Believe it or not, but when we first started home school, we got a lot of inspiration from the Montessori 'methods'. As a matter of fact, that scene you described is similar to how our kids each begin their day - only there is only 2 of them.
I have made no secret of the fact that my older son had a stroke when he was born. As a result, he has very mild cerebral palsy (CP) - so mild most might not notice it. He does have limited fine motor skills on his right side, particularly his arm and hand. One thing he asked when he was still in kindergarten was to 'buy' his own lunch like the other kids. We thought this would be a great way for him to gain some independence so we gave him money the next day so he could buy his own lunch. After he picked out what he wanted and paid for it, he was walking across the cafeteria to sit down and a child came up behind him and knocked him over, spilling his lunch all over the floor and himself. Not only were we not called so, at the very least, we could bring him a change of clothes, but they refused to give him a replacement lunch because he did not have enough money left over. That is not the kind of environment I want my children to be learning in. When we asked what happend to the child who pushed our son, we were told, 'Nothing,. That is just kids being kids'. On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Zaphod Beeblebrox <zaph0d.b33bl3b...@gmail.com> wrote: > > We had very similar issues with our first born in public school kindergarten. > We tossed around home schooling for a while. We decided we didn't the > correct combination of time/patience to do it. So we went with a Montessori > private school. > > Yesterday, I had to take a picture of the class for a school project. When I > arrived, there were 3 students who were not there yet. I sat down in the > classroom and watched my daughter start her work. After a few minutes..I > realized it was extremely quiet. I looked around and saw that all the kids > were busy doing "works", but I didn't see any of them doing the same thing. > I even noticed a girl reading book that didn't look like an assignment type > of book. I asked the teacher later about the book. She told me that the > girl liked to start her day reading for pleasure. That wasn't an issue > because the girl always set aside the time "pleasure reading" in her daily > plan and would accomplish everything else she set out to do. She said their > method is not to micromanage the students, but to help them set goals and > accomplish them. > > I thought about that later and realized, that's a lot like real life. > > > > On Apr 15, 2010, at 5:00 PM, Scott Stroz wrote: > >> >> I have to say, when we first had issues with my child's teacher, my >> wife mentioned homeschooling and my knee jerk reaction was 'No way in >> hell'. At that point I had only known like 3 people who were home >> schooled and they were all what I would consider 'weird'. >> >> But the more research I did, the more I talked to people, the more I >> realized that while those 'weird' people might be the stereotypical >> home schoolers, they are not the majority. I found out that a lot of >> people I knew and respected were home schooled for all or part of >> their childhood. >> >> Now, I would have it no other way. I think we have the perfect life. I >> work from home, my wife does not need to work (to pull in a paycheck) >> and we homeschool. No mater how busy any of our days get, we still see >> each other every day and eat every meal together. >> >> On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Ian Skinner <h...@ilsweb.com> wrote: >>> >>> On 4/15/2010 2:15 PM, Eric Roberts wrote: >>>> That is exactly my point Ian. >>>> >>>> Eric >>>> >>> >>> No, I'm afraid you missed the point. My point was that *I* could not >>> home school. Don't have the time, don't have the aptitude. >>> >>> But I also *recognize* that I am a lucky parent. Through no effort in >>> my part, I just happened to be living in the foot print of a good school >>> when our children where born. My oldest is advance, my youngest is >>> challenged. They both have had great teachers to date. They both have >>> received great support and encouragement from the schools system so that >>> neither has been held back. The grade school is right across the street >>> and is a 'residential' school, meaning there is no busing. It only >>> servers the immediate neighborhood in walking distance around the >>> school. Thus small class sizes and plenty of parental participation. >>> >>> The youngest in under an IEP and receives significant help from that >>> program. The oldest was advanced to the 1st grad math program when he >>> had completed the kindergarten level work and was getting bored. He is >>> now in a Charter School that strongly embraces the arts. *Creative >>> Connections Arts Academy* incorporates art into his academic >>> curriculum. And I count myself lucky that this school is within walking >>> distance of our home as well. >>> >>> But I know all of that is quite lucky on my part. I live within range >>> of great public schools so that I don't have to consider home and|or >>> private schooling. But if all of the above was not true, I would be! >>> >>> >>> >> >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:316090 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
