Words of Wisdom From People Smarter Than Me

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence"
-Robert Frost

A Fun Day

Today we did our gamepalooza and had a blast! About twenty kids were here playing all kinds of games from chess to Halo. There were noisy zones and quiet rooms, chatting moms and giggling kids.

We set up games on little low tables, or on the floor all over the house and then let the kids go nuts

We began the day with game prep and a fabulous thunderstorm and ended with a stunning sunset and lots of talk about visiting with old friends and making new ones.

Every time I host this, I get a new mix of moms and we almost always jibe. Each time, I think "I should make a group... " but since it has a magic all its own, I'm just going to leave it alone for now.

We had a little time to talk philosophy, so many of these folks have always homeschooled it amazes me. It strikes me as incredible that you can have that confidence and foresight. I needed a bad experience to get me in line :-)
Until next time....

Deeper Meaning

I is interesting to me, how much TIME matters. Without the time to contemplate... I can't really be present. I can't really use my full faculties. Even as a stay-at-home kids are in school mom, I kept myself busy all the time. Doing what... I wondered later. fortunately it wasn't years later. I am not a workaholic by nature and so I caught myself, cut out the wasted time and focused on what matters. Still those months haunt me becuase there is some bizarre pull to fill all moments of silence.
I just went on an errand and noticed a view that I couldn't pass up. Its Sunday so I had nothing pressing to return home to and thought, well, I'll go enjoy that for a moment. Its a luxury for me to do what I want without negotiation. Even then, I couldn't stop "doing", I looked for a minute and kept checking to see if I was in someone's way, and then I'd pick up my book I was reviewing for next years science studies and I realized I felt hurried as I pulled away. I needn't have... I was entirely in control of my open hours and yet there were tasks pushing down on me.
I am just now in my late thirties learning to follow my interests without the brutal interior critic stopping me before I start. So I am engaging in lots more activities and exploring more things "to do". I'd better take some time, some silent time to just be. Without that I risk becoming one of those families that has no time for each other because they are so busy.
When you are so busy its hard to think about what matters, about the deeper meaning of our days, our lives. You just keep plugging along waiting for the next "break" which is then filled with other activities.
So for me, time is not a luxury... its a necessity if I want to do this job well; my job as parent and as home educating parent. Adn as wife and friend and pt worker and entrepreneur... stop me! Time to think now.
C-ya soon.

Sleepy Musings

Can't let another day go by without blogging, but am finishing up another busy day way to late!
My dd sleeps on the couch next to me as I've been tapping away on my website and volunteer brainstorming for our home education network we are in the process of creating.
Forming our inclusive homeschool network is really exciting and really nerve wracking. There have been personality clashes and huffy departures, deep bonding over hard work, and even a few laughs! A lot of laughs!
The other women on the board laugh at me because I guard vigilantly against the "professionalizing" of the board. Even saying board sounds to fussy - we are a bunch of moms who are commited to our kids and who choose to home school in order to keep our kids whole, happy and excited about life and learning.
I want meetings to include interruptions from the 8 year old who is really pissed 'cause his sister and he inadvertently switched swim trunks and the fit was not to his liking... what would a meeting be if you couldn't have the reminder of what you are doing it for interrupting you every five minutes for a cookie.
Ok, so I jest a little. But I love it when we all stay REAL with each other and one mom nurses her beautiful child while another reviews her commitee status and a third handles a popcorn emergency. Its symetry and symbiosis. This is what we are volunteering for. I don't want to come back to this board in 5 years and find it taken over by suits in masks.
It won't be ! It will always be an organic, slightly crunchy, welcoming group of dedicated parents!
So, even I can laugh at me. Now I just need to remember that it is what we do now that counts and I don't need to worry quite so much about mythical events of a potential future.
Not a bad thought to finaly get some sleep on.
Bon Nuit

I reread an early post and it got me thinking...

I reread an early post and it got me thinking...

I wrote "DS then spends the rest of the day life learning and pursuing his interests.
He is fiercely independent and resists teaching, but we are working on coming to a full understanding of WHY his father and I think these things are important, and how we can come to a place where everyone's needs can be satisfied."

Hmm... I'm working towards something here.... maybe what I need to do is tell ds what I think are the benefits of being 'educated' in the way I mean- and see if I can get his buy-in (without manipulating!!) and if not let him life learn and expose him to as many varieties of things as possible. I'd love to hear comments!!

I am so stuck because I have two wonderful amazing kids and one of them would very much like to 100% control his own destiny (which also scares him and causes anxiety). This means that we've had battles in the past that neither one of us wants to repeat, and yet our family really values education (not the school variety.... the kind where one learns to communicate effectively and use logic and enjoy their creativity and so on and so on) .

I am really proud of the educational program we've created. It is "custom designed" just for us :-). I'll blog my thinking on it and the famous quotes that inspired it soon in order to gear up for our next year. Even thinking in terms of education years now seems a little strange .....

A Day

We are enjoying.. ok sometimes only enduring, our Arizona summer. The adaptive thing to do is wake really early or stay up really late but our family life doesn't work optimally with the latter and the former is still a starry eyed future dream for the chronically night owled portion of our family ; namely me and the kids :-).

Despite thoroughly accepting my night owl status I actually prefer having an early morning start to the day. It is for me , a lovely clear and clean feeling. Alas, there is always some novel or other that I can't keep away from and there begins the self sabotage :-). Even the sabotage is lovely, though ... I think I might be an obnoxiously positive person under my crusty exterior Image.

It's only July 7th and already people who school at school are gearing up for the new year. Yikes! I need to be thinking about it too, because my littlest (dd) is thinking about attending Kindergarten. She is so social I am willing to bet that it would be a good fit for her if it is half day and yet I am procrastinating. I am actually fine with very early education and will let her attend as long or as short as she would like.

I'll have to summarize our whole school experience in another entry. I bet that will help clarify things for me. Do you find that writing helps to clarify your thoughts? I hate it when I want to express something that seems very obvious but I can't find the right words. Not such a problem when I'm typing though :-) Especially with the delete key so handy :-}

 I want to talk openly about religious vs. secular homeschooling and I want to open the dialog about the way we condescend to each other about so many things (method of hsing for one!). I want to talk about mixing homeschooled and traditionaly schooled and unschooled and lots of other controversial and interesting topics I mentioned in my long ago but closely printed "inaugural blog" entry :-)

I am reading a book called the The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene which I am finding very informative and helpful. If the title resonates read it :-)

I'm writing this as I sit on my back porch listening to the sounds of the wind chimes and turning away from the keyboard as much as my limited typing skills allow because there is another spectacular arizona sunset (complete with smiley face moon) that stretches from the setting sun in the west to the pinkpurpleblue clouds it is kissing in the west and a dimpled patch of orangebrownpurple spackling the sky to the south. Dreamy. The birds are singing too. time to zone out!

please visit www.hstuff.bravehost.com and let me know what you think!

Enjoy your sunsets!!

Musings On Matters: Home Education


I will post my thoughts and our family adventures as I move inexorably towards our own version of unschooling... can't call ourselves unschooled right now b/c I intend to share what I consider to be very important  information about world history and a few other subjects. My friend uses the term Life Learner which is good but I'm still not sure that its what we do.
I will have to come up with my own name ... I found only one "published" home educator with thinking similar to mine and she seems to have disappeared off the internet Image but not before getting an awesome article out there where she called her version of homeschooling "Relaxed Homeschooling".

I really enjoyed the process of examining what is REAL and what matters... What is educated?, what is the benefit of an education? what is the best way to learn? what do the educational "experts" have to say on the subject?

I had a fun phone call from Dad today... he is so high on the whole home/unschool thing and is also in agreement with me about the vital importance of philosophy/world history.

Its cool that my Mom is supportive and nonjudgmental and interested, and even DH's Mom (a former teacher, we've seen that before!)

DH's focus is on problem solving and we are so excited to find fun ways to incorporate all these elements together.

At this point in time... just one month before we break for 2 months ...DS does a total of about 5-6 hours a week of World History, Science, Writing, Life Math, French (more on French later), Critical Thinking exercises,Computer Teaching and then each of these once a Month; Arts and Crafts, Art History , and Music Studies.

DS then spends the rest of the day life learning and pursuing his interests.
He is fiercely independent and resists teaching, but we are working on coming to a full understanding of WHY his father and I think these things are important, and how to come to a place where everyone's needs can be satisfied.

DD is the ultimate freeschooling pre-schooler She loves to explore her interests and, like her brother before her, taught herself to read. She spends lots of time on art, lifemath, story telling and reading. She also adores our science experiments. She does lots of workbooks, letters, numbers, dot-to-dot and so on, but MUST do them her way or not at all . Another fiercely independent one I can see!

Here are some of the topics I want to cover through this blog (better put it down "on paper" so I don't forget :-)

1. Analysis of "what matters" in education - Quotes, Holt, Gardner, Gatto, Dodd, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Self Cofidence, Scaffolding etc. etc.

2. Discussions of HOW we go about our life learning and education (schedule)

3. Discussions of how/if I want to move entirely to unschooling - esp. focus on Is that what John Holt really meant? (NO schooling at all)

4. Thoughts on starting an unschool facility / learning center/ resource room - see? lots of ideas :-)

5. Simplifying, Self Judgement, Wading out of the Mainstream, What Matters

6. Thoughts on being part of the formation of the Homednetaz.

7. Home Ed and Religion - Unschooling and Sanctimony (;-)

8. Whats in a name? Unschooling, Relaxed Homeschooling, Eclectic Homeschooling, Freeschooling, Radical Unschooling, Life Learning....

Lookin' forward to lots of Exploration!!!


Here's my Actual "Inaugeral Entry" copied and pasted from a previous bloghost.