EU008: Q&A Round Table

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Anne Ohman and Anna Brown, both veteran unschooling parents, join me to answer listener questions.

Click here to submit your own question for the Q&A Round Table episodes!

Quote of the Week

“We live in a world awash with information, but we seem to face a growing scarcity of wisdom. And what’s worse, we confuse the two. We believe that having access to more information produces more knowledge, which results in more wisdom. But, if anything, the opposite is true — more and more information without the proper context and interpretation only muddles our understanding of the world rather than enriching it.” ~ Maria Popova, curator of brainpickings.org, Wisdom in the Age of Information and the Importance of Storytelling in Making Sense of the World

Summary of Listener Questions

1. How to deal with school kids? Our daughter was asked by one of her friends (both 9) how she would learn without going to school and she told our daughter there is important stuff in school she would need one day in her life. Then she asked a question and our daughter couldn’t answer so she said, “and that is why you need to go to school.” How did your children deal with questions like that?

2. I have been getting the message that if I continue letting my kids play video games as much as they like then they won’t have any imaginations or they will lose their creativity. Where’s the proof?

3. Unschooling is such a misnomer—what word or words, or definition would you give to this way of being with children? What was the over-riding philosophy, or mantra or specific vision that brought you the most clarity about unschooling, that helped keep you on the path during difficult moments?

4. How does an unschooling parent apply “principles” at home successfully without getting in the child’s way?

5. I have a 12 year ADD boy and we are in our second year of unschooling. It’s scary for us to see him be bored all the time and not know what he wants to do so he just goes back to his computer. Could unschooling actually hurt this child rather then help?

6. We just started unschooling our two kids (son 13 and daughter 16) last March. My son, who is very focused on one or two things at a time naturally is really not showing many signs of curiosity or willingness to explore new things. I’m not sure if he is just recovering from the trauma of school, just uber-focused, or if maybe he’s not a good fit for unschooling. Any advice or suggestions? Do you see anything wrong with being so focused?

7. I have a battle in my head over a TV programme my daughter likes to watch. I find the programme to be influencing her in a negative way. By forbidding it I am probably making it more desirable. I am sure as the years go by there will be many more programmes that interest her that I am unsure about so I feel I need to really think about the best way to deal with this. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Links to things mentioned in the show

Pam’s article: Unschooling Passions

Anne’s Shine with Unschooling group: there’s the yahoo email list and the Facebook page.

Anna’s website: choosingconnection.com