Two Canadian sisters, nine spectacular kids, no school.
Last month I went to parent-teacher interviews for E—my first ever. When I arrived, the teacher, who just started this year, told me I was her first ever, too. So she, E, and I have something in common. Anyway, I had awaited the interview eagerly so I could measure what the teacher said against the... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Learning never stops. We don’t need a schedule; just a passion for knowledge, and the confidence and skills to seek it out.
“Humans are born curious, creative, and intuitive.” - Sir Ken Robinson
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 →
How long does it take a ten year old who’s done almost no curriculum to “catch up” with her schooled peers? Turns out: not long.
I was talking to a friend the other day about changes that have been in the works in our local school system. I didn't know this, but apparently for a few years now the elementary schools have been working under a new grading system, where they don't rank the children by numbers or letters. Instead,... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
