I've put all media on hiatus, except in very limited circumstances, until our homeschool objectives for year have been met.
No video games, no movies, no YouTube. At the announcement, there were pitiful cries of grief and gnashing of teeth all around me.
My heart was cold to all the raving and whining. We are more than halfway through winter and the childs have done maybe ten percent of the actual, technically very little, curriculum work that I believe is important to do, just in case the childs choose to enter into public school again at some point. That option is theirs; I would like to ensure it is a real one that they can take without feeling anxious that they won't have the academic background.
I guess I'm not feeling like the loosey goosey unschooler I wish I could be. But, structure, damnit. Achievement. Paperwork!
I wonder how long it'll take them to catch up on nearly a year's worth of curriculum work? I shouldn't think it would take more than a month, really, if they wanted. I know motivated children can accomplish a great deal in a very short amount of time. Here's my concern, though: my attempts to inspire them to do this small amount of schoolish work by banning media may not work out as slick as I hope.
For the first few hours of even thinking about not being able to play video games, both children went through all five stages of grief, several times over. Exhausting. And then, darn it, they just sort of forgot about it and went outside to play. And when they came in, they drew some pictures, listened to a book on tape (Alvin Ho by Lenore Look, by the way, very funny) and rearranged the living room furniture and hung some pictures.
Not a single curriculum workbook page was even attempted.
Clever resourceful children are the worst sometimes.
We get bit by the structure bug every January as well. We usually manage a few weeks of structureish learning then it all falls to the wayside again. We've called in a friend (who is also a teacher) this year to "tutor" the kiddo one day a week. Basically she comes over and plays various educational games with the kiddo to sort of assess how she is doing. So far she is doing well. Try not to stress too much. When the childs need to learn something, they will. Love the frost (ice?) photo!
ReplyDeleteHa, it's actually the design on the window glass I think. I found it on the camera, must of been one of the kids that took it. Mystery.
DeleteSo far the children have been very good at eluding my attempts at structure... but they're way more active and engaged without video game time anyway so I'm not going to worry.