I saw The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith in the teacher resources section of Half Price Books, and I thought, “Wow, there are books about unschooling? Isn’t that sort of contradictory?” So I had to buy it! 🙂
It was fun to read, especially since I’m so obsessed with the idea of homeschooling. I especially enjoyed all the anecdotes from parents about their experiences of watching their children discover various concepts. Anytime I’m reading or listening to what homeschooling/unschooling parents say about their worries and concerns, I realize what an advantage I would have as a parent in that situation–at least at the ages that I have worked with. Parents worry because they haven’t seen a couple hundred kids come through that stage of learning, with nothing to worry about in the end. Everyone goes through a stage of skipping some of 12 through 19 when they count. Everyone goes through a stage where they see any word that starts with the first letter of their name, and they think the word is their name. Everyone goes through a stage of thinking b, d, p, and q all look the same. They get through it when they get through it, and it doesn’t really matter if it takes a month or a couple of years. It wouldn’t even occur to me to be concerned about those things…and I wonder what middle schoolers and teenagers do that I would be concerned about, but shouldn’t be!
Reading books like this makes me hope I have kids someday. But it also encourages me in my current life, because I’m so certain that I chose the right career when I find myself so interested in kids and development! 🙂
Dawn's Place 