The weird thing about unschooling is that the name is kind of terribly misrepresentative--unschooling isn't about school at all. It's about believing that learning happens naturally, all the time, and that if natural learning is fostered, then it continues unrepressed forever. So "unschooling" isn't just a thing that children do in lieu of school. It's... Continue Reading →
Life in the Theatre
It’s been a busy few weeks, participating in the week-long camp for the homeschool play, and starting performances of the community theatre show. E and G had fun stretching themselves and making friends during the homeschool production, but they have been most excited to perform in the real serious money making adult participation community show.... Continue Reading →
Unschooling with Public School
I have been wrestling the past few days with a philosophical paradox. It started when E complained to me about a couple schooled cohorts of hers who like to quiz her on some of the dubiously useful trivia they picked up in school. She didn't have the answer, and she doesn't have trivia of her... Continue Reading →
Two Typical Days
You probably didn't know this about me, but I live a half hour from a Unesco World Heritage Site. Yeah. Alberta's that cool. It is, of course, about dinosaurs. Yeah. Alberta's that much of a desert wasteland. Joking! Sort of. Our climate zone is definitely on the "arid" side of temperate, but Dinosaur Provincial Park... Continue Reading →
Enjoy Summer THEN GET BACK TO WORK
One of the local elementary schools is in my neighbourhood, so I pass by their sign board relatively often. Over the summer, this is the message they had up: And I thought it was cool how, in principle anyway, we seem to have shared values. The difference, I suppose, is in application. Their admonition to... Continue Reading →
Flowers
Amy and I will have to give ourselves a collective slap on the wrist--not a single post in all of July! Summer does that to you, perhaps: a big jumbled mess of busy, languid; travel, lounging; visiting, reading--in a hammock. Always in a hammock! Today I biked to a provincial park in oppressive heat, then... Continue Reading →
Lemonade
Let's get schooly for a moment. Not that I think spending your life comparing yourself to others is a great plan, but when you're living alternatively, occasionally getting schooly has its benefits. It can help to validate one's own choices, and help others to understand said choices, by speaking their language. I come in peace.... Continue Reading →
Internet Famous
It’s true, fair readers. You can now say you knew us when because we are about to BLOW UP. Just kidding. But we did have a fun time interviewing with Robyn of the podcast “Honey, I’m Homeschooling the Kids”. She interviews all sorts of people doing all sorts of interesting things, and also us. Have... Continue Reading →
The Lesson by the Lake
When we moved here to Brooks, one thing I was excited about was the location of our rental. It overlooked the biggest of the town's manmade lakes; very picturesque, and it has a well maintained paved path going all around. It's about 2.5 km, with a nice play structure 1/3 of the way around. In the... Continue Reading →
Hypocrisy and All of It
Here's a thing about unschoolers: we are an incredibly amorphous group. You can't even fairly call us a group--we have no leader, no rule book; we're all over the map. All we have are ideas. Sure, those ideas started with one man, who put them into some great books, but there's still about a million ways to... Continue Reading →