When Our Help and Strewing Are Rejected

19 Oct

Written By

My daughter Charlotte used to be openly enthusiastic about everything. Every evening she’d be eager to tell me about all the things she’d discovered that day. She’d listen to my ideas and ask for resources. Then things changed.

During the last year or so of Charlotte’s official homeschooling years, she stopped turning to me for suggestions. If we did get together and mull over ideas for learning, she never followed up on anything. My help was often rejected.

“What did you do today?” I’d say. “Did you have a look at that book we were talking about? No? So what exactly did you do?”

Charlotte was never very forthcoming about what she was doing. In the end, I gave up asking because I was beginning to sound like I was interrogating her, checking that she’d actually done something worthwhile (according to me) with her day. I didn’t want to get to the stage where she might say, “Do you think I’m doing nothing? Don’t you trust me?”

So I stepped back. I let Charlotte get on with her learning by herself. I had to trust she knew what she was doing. But sometimes I felt frustrated because I wanted to be more involved. I admit it: I felt a bit unneeded.

Looking back, I don’t think things could have been different without causing a break-down in our relationship. Charlotte just did what suited her personality.

So did my daughter give herself a good education? She did! I talk about this in this week’s podcast.

I also answer the following questions:

What mistake have I been making when strewing for my daughter Gemma-Rose?
What criteria do we use when deciding if unschooling is successful?
When did I go splat and embarrass myself?
What does ‘cowboy up’ mean?
What Pinterest board did someone pin my blog post ‘Bite-Sized Pieces of Unschool Maths‘ to?

I told a lot of stories in this episode, but I did manage to squeeze in a resource segment too!