Monday, January 17, 2011

Most of us panic. We love our children. We are not following the crowd and sending them to school. We are not following the homeschooling crowd either. We are the less known group of unschoolers. I panic.
Amelie (8 now) was writing a story on the computer. She was asking me how to spell a bunch of words. I had a vision of her as an adult writing on forums or at a job and not being able to spell. Appel is not acceptable. Neither is flote. Spelling is one thing that bothers me if it is horrible. So should I place this insecurity on my children. I did. I printed up spelling lists appropriate for their ages. The girls were excited about this. They each had a piece of paper and pencil and wrote down the words I gave them. Amelie got an average of 8 or 9 out of 10 and Ricky got them right. (Amelie's weren't spelled the same as they sounded) I took a sigh of relief and I have continued to leave them alone to learn. Every once in a while I do this. I wonder if other unschooling parents do this. I just sometimes need the reassurance that my children will be able to be who they want as an adult. I don't want them to grow up and not have the opportunities that everyone else has.
But that is all relative, isn't it?
I believe they will have more opportunities to be who they want. They will have time and freedom to explore their interests and desires. They have room to fail and room to soar. They have the opportunity to not allow outside influences to shadow how they view life.
This doesn't mean that their crazy mother won't throw a few spelling quizzes at them though.