Earlier this week, I had the remarkable experience of seeing how powerfully my own “inner story” affected my daughter, Katy. Yesterday, I had yet another amazing experience: witnessing the power of a silent “I’m sorry”. These days, my son Thomas tends to be the most mellow of my bunch. But yesterday, I could tell something […]
Peaceful Parenting: It’s All in my Head
My daughter Katy reminds me very much of myself. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she has what many people would call a “meltdown”. I remember what it felt like at her age to experience such enormous, strong emotions. Being a “spirited” child, I experienced all of my emotions intensely, including my anger. Back […]
An Unschooling Twist on Worksheets
Friends of ours recently gave us a bunch of old workbooks their kids had outgrown, and today I pulled one out just out of curiosity. It was kind of cute, using classic literature and incorporating a few skill-based worksheets. As I flipped through the pages, Faith’s eye fell on some cut outs of farm animals […]
Kohn: No Need for Rewards
…if your objective is to get long-term quality in the workplace, to help students become careful thinkers and self-directed learners, or to support children in developing good values, then rewards, like punishments, are absolutely useless. In fact, as we are beginning to see, they are worse than useless – they are actually counterproductive. -Alfie Kohn, […]
Say Goodbye to Standards: how unschoolers learn what they need, when they want
Because I’ve yet to entirely vanquish the schoolteacher in my head, every once in a while I find myself perusing the school system’s scope and sequence. This is a weighty document that spells out everything a child in a particular grade is supposed to have covered, and – with any luck – mastered. Eight years […]