the network for radical unschooling families

August 2008 Blog Posts (62)

A new one, and Miss Holly

Yesterday I went to a grocery store I don't usually go to, and I was wearing my Learn Nothing Day shirt. The checker looked at the shirt and read it and kinda squinted and said "So are you an unschooler?"

Never have been asked that by a stranger outside of a homeschooling conference!

I said "Yes, are you?" She nodded and then said, "We were, but this year we might use Abeka." She sounded sad about that, so I responded with a sad nod, like she had said "One kitten died, but… Continue

Added by Sandra Dodd on August 31, 2008 at 4:30pm — 3 Comments

A Balanced Subject Diet

Being new to unschooling (yet quickly getting the hang of it) I still have a tendency to compartmentalize. I am still trying to unschool myself. I like schedules and lists and knowing what to expect and following through. I keep a weekly planner where I notate interesting things and activities that I would like to "strew" around my child's environment. I write them… Continue

Added by Bekah on August 29, 2008 at 4:00pm — 3 Comments

Obama unschooling moment

We were watching Obama's acceptance speech (WOOOOHOOOO!) as a family unit and he was talking about where the government's responsibility for education ends and the parent's begins by saying that only the parents can tell the kids to turn off the TV and do their homework.

As a unit Mary and I turn to the kids and jokingly tell them to go do their homework 'cause Barack said so and as a unit they tell us in all seriousness that watching this speech is doing their… Continue

Added by Jon Gold on August 29, 2008 at 1:01am — 2 Comments

Unschooling

This is in my RSS feed from my blog but I thought I would add it here as well.

My friend Erin asked me if I would share about unschooling and how we were inspired to take this journey. With all the kids currently asleep I am going to attempt to share with you all a bit.

We started out homeschooling in a structured way. We started the year our oldest would have gone to Kindergarten. We didn’t have much money but I worked to find curriculum that would fit our budget. That… Continue

Added by JoAnn on August 27, 2008 at 6:52am — 2 Comments

back to school

This is a strange time of year. Our young friends are getting ready to return to school. I get that almost giddy feeling when I walk into Staples and see all of the "back to school" supplies displayed so nicely. I hear my friends say they are looking forward to their kids going back so they'll have time to themselves. There's just so much about this time of year that I can't relate to any more. Today, the boys and I went to the playground to meet a friend and her son. As it turns out, several… Continue

Added by Kim S. on August 26, 2008 at 8:30pm — 8 Comments

Our Minnesota Unschooling Hoorah!

We had a really awesome weekend visiting friends in Minnesota. We visited with two families. One family lives on a dairy farm with about 200 Holstein cows and two kids (one boy and one girl). The mom is from Rio, Brazil. Her husband is from Minnesota. It was such a wonderful experience staying with them. They were hospitable and a lot of fun! We toured the dairy farms a few times. We ran from the bull that NEVER gets loose. We went to beautiful White Water State Park. Nothing out of the… Continue

Added by Cliff and Heather on August 25, 2008 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Jayn's Learning Process

This is adapted from a post I made to Always Learning back in February, 08. It was in reply to someone who was very keen to offer classes and more, more, more information at every opportunity.

I found it while clearing out my email log, and read it again. This struck me as a great description of how the learning still happens around here, especially as we near the end of a summer when the number of outings to educational places has been zero and the amount of overtly academic stuff… Continue

Added by Robyn L. Coburn on August 25, 2008 at 2:13pm — No Comments

When Jayn Reads

>Originally published in Connections 7 - June 2007

Granny is concerned that Jayn can’t read yet. She says that when Jayn can read, she wants to give her a present of the Nancy Drew books. With gratitude for her kindness and evident love, I nonetheless chuckle at her notion that creating a reward is a great way of pushing Jayn forward to what Granny erroneously believes must be my top priority, even while my willingness to read to Jayn… Continue

Added by Robyn L. Coburn on August 24, 2008 at 5:45pm — 2 Comments

The Beautiful Park

I wrote this parable a few years ago, and Sandra keeps it on her website. In googling myself, I noticed that it is in a couple of other places around the web and even in some discussions, which is just fine. But I thought that since I finally have something of my own blog, it should be here too. So here it is.

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Once upon a… Continue

Added by Robyn L. Coburn on August 24, 2008 at 8:59am — 1 Comment

If I won the super mega multi million dollar lottery ...

and had more money than God, here is one thing I thought about doing.

Creating a home school clubhouse that would be very unschooly...

These are the notes I scribbled down one day when I was dreaming:

A cross between a children’s museum, a clubhouse, a drop-in center, a coffee shop and a private home.

Emphatically not a day care center, which requires licensing.

Not an after-school care place – maybe it should… Continue

Added by Robyn L. Coburn on August 24, 2008 at 8:38am — 6 Comments

A poem to share.

I wrote this a few years ago and find myself thinking about it a lot as I learn more about unschooling and practice letting go. I thought I would share it here.

My Path

My path is lit by moonglow

My pace is mine to keep

My fields are sown with secrets

They're mine alone to reap

We'll share a loaf of bread my friend

when next we merry meet

But do not tempt yourself to tread

the trail beneath my feet

My place is where I find… Continue

Added by Danielle on August 24, 2008 at 12:04am — 5 Comments

A Cave Man's Train...

The girls have been watching LOTR today, and Emma said that the Hobbit's feet look like cave man feet. Then she shuffled her feet across the floor, and said "Uga, Uga..."

Which produced a joke...What does a cave man's train sound like?

Uga Uga Choo Choo!

Added by Paige on August 23, 2008 at 10:52pm — No Comments

Ooooooohhh....myspace for unschoolers!

Sorry, I couldn't resist the comparison. I am a myspace junkie myself. My friends and family all use myspace. None of us even check our email anymore because we all just message each other. My brother pointed out a few months ago that email is for old people (yeah). I don't know if I'd go that far...but ,at least in our group, it's not far off.

I am glad to have found a familiar format to explore opinions and experiences as I try to evolve into unschooling. There seems to be a lot of inner… Continue

Added by Danielle on August 23, 2008 at 12:54pm — 4 Comments

Late night learning

I am a morning person, have always been that way. Staying up late was always hard for me. I was usually the first one asleep at sleepovers and the first one up. So it makes perfect sense that I have given birth to at least 3 night owls who seem to get into a learning mode at about 10pm until the wee hours of the morning.

Right now the Aly is up doing an African dance workout video. Emily (3yo) is trying to workout too which is causing some distress for Aly. SiSi and I have been… Continue

Added by JoAnn on August 23, 2008 at 12:24am — 1 Comment

I Just LOVE My Life!

Thats about it...I just LOVE my life! I love being home with my family, I love hearing my kids talk in the other room about Avatar, I love living life with out the conditions of society, I love NOT having to go back to school, I love staying up late with my daughter and sleeping in in the morning, I love helping my son on world of warcraft, I love helping my husband with everything (he broke his collar bone last Sunday)I know it's hard for even me to believe! I love writting in run on sentences… Continue

Added by Tracy Liebmann on August 22, 2008 at 8:58pm — 3 Comments

Just a Vent

I didn't really have any intentions of blogging in two places but since this one is currently more hidden than my other one I thought I could safely vent some frustrations regarding our approach and other's lack of understanding.

First let me say that I am not mad at anyone, just at the lack of understanding and the clear disregard for boundries. We are unschoolers plain and simple. While I think it is great for our family I do not in any way tell people who school at home that they… Continue

Added by JoAnn on August 20, 2008 at 2:53pm — 5 Comments

I love Dove Chocolate Promises...

First off, its CHOCOLATE! What's not to love? But let's not forget the added bonus of the message inside the wrapper! When I unwrapped this one, I giggled. Then I thought to myself, WHY NOT?!

I need a special place. Our home is a great "unschooling nest", but I need to feather an area all for myself. I may allow others in from time to time, but I need a corner that's all about my unschooling needs.

Planning this out, I'm going to need music, bookshelves, art space,… Continue

Added by Dawning on August 18, 2008 at 7:38pm — 3 Comments

Humor that demeans kids

Holly and I saw this at the hardware store and she telephoned a photo over to photobucket. I've added it to my small collection of commentary on child-demeaning humor. http://sandradodd.com/notfunny

If we laugh with and at things like this, we encourage other adults to treat children and teens as objects of ridicule, and we encourage the idea that it's funny and fine and good to say "NO!" to teens (and then laugh). It shouldn't… Continue

Added by Sandra Dodd on August 17, 2008 at 8:08pm — 22 Comments

Connections

My favorite thing about unschooling is making all kinds of connections between different things, and I love to read about the things people learn watching TV and playing video games and generally having fun. So I thought I would post about some of the connections I've made this week while doing my favorite things!

On Sunday I watched the week's new Venture Bros. episode, which involved having to figure out a secret code… Continue

Added by Bonnie on August 16, 2008 at 6:30am — 1 Comment

Sleeping Life

This is a reprint and slight update of our sleep story. This is our life.

Jayn is almost 9 and continues to live in the rotating sleep pattern that has become the norm at our house.

Jayn lives on a 26-28 hour day. She sleeps for close to 10 hours and then stays awake for 16 - 18. Since the world is rotating once every 24 hours, this means we (she and I) are on a permanent slow march around the clock. Sometimes she divides… Continue

Added by Robyn L. Coburn on August 15, 2008 at 7:17pm — 9 Comments