Re: [Slightly OT] Philosophy (was Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?)
On Tue, 2003-10-21 at 22:56, Ron Johnson wrote:
> We screwed a board on the long wall in the hallway, and glued
> those interconnecting foam "letter squares" onto it. The actual
> letters are removable.
Rest assured that at our house, there are PLENTY of analog resources for
learning that our children utilize, daily. Also, they curl up with a
good book all the time. Ben was not exaggerating when he said we have
anywhere between 50-100 books/educational videos (we don't have a tv, we
watch these on computer monitor), at our house at any given time.
My son Randy, when he entered primary, was almost half a grade level
above his class because he could read so well for a child his age. When
it came to encouraging kids to read (read X books per month to receive a
free personal pizza from pizza hut), our list of books that Randy read
each month was so huge, that the teacher basically said to stop sending
lists of books, she'd just take our word for it, because we had already
had a long-standing reputation as being "the family without the tv".
> Really, I'm complaining less about computers than about the modern
> philosophy that emphasizes early academics rather than early activity.
As homeschoolers, we vehemently are opposed to that philosophy. Do some
research on the "Waldorf schools" (which encourage arts over academics
especially before the age of 8-9), and you'll get a small picture of
what our teaching style and how we raise our children.
As far as computer time goes, we mete it thusly: We decide ahead of
time how long each child gets on the computer (most often it is 1/2 hour
to 45 minutes - less time than they'd be doing it during computer class
at school). The first third of that time, they do google research and
look for book titles (often to be taken from the library at some later
date) having to do with interests they've expressed, they also look at
websites. The remaining 2/3 is "free time".
> My kids see me in front of the computer all the time (I telecommute
> full time), but they are more interested in the shapes on the screen-
> saver
Amazing. So are my children.
Ariannah
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