Getting my money's worth

Several years ago Bridget and Owen went to a Montessori Preschool. At the time, Bridget was in Kindergarten and I was homeschooling her in the afternoons (just to see if I could do it). Anyway, we were all unhappy there. Owen was getting spit on and getting in trouble for arguing, the teacher was complaining to me, Bridget was lying to the teacher about whether or not she knew things like her colors, etc. My husband and I spent the entire year wanting to pull them out. Instead, we painfully adopted the 'finish what you start' philosophy and left them there until the end. After that I decided I would never again 'finish what I started' if we were all miserable.

The topic didn't really come up again until this fall when we started unschooling. I signed the kids up for piano. They hated the private lesson. So after 4 out of 10 private lessons I convinced E that dropping out was best. The next day my kids started playing piano on their own. I reasoned with dh that the kids didn't know what to expect until they got in the lessons, so why continue in a situation they do not like? We just did the same thing with a sign language class. The teacher was very 'schoolish'. She raised her voice at my kids to pay attention,
interrupted them in the middle of a project she gave them to do so she could
move on... I was miserable. So even though we paid for the month, I decided to stop going.

Why should we do something that is optional if we don't want to do it? Well, because people feel like they need to 'get their money's worth'? If we do go and are unhappy, how much are we really going to learn? One of the best parts about unschooling is that my child can stop a project they are working on, do something different and come back to it when they are ready... or not. Classes should not be any different. If I were teaching something at home and the kids became disinterested, I wouldn't force them to continue just because they started. I'm so grateful that my kids are old enough to tell me what they want. Sometimes it is hard for them to know what they want. When they do, I want to do my best to listen to them and trust them.

We found a new sign language class today and it was awesome. The teacher is deaf and the helper teacher is learning the language, so she translates. We are learning so many new words just through conversation. They even incorporate a game at the end of class to review what you learned that day. I'm so glad I dropped out of the class that was uncomfortable and made the effort to look for another class. I'll definitely be getting my money's worth out of this class!