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November 25, 2005
It's not Turkey, but ...
Here's a cool site we found that provides animations, along with explanatory text, that take you into a black hole. We discovered it last night around midnight. You see, we got home from Thanksgiving dinner around 11 pm. As we got out of the car I pointed out constellations and planets, as I often do. Last night, though, I caught their interest and they asked questions. They wondered why Sirius is so much brighter than Alpha Centauri, if Alpha Centauri is closer? The marveled at the idea that, if we weren't so close to Ft. Worth, they'd be able to see an actual galaxy with their actual eyes. We ended up mucking about with pulsars and quasars, and so on to the link.
Remember, though, that we structure and control our children's learning, which stifles the curiosity right out of them. Don't forget that. It's not like we unschool, or anything. Not that I'm bitter over certain types of unschoolers, or anything. Nah.
Posted by lynx at November 25, 2005 11:53 PM
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Comments
wow, that site is amazing!
thanks!
Posted by: julie persons at November 26, 2005 2:42 PM
What's the unschooling gripe, Stephanie? I missed it. I struggle with how effective and educationally we use our unschooling weeks but I still see those weeks are failures because we did not do things that are as easy to track. At least not in a daily way. Certainly as I see the girls articulating concepts, etc it's clear that what we are doing is working well.
Posted by: Cath at November 27, 2005 12:24 AM
ok not sure where the unschool comment came from but it made me chuckle....this being my "schooler" response often when it is assumed that we don't engage our kids at all. personally I shield their eyes from the night sky in order to keep them asking questions about it. After all that needs to wait until 9th grade science, don't you know? ;-)
I will share the link with Tim, though. he'll love it ;-)
Posted by: e at November 27, 2005 10:53 PM
HI Steph - can you email me at esgaroth@ev1.net so I can give you my IM info? I don't have AIM or AOL - but if I give you my passport addy, I can connect that way, I think.
Posted by: Sharon Ferguson at November 28, 2005 11:13 AM
Cath,
Do you have to track subjects for CA? I think it's easier for me to not worry when we have our unschooling weeks, because Texas doesn't have any kind of requirement for tracking or reporting.
e,
Isn't it funny? I have one unschooling book that talks about how a downside to structured schooling is that if a kid wants to read a book, the schooly mom first has to see where it fits into the curriculum, pull vocabulary words from it, and require a book report. THEN it will be okay for the child to read.
Like, whatever.
Posted by: Stephanie at November 29, 2005 12:59 AM
Funny that you mention that about structured school needing to see if it fits the cirric. My mom called to ask me if A had read certain books that she was considering buying for christmas. I said, mom, I have NO CLUE. This is a kid who reads on average one book a day, there is NO WAY my foggy brain could remember all of that, even if I wanted to.
Short of locking our kids in closets I don't think there is anyway we could not "unschool" because kids are curious and are going to learn vastly more than we ever offer them in any school setting.
Sounds like one of those live or die on the name/title arguments. Remember when this happened to APers who were deemed not AP enough?
Posted by: e at November 29, 2005 4:32 PM