabilities in mastering such magnificent technologies?

What does unschooling means to me.

2007-10-25T01:44:00.001-07:00

The other night I've managed to catch a BBC UK program called Last Chance Kids. It's basically a documentary on how certain UK schools is doing to increase the level of reading. It was really teeth grinding, nerve cringingly painful to watch the way the teachers and headteachers speak to those children. How is it possible that it's accepatable for teachers to shout at those children? There's was this kid, and he was obviously having issues, as it was blatantly stated that his father was in jail, and his mother is struggling to survive on "single parent benefit". It was obviously from this kid's language, that he was constantly swore at and it's second nature fo r him to swear at the teachers. It was obvious this kid is suffering from low self esteem, and is using this "I don't have to listen to you" and "I can swear at you" gung-ho appearance to hide his embarrassment and unhappiness at being unable to read. Nobody ask the this kid why he's misbehaving. It was obviously that with this kid, it's been agreed amongst the adults there's a "no tolerance attitude" applied towards him, everytime he misbehave. Seeing the number of times this kid been shouted at by the teacher, right across the room. The number of times of not having the chance to explained and defend why he did what he did and the immediate punishement by being ordered out of the room, in front of the whole class.

I'm not saying this can happen to my son, but then, I thinking surely it must be so unpleasant to even be in that same class, having to put up with this constant battle between the teacher's shouting and the child's kicking off his chair as he storm off to the headmistress room.

So what does unschooling means to me? Well, it meant speaking to the child, allowing the child to tell you what's going thru his mind. It meant to respect and accept that the child does have up and down feelings that is equally as important and legit as our, and is quite capable of fixing his own problems, if given the opportunities to do so.

I do realised this 11 months of unschooling has isolated me and my kid, so far away from any unpleasant and harsh world, especially school environment. Am I cotton woolling him from reality? Am I cotton woolling myself from reality? Am I hiding from facts of life? We've been hiding so long away in our unschooling bubble that it was quite a shock to our system to see reality played out on that tv screen. But yet it was only just 11 months ago, DS was in that scenario. I clearly now understand and feel his distress and can understand why he was so disturb and effected by a school environment. And that documentary only just a half hour show, already I was feeling really upset for that child, I can imagine how bad it can be for my son to be in that situation 9 - 3pm, 5 days a week?

So am I being un-real by hiding my son in these lovey dovey, fluffy, happy and nourishing world of homeschooling/ unschooling? The mantra constantly chanted in the school playground, while waiitng for our kids to come out "Yes, it's horrible, my kid's not very happy because blah blah blah...." "Well, life's hard, and they'll just have to learn" "Oh yes, I told my kid, life is unfair and he'll have to learn to acecept it" "school is all about preparing our children for future" Blah, Bah, Blah!!!

So, school is all about learning to put up with your unhappiness and get on with it, and you can do "happiness" when you're eventually big enough to rebel against your teacher! Homeschooling is also all about putting up with your unhappiness too, just in a different setting, in that you're allowed to start living your life happily, as how you want it, when you graduate "out of your parents house"

Basically, put your life on hold until you're finished memorising all those school texts!

Now, unschooling is all about learning to live your life as how you see fit, right here, right now. So that you can get it out of the way, and concentrate on the more important things like your interest! It's about practsing "real life", in preparation for your future. It's about practising to say "NO, this is not what I want", "No, this is a mistake" "No, it's a wrong choice, but at least I tried, and I've found out that I didn't like it" and say to yourself "Now, what can I do next?"

It's about "Not having to put up with unhappiness" and DO something about it. Not just moan and bitch and complain and grudgingly accept it and say "Life's tough but that's life" !!!

Now, unschooling for us is about trying many different things, until we find the things we liked enough to incorporate into our lives, for keeps, for real. And should we outgrown it sometime later, so be it, because it's only natural, and it's OK TO CHANGE!! It's about learning to live harmoniously with other people, naturally your parents and friends will be your first.

So back to my question. Am I fooling myself by wrapping ourselves in these friendly unschooling bubble?

No, not at all. Infact I'm really happy that I've put such a big divide between that horrible, harsh world and my child's world. I feel all those negativity is so unnessecary and un-relevant to our world. Yes, negativity exist, evil exist, hardship exist, unhappiness exist and many more bad feelings exist- I'm not denying it. But what I'm saying is, I don't have to invite it into my child's world, not now, as I'm sure all these factors will naturally flow into his life as he grows older, and venture out into the world. Does this means my child won't be able to face such negative reality? I don't know, but I do know that there's a high chance my child will be able to extricate himself out of any uncomfortable situation, if he wants to. Life's to short to be fighting every battle.

What I am saying is it's so ridiculous that all these parents thinks that it better for their child to be immerse into all the negative feelings, in order to give them immunity to future hardship? Well, if that's the case, why don't we just sent them into military camp, for military training, considering the world now is so full of war and terrorist.

There's no reason for any children to grow up, having to put up wth all these bullying, of not having the chance to develop respect for themselves and others. Of having to accept they are defenseless and therefore unable to change it. No wonder all these children grows up being angry and nasty. Guess where they're learning it from. Yes, I'm really glad I've wrap us both up in this lovely bubble and can swish ourselves away from any horrible situation that we don't like, if we can help it. It's not about not wanting to face reality, It's about being able to make that decision to say NO when it's too much to handle!

If I'm helping my son to channel all his energy into building a more positive, happy self, rather than waste all those energy, trying to heal his broken heart and build more defenses, because some kid is being angry and mean and is taking his frustration out on my kid by calling him stupid or "stinky", my son might just have so much love left over, enough to share with others.

A very evident case based on Halloween trick and treating 2 nights ago. Son and 9 yr old friend went trick and treating, with just 1 bag. The agreement was they will split the goodies among themselves later. My son has already pointed out that he doesn't like chocolate, so the friend can have all the chocolates collected. When they were dviding up the loot, the friend ended up with more, as there were more chocolates than sweets. The friend was so adamant that my son should have the equal number of items. But my kid didn't like the chocolates. So this kid ended up giving my son all his non-chocolate sweets, so that they can equal out the amount. In the end, the number still didn't balance out, the friend was beginning to get upset. My kid just stated "It's ok Jack. It doesn't really matter anyway. I'm happy with what I've got and I don't need anymore. BUt you can share some of these, since you've given me all of your chewies, and now you have non!" And they happily did just that, chewing thru my son's share of chewies and boiled sweets!

See what I mean? Harmony + Love = Sharing. In return, you'll get respect.

It's a Mathe-Magical Moment....!

2007-10-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

In following up from Jnr's game invention last week, combining elements from his Toon Town and PS2 Star Wars Lego game. With me as a scribe, and him, the mastermind, this exercise has now culminate to a very impressive game, set out into 4 parts. Every part consist of X number of droids to eliminate, in order to gain the rewards of various part of a metal suit. This a full metal body suit is necessary as a disguise to enter the enemies headquarters.

It is very enlightening to see all our months of PS2 and computer coming together in the form of an elaborate story-telling game.

Jnr has also been digging out his Lego Knight's Kingdom bits for imaginary play.

And he's been counting. Somehow, he seems to see relation between numbers and Lego and droid killings and parts of metal body suit.

For every action, there's a re-action!

2007-10-24T04:04:00.000-07:00

Well, to me, it's always the same pattern emerging. Whether it's tv or pc or toys. The grass is always greener on the other side.
And I think this is what happens here.

I think because DS was always too busy with his electronic media that he doesn't have time to play with any of his toys, that so much so when he's in someone else's home, he's binging on thier toys. Just as any kids whose home either have no tv or is allowed very limited tv time, will naturally binge on our tv. Of which the parents is very quick to cite this situation as an example why they don't allow tv, as the kid will get stuck to the screen.

As for doing everything they are not allowed to, well DS's friends (my kid's 7 and these friends are 9 and 10 and been to Steiner school and is now HEing) who seems to think it's cool to say all those bad words (because they were not allow to say them when they were at thier home), needless to say my son follow suit until I pointed out what he was doing and leave it to him to decide how he should behave. After a while of glorious swearing, the fun's ran out and son's decided that those words were rude and is "not nice" (Direct result of our many discussions while playing Grand Theft Auto, with many "translation" what those swear words meant). He has since taken to remind his friends not to say it, as there is no reason to (well, for DS yes-no reason for it, but for his friends, I believe they are expelling thier frustration of being clamp-dowm (or up, should I say) most of the time, so hence the need for such "verbal detox". Again, swearing give them a sense of control and power over thier lives, because for a short while, they are able to say and do what they are normally not allowed, it's called re-action, or for a better word "rebellion"! A very loud and liberating feeling for them, but not so for my poor ears!

These same boys will get stuck infront of the PS2 the minute they arrive, playing alot of the 15+ games that they are normally not allowed, and will try very hard to get my son to convince me to allow them to play with the couple "18+ games that they are most definetely not allowed" that I've put out of reach. My answer is always "Call your mum, if she says yes, then it's yes with me" and as always, it never went pass that stage. However when my son's turn to go to thier house, my son is not interested in thier Xbox at all (understandable as they only have 2 games, a racing game and a skateboarding one, both of which my son have no interest in). He prefer to play with thier toy.

As for doing everything they are not allowed to, well DS's friends (my kid's 7 and these friends are 9 and 10 and been to Steiner school and is now HEing) who seems to think it's cool to say all those bad words (because they were not allow to say them when they were at thier home), needless to say my son follow suit until I pointed out what he was doing and leave it to him to decide how he should behave. After a while of glorious swearing, the fun's ran out and son's decided that those words were rude and is "not nice" (Direct result of our many discussions while playing Grand Theft Auto, with many "translation" what those swear words meant). He has since taken to remind his friends not to say it, as there is no reason to (well, for DS yes-no reason for it, but for his friends, I believe they are expelling thier frustration of being clamp-dowm (or up, should I say) most of the time, so hence the need for such "verbal detox". Again, swearing give them a sense of control and power over thier lives, because for a short while, they are able to say and do what they are normally not allowed, it's called re-action, or for a better word "rebellion"! A very loud and liberating feeling for them, but not so for my poor ears!

I'll say....not enough days away from those electronic pixels!!!

2007-10-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I do worry about Jnr straining his eyes, due to too long hours of staring at the computer screen. Which is why I do constantly seek out outdoor activities that he can do, for a bit of fresh air and exercise. And little things that we can do indoors too, which unfortunately is not many, as he is always not interested. So I have to say I am relieved to see him dragged out his box of 3D Star Wars puzzle in the shape of Dart Vader head, and started working on it. So far, we've managed to complete the 2nd stage this puzzle this evening. Over the weekend, Jnr and Papa Gecko's managed to put together a science kit that I've bought - an electric pulley, which was fantastic as that got Jnr playing with it for a few hours. Hurray!

In the last 3 weeks, we've gone swimming twice, and participated in den buidling in the heathland near us which was quite nice as that got us out in the nature for a good 4 hours. Jnr did his 2 session of skiing on consecutive Saturdays. Last week, we went for a movie called Flush Away and spend the whole of the next day in the city, window shopping. And this week, we went mushrooming with Professor Fungus at Alice Holt Park. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and we ended up spending the whole day running and climbing around the park. And tomorrow, we're going for a Roald Dahl's play. So, we're only clocking an average of 2 "non electronic activity" day, within a very active electronic medium- filled week. This can be quite worrying, especially now that the cold weather is setting in. Mama Gecko's brain need to be ticking....busy thinking up some more activities to distract Jnr away from those very attractive and addictive pixels!

Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning by Marc Prensky

2007-10-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

Another book to my collection.

"The POSITIVE Guide for Parents Concerned About Their Kids' Video and Computer Game Playing "Marc knows it all depends on how we use our games. He knows that if parents place good video games into a learning system in their homes they can reap major benefits for their children and themselves. They can accelerate their children's language and cognitive growth." -James Paul Gee, Tashia Mogridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Marc Prensky presents the case-profoundly counter-cultural but true nevertheless-that video and computer game playing, within limits, is actually very beneficial to today's "Digital Native" kids, who are using them to prepare themselves for life in the 21st century. The reason kids are so attracted to these games, Prensky says, is that they are learning about important "future" things, from collaboration, to prudent risk taking, to strategy formulation and execution, to complex moral and ethical decisions. Prensky's arguments are backed up by university PhD's studying not just violence, but games in their totality., as well as studies of gamers who have become successful corporate workers, entrepreneurs, leaders, doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals. Because most adults (including the critics) can't play the modern complex games themselves (and discount the opinions of the kids who do play them) they rely on secondhand sources of information, most of whom are sadly misinformed about both the putative harm and the true benefits of game-playing. This book is the antidote to those misinformed, bombastic sources, in the press and elsewhere. Full of common sense and practical information, it provides parents with a large number of techniques approaches they can use-both over time and right away-to improve both their understanding of games and their relationships with their kids. "

To see other people's opinion
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Bother-Me-Mom-Im-Learning/dp/1557788588

A Surprising Math Moment..!

2007-10-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

I have to confess that as unschooling as I can be or aspiring to be, I do have moments that I do panic and start questioning my own wisdom in encouraging and revelling in this laissez-faire approach to learning anything and everthing that's in no way resembles a school curriculum. Hence, I would say we are unschooling extremely well, because I'm panicking now! We're learning alot of general knowledge stuff predominantly science or history or engineering based, touching abit here, skimming abit there, sometimes we just dive in deep and mull over it. But we're nowhere near any maths or writing or spelling.

But all of the sudden, out of Jnr's current obsession with Disney Toon Town, Jnr was asking and initiated discussions on numbers. Like him exclaming to me that 4+4+2 is the same as 8+2. Or him asking how much will 8 x 10 makes, which got us discussing how everything that's "x 10" always have an extra 0 behind it. Discussion then led to understanding the concept of maths - addition means to increase; minus means to decrease; x means to magnified and division meant to separate. And how when you times everything with zero, it alway zero the sum, no matter how complicated or long that sum is!

At the moment I'm having a fantastic time watching and playing with my son. He's imposed his Disney Toon Task game and rules onto his PS2 Star Wars Lego game. Instead of defeating Cogs, he's defeating x-number of droids in order to get the parts of the disguised suits he needs. And he's making up rules as he's going along this game!

Fascinating! He's just drew 20 circles representing "merits" he needs to get on his note book and told me that for every droid he kills, it's 5 merits, hence he's to destroy 4 droids in order to get all 20 merits! Multiplication LOL!

Unschooling Article by New York University, Journalism Dept

2007-10-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Endless Summer
Unschooling is a radical branch of home-schooling where kids control what and when they learn -- free of teachers, schedules and tests. Unschoolers say it's intellectually empowering. Critics call it irresponsible.
By Sarah Karnasiewicz

Celine Joiris has never failed a test. Never eaten crappy cafeteria food. Never been picked last during gym. It’s not that she’s a supernaturally lucky 16-year-old — she’s simply never been to school. “I like the idea of studying, but school is just like incarceration,” she explains. Her brother Julian, 17, agrees. “My approach is, planning, schedules — OK. Tests, OK. College, OK. Whatever. But I don’t really want to think much about it,” he shrugs. “I can’t tell you where I’ll be in two years.”

What’s that? A smart 17-year-old without a plan? A bright, middle-class teenager who’s not stressing out about SATs and admissions essays? In an era when college prep begins in preschool and adolescents need Palm Pilots to manage their after-school activities, such nonchalance has the power to shock. What about all those stories about home-schooled kids dominating national spelling bees and hogging spots at Harvard? Surely “whatever” is not in their vocabulary.

But Celine and Julian Joiris are not your typical home-schoolers — they are unschoolers, followers of a radical approach to education that rejects not just the routines of traditional school, but the authoritative ideology it represents. Unschoolers make up approximately 5 to 10 percent of all home-schoolers. They learn without teachers, curricula or exams; rather, their whole lives are laboratories in which skills and smarts are acquired piecemeal, through casual interaction with the world around them.

In the last decade, the number of Americans who home-school has surged at a rate of 29 percent a year, to include more than 1.1 million adherents nationwide, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But as their ranks have swelled and the movement has become more accepted, some of the contrarian ideals that once made it revolutionary have been diluted. Though there remain some real religious and ideological differences between traditional students and home-schoolers, on a practical level, at least, life for many home-schoolers bears a similarity to that of their public school counterparts. They work in online classes and with prepackaged curricula. They have tutors and field trips. They compete with one another over who has the most impressive internship and collect offers of admission from elite universities.

“When you buy a curriculum and set your kids down five days a week, except in the summer, all you’re doing is playing school at home,” says Sandra Dodd, a mother of three unschooled children from Albuquerque, N.M., and an outspoken unschooling advocate. “Most home-schoolers, especially Christian home-schoolers, believe that schools are too liberal and too lax,” she explains. “On the other hand, unschoolers believe that schools are too inflexible. Our objections to school are 180 degrees apart from their objections. And so we are not only not on the same team, but school is actually closer to what they’re doing than we are.”

Since 1960, when A.S. Neill published “Summerhill,” a chronicle of life at his “free-learning” British boarding school, and American educational reformer John Holt coined the phrase “un-schooling” in his books of the late 1970s, the philosophy has emerged as the rebellious twin of the home-schooling movement. While paired in many people’s minds, the two have distinct agendas and ideologies. “It is a distinction that is as old as the home-school movement itself, and is an artifact of the fact the movement grew out of both the alternative school movement of the 1970s and the Christian day school movement,” explains Mitchell Stevens, professor of humanities and social sciences at New York University, and author of a definitive study of contemporary home-schooling. “And those distinctions reflect a larger tension in American culture in differences as to how we should raise our kids.”

Indeed, while it is largely unschoolers’ laissez-faire approach to learning that shocks the uninitiated, the most radical aspect of unschooling may not be the manner in which it approaches education, but the way it challenges parents to reimagine childhood. In “How Children Learn,” published in 1967, John Holt wrote: “All I am saying is … trust children. Nothing could be more simple — or more difficult. Difficult, because to trust children we must trust ourselves — and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.” Thirty years later, the belief that children are essentially capable creatures — curious, independent and resilient — is still at the heart of unschooling.

But since Holt wrote those words, American parenting has undergone a tectonic shift. “Good” parenting now seems to be a skill rather than an instinct, something learned not from trial and error, but from self-help authors, life coaches, psychologists, consultants and parenting experts. Whether it is “The Baby Whisperer” pledging to “solve all [parents’] problems,” or Dr. Phil McGraw promising a “step-by-step plan for creating a phenomenal family,” the prevailing sense is that the world is a demanding, dangerous place, tamed only by discipline and determined planning.

For parents fed up with the micromanagement of their children’s lives, unschooling appeals because it disregards conventional wisdom about giftedness, age-appropriate learning, and competition. “There is a sense that the kind of intensive parenting we see increasingly among upper-middle-class families is something that is driving a large portion of people crazy … and unschooling can be read as a kind of dissent toward that hyper organization,” says Stevens. “So while in some ways it can be just as intensive as other approaches, at least it’s on your own terms, and on your turf, and you’re not beholden to the half-dozen organized activities you’ve enlisted your child in.”

Despite the revolutionary tenor of their ideas, unschoolers claim they aren’t zealots. Advocates insist that unschooling produces creative, unconventional kids, but even they acknowledge that such a life is not for everyone. Combing the Web, on message boards like the one at www.unschooling.com, it is not rare to see a message from a mother who writes, “My son is 10 years old and has been doing the unschooling method. His reading is advanced [but he’s] struggling in math. I’m starting to worry he’s learning nothing.”

Laurie Chancey, now 25, was entirely unschooled until college — and remembers how frightening the early years felt for her and her mother, Valerie Fitzenreiter. Living in rural Louisiana, they were true renegades, cut off from a larger unschooling network that exists on the coasts and under relentless criticism from family and neighbors. When Laurie was 6, a relative turned her in to the truancy board, prompting a series of threatening phone calls and angry letters. But Valerie, who went on to write an influential book about their experience, “The Unprocessed Child,” remained unwavering. “Mom had been so bored in school and after reading ‘Summerhill,’ she decided she would unschool me before I was even born. It was amazing, but she just had this complete faith that I would learn what I needed to learn when I needed to learn it, in the face of everyone’s opposition,” says Laurie. “Finally, when I started to reach my mid-teens, other people could see that I wasn’t an idiot and I’d be OK.”

“I admit, when we started this 20 years ago, we were just a bunch of radicals on the Lower East Side — writers, artists and musicians — who thought that we knew our children better than the public schools,” says Francoise Joiris, Celine and Julian’s mother. But over time, she says, her motivations have taken on deeply personal meaning. “My father was a professor and often took me out of school to travel with him,” she explains. Once, when they were living in Virginia, he volunteered to teach her classmates history at their home when the local teachers went on strike. “That experience was amazing,” remembers Francoise. “And by the end, not one kid wanted to go back to school.”

As a mother, she has tried to approach her own children’s education with the same joy and freedom. “When we were little, we did a lot of workshops with friends,” recalls Julian. “One friend’s mother was a doctor and she would have a group of us over a few times a week to talk about science. The next year, she gave a Shakespeare workshop, and we read plays, acted them out, and made our own costumes.” As small children, they often tagged along with their mother while she worked as a dog trainer for films and television. (Now Celine is herself an accomplished dog trainer and frequently competes in canine agility trials with Francoise and their two Norfolk terriers, Stamp and Fleet.)

Their days at home were loose and unstructured, filled with hours reading on the living room futon or playing homemade quiz games about Greek mythology and geography, calling off nations from a map. While occasionally Francoise nudged them in a certain direction, by suggesting a book or an activity they might enjoy, in the end she felt it was important that Celine and Julian call the shots. Since entering adolescence, both have been entirely in charge of their own schedules, attending tai chi classes twice a week and volunteering part-time as antiwar activists. Julian, a devoted member of the New York Assembly of the Society for Young Magicians, performs regularly around the city for other home-schooling groups. Still, both admit that some weeks pass in a blur, without anything to show for the hours. “There are times that I’ll spend a bunch of days hanging around the house, bored,” says Celine. “Then I start to feel guilty! .”

Indeed, despite her idealism, Francoise doesn’t pretend her family has found utopia. Though they have been at it for 16 years, even Celine and Julian’s father, Chris, a painter-turned-architect who didn’t want to be interviewed, has had a hard time embracing the unpredictability of his children’s future. “He supports it,” says Francoise, “but I don’t think there’s one of us that hasn’t at some point worried, what if my child still isn’t reading at age 15?” In the end it often comes down to the strength of parents’ convictions. “The real problem most people have,” says Francoise, her face serious, “is that doing this requires too much faith in kids, too much work on the parents’ part — and no guarantees.”

For all its iconoclasm, and to the chagrin of some critics, unschooling is entirely legal. Every state has a set of standards that govern home-schooling, and which unschoolers must also obey — though their interpretations of those guidelines are sometimes rather loose. But because levels of oversight differ enormously from state to state, it happens to be far easier to unschool in Oregon than in Pennsylvania. In New Mexico, Sandra Dodd has been able to unschool her three children from birth through their teen years, with little interference from the state. When her daughter Laurie was 11, Valerie Fitzenreiter discovered she could register with the Louisiana Board of Education as a “private school” and never reported in again.

In contrast, in New York, where the Joirises live, families submit an IHIP (individualized home instruction plan) each summer outlining the material they expect to cover in the coming months. New Yorkers also face periodic standards tests: every other year before the 4th grade, and annually after that. But for the Joiris family, at least, unschooling’s unorthodox methods seem not to have been an academic handicap.”The exams were never as scary as I expected,” remembers Julian. “In seventh grade, he refused to study any math, and I was terrified he wouldn’t pass,” says Francoise. “But after Julian took the test, he said, ‘It was fine. I only got one wrong.’ And he was right; he did.”

After talking to a dozen unschooling families and studying their blogs and message boards, I’ve found countless similar tales of sucess. But outside that small circle, even among liberal home-schoolers, unschooling still provokes uneasiness. Gail Paquette, a home-schooling mother of two and the founder of the Web site Hometaught.com, is one of unschooling’s most vocal critics. “A child-led approach may develop the child’s strengths but does nothing to develop his weaknesses and broaden his horizons,” she writes. “I [mostly] disagree with the premise that children can teach themselves what they want to learn, when (and if) they want to learn it. Certainly children do learn some things on their own, but their often roundabout way of going at learning is not necessarily the best way.”

Indeed, given the temptations and distractions of everyday life, is it unreasonable to wonder how much kids can really learn when just left up to their own devices? Conventional wisdom tells us that when not compelled to study the basics of reading and writing and arithmetic, the average kid will fritter away the day playing video games and flipping TV stations. And while unschoolers argue that that is an unfairly pessimistic take on children’s curiosity and innate abilities, it would be hard for them to deny that their approach can lead to the acquisition of idiosyncratic skills. When she went off to her freshman year in college, Laurie Chancey was already a gifted computer programmer — but struggled to get through a class in remedial math.

She is hardly alone. Dependent as it is on the changeable passions of a child, unschooling is replete with 10-year-olds who can explain the subtle differences between the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras but can’t complete a multiplication table. In a make-or-break world where kids are measured by advanced-placement credits and varsity letters, if an interest can’t be showcased on a résumé, is it a waste of time?

“Kids in traditional school spend a whole lot of time learning penmanship, and things like that don’t really matter in the long run,” counters Chancey, who is on her way to earning a Ph.D. in sociology from Louisiana State University. “I know it scares a lot of people to think of divorcing from the school system entirely, and lord knows, people have all sorts of odd reactions when I tell them about my background. But luckily, in my case, I’m succeeding in a very traditional way, so it’s easy for me to say, ‘Look at me, I did OK. This can’t be all bad.’”

So while unschoolers aren’t groomed their whole lives for Ivy League admissions, that doesn’t mean they won’t end up there anyway. Celine Joiris has been working as a volunteer at New York’s War Resisters League and hopes to live and work in Paris for a few years before applying to Harvard. Julian has no immediate plans for college, but continues to study the concert violin and has steadily been attracting gigs as a magician. Somehow, without a battery of grades and tests to prove it, these kids know they are smart. Without their parents providing a map, they feel ready for the future. “As we get older, I think things are going to get less complicated,” says Celine, with just a flicker of a smile. “I mean, at some point, people stop asking what grade you’re in.”

http://journalism.nyu.edu/portfolio/bestof/2005/001877.html

MamaGecko's having a wobbly moment..!!!???

2007-10-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

I feeling like I'm being too complacent and that we're not really learning! So here goes... this is what we've been doing so far....

Science
* Earth and it's core
* Earthquake and fault lines
* Re-producation in living things
* Clasification of plants - mosses, ferns, flowering and non-flowering plants
* Why leaves are green?
* Light and re-fraction
* Light discussions about atom and molecules in water and solid.

Math
* Greg's seeing the relation between numbers and addition like 8+2 = 10 = 4 +4 +2
* We're still counting pocket money and spending it
* We're counting jellybeans and cogs in Toon Town
* Fraction(Den building event Greg's decided to cut the fungus he found into quarters)
* Still working on time telling

History
* We've drop our intial interest on ancient civilization. We went from hunters and gatherers to as far as Ancient Eygpt and it kinda stop there.
* Mayan/ Chewing gum tree

Geography
* Countries on the equator line is hot.
* Different time line

Spelling is another lovely surprise as Greg's learning to spell more on his own.

Language - Malay coming along really well.

Ski Lessons

Finished Varjak Paw, starting Farthing Wood. Still trying to finish the Myth and Legends book. Perhaps might try to finish the Religion of the World book too.

Tonight I've got the chance to compare my son with his little female "school going" friend. This girl is in Year 2 and we're playing Yatzee. I do not know if the level of Maths she displaying is the level they are teaching in school but she's still having difficulty seeing the relation between numnbers and adition. She was having difficulty addding up simple sums like 5+5+5. And here I am worrying about my son's Maths??!! Me and Jnr are already doing additions on double digits!

GTA Week 8-9

2007-10-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Grand Theft Auto is officially old news now! This week, Gecko Jnr has only been playing 3 hours out of his 7 hours allowance. He stills plays with it but rarely last more than an hour each time.

What are we doing in Sept/ Oct 2007

2007-10-04T03:51:00.001-07:00

ICT
Well so far, the pS2 has taken the backseat to Toon Town online but our days are still very much either watching tv (Looney Toons), going online (Toon Town), back to watching tv, maybe some PS2 (only when he's allowed to play GTA).Going out for HEing groups occasionally.

LANGUAGE STUDY
But we've managed to start on our Malay Language lesson, and is making some headway. Unfortunately the Mandarin lessons is not sticking.

MATHS
We're still having some occasional interesting discussion about numbers and Maths from Jnr. Nothing much happening here other than the occasional I Hate Maths pc game that we play together. So base on this, we're still covering add, sub, fraction. Pocket money counting is still going strong.

PE/ SOCIAL
Jnr found a new friend call Jack, so, we seems to be doing alot more outdoor activities together with Jack like swimming, doughnutting down the ski slope, play date and sleep over. Plus Jnr asked for skiing lessons, so he's registered to start this Saturday.Yesterday we went swimming, and today we're going to a indoor play area.

READING
We're still reading many different types of story books. Early this year, we're kinda started on human history type of books, did abit of the Story of the World, started Varjak Paw (still struggling to finish it, because one night, after Jnr fell asleep, I've actually finshed the story myself, so now, it just seems so boring to be repeating the story to him during bedtime!) We then moved onto Myths and Legends type of stories for a very short period. So far, only managed to complete The Arabian 1001 Nights. But last night, we've started on this book called 1000 Questions, which is proving to be not only factual, but also fascinating. Very science based topics, which is convienenient because we're covering science topics like Photosysthesis and catagories of animals, about the moon and stars, subjects that I've been meaning to cover.

GTA Week 5-7

2007-10-04T03:46:00.000-07:00

We have managed to settle into a omfortable routine. The idea of having to work for the extra hours seems not interesting enough for Geckno Jnr, hence, he seem quite happy with his allocated 7 hours per week. But this could be due to his fascination with the Disney Toon Town online community. Somehow, I have reasons to believe GTA has just been de-moted to the backseat. Gecko Jnr still plays with GTA but not so hooked on it like when he first started. The current favourite, like I say is Toon Town, with all it's jellybeans and cogs killing and building rescuing.

Projects for HEing - Cooking Club

2007-09-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

Cooking Club for all ages

I'm really excited because I've found a new friend to share the excitement of forming my little cooking club. We're starting a Home schooling cooking sessions. My idea is to teach something exciting and substancial rather than the usual cookies or chocolate rice crispies. I'm thinking recipes from all cultures. And all recip[es has to be child-friendly in terms of preparing and eating it. It will be great if we can get mothers to each volunteer to teach their favourite recipes.

Project Yateley Common

Another idea of mine has taken off with great success. Yesterday 5 families turn up for our first session presenting A Day in the Life of the Ranger. During the 1 hour walk thru the protected heathland, we very quickly see the potential of working with the ranger for the children's educational benefit. Without due, we've confirmed a one a month arrangement with the ranger, covering subjects ranging from science, maths to history and anything really. Next topic is to be Den Building, highlighting ancient way of life as hunter and gatherers, highlighting also the "mutual beneficial relationship" between the heathland as an important souce for wood, food and shelter and the ancient peoples' role in helping to maintain the heathland.

GTA Week 2 - 4

2007-09-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

Since the Timeout 1 ended and Gecko Jnr was handed back his GTA game, all seems to be going pretty well. He very quickly used up his 7 hours allowance, split between Monday (4 hours) and Tuesday (3 hours). And moan about unfairness for the rest of the week. So I suggested that he "earn" some extra hours by doing lessons. Choice of lessons were Mandarin which consist of watching Mandarin languaged movie or cartoons; Malay language which will be looking at any Malay language science, maths or picture dictionary; English which will be doing any worksheets in English. So son very quickly did 1 hour of watching some Mandarin dvd, thus earned his first 1 extra hour on GTA.

However, as I'm writing this is on Day 3 of Week 4, Gecko Jnr's interest in GTA seems to be showing signs of waning. The past few days, it didn't seems to be Gecko Jnr's top priority to switch GTA on first thing in the morning, and he's only been clocking an average of 1 1/2 hours per day, quite fascinating to actually be seeing this transition. He's gone back to his Looney tunes, ToonTown online and Star Wars Droid Factory.

Lessons Gecko Jnr benefitted from GTA? Most certainly he is now very aware of all the bad words one should not be saying, and quite often hears teenagers walking by, spouting all those F words and A words. He very quickly conclude that the person is very rude and bad. Now I believe is time is ripe for him to understand the idea of why saying those words is rude and bad for you.

Project Grand Theft Auto- Day 6

2007-09-01T03:45:00.001-07:00

We're still in the middle of GTA Time Out No.1, with 2 more days to go before Gecko Jnr gets his GTA back.

So far, he's accepted his time out contently, never once mentioned it and I do wonder if he will remember about it by next week.

So far since he's been isolated from his GTA, he very rarely touch his PS2. He is more likely to be playing on his online Disney game called Toon Town, or playing outside in the garden, playing with his Lego or watching tv. He is also more talkative and more inquisitive.

So I do wonder if the PS2 do "numbed" his mind and brain when he's on it? I am now considering relocating the GTA-PS2 time to the late afternoon. This way, I get to keep my "inquisitive son" for first half of the day and get to do alot of things, or get out of the house, before i surrender him to the fantasy world.

Hmmm....MamaGecko is wondering if this will work! Me and Papa Gecko is also surfing for an alternative driving game with lots of beautiful sports car, but without the violence.

Project Grand Theft Auto- Day 2

2007-09-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to have a very kind stepfather. And now that I'm a mother, his parenting thoughts and approaches are very much my bible. My stepdad was a very kind, gentle, quite, calm and fair man. I would like to think I was a "quick thinking and smart kid", but now looking back as a mother, I can easily see myself as being a very rebellious and stubborn teenager, constantly questioning anybody or anything. It's a shame i never really appreciate him when he was alive. But then I was just 17, anxious to break away from home. And when he passed away from cancer, I was only 19, in the middle of revelling in my new found independance. I was having too much fun to even think about home! It's sad to think that it is only now I'm beginning to realised what a great person he is, and appreciate him as an individual and not as my stepfather, and how deeply his wisdom has influenced me. I only wish I'm able to thank him now and tell him I how grateful I am, knowing how much he cared for me.

So here's what influenced my thoughts as a parent now.

Dad's parenting skill No.1
"Play fair, let them have the freedom to deciding which and what rules and regulation applies"

Dad's parenting skill No.2
"Now, give them enough rope to hang themselves".

"And they will learn to be true to themselves, and is therefore able to negotiate better compromise between us parents's expectation and their needs for themselves, and is then willing to abide and learn by their own mistakes, and subsequently be a wiser individual."

So needless to say, we're in Day Two and Gecko Jnr has broke the rule of "only playing with GTA when mummy or daddy is with you" by sneaking downstairs early this morning and started playing GTA all on his own. Plus he was also being deceptive by shutting my bedroom door so as to not wake me (which he'll normally do everyday without fail), and turning the tv volume really low so he obviously really didn't want me to wake up, because if I did, he'll have to have breakfast first before
even get to go near the PS2.

So Time Out No.1 is currently being served for a week.

Project Grand Theft Auto- Day 1

2007-08-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

The GTA game didn't work so Papa Gecko and son had to go back to town today to exchange it for another. But what surprised me was Gecko Jnr was quite happy and content to continue waiting for the chance to play on this long awaited game. He didn't even get upset when the cd wouldn't load up! He very nonchanlantly moved onto his other 2 new games, Barnyard and DragonBall (we bought him these "buy 2 get 3rd free pre-owned promotion"). So today, son ventured out to town with Papa Gecko, for an exchange. And when they got home, Papa fixed lunch before joining son on sofa for a game of GTA. Needless to say, with all those scurrying through and fro between the tv room and the computer room for online cheat codes, very soon 1 hour is up and son had a meltdown! When informed of the hours being up, son abruptly switch off PS2 and scuttled off upstairs, claiming he wants to do some "thinking". Muffled crying sounds can be heard soon after. Five minutes later, Gecko Jnr demands Mama Gecko, for a consult! Post games discussion was held, with acknowlegement that 1 hour is too short to accomodate all those walking between tv room and computer room (we live in an end terrace!) to surf for online cheat codes, and not enough time for playing. So, new time management is introduced, and agreed upon. Because Gecko Jnr is allocated 1 hour per day x 7 days = 7 hours, he's allowed full authority in allocating number of hours per day. Of which, he then proceed downstairs to write his new timetable for GTA as such.

Sun - 2 hours
Mon - 2 hours
Tues - 0
Wed - 0
Thurs- 1 hour
Fri - 1 hour
Sat - 1 hour

And because he's decide to stop playing 10 minute short of an hour today, Gecko Jnr concluded this gives him 2 hours and 10 minutes tomorrow (Monday)

I'm thinking, perhaps good lessons can be derive from this socially incorrect game. Just 2 days ago, we did a mathematical division exercise, trying to work out how long a 7 years old should play on GTA, considering that an 18 years old would probably only play an average of 4 hours, after school till dinner time. As for bad language, we all have fun making up alternative swear words for him to use, like instead of A**H***, we using Diaper Face and Bum Wipe! Instead of "What the heck", we're saying "What the donkey"! This is how I see it. Gecko Jnr only need some words to express his frustration when playing the game, and he doesn't really care what words he's using anyway, so substituition was easy. And lets all admit it, we adults swear too in times of frustrations! It's just life, sn't it?

Project Grand Theft Auto - Am I doing the rght thing???!!

2007-08-26T06:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I nearly changed my mind about allowing Gecko Jnr to have his GTA game. The night before, he playfully 'play pretend' to stab me with his plastic knife!!!! And of course during the course of the day, on 2 occassions, he said 2 swear words- F*** and Ass****! Needless to say I couldn't sleep the night, worrying and wondering and confused, thinking if I really know what I am doing as a positive, mindful, TCS unschooling mum! Anyhow, I've keep poor tired hubby up till 2pm, talking incessantly, comparing the pros and cons, manically surfing the web for more research articles on violent video games and it's effect on children. Needless to say, i still can't get my answers as the balance is still equal with 2 prominent school of thoughts -

Some think it's bad influence:-
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/video.games.html
http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html

Some said there's no concrete evidence linking violence to violent games exposure:- http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Most-kids-unaffected-by-violent-games/2007/04/01/1175366055463.html.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm

And some articles suggest evidences pointing out that since the introduction of violent video games, the level of violent crimes has drop:-
http://www.avinashv.net/2007/06/23/violence-in-video-games/

Anyhow, eventually hubby managed to convinced me to go to bed, by supplying me with an excellent solution- approach it like a science experiment. A controlled environment whereby son's only to play for a hour a day, and only when chaperone either by mummy or daddy, he can do and say whatever he wants during the game, which is within the tv room. Whatever he wants to do or say, it can be acted out within the tv room, but never, ever outside that room. There will be certain swear words that he's not allowed to say, and of course because we parents are there next to him, this means we can point out the meaning of this bad words, and it's negative social context.

This game comes with a NO Tolerance condition, that is, if he's caught imitating or copying any action or sentences from the game, OUTSIDE the tv room, it'll be a Time Out for the game, which will be banished to the top of the cupboard. He's allowed 20 time outs, of which each will last for 1 week. But the 20th one will be for a year!

I went to bed happy with this solution, but of course when morning comes, I chicken out. Gecko Jnr was up bright and early and bouncing because today was the day he gets to spend his "hard saved" pocket money to buy his "long awaited" ultimate game -Grand Theft Auto! And he's very specific about which one he desire - the Sand Andrea one! He was talking about it non stop and I had to try to break it to him gently that I've changed my mind about allowing this game. At first, he was still bouncing away on his bed, not realising what I was saying. And then, his face turned stunned and he re-iterated what I was saying, in dis-belief. Big tears started to roll! His cries was so devastating that even I started crying, seeing how heart-broken he was. I was totally not expecting this. I was expecting tantrum and some tears, but most definetely not big heart-wrenching sobs, the kind you expect when a pet dies or when a love affair ends.

Anyhow, eventually he calmed down enough to ask for my explaining why i changed my mind. I explained about my worries about him imitating the game, about how we have to constantly remind him to stop copying the game and how we believe this parenting action is not good because it's only natural for a 7 years old to be imitating what they see, because that's how they learn. So i explained how our actions as wise adults, constantly and automatically reprimanding him to stop copying the game, can make him feel like he's a bad boy, which is not something I want, because we know he's not bad but a good and kind and gentle boy. And I explain our concerns about his ability in defferentiating between fantasy and reality.

Now, I have to admit that Gecko Jnr can be quite mature for his age, and is capable of understanding alot of things most of the times. He said he truly understood what we're saying, but then that we're not being fair because it's what we're thinking, and not what he's thinking (his way of saying our decision was biased), and he's offered some opinion on his thoughts and his needs for GTA. So he's managed to convinced me that I should maybe, at least, give him a chance to prove himself.

And we did. Eventually my decision is based on our knowledge of our son's intrisic learning spirit, of how he'll drown himself in his current obsession and eventually detox it out of his system. And also i believe in that Forbidden Fruit teory, of how if we ban this game, we are actually elevating it to that Forbidden Fruit Status. This decision is also made based on the fact i know my son's fascination with this game is primarily due to the various cars he can drive around freely, without any hindrance. The violent bit is really secondary, as he informed me that "it's just a waste of time because you don't get alot of money for that. You'll have to crash cars or do stunts to get alot of money". This is in-line with his current understanding of the power of money, that you can buy lots of things if you have money.

So again, my decision is based on my confidence that my son sees this game as purely just another shooting, crashing, money collecting game, no more violent than his Star Wars Lego or Simpsons game. The only difference is that in GTA, the places and characters is more realistic and graphic, and that the game is so much more complex, with more roads and place to explore. A setting to learn bad social behaviour? Well, for me, most definetely a setting to teach my kid everything that's bad, wrong and evil!

So we ventured out to town to buy his GTA game.

Project Grand Theft Auto

2007-08-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Gecko Junior has decided that he wanted Grand Theft Auto for his birthday. And he's being going on and on about it for ages now. This is because The Grand Theft Auto was the game on my friend's 13 years old teenage son's brand new PSP, last Christmas! And of course Gecko Jnr was only allowed that brief few minutes on it and he's hooked, obsessed with this Forbidden Fruit ever since! Mind you, not exactly something any parent would want to buy a 7 years old......but really I can't see how we can go round this latest obsession of his other than to go with it, let him binge on it and detox it out of his system. Which I think he will. I can only draw faith and confidence from the previous situation whereby he'll be stuck with whatever game of the moment, every waking moment and then one day, he'll just play with it for a few minutes, realised it's boring, get up and switch that PS2 off and wander off in a different direction, looking for something new to do. In all these situations, he always ends up back to his trains and lego men.

So you see, there is a pattern to be seen here and it's always the same. Just like with his first Star Wars movie, his first Lego set, his first train set, his PS2, his first his Lego Star Wars game, and currently, the soon to be ousted Simpsons Game.

So now that I'm speed reading thru Gerrard Jones : Killing Monsters, Why children need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make Believe Violence, I have managed to absorb a few advocating pointers, enough to sum up courage to say "Yes, you can buy it when you have enough pocket money, and you're only allowed to play with it, only if either me or daddy is sitting next to you, and that you can only play for 40 minutes"

And since then, it's almost like he's been given the green light, and the binge is already starting. He's surfing YouTube for Grand Theft Auto movies. My son likes to refer to YouTUbe for any of his obsession, it's like him doing his research for his project, which is why I've took to naming this post Project Grand Theft Auto. And also when he gets his game, he'll be "re-searching" the internet for cheat codes!

But this time it's different for me. This is not Lego or trains we're talking about, which he can safely got about it on his own, with me nearby. This is about an age 18+ graded game and this time he'll definitely needs a chaperone. Which is why I'll be batch cooking over the next few weekendz so that I don't have to worry about cooking during the week, and also i'm mentally preparing myself for all those "i don't want to go to the park" behaviour! This means I'll be sitting and watching and playing Grand Theft Auto for the next few months to come too!!

Back to YouTube. I was really surprised that some of these movies is really good, there is one of Lego Grand Theft Auto too, loads of storyline wthout any gory shooting or stabbing, but some is just pure nasty and bloody, makes me wonder what goes thru it's creator's mind. Quite a few is actually all just about cars and driving around. It just seems to me that these young movie makers is using the sceneries, cars, characters and animation to facilitate the story that they want to tell, just like they used Lego men before. And you can tell that they are honing their movie making skill as they progress along. One of the movie we saw this morning was depicting this guy, who made tons of money, showing off his big house with all those little details like expensive paintings, showing off his swimming pool, showing off his massive garden, so huge that he actually got lost in the maze before he found his way to his garage, parked full with lots of sports car. It was like a documentary of some rich and famous but I was really amazed with all the effort and attention paid to details to make this movie a really entertaining one. And of course, my son enjoyed it every bit too, especially when it came to the garage, whereby Gecko Jnr was naming each and every car there was in that garage! From Ferrari to the Lamborghini. So well I can at least understand his need for this game, as the Simpson's selection of cars is quite limiting and his interest in cars just a few weeks ago was limited to our local public carpark. He was asking tons of questions about how do we know which car is which, and we then spend 10 minutes walking round the public carpark, looking at the cars parked there and it's badges.

"But in Grand Theft Auto, you get really really fast cars and they all have spoilers" commented Gecko Jnr.

Need I say more!

HEing, a pro-active or re-active decision?

2007-08-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is what I am thinking.

With all theses nasty consultations imposed left, right and centre, and more radio interviews on HE gathering momentum; protraying a more positive image of our secretive and mythical HE world is even more crucial than ever. The public probably think we're all 'middle class' (Tony Mooney's doing!), being delusional in thinking we're educating our children in the best way, when in fact, we're only capable of churning out 'laughable quality'. To anyone who's never been near a living and breathing HE family, we must be like a cult-like community. Exist, but not seen, heard of, but not spoken of. They probably think we have green horns, heads full of snakes(or rather lice), live in labyrinth, and we congregate during the full moon LOL!

And every so often, some lucky 'common' folks get a sighting of such an elusive HE Family and if they'll give their “common mind” a rest, they'll see that we are ordinary people (or rather extra-ordinary, which is what divides us and them), and intelligent (that we are and we shouldn’t be ashamed to advertise it!), who've just decided that we ain't going to follow the pack! That we're straying away because we can see the light! And if they are any smarter, they'll follow suit too!(Last laugh on them??!! Ha Ha Ha!)

Most of the decisions to HE are generally a "re-active one, a last resort, against the school failings". Undeniable fact. But it also seems, it’s a “majority working class” thing, and that also means you don't have much options and brains, according to Mr Mooney, to educate to an acceptable standard, and I’m sure he’s not the only one of this belief! But we know this is not true, as we are aware there are families de-regging their kids from private school. And that a lot of HE parents either have diplomas or a Uni degree and quite a lot of us used to be high income earners. And you don’t become a high income earner by having no brains! Just because we go round in scruff jeans and T shirts doesn’t mean we’re un-educated!

I can't help but think maybe we should start thinking about how to portray HEing in a more pro-active light. Isn’t it possible, that for some of us, HEing is a lifestyle decision instead of a ‘rescue mission’ from school?

Currently with all these - Open University, Internet, etc; HEing is a very viable path to education, and should be highlighted as so. Some of us did made a very Pro-active decision to HE because we want to - not because we're forced to- again should be highlighted as so!

No dis-respect intended here as I’m aware some families really had to, simply because they had no choice. But there are also some families who has chosen to HE simply because they are aware that they are legally allowed to and choose to exercise that right, like my family.

So is HEing really all about re-active decisions ? Are we saying that if the school were any better, we wouldn’t even consider doing homeschooling in the first place? And that should schools get their act back together, we’ll consider sending our children back to school? I’m thinking NO.

Could it not be possible that HEing is a subconcious pro-active decision? That our decision to HE is not an act of desperation but merely just the catalyst of our thoughts and beliefs in how life should be. Especially now when all of us are so aware of positive parenting, organic living, green environment, fresh air and country life – basically just trying to have a more wholesome family life. HEing is just another piece of the jigsaw. When I think back to our decision to de-reg our son, his unhappiness about school served ONLY as the catalyst that helped us cement our beliefs that HE is the only way ahead to provide him with the 'edge' when he grows up (I'm sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a pushy mum now, but I assure you I'm not, I'm more of a mushy mum in reality, but it's an undeniable fact that to get a job nowadays, you have to 'stand out' from the crowd!). This is how me and hubby see it. We Humans went from no education, to self education (HE), from small classrooms, to private schooling for the rich, to mass schooling for every citizen. We believe that education has evolved again and now needs a new direction. And that our decision was not a last resort, but is based on our beliefs that mass education has lost it's effectiveness, so we’ve moved onto a different path. And that our son will benefit greatly from the HE approach through out his life. Even better because it’s a legal alternative.

We're talking of a totally different way of living and educating our children. Call it Holistic, call it New Wave, call it anything but the fact of the matter is, it is a viable way of giving our children a head start, gives them time to grow and develop a confident mind as a foundation, which in turn, an opportunity to shine out from the crowd, not just in the work arena but also in life! Isn't this already obvious with our HEed kids nowadays??!! The mind is a very powerful thing, and a very difficult thing to control, never mind teach it! To make it listen, first you'll have to earn it's respect. You can’t tune it up like a car engine, but you can convince it to bend to your will!

HEing is another viable path, other than mass schooling. As many young parents are now even consciously deciding to not even start playschool, which I suppose is based on their own bad school experience. But it's not that they should be seen as they are afraid for their child, not at all, in fact I can see they've learnt and are now wiser and has the experience to weighed their options properly, and decided that HEing is a more effective choice for their child.

So I’m thinking wouldn't it be a good PR angle to stop focusing on school failings as a common reason to HE but highlight instead that HEing is a viable choice, on it's own merits? (I am thinking far ahead or is it just me being my delusional self?)

I would like to think that our choice for our son is more of a Pro-Active one ,considering that the last school was not a bad school, but rather we didn't want to progress down that path anymore, because it’s not the type of lifestyle he wants. I would say our decision is not a re-active one because we didn't HE because we have no choice. We did have the choice to allow our son to continue school, or if it didn't work out, search for another school or even a private school. But we decided we are going to do even better, we're gonna provide him with his own tailor made education.

So the question is, was your's a Pro-active or Re-active decision?

It's a good day to just watch tv!

2007-08-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

This will be my first post. I'm actually not too sure if I'm able to maintain this regularly but however, i do realised that this can serve as a very good logbook for all our HEing activity. It'll be interesting to be reading this, one year from now. Plus I did notice I seems to have a bad habit of spending hours replying to just 1 post in some HEing forum. Simply because I would have started my post by responding to their concerns, but somehow ended up rattling on and on and on about something that I've discovered during one of my Eureka moment, and eventually realised I've gone off topic, and will then have to spend the next hour editing down my reply, as accurately as I can! How frustrating!!! So this lead me to thinking, perhaps I should exercise that need of mine, by blogging.

Well, a little bit of introduction to start off with. I'm a 36 years old fulltime mum, HEing soon to be 7 years old son, Gecko Jnr. Son's has been to school but was de-reg after the 1st term of Year One. We're kinda eclectic unschooling, meaning Mama Gecko(me) like the idea of the Classical Education Philosophy, is using that as kinda of rough guideline for our learning, but really I think we're also abit of a radical un-schooling sort of set up, which means lots of child led activities, lots of "Yes, why not" situation; lots and lots of discussion and interaction; watching tv and playing PS2; lots of online games. Lots of story reading which is strictly during bedtimes only, as per Gecko Jnr's preferance. And we are totally writing and workbook free family.

Every now and then, even autonomous me do come across a situation whereby it's SOOoooooo.... difficult to say yes! This is where I then goes on my fact finding mission with loads of reading, loads of posting for help. I then needs to do some ironing, with my old Karrin Allison French cd in the background(somehow, not understanding what she's purring about makes it so calming!) and soon my brain will be thinking! And that Eureka moment will come.

So who knows, maybe somebody, someday might think that some of my philosophy actually does make sense. Like I always say, there's always a method in this HEing madness of ours! We just have to find it!

Thanks for reading.