Alabama Unschoolers of RUN

Comment

Comment by Ann Ludwig on February 8, 2012 at 7:22pm

I attended normal school.  But my mother always talked about how she wanted to homeschool us.  It was not legal where we lived.  I would have loved to have been homeschooled.  I have a daughter who is 23 now and when she was growing up she had a terrible time in school.  She was labeled ADD.  But I was a single parent and could not figure out how to homeschool AND support us.  I did eventually homeschool her the last two years of highschool.  When I had my son I was 40 years old and working as an engineer.  After two years of working while having a very young child I'd had enough.  I opened a daycare in my home so I could stay home.  We all loved it from the very first day.  As to unschooling, I became very tired very quickly of the forced learning with my son.  I began to see it was the same thing the schools did, just at home.  So very quickly I began loosening the reigns and as time went on, it was a natural progression towards unschooling.  School would have never worked for my son.  He had rages and it turned out he has food sensitivities to wheat and soy that were causing these rages.  After a year of being off these foods, he is sooo much better.  We are moving more and more towards organic foods and toxin free lives as much as we can.  We are lucky to have several fruit trees and a huge garden plot with our house that we just moved into last fall.  We're very excited about the potential. 

Your Cob playhouse workshop sounds so cool!  Lovin' the sound of that.  You sound like such a busy person!  I loved taking my son everywhere with me, but he very much has his own mind now as to what he wants to do and doesn't like going with me to the things I like to do anymore.  Now that we are getting settled in our new home, I'm hoping to get more involved in the community.  We're wanting to help out at the food pantry and get involved in something to do with animals.  T loves animals, but so many non profits don't let children volunteer.  We travel a couple of times every year to places that interest my son.  He loves Smokey Mountains National Park.  We're hoping to check out some New England states this year, and Washington DC this year or next.

Comment by Alina Stefanescu Coryell on February 8, 2012 at 4:08pm

Ann, I'm so jealous in a happy-for-you way. It's our dream to do something very similar. We are currently in the process of starting a community garden and this summer, I'll be hosting a Cob playhouse workshop which teaches homeschooled kids how to build playhouses from wattle and daub using mud.

I blog about our family adventures here. We are a family of five who loves camping, the outdoors, travel, and life. Max (our 8 year old son) went to school for one year in kindergarten before the teacher told me I needed to have him tested for ADD. That gave me all the impetus I needed to do what I wanted to do all along but had no compelling reason for- educate the kids at home. 

I'm on the board of two local nonrofits- Friends of Hurricane Creek and Circles of Peace. The kids go with me to everything- they keep me sane in a world distracted by false notions of success and fitness. I find myself learning so much about my own hypocrisy while learning with them- unschooling is humbling and so far good for my soul.

Why do you unschool? Did you attend normal school?

Comment by Ann Ludwig on February 8, 2012 at 3:25pm

Hi Alina, we are in lower Alabama on the Mobile Bay eastern shore.  We're crunchy Christians as well.  I have an 11 yo son that I have unschooled for the past 4 years and we were extremely relaxed homeschoolers prior to that.  We just bought a home on one acre and are starting to grow more of our own food.  We're very excited about that.  Tell us all about yourself!

Comment by Alina Stefanescu Coryell on February 8, 2012 at 11:54am

So excited to find you guys. We live in Tuscaloosa and hope that our faith, which is of the super crunchy flavor, won't leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth. :) I had to leave Christianity to find Christ.

Anyway, please tell me about you and I'll tell you about we.

Comment by Tracy on August 2, 2011 at 9:48am

Hi all! New here - was a member of RUN but never visited really until I got the email yesterday about the site being updated and thought I would check it out :) I need to update my profile but I am a mama to a 4-year-old boy so we have not really had to worry about "officially" doing anything yet. I really love the concept of unschooling but am pretty terrified of it with a boy, and an only boy at that. Anyways just thought I would introduce myself. We live in Florence (by way of Chicago) and have found a little homeschooling group but have yet to meet any unschoolers.

Comment by Tracy on August 2, 2011 at 9:42am

Meredith - I know this is late to your comment but I live in Florence!

Comment by Meredith on June 10, 2011 at 8:51am

It's possible I'll be moving to Florence, soon, anyone in the area?

 

Comment by Lori Bloom on July 6, 2009 at 11:46am

I can't wait to start unschooling! My 11 yr.old daughter is in FL with her dad for 3 more weeks...I wish there were more unschoolers near me (Covington County), I'm worried about my daughter not having much socialization...

Comment by gratefulmama on September 10, 2008 at 7:32pm

Karen, do some research, you do not have to be religious, act religious, claim religion, practice religion, or pay a lot of money for a legal cover school in AL! If any of you are in or travel to N AL we have a yahoo group we've formed to do some park days and get-togethers, apply at wakenowdiscover at yahoogroups dot com we'd love to have you! We're waiting for some cooler weather to the park, we've met a couple times this summer.

Comment by Tracy on August 24, 2008 at 4:21pm

We use Dayspring, too. We're in south Alabama. :)

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page