I was homeschooled

Well, I wasn't...but my girls are, and the author of this article was (thanks, Grandmother Joan for calling to tell us about it!). One of my favorite points she makes is also about why we homeschool:

When I asked my mom why she decided to homeschool my brothers and I, she said, "I liked being around you." People expect a massive critique of society, which she can also do, when she feels like it. But underneath that is something much more straightforward.

I think that people want homeschooling to be incredibly complicated because school has become incredibly complicated. Education has become a messy, chaotic topic that we, as a nation, can't stop talking about. "Waiting for Superman", budget cuts, teen suicides, charter schools, healthier school lunches, colleges flooded with applications, student debt, student loans that go forever, elite preschools, KIPP, abstinence only sex ed, gay kids at prom, no child left behind, teachers' unions, rubber rooms, standardized testing, teacher suicides, cutting music and art classes, where it all is going, what we might be able to do, whether we should do it, and if it really works at all.

As Bret and I both have lots of experiences in public schools (as students, a librarian, student teaching and as coaches), and have many friends who are currently teachers, we know how hard it is...it is complicated because of the sheer size of schools/school districts. There's nothing better than having a teacher:student ratio of 1:1 (even though I'm home full time with the girls, I feel that they "learn" as much from me as they do from Bret...and we learn from them!). Or even if you look at it as a teacher:student ratio of 1:2, it's still pretty darn good.

While there are days when I long to just run a few errands solo, or feel that I am giving up a lot to stay home, in the "big picture" I know that this time will go quickly, and they will be grown up...knowing their parents well...all too soon!

The author of the above mentioned article also also writes at: unschooled.net, eat the damn cake (heck yeah!) and the Huffington Post.

Economics of Unschooling

Great article by Ren here. A couple of my favorite sections:

Food should be a celebration of life. Ideally, it is a source of pleasure and connectedness, not stress. Even with a smaller budget, approaching food and nourishment with an attitude of abundance will do so much for the level of calm and peace in a family. Portioning and worrying and talking about what one does not have isn’t going to help children feel the warmth or joy that a family exploring food with an open mind can create.

Peace and joy are more healing than any food of which I know. Healthy relationships, in which all members of the family are respected and given choice, create enough harmony to overcome any ill-effects of the “junk food” so many parents worry about constantly.

and:

For instance, when Jalen is passionate about a movie and all the toys or characters that go with it, all I have to think about is the cost of preschool. The monthly school fee is far greater than all the desires he could have in a month. His world is expanded to a much greater degree by having his choices supported than by being sent to some institution.

and:

Natural learning does have a cost attached to it. So does school. In choosing this unschooling path, we are choosing to put our money into people, into interests, into passions, into the things that really matter for each of us. I look at myself as an investor. I invest time, money and creative energy into helping my children explore their world more fully. I am investing in them as human beings. Human beings who have the potential to affect change in this world. Human beings who aren’t crushed by school thought and the paralysis it can bring. Human beings who will have the ability to see their passions as the most important path in life and who possess a deep inner knowledge that learning is a life-long endeavor. Along the way I am also investing in my own passions and interests alongside them. My children know what it means to honor those inner urgings because they see it played out from day to day as we all learn together and apart.

I think she's brilliant!

Oh, and I have a few posts labeled inexpensive fun...if you're interested. :)

Blue-Collar Brilliance

Just read this interesting article in Utne -- it originally appeared in The American Scholar.

Blue-Collar Brilliance

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Made me think about what kinds of knowledge is valued in our society, and how that impacts our perceptions of people's worth.

We're saving the world!

Love this article...it's from a Canadian, eh? Read the whole thing here.

Unschooling, by contrast, starts with the realization that you 'own' your time, and have the opportunity and responsibility to use it in ways that are meaningful and stimulating for you. When you have this opportunity, you just naturally learn a great deal, about things you care about, things that will inevitably be useful to you in making a life and a living. Your learning environment is the whole world, and you learn what and when you want, undirected by curricula, textbooks, alarm clocks and school bells. You develop deep peer relationships around areas of common interest, once you're allowed to explore and discover what those areas of interest are. And the Internet and online gaming allow you to make those relationships anywhere in the world, to draw on the brightest experts on the planet, and to communicate powerfully with like-minded, curious people of every age, culture and ideology.

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

(Click on the title of this entry to view the list, from Secular Homeschooling Magazine) OK, so this is a little blunt. But dang it's funny. We don't get all of these questions, because Sabine's so young, but I've heard a lot of them...and would add a response to the question we have heard a lot, "So...just how long are you going to homeschool her?" I usually just say we're not worrying about later...just trying to enjoy it now...but I'm thinking there could be a better response. Suggestions?

Two of my favorites on the list are:

11. We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

and

17. Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

Read and enjoy!