Thursday, August 20, 2009

Rhythm









We are finding our rhythm after summer. As much as I would like to say we set our own rhythm because we don't go to school, this is not true. The majority of our friends go to school, so once their school starts, things quiet down here. The focus becomes more internal--more on the family. I've noticed that the kids seem to find there own rhythm if allowed to do that. I think too often we want to jump the gun and direct our kids activities, etc. Then resistance sets in. Kids know want they need to do if allowed the time to discover it on their own.

Yesterday we had our first art class. There is a great artist in town who loves to teach kids. Her artwork is funky, fun and colorful. The kids really wanted to learn more about art, so she is coming once a week to work with them. They learned "perspective" yesterday. Wow! I've never learned perspective (at least in art!) and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. Okay, so maybe it was a bit over Henry's head (he's 7) but we live and learn. He said next time he wants to learn how to draw something he would us everyday--like stars...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Deschooling


A common term in the "unschooling" world is deschooling. Deschooling is a process by which one begins to let go and discover who they are. (There is probably a better definition, but this is the one I came up with right now.) Alot of emotions can come up at this time. For me, every year when the public school behind our house starts school in August, I get a little sad. It makes no logical sense. I wouldn't trade what we are doing for anything. But, I still feel it at the start of every school year. Enough said.

A funny thing just happened while I was writing this post. A friend called. She is already irritated with the whole school thing. They have been in school two whole days. Everything was quickly put back into perspective for me. Isn't life funny that way? On top of that, our family had so much fun playing together at the park today. We couldn't have had that special time if they were in school. Life is grand...

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

To begin...


It is high time I created a record of my family and our unschooling journey. We have been unschooling now for three years! In case you are unfamiliar with unschooling, it is a journey of life learning--following your passions from inside, rather than following what an outside authority is telling you to "learn." I've always loved discovering and learning. For me, it is the juice in life. I feel this is true for people in general. However, due to the pressures of the modern world, and our "drive to get ahead", learning has been reduced to a set of curriculum objectives to ensure successful testing. In my experience, the longer one is in this kind of environment, the further one is pulled away from the love of learning. I wasn't sure about this unschooling stuff, so I have stayed quiet now for a good three years. I've been observing the validity of this unschooling experiment and will continue to do so. However, at this stage of the experiment, I see nothing but amazing results. My family is excited about life and the process of discovering. Our days are less pressure filled. My kids are more able to respond to their own life, rather than to an artificial set of dictums created to organize a large body of people (i.e. school.) By the way, three years ago when I first heard about unschooling, I laughed out loud. Literally. It sounded so absurd. Now nothing else makes sense but unschooling. Having said that, should the day come when one or more of my three children want to go back to school, so be it. It is their life--not mine.