Unschooling allows the freedom to delve immersively into an interest for as many hours and days as they want.
Unschool Snapshot
Wednesdays are library day. Every morning we all walk the six blocks so the younger kids can participate in story time, and the older kids can peruse comics (which I now refuse to check out after G wrecked the cover of a $100 manga book) and find chapter books to bring home. After story time... Continue Reading →
A Mash of Feelings on a Big Day
It's a big day today. I have two events happening: at 11:00 am it's the annual not-back-to-school picnic which I have coordinated, and at 9:20 am my beautiful oldest child starts her first day of grade 8 in public school. Yes, today is the day I turn my kid over to the state for corporate... Continue Reading →
Teaching Creativity
“Humans are born curious, creative, and intuitive.” - Sir Ken Robinson
How a Dumb Game Taught my Kid Math by Accident
This week my seven year old learned numbers. At least, numbers into the hundreds. She can identify any number up to 999 and say it correctly. I don't know how or when my three older kids learned to do this, but I do know how my seven year old did it: through a stupid video... Continue Reading →
Counting Petals
Some of our "school" supplies.
Couch-schooling
Education happens anywhere and everywhere, and in our family it happens on the couch. We have a huge blue velvet sectional sofa that seats everyone and the dog comfortably with room to spare, and it's always a mess of books, drawing supplies, discarded socks, and cushions mashed into the shape of children's bodies. The couch... Continue Reading →
Ditch the Curriculum; It’s in the Way
The best way to learn is participating in life. We were invited to collect trash with friends, so we did it!
DIY Field Trip
Leave kids to their own devices and they’ll come up with some great stuff—like a trip to the local police station!
We Cannot Teach our Kids to Compete with Machines
I remember watching a video of Chinese entrepreneur, Jack Ma, speaking a couple of years ago and the message has stuck with me. He was criticizing the education systems of the world for being too focused on teaching kids to do tasks that a computer could do much better. He said that if we want... Continue Reading →