Caged Chickens?

This morning I walked by our neighborhood school as the kids were lining up to get into the building.  As I listened to all the noises coming from the kids and saw all the kids in bunches, I felt sad.  An image of factory raised chickens came to my mind.  I thought, "For many kids going into school this morning this is a prison.  They don't have a choice to stay home and be a homeschooler or go to school.  The choice has been made for them." It made me feel lucky that my kids have choices and know there are alternatives available to them.  But then I wondered how Sophia, who has never been to school will view her experience in high school next year.  Will she see school like I do as a prison just trying to get kids through the system or in her boredom with homeschooling right now, will she view it as complete freedom?

Instinctual - Kids Move Naturally

MovNat has a great post about kids and how they move naturally called Instinctual.  MovNat says, "Moving naturally is instinctual - an innate behavior, and it is the second MovNat Principal.  It is for this reason that young children start moving naturally without any instruction and even before the full development of language."  Check out the entire post.  It's very interesting and definitely something to think about with our own kids.

This American Life Monster

I have created a monster thirsting for knowledge.  A few months back I wrote about introducing Alexander to This American Life podcasts.  He now listens to several a night and has gone back as far as 2009.  With each podcast he has more questions about our government, politics, money, and more.  He hears names on podcasts and searches online to find out more information about these people.  I love it! 

You Know You're Unschooling When....

You know you're unschooling when your 15 year old son sits down with a geometry book for no other reason than he finds it interesting.

You know you're unschooling when having the right answer to the questions isn't enough - he has to understand the answer too.

You know you're unschooling when you have never asked your child to study math yet he says, "I think I'll do two more pages before dinner."

You know you're unschooling when your daughter who proclaimed she would never learn math memorized almost all of her multiplication facts in two days because she is preparing for high school and wants to be up to speed with her peers before starting in August.

You know you're unschooling when your daughter reads every word of a high school handbook and starts thinking, "Hmmm...the bus picks us up at 6:30am and school doesn't start until 7:45.  Why does it take so long?"

You know you're unschooling when your daughter realizes at 13 (while reading the handbook) that "F" means failure and is horrified as to how that would make a person feel, yet knows all about back to school shopping and that you can't bring guests to dances if they don't attend the school.

You know you're unschooling when your son wants to know the guidelines for going to school part-time and shares that if a deal cannot be worked out that meets his needs, he will remain a full-time homeschooler.

How do you know you're unschooling?

Born To Learn But Not Free To Learn

My husband was sharing with me this morning how one of the guys at work is having issues with his son and the school.  Apparently his son isn't keeping up with his classmates and the teacher is considering holding him back a grade next year.  My husband said, "It makes people feel awful."  We talked about how another person's perception of what you should know and how much you should know by a certain age not only makes the child feel awful when those expectations aren't met, but it also makes the parent wonder what they did wrong.  It is sad.  My husband often shares with his coworkers that each child is different and when they learn something should not to be determined by a group of school officials or  even parents. Learning is very individual.  His coworkers all nod their heads and agree with my husband, yet they all keep following the same patterns set out by society.

Check out this cool video by Born to Learn.

This American Life

Whenever I am in the car alone, I listen to podcasts.  When I get home I am always excited to tell Alexander, 15, about what I learned from these podcasts because he tends to engage me in great conversations about the topics.  I have been trying to get him to listen to This American Life from NPR, one of my favorite podcasts, as I knew he would love the topics too.  He kept saying "Yeah, I am planning to."  Finally I said, "Just listen to this one so we can talk about it." 

The next morning I asked if he had a chance to listen to the podcast.  He said, "Yes, and I listened to five others."  Since then he has completed all the podcasts from 2011 that interested him and loves telling me about each one.  In fact, I discovered that there were a few that I missed and went back and listened to. 

I love having conversations with Alexander.  He is a thinker and his thoughts often challenge me to think in new ways.  I love that as he gets older we can share in things that interest the both of us.  I love having teenagers!!!!

The Challenge

Last night my husband and I had dinner with another homeschooling (not unschooling) couple.  I shared that Sophia will be going to high school next year.  I explained in her words that public school is an experience she has never experienced and since it is there, why not?  The father said, "I just worry that she won't be challenged enough in her classes."  This made me think.  Sophia isn't going to school to be challenged academically, she will challenge herself as needed with that as she always has.  For her the challenge is in the experiences themselves that she will have as a public school student.  She is getting excited for this challenge and I have no doubt will do quite well with it.