Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. -Tom Sawyer
Unschooling: What We Learn
…very little of what is taught in school is learned, very little of what is learned is remembered, and very little of what is remembered is used. The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschool parts of our lives. -John Holt, from How […]
Radical Unschooling: A Visit to the Dentist
Recently I took my youngest daughter, Maggie, to her first dental appointment. She’s my fourth, so I didn’t give it a whole lot of thought. I figured it would go like the initial visits of my three older kids. Our pediatric dentist works hard to make children’s dental experiences positive, and all of my other […]
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 […]
The Mother Duck Phenomenon
Okay, tell me if this rings a bell… My kids are all playing happily as I head to the shower. In under five minutes, I’ve got one in the shower with me, another keeping me company perched on the potty, and the other two hovering just outside the bathroom door. I can’t remember the last […]