Unschooling-Being Guided as opposed to Leading

Owner of Keeyshas Kreations asks...

Greetings Queen,I have been homeschooling for 4 years now and my eldest daughter who is now 7 has always been advanced academically for her age. I wanted to know what teachings have you implemented in your schooling maninly in the subjest of History. Right now Wysdum is deep into Khemtic studies. This is her favorite subject right now. I am just providing the resources. I am not teaching her history in a chronological order right now. I am just letting her pick and choose, but every now and then I feel like she may be missing something. Her math is at a 3rd grade level, her reading is at a 3-4th grade level. I just don't want to overwhelm her and cause "burn out" Do you have any suggestions?Peace

Using my soon to be 18 year old and my own 38 year old self as examples I must say that we retain that material that we LOVE and are allowed to discover and understand at our own personal pace

Not only is this true...but when we allow our youth to lead their learning, no time is wasted, much much much less time is spent on disciplining and motivating them therefore they achieve much more than they do when we force them to learn those things that we have deemed important

Western Indo-European Patriarchal society teaches not to trust our children

Teaches us that they are stupid, they are lazy, they are manipulative, they are unruly, they are dangerous

We as parents are made to feel that we have to control and contain our children

Staying at home with our babies teaches us the truth

That every child's deepest desire is to please his parents and be a productive member of the society he was born into

That every child has a unique destiny he was born to fulfill and from the minute he is conceived he is ACTIVELY working towards fulfilling that very unique, very personal destiny

That our children are Highly Intelligent, Motivated with boundless energy and eager to learn new things each and every minute

And our role as parents is to have the resources available that allow them to learn those things they are interested and to make sure they are safe and that their basic needs and met

We do not have to guide their learning...we have to allow ourselves to be guided

It is not possible to live in this modern world and not have a rudimentary understanding of math, reading and science....include your children in your daily activities and they will pick these things up naturally...just as they walk and talk and use the toilet and eat with utensils...they will look around them and see what is the norm in their family and imitate it...this is how life continues....a beautiful cycle created by the Ancestral Mothers...we do not have to re-invent it, we only have to use it properly

For the study of history, I make sure that many world history books are available for my youth...these can be purchased at any used book store or at Half.com

I also make sure and provide my children with the history behind current events...the war in Iraq for example

I speak truth to my children and do not sugar coat any current or historical event to fit a particular political or world view

I provided the world history behind our own family practices...the historical reasons we are vegan, we home school, we wear nappy hair...et cetera

When asked a sincere question by my youth...I give sincere and truthful answers and I provide the history behind them

When they are reading world history I make sure that they are considering the perspectives of our Afrikan and Native American ancestors because our perspectives usually are not given in world history books and I provide them with reading that gives our perspectives

books like Roots and Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

I also make sure that my youth have an understanding of the position and contributions of women in our society and do not take it or themselves for granted...I do not and therefore they do not assume that all significant events were led by men

As long as you continue to allow lil Wysdum to guide her learning, you can be assured that she will remain motivated and will retain that information which is relevant to the fulfillment of her destiny...history does not have to be taught chronologically in order to be relevant

She is not missing anything and IF she is...there will always be time for her to pick it up later

When I first started home schooling, I worked hard to make our environment a School in Our Home...we had a room set aside, set times for this, permission to go to bathroom...posters on the wall to motivate and on and on

It was not the children who burned out...it was me

By bringing the poisonous toxic Western education mindset into our home, I created an environment that I did not like and did not enjoy being a part of

So I relaxed...I meditated , I breathed, I prayed and I submitted to the fact that it is okay to trust my children

And that they would learn, were learning ALL the time whether they were seated at a desk or not and that just as I as their mother knew when they were hungry or tired or overwhelmed

I would know when they needed extra help in this area or more information in that area

Trust yourself mama and above all trust your child