Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Midsummer update: pros and cons of not unschooling halacha

I'm still using Konmari method to declutter.  It's almost done.  The siren song of "my house is always tidy" beckons to me.

Bear in mind that my youngest is 4.  When my children were ages 6 months to 3 years old, the house was like a hurricane and I had to straighten up 4x a day to be able to see the floor.  Now that the kids are older, the mess just isn't the same.  However, I did find myself bad tempered from mess or feeling like I "have" to clean up and like I didn't want to and that housework was taking me away from relaxing or being with the children.

Chana and I finished the first chemistry book.  It gave a great foundation and maybe we'll look through a few others and read about Antoine Lavoisier before getting into the math of chemistry.  I might just borrow a Barron's regents book for that.

Jack has stopped being interested in reading.  He is up to lesson 71 out of 100.  He can basically read, and apparently he is satisfied with his level of reading and whatever practice he gets reading things around him.  He does not want to do the reader anymore.

Elazar is still doing the daily Shulchan Aruch.  Unfortunately, I think that this is causing him to dread learning.  It is under 5 minutes.  He has a hard time sitting still.  And from morning to night he is busy with things he wants to do.  He doesn't ever come over to me bored.  So whenever I want to learn with him, it would be interrupting his flow.  I am considering giving him some money for it (not a lot, perhaps 5 to 10 cents, which would build up after a while).  I am not feeling that a strict unschooling policy is called for here.  I think the very mild discipline it takes for him to learn is beneficial for his character.

However, the down side of that and the reason I was pulled to unschooling in the first place, is that his attention has waned and he is not enjoying it.  And I believe he is associating annoyance to learning.

I have to think about this more.  My sense is that it is a good idea to push him, even if he doesn't like it.

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