When I was just hours old, I did something truly astonishing in my mother’s opinion. I managed to fill my diaper. Enthralled as only a first-time parent can be, my mom promptly called up her entire family. “She works!” my triumphant mother exclaimed. It’s funny how we can know something intellectually, but it doesn’t truly […]
Unschooling Blog
Unschoolers Have Doubts, Too
Being a teacher, I was kind of amazed at how naturally our family made the transition from school-at-home to unschooling. Maybe the fact that I am a teacher helped. It was pretty easy for me to find the learning in most of my kids’ activities, which was reassuring – especially at first. But I’m going […]
Unschooling: Yes, Sometimes It Sucks
I’m going to be honest with you. Unschooling has been an awesome experience for our family. But not every minute. Sometimes things go south. Sometimes they go even further downhill than that. And yes, there are moments that truly suck. Now, I’m not telling you this to bring you down – really! I’m telling you […]
Unschooling: Can You Be Successful without College?
Ordinarily, I like to think of myself as more pro-unschooling than anti-school. I prefer to spend my energy focused on the positives of the unschooling approach rather than on the negatives associated with traditional schooling. However, a recent episode of Harry’s Law, which touched on whether a college degree is still essential in this day […]
Unschooling: What’s the Value of a Diploma?
I can’t shake the sneaking suspicion that a closet unschooler is a writer on Harry’s Law. An episode I watched a while back seemed just loaded with unschooling philosophy. I found its premise to be so unschool-y, in fact, that I’ve written about it not once, but twice already. And here I go again… If […]
Are Kids Supposed to Hate School?
So as it turns out, I’m writing a small series on a single episode of a show called Harry’s Law. What does that have to do with unschooling, you ask? You’d be surprised. The episode centers around 16-year old Scott, who’s battling his parents in court in order to win the right to quit high […]
Popular TV Show Promotes Unschooling Philosophy
Anybody who’s followed my posts probably knows by now that tv shows tend to ignite my thoughts about unschooling. Usually, it’s kid shows I have something to say about, but today I’m writing about one of a handful of grown-up shows I manage to watch: Harry’s Law. This particular episode caught my attention because it […]
Unschooling: Yes, Spelling Counts
When I taught elementary school, there were some things we teachers would lament about year after year. Near the top of the list was our students’ truly atrocious spelling. Oh sure, they’d do okay on the spelling tests. But going through a piece of their writing was as grating as nails on a chalkboard. Simple […]
Happy Birthday! Academics Unschooling Style
Unschooling parents don’t set out to teach academics. But that doesn’t mean academics is missing in action. It shows up in some pretty unusual places. At our house, it recently put in an appearance at a birthday party. When Thomas, my oldest, turned one I planned a fabulous duckie party. For my twins, it was […]
Real Life Learning: Project Tie-Dye
If you’ve read my post about contagious enthusiasm, you already know that my family had a bit of a tie-dye adventure a while back. What began as a simple activity grew into a major project. This is where following a child’s passion can take you! After a morning of tie-dying their own stuff, my kids […]