Introduce yourself!

[Dana Hoffman Ellis]

Feel free to jump in and introduce yourselves!

I'm Dana, in Bellingham. I'm a coffee roaster and mom to *3* now! Just had a baby 2 months ago today! My kids are Lauren, 16 in a couple of weeks, Otto, 10 1/2, and little Miranda Grace. I've always unschooled, after having gone to college to be a teacher and realizing I *never* wanted to put my kids into school!

I am getting married to Paul, the love of my life, in September, so I'm busy making wedding plans right now...besides that, what takes up my time is roasting and drinking coffee, hanging out at the farmers market, reading, cooking, taking gobs of pictures of my new baby...you know, that sort of thing!

Lauren enjoys reading, writing, musical theater, ancient history, cryptozoology, and selling tie-dyes at the farmers market.

Otto enjoys drawing, deviant art, video games, listening to music, hanging out with friends, swimming, and spending the money he makes at the farmers market (the selling is just a means to an end for him!). He also designed the wizard picture on our list.

Miranda enjoys pooping, sticking out her tongue, nursing, looking in the mirror, and does NOT like the car seat.

[Trisha Cronin]

Hi Dana and everyone,

I'm Trisha, in Olympia. My husband Andy is a coffee roaster, but I just spend alot of time drinking it! I have two boys, Deacon, age 4 and Evan, age 2. Right now we're busy with a business plan -- we really want to have a coffee shop of our own, a place where we can bring the boys with us and maybe split up the work so that we can both spend time with them. Right now I'm home all day and he has to work all day, which doesn't seem right!

We've been unschooling for about a year, after reading John Holt and being immediately convinced that it was the right thing to do. We're both so excited about being able to watch our children go on their own journeys to adulthood.

I love to read and play WOW, when I have time. Right now I just finished a YA novel called 'Little Brother' by Cory Doctorow. It was the first time in a long time I've read a book that kept me up at night. Being kept up all night doesn't happen easily when you have two little kids --unless it's by them! It's all about computer hacking and cryptology, so now I want to find out all about that.

Deacon enjoys swimming, going to the Children's Museum, riding his scooter, and playing video games and computer games. Some of his favorites are Super Mario Brothers and Frogger Beyond.

Evan enjoys trucks, riding his scooter, running around and screaming, playing space explorers and superheroes, and watching the giant trucks digging up our road.

I'm excited about this new forum, and excited to meet other unschoolers in Washington.

Trisha

[Dana Hoffman Ellis]

OMG, Trisha--that's too funny that your hubby is a coffee roaster--me, too! How many coffee-roasting unschoolers can there be? :D We will have to chat off-list about coffee sometime!

Dana

[Qarin]

Hi! I'm Qarin, and we live in Burien. I'm mama to two girls, who are 3.5 and 6.5, and we've been unschooling from the start, in our own way, even while my oldest went to preschool for a while. We're pretty active with the Seattle Homeschool Group, and trying to meet some not completely differently minded folks closer to us, which hasn't been all that easy.

[aidan sutherland]

Hello, joining in from Olympia! (Hi, Trisha) I'm Aidan and my kids are Ruthie 10, August 7, Emmett 6 and Aster 4. I sorta-schooled Ruth at home until last year, when I decided to lay off because I separated from the kids' dad. Things went so well we never went back to the daily 15 minutes of conflict and struggle. Now we're integrating unschooling into every area of our lives. It's been a wonderful journey for all of us. I would love to meet more RU's that are close enough to hang out in person.

[Mary K.]

Hi everyone,

I'm Mary in Kennewick in the Tricities on the east side of the state. Me and my partner Charles have four kids all together. They are Tori 14, Kalel 10, Kyle 5 and Claire 2. We have been unschooling for as long as I can remember but I pulled our older kids out of ps in 2002. We just unschooled on the side at home whatever the kids wanted to do. I know that sounds crazy but i never made the kids do school work even for school. Me, Tori and Kal are from New Jersey. I met Charles on the internet and we met and got together so we moved out here because he was here. Charles is a welder and loves to work with wood also. I love computers, editing, cooking, and am addicted to reality shows, especially BIG Brother and the Amazing Race. Tori is a manga maniac, deviant art , neopets, and japanese rock music. Kalel pretty much plays WOW all the time. He has a few different characters he plays so if he gets bored with one he switches to another. Kyle is a HUGE WWE fan. Anything and everything is wrestling with him. And Claire loves animals, mainly dogs, books, babies, and playing at the park. We also have a Chesepeake Bay Retreiver who adopted us. Her name is Saber.

[Margaret]

Hi Everyone,
I'm Margaret and I live in Snoqualmie with my husband Kevin, my daughter Rebecca (5) and my son Nicholas (2). We've been around the Seattle area for a long time (since I was 14, DH since he was 2) with some time spent in other places for grad school. A year ago we moved out to Snoqualmie/North Bend and we love how beautiful it is out here and how much more space we have. It definitely suits DH and me, although it was a much harder adjustment for my daughter than I expected.

DH is a programmer and loves what he does. He has to commute to Kirkland, but he can work from home often enough that things have worked out fairly well.

Rebecca loves to spend time at her art table (she things she makes are so neat!). She also likes Kwala and Boowa (www.uptoten.com), the Backyardigans, Dora, playing Wario on the Wii, spending time outside, pretend play, and spending time with friends.

Nicholas loves nursing, playing with his sister, elk in the backyard, being a lion (or a cat or a puppy dog or a baby), kwala and boowa, the Backyardigans, trains, trucks, and he LOVES playing the Wii which he just figured out how to use a few days ago. He beat the first level of Wario (Smooth Moves) which blew me away.

I have a blurb on my page and I've already written a lot... but I'm a stay at home mom and my current hobbies are all things that I can do around the kids. I love reading and I've been reading a lot of manhwa/manga over the last few years. I also tv and movies, cooking, planting things that make food (I would say gardening, but then you would think I have far fewer weeds than I do), and spending time with my family.

I also just started a Washington Radical unschooling yahoo group (just as in a few hours ago and there isn't much of anything there). May be unnecessary with this group or it may be a nice adjunct :) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WashingtonRadicalUnschoolers/

[Cait]

Hello everyone !
We are Cait, Charlie, Bonnie and Aidan. We live in Rose Valley outside of Longview-Kelso, which is about an hour north of Portland.
Aidan , who is two anna quarter, loves tossing rocks into any available spot o water, talking to other Mamas and Daddys, playing computer games, tea parties with bears, going for walks, his 'fort', nursing, singing, jumping, birthdays on any day, and more nursing.
Bonnie who is 22, lives in Florida(where I am from), near lots of family that I miss, loves DragonCon, real life roleplay( i know there's an acronym for that, what is it? lol), is into criminology studies, likes cats, and does awesome eyeliner decorations. I miss her! We email, IM, and visit twice a year or more if we can.
Charlie loves the woods, blacksmything, playing with Aidan, camping, hiking, writing poetry, really good chocolate, great movies, festivals and faires(especially Oregon Country Faire).
I love clay and more clay, gardens, reading, making toys, riding Aidan piggyback, the beach, nursing with Aidan, building stained glass, drawing, fesitvals and faires, being with lots of children(ok everybody! I just got home from a birthday party), sewing, hiking, camping, kayaking.
We are excited about learning our way into and through and along an RU life. We stumble alot but just being steeped in all the possibilities keeps the lights on and the laughter coming. I am so grateful for all the awesome lists and this network to read and learn from!
Cait

[Margaret]

Nicholas used to say that his sister was "three corners" when she was 4.75. He was very excited when he became "two, one corner"

[Frank Maier]

I'm Frank - plus my wife, Ronnie (aka Dragonfly on many discussion groups), and our two dds (MJ, almost 16, and Chloe, 14), who are currently at Not Back To School Camp. We live in Everett. Info about our family life and unschooling can be found on Ronnie's blog. Info about me is on my blog which is linked from my personal page here. Warning: my blog is my psychological dumping ground and usually contains profanity and insanity.

Happy unschooling!

P. S. I don't even drink coffee, so that should even out the group statistics in the coffee realm. Anybody here make wine or distill liquor? (grin)

[Sharon Wallace]

I could've SWORN I posted an Intro...guess it was elsewhere and elsewhen.

I'm Sharon, married to Dick Maehl, mother of 3 adults, Trilby (40), Ethan (38) and Maia (18). Dick, Maia, and I live on our farm in the mountains of Costa Rica where we GROW coffee. Funny, Washington having so many coffee connections. Frank is an outlier. For several months of each year we live in Washington, now being the proud owners of a cabin on the Skagit River, outside Concrete. Regrettable name. Our son, Ethan, daughter-in-law, Shinri, and granddaughters Isabella and Sophia, live in Seattle, and belong to the SHG, which explains our shift to Washington. Trilby lives and works in Kansas City, MO., where she does something technical and has cats and snakes.

I'm a family doctor, previously a midwife for many years, and I have a small business making artisan (used to be called home-made, I suppose) sausage, and doing breads for restaurants and B&Bs.

Dick was my chemistry professor when I was a freshman in college, and is retired from professing and from being a consultant, mostly teaching geochem and computerizing Latin American university systems. He does a zillion things on the farm, and makes great small tables and benches from our local hardwoods.

Maia hasn't been to school except for a year at Summerhill, in England. She does art with various mentors here in Costa Rica and sometimes in the US, and right now is working with a water-colorist. She loves writing, painting, sculpting, and stained glass. She collects animal skulls and does something to them with clay and paints . I'll put up a pic when I have a chance. She also loves to cook; especially things with butter, shrimp, cream, and Parmesan cheese. She's a loyal friend.

Together the three of us travel at the drop of anything...we do home exchanges (www.homeexchange.com #12751) to make it affordable, and our favorite places so far are Boston, Guatemala, and Spain. And Concrete:)

[Cait]

I looove that word 'elsewhen', Sharon! lol....reminds me of Aidan's 'beforning' (yesterday)

[Jennifer Landauer]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Jennifer, in Shelton. I'm so excited to find people in our area! We just moved from Austin, Tx. We had found a wonderful unschooling community there and I was really surprised not to find the same in the Olympia area. Have I just missed it?

My husband Murray is a photographer and is trying to get his business going here in the area so he can quit his corporate job and be free of their schedule. He does get to work from home but hates being chained to the computer while the rest of us are playing all day.

We have 3 kiddos that we have been unschooling for 8 months. My older two did public school and I would be happy to share the horrors of that nightmare if anyone is interested. We are recovering and truly enjoying each day together. Maybe more because we know what public school life!

Josie is 9 and loves to sew anything she can get her hands on. She is a big fan of Project Runway. She also loves theater, reading mysteries, baking and teaching. She loves to play with other kids but usually they think she's weird and aren't always nice. We think she's great!

Ryan is 7 and is our resident Lego Master. He also enjoys star wars, dinosaurs, and the solar system. His favorites shows are Mythbusters and How it's made.

Alex is our baby even though he is almost 4. He loves any type of sports but also enjoys playing legos with his brother.

We would really love to find other families to hang out at the park with or get together!