We don’t live in an unschooling bubble, do we? Our kiddos have to get out there in the community and brush up with people who have no idea what we’re trying to do. And while that’s a good thing, in general, it can be tough when you’re new to unschooling or feeling like you’re on some shaky ground. When kids are away from us and we can’t run interference for them, they may need a couple of quick factoids they can rattle back at their quizzer:
“Do you know the capitol of Angola, or San Salvador, or Malaysia?”
(Here’s a wikipedia cheat sheet, so he can pick which countries they’d like to know)
Or how about a math question?
What’s 2358 x 137? or the square root of 196?
(here’s a square root calculator, so she can pick her own!)
The point being that the child can give some demonstration of knowledge and then happily skip away.
Another option is to talk to those people yourself.
You could even suggest that your child say this:
“Mom said if the quizzing starts, you should probably take it up with her.”
No reason your child should have to go head-to-head with an adult with an agenda.
Do you have other helpful tips to help your child cope with naysayers?
Please leave them in the comments.
It might be exactly the right fit for someone struggling out there!
Sue Patterson 