the network for radical unschooling families

October 2010 Blog Posts (13)

The girls' interests vs. Mom and Dad's interests

My oldest daughter has interests in fashion, music, boys, photography, reading, social networking, writing poems, pop culture and journaling--just to name a few.

My mid kid has interests in baking, basketball, football, horseback riding, animals, writing, reading Harry Potter books, mentoring at the church, boys, drawing...

My youngest enjoys crafts, puzzles, singing, piano, dancing, performing, computer dress-up games, helping mom, cooking and currently all…

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Added by Marilyn Shannahan on October 27, 2010 at 1:25pm — 4 Comments

He Wants Worksheets!!! EEEKKK!!!!

I normally blog over on Multiply, but I only want this one read by unschoolers. Yesterday DS11 freaked me out because he said, "I'm glad I don't go to school because I'm not smart."

I questioned him why he felt that he was not smart. Several weeks ago he hinted at this issue and I grabbed a 6th grade math textbook. We sat down going through the first 10 lessons… Continue

Added by Dawning on October 26, 2010 at 2:49pm — 2 Comments

Celebrating the Holidays – – How Families Can Keep the Joy & Lose the Stress

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Added by Christine Yablonski on October 24, 2010 at 12:13pm — 1 Comment

Labeling

Labels are useful - they help us categorize & systemize. They allow for a quick understanding of what something is. When I go to the bookstore, I follow the labels to find the book I'm looking for. When I'm researching for something online, I use keywords, another form of labeling, to get to what I need quickly. Labels are…

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Added by Christine Yablonski on October 18, 2010 at 1:46pm — No Comments

Cigarettes, Horses and Lavendar

Gracie and I had a great time in Kentucky. She was a helpful co-pilot and the drive was spectacular. The rolling hills and fall foliage were breathtaking.

When we arrived in Kentucky we were surprised to find out a lot of people smoke in the restaurants. Where we live there is very little public smoking areas. I felt like I smoked a pack of cigarettes by the time I finished my first meal. Also, when I ordered tea it arrived already…

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Added by Marilyn Shannahan on October 12, 2010 at 9:07pm — No Comments

Class Dismissed - Documentary about homeschooling

Dear friends and supporters,

You can now follow the progress of Class Dismissed, our documentary about homeschooling, on Facebook.

Class Dismissed will be the first full-length documentary devoted to exploring homeschooling as a viable alternative to the industrial school

model. This film will show how homeschooling is not only rapidly

growing in popularity, but how it crosses all social and economic

boundaries and…

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Added by Jeremy Stuart on October 12, 2010 at 1:26pm — No Comments

Fall Reading

They each have magazine subscriptions they have chosen and an important event each day is the walk to the mailbox to see if anything has come for them. Which one is in charge of this task is rotated, but both of them almost always go together regardless of whose turn it is. When a new issue comes, often they don't manage to return to the house for some hours. Here is where I found them this evening.…

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Added by Scott on October 7, 2010 at 4:27pm — 4 Comments

Unschooling is for Everyone

Schooling is a recent invention in human history and since becoming institutionalized has been used much as tool of oppression, suppression and enforced conformity.

Unschooling is a much older way of learning.

Some may ask, can unschooling benefit everyone? Are there classes of people who can not benefit from the unschooling approach?

One might wonder for example if a family is not wealthy, does not have a car, lives…

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Added by Scott on October 7, 2010 at 12:30pm — 3 Comments

You don't get to call yourself an unschooler

What sort of power dynamic must exist for one person to be able to determine what another person gets to do, or to determine as their identity, or even description of how they live their life?

For one person to suppose to tell another than they don't get to call themselves something then the first person must be some sort of very high ranking and powerful dictator who has the right to tell others who they are and what they can do.

Such a power…

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Added by Scott on October 7, 2010 at 4:49am — 8 Comments

Building a Cat House

We had a tree felled last week. Since then they have been working outside most of the day each day on different projects with the limbs. There have been many experiments with arrangements of limbs to see which is the most stable. There has also been exploration and…

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Added by Scott on October 4, 2010 at 11:30pm — No Comments

The Learning Styles Of The Fun And The Not So Fun

“Mom, teach me to tell time!” asked my seven year-old, Madeline.

I replied, “Okay Maddy,… Continue

Added by jenny penton on October 4, 2010 at 5:00pm — 7 Comments

Hair Issues

Many unschooling families eventually face the issue of children's hair choices. Should they comb it, wash it, braid it, shave it, color it, cut it? One's hair style does project a message and there are many assumptions that…

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Added by Scott on October 3, 2010 at 8:30pm — 4 Comments

Saturday football

LSU's on TV, the potato salad's done been ett, and my sock isn't knitting itself. I'm going to join the daddy and the older boy in the living room cheering on the purple and gold, or at least doing his special cheer with him when they score. It's a good one--a rolling of fists, then a hands-up RAWR, followed by open-hand claws grabbing the open-hand claws of a family member, and another RAWR.

I hope he remembers Saturdays in the fall with the windows open and the kitchen…

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Added by Teresa on October 2, 2010 at 3:27pm — No Comments