Looking for unschool families in the Virginia Beach area to share classes and a CSA Project

[Jamie Brightlynn]

We are a large military family transferring from Hawaii to Virginia Beach in 10 short (very short) days.  We are new to homeschooling but not new to teaching (been a teacher on and off for 20 years, since teaching religious school to tots as a kid myself).  Really hoping to connect with other unschoolers and possibly share classes?  Also I am looking into starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture...community garden) in the area at minimal cost because I think it is extremely important to figure out and teach our youth how to coexist.  There is nothing like growing food together to bond a community, and a family.  You can find me on fb as well, here.  I heard through the grapevine there was a significant homeschool community in the VB area and am hopping (crossing fingers) a lot of them are unschoolers?  Can't wait to connect!

-Jamie

[Meredith]

Hi, Jamie, this site is really slow at the moment - pretty common for summer. You can check the Groups section for local lists, and also try here:

http://sandradodd.com/world

In terms of unschooling, it might help to examine why you think you need to "teach" your kids to coexist. Learning doesn't depend on teaching, it depends on the perspective of the individual ;)

Here are some more thoughts on teaching versus learning:

http://sandradodd.com/teaching/

If you want to explore the concept more, it can be useful to ask questions like "how do unschooling kids learn about x?" and see what kinds of stories come up. It's often marvelously inspiring to hear how other families are living and learning together. 

[Jamie Brightlynn]

Teach and learn are just words to me and I use them that way.  My kids and I do much more than that obviously, but I didn't realize that every word I put out on here would be taken literally and require exploring.  Now I know!  We do learn together, we do grow together, there isn't much "teaching" from me, but I do guide them, and they do teach me...a lot.  And I do have a background in teaching, just because I do...and I don't need to change the word for that, it is what it is.  But thank you so much for the info.  Looking forward to reviewing it.

And if I wanted to just "teach" my kids, because that is what we decided on as a family...I'd like to think I could do so within a community like this without additional advice that made me feel like I was doing something wrong?  Just something to explore. 

[Meredith]

What you're describing sounds more like academic unschooling or eclectic homeschooling than radical unschooling. Radical unschooling (as defined for the purposes of this site) isn't "unschooling for radical people" it's unschooling itself at the most fundamental - radical as in "from the root". In that paradigm, learning is presupposed to be a natural human drive and, most importantly, absolutely dependent on the perspective of the learner. With that in mind, people may ask to be taught, but a parent deciding to teach a child or making "we as a family" decisions for the child, is something else again. It's primarily about the parent's interests and agendas, not the child's. It's not "wrong" so much as outside the paradigm. You might want to stick around and learn more about that paradigm, or you might prefer to look for a group more consistent with your own views, but this isn't a place to discuss the value of teaching.