Unschooling Catholics

Blogging an unschooling morning..

2012-01-28T01:50:00.000-08:00

Friday morning here.

I was set to work outside the home one to six in the afternoon so there popped up a free morning ....which is rare.

My alarm was set for early so I could go to mass at Tyburn convent with the Benedictine nuns. Ah, peace..

Came home, kids were exercising, showering, Facebooking...

I did a few chores and chatted to my twenty year old about stoicism.

And then my sixteen year old started making pancakes for breakfast.

With that smell in the air I did a Taebo workout ..Cardio Scilpt. Go Billy Blanks!

And then made and had some pancakes myself.

We talked about our plans for today and for the weekend ( youngest son and I taking a bus to Canberra to stay with an older son who works there in Parliament and going to the Renaissance Exhibition at the Art Gallery).

Kids reading (those old Donna Parker books that I was addicted to as a girl, Dorothy Sayer's Gaudy INight, finishing off Dante's Divine Comedy, a book on Stoic Philosophy, a book on Catholic Bioethics by our Bishop, A Wrinkle in Time as its the 50th anniversary of that book!).

I went into laundry, emails, talking, planning on doing banking for Kumon and taking whoever wants to come to the shops with me, reading Ten Habits of Happy Mothers.

And we looked at the saint book for today.. Sts Fabian and Sebastian.

And two sons started a game on Playstation 3.

That's our unschool morning .

Anyone else?

No curriculum

2012-01-15T00:02:00.000-08:00

A great read. On why you don't need a curriculum.

You don't, you know..

From Linda Dobson:

A curriculum is a course of study. It might help if you think of it as a highly planned tour through learning. If, in your exploration of do-it-yourself education reform, you feel more comfortable using such a tour guide, then by all means use a tour guide! There are many sources of lists and general outlines of what someone somewhere has deemed that children should know and in what order they should learn these things. You can use the information to see where your child is and where your child will go.

Traveling the Learning Path Independently

But what if, in your learning journey, you begin with no particular place to go? What if, instead of being a professionally planned excursion complete with an itinerary some travel agency thought would be worthwhile, your family’s trip becomes more like a jaunt on a beautiful spring afternoon, taken not to get anywhere in particular but only to enjoy being free to enjoy? Instead of getting on a bus with forty strangers, you might decide to walk, or ride a bike, horse, or four-wheeler, or drive around in circles stopping at inviting places along the way.You may not see every classic site that those on the guided tour witness, but if they are among the places that interest you, you will visit some. You will also have under your belt experiences of value to you personally. For example, let’s say you’ve tried fly fishing a time or two and enjoyed it, so for you, a visit to that funky little fly fishing museum is in order. While there you pick up ideas for new flies to make, talk with the proprietor about a few streams to try, and take home a couple of specialty books you’ve never seen elsewhere in order to learn even more at home. Had you traveled with that professional tour, you might not even know the museum exists because it wasn’t on the itinerary.

Learning Happens Within

You see, learning happens whether or not it is directed from without. I would say that more learning (and remembering) occurs when you follow your interest to a meaningful destination than happens among those strangers who take the much more traveled route. This is why curriculum is not the necessity that the educational bureaucracy makes it out to be. John Gatto said, “You can be trained from outside, but only educated from within; one is a habit of memory and reaction, the other a matter of seizing the initiative.” (emphasis added).

You don’t necessarily require a curriculum at home, because you’re addressing education instead of training.

I can’t prove it at this point, because it hasn’t yet been done, but I would bet that children who are guided by education mind, whose “learning time” was filled with activities like those in The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities, as well as the subsequent explorations these activities would engender because their time is their own, would wind up as educated people.

Adapted from The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities by Linda Dobson

I don't have time to do record keeping!

2011-12-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

I don't have time to record learning!

Neither do I.

We are too busy living and learning, to record that unschooling living and learning.

Yet I need to keep records for the state.

My solution? Download the objectives, the outcomes, the syllabus for the required courses of study. Keep in a file.

And keep an (almost) daily log. Brief. To the point. Curriculum areas and children assigned via initials.

Example?

A. (Anthony in other words)
21/11/11
*Games Day with other homeschoolers (M, T, PD....Maths, Technology, Personal Development)
*Kumon Maths (M)
*Chores and life skills (PD, WE...Work Education)
*Work at Kumon Centre (WE)
*Make a custard tart for the Presentation of Our Lady and read about the history of the solemnity (H, FT...History, Food and Technology)
* Reading Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold (H,E...English)
*5BX Fitness (PE..Phys Ed)

23/11/11
*Read Catholic Apologetics by Fr Laux (E, H, PD)
* Read and discuss The Christian Gentleman..values, social mores of different times and cultures (PD, E, H)
*Kumon Maths (M)
*Practice piano and guitar (Mu...Music)
*Drama class (D..Drama)
*Watch Breaking Dawn and discuss movie, characters, the plot, the techniques, values and emotions (E, PD, F&T...Film and Technology)

If the activity pertains to several I would write their initials at the beginning (A,T, N) or use my generic grouping (OK or YK...Older Kids or Younger Kids)

Very, very simple. In journals or exercise books or on the computer or a blog.

And if you want more simple record keeping ideas, see the bookAnd What About Colleg? by Cafi Cohen.

A few unschooling ideas

2011-11-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

We are often asked what it is that unschoolers do all day.

Our usual glib answer...we live and learn...just doesn't cut it when someone is looking for the nitty gritty. The how to begin. The how to recharge or get out of a rut.

Check out this great, well, checklist if homeschooling. A virtual cornucopia of ideas.

The ABCs of Unschooling by Mary Gold.

I love...X: x-rays, xylophones, X marks the spot on a pirate map

Y: yoga, yodeling, yarn dolls, yo-yo's, Yahtzee

Z: zoos, zithers, Zoom

A Day in the Life

2011-11-13T01:30:00.000-08:00

Would you like to share a day in your unschooling life? Not a Typical Day. But just a day.

Today?

Here is a day from last week....

Three older sons are home for study week for university. I and one son get up

early to workout then others start waking up. My second son Greg, a postulant for the

Conventual Franciscans and in Chicago for postulancy and novitiate for two

years, phoned to talk so we all take turns chatting. It's getting cold there...

And summer is starting here! Contrasts!

We talk a lot about the movie Midnight in Paris with Owen Wilson, the 1920s art

and literature references. Kids get breakfasts and do workouts and as Anthony,

our high school age unschooler, eats some fruit cake and cheese for breakfast I

remark that the cake was marked down at our local independent grocer. He says he

will walk down now and get another at that price (99c!) and count the walk as

fitness for today.

I start in on work for my Kumon Education Centre and also discuss food and

recipes as the older ones are doing a cook off with friends from university. They look

through our cook books for ideas.

I keep up my work while chatting. Anthony comes back from the store and we talk

about Blessed John Scotus ( tomorrow! A Franciscan! A philosopher! The doctrine

of the Immaculate Conception) and Marie Curie ( would be her 144th birthday

today).

I ask Anthony to sort the laundry and perhaps do some maths and Physics. He does

the washing and maths and is sitting on the sofa about to look at his Saxon Physics text, leftover from hid older brothers, when his friend's dad arrives to take him to games at a friend's house. We

alternate houses for games on Mondays.

I go to mass at university with one son who is dropping off an assignment. I visit the

university library for philosophy books for my essay and find a book called Philosophy

and Movies... I borrow this for Anthony as he, like all of us, love movies and we

can read and discuss the related philosophical discussion together.

I rush some lunch at home and go to pick up Anthony and his friend to bring them

to work for me at Kumon. Three other sons arrange to meet me there. I discuss an

afternoon women's retreat with my friend when picking up the kids... Can we both

go?

We work at Kumon 2.30-8pm then some sons go to Theology on Tap ( George Wiegel)

and some sons and two of my Kumon assistants and I got to 7 Eleven for our free

slurpies because today is 7/11! We pick up a DVD from the rental on the way

home.

Leftover for dinners, the kids watch a DVD, Anthony practices piano and begins

writing for Nanowrimo as he and his friend and I were chatting about this in the

car. I do work for the MI (Militia Of the Immaculate) and talk to others about

Wiegel when they get home from TOT.

So that's Monday's Unschooling day!

I wish unschooling for everyone...

2011-11-06T16:29:00.001-08:00

A re-post...but friends asked me to share...so here goes!

We recently had a discussion on our Unschooling Catholics email list...on that ubiquitious statement, oh so familiar to all homeschoolers with an unschooling bent...Unschooling sounds great but *I* could never do it.

Maybe the speaker couldn't. Or shouldn't.

Or maybe they should and could...if they are willing to step out of their box.

I'm on my seventh teenage unschooler here.. And my thought and experience is that unschooling works with relationship and time.

Time because a child who does not pick up a book at age eight can become a a teen studying liberal arts at university and reading and enjoying philosophy and theology... And yes, I am describing one of my sons! I would strew books that he would never pick up unless they were non fiction full-of-pictures DK and Usborne books. However, we kept reading aloud and listening to books on CD and watching movie versions of books and letting him follow his interests... Which when he was young was all about the outdoors and activity. So I think Unschooling works best over time.

Time because it takes awhile for "no strings attached" strewing to take... By no strings I mean that I really don't mind if no one takes up my strewing but instead strews their own stuff. And with expectations off, my sons have been more likely to explore new ideas and activities and books.

Relationship because that has been the way Unschooling works in our house. It has enhanced our relationships because we spent time together not doing school but reading aloud, watching movies, drawing, cooking, going to parks and outings and talking. It's this quantity time that is sometimes missing when mums and kids are rushing to do school and then to homeschool activities. And yet this quantity time has been the biggest aid to our learning... so one son, who used to make a big fuss about any sort of formal work when young is the one who is now at university, writing essays and talking to me about chastity and celibacy and how he doesn't think celibacy would be so hard as your mind, his mind, is on other things.. At the moment Cicero. (!) Now, he was the one who you could have said would not be a poster child for Unschooling, would spend oodles of time on computer games and make a big fuss about chores and really did spend a year or two around age sixteen or so just playing games and hanging out ( and doing chores and serving at mass and helping in the parish).

Or let me give an example of another son ( did I mention I have seven sons...thus many examples!) who was also a non writer and often a non reader. But who grew, however, into reading Shakespeare as a teen, who has a degree and now works in politics, works hard, long hours and yet still finds time to go to mass or confession on weekdays as well.

Are they perfect? No.

Were they the perfect poster unschooler kids? No.

Were we the perfect unschooler poster family? No, not with our problems, financial problems, moving many many times, mum's health problems and miscarriages, unemployment, extended family crises, months where we did nothing but chores and watch movies and read and cook and eat. And I went through stages of let's try this ( CM or classical or curriculum) but we always came back to just living and learning.

Where am I going with this?

That I would wish Unschooling for everyone.

That blossoming of self and interests and relationships.

Unschooling tweaked to suit each family but Unschooling where the child and family are more important than is he reading, is he doing maths, can he meet these outcomes? Ad infinitum.

In my experience, the unschooled children can meet outcomes, over time, with a good relationship ( "darling , for uni you will need more maths and writing so how about we try x and y... "...Easily suggested and more likely to be taken up when relationship in place) and with tweaking to suit each child and family.

Unschooling has brought me to my knees, to my Faith, to the sacraments , many many times... Heck, I became a Catholic! Me! It's that trust in Our Lord, in the Holy Spirit's workings in my life and in the life of my kids, in the graces of the sacraments.

So my answer to is Unschooling for everyone is.. It's up to the parent!

Are you prepared to read more, pray more, live with your kids, daily give more of yourself, move out of your comfort zone, educate yourself, give it a good long try, no strings attached!?

For Unschooling requires effort as the vocation of mothering requires effort .. Effort and prayer... It's just that the effort is spent in time with the child and family and not with curriculum and programmes.

And the rewards are manifold.

So..tell me more about strewing...

2011-10-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

In our family, in our unschooling, how do learn?

We learn by strewing. We strew things for each other. We suggest. We share.

So, let me strew some resources about strewing..

The thing that works with unschooling is to follow delight - and scatter it like a flower girl in front of the bride - not every petal will be crushed to release fragrance - but enough will. ...of course to follow delight, you have to admit to yourself that you feel delight .. Nora Cannon...from Sandra Dodd's Strewing Their Paths

What exactly is strewing and how do you do it? I think it is leaving material of interest around for our children to discover. Is there more to it?.....Strewing: Definition and Suggestion

A few months into our homeschooling adventure my 8 year old daughter spontaneously said "Our house is like a museum with really cool stuff in it!" This was the moment I decided it was going to be alright.....Your House as a Museum

Weekly Rhythm

2011-10-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

I like to have a bit of a rhythm to our days and weeks.

Too much routine and I am bored...yawn...

Too little and I think we feel scattered and less connected.

So how does a rhythm work in unschooling? If we are not "doing school" how do we structure our days and weeks?

It varies.

You knew I was going to say that...

When my children were younger we had a routine of pretty much daily mass, ice skating or swimming or science centre on Monday afternoon..and mum would try to catch up on washing on Monday mornings! Wednesdays were Discovery Journal days..writing and drawing about our week, our maths discoveries, our Science discoveries, books, current affairs.. Doing the Days. Thursdays we often did grocery shopping and went to the library and out for cofffee..or met with other Catholic homeschoolers. Friday was park day or nature/art day. Music lessons meant we played 'pick an envelope'..an envelope with ideas like do a maths game, write in your saints book, draw in your nature journal..to keep siblings occupied while others were in their piano lessons.

And all this fitted in around my work schedule and around babies and toddlers.

Now with an unschooling teen, and older sons still at home but at university, our rhythm still revolves around my work schedule and our outside things.

Mondays, Anthony has gaming day with two homeschooling friends. Often mass at Campion College with the older kids.They work with me at my Kumon Education Centre. Tuesdays have mostly been unstructured, so around my work we have had errands, library visit and in my mind... a good morning to try some more formal work. But this term Anthony has surfing lessons so he is out most of the day with other homeschoolers. And we all go to the mass and Novena to St Anthony in the evening. Wednesday, I teach catechism at a local school so that is a good day for religion! he has drama class, sometimes goes to debating with his brothers at Campion, maybe guitar lesson and a friend for dinner.Junk mail delivery! Thursday Anthony helps me with work for Kumon, we go to mass, he may do some maths and Latin, he works at Kumon, we usually watch a DVD. Fridays can be ice skating or outing or hang around, mass in the Extraordinary Form, busing to piano lessons and coffee, youth group.

And that is how the weeks go...way too fast...but we work on flow...on doing...and on being.. For me, knowing the flow of activities throughout the day works better than having set times. Waking up flows into breakfast flows into getting dressed flows into brushing teeth, etc.

Like the blue willow tea set...cups in a row, beauty, but not perfect...little imperfections...like those little imperfections in our days, our order, our rhythms ...that make the unschooling week.

Unschooling and Special Needs

2011-10-03T03:09:00.001-07:00

The question arose at our Unschooling Catholics email list...what about unschooling, child centered and interest centered, relaxed Homeschooling...what about unschooling children with special needs.

"One of the reasons I quit the path of cookie-cutter help was because I got to watch my (unschooler) friend's son, a boy much like my own, blossom in her care. With every difficulty or difference he presented, whether it was speech differences, sensory difficulties, or behavior issues, she arranged life to fit his needs. She also approached all this with a solid faith in him that he was the way he was supposed to be, and that he was on his own schedule. She sought appropriate help when needed, but it was out of a "what are his true needs" space."

From Sandra Dodd's unschooling website.

"If in school, 6 would not be able to sit for very long without making himself "known." He would not be able to sit still and play nice for the 6-7 hours that would be required of him. He would probably be diagnosed with ADHD and on meds, if I allowed that. He is not ADHD, but I have heard how this has happened many times from other homeschoolers with children who are not really and truly ADHD. 6 can add triple digit numbers in his head-as long as he can spin and move about the room and dispense his energy when he needs, he is just fine!"

From Life Without School Community blog.

To Strew.....

2011-09-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

To Strew

Faith asks... What have you been strewing for your family?

In no particular order....

1. Making home made Nutella

2. Turkish Delight chocolate for Sts Cosmos and Damian

3.The Lion King

4. Brides of Christ , the TV series on DVD

5. An article at ABC online ... On why a Catholic politician supports gay marriages... And an ensuing discussion, centered on Bl Pope John Paul II's Love and Responsibility .

6. Dr Who!

7. Rosary beads and a statue of Mary on the dining table

8. Kathryn Stockett's The Help and Pope Bemedict XVI 's Great Teachers on a coffee table

9. Singstar!

How To Be A Good Unschooler

2011-09-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

From the website of Sandra Dodd:

1. Give your love generously and criticism sparingly. Be your children's partner. Support them and respect them. Never belittle them or their interests, no matter how superficial, unimportant, or even misguided their interests may seem to you. Be a guide, not a dictator. Shine a light ahead for them, and lend them a hand, but don't drag or push them. You WILL sometimes despair when your vision of what your child ought to be bangs up against the reality that they are their own person. But that same reality can also give you great joy if you learn not to cling to your own preconceived notions and expectations.
2. Homeschooled children who grow up in a stimulating and enriched environment surrounded by family and friends who are generally interested and interesting, will learn all kinds of things and repeatedly surprise you with what they know. If they are supported in following their own passions, they will build strengths upon strengths and excel in their own ways whether that is academic, artistic, athletic, interpersonal, or whichever direction that particular child develops. One thing leads to another. A passion for playing in the dirt at six can become a passion for protecting the natural environment at 16 and a career as a forest ranger as an adult. You just never ever know where those childhood interests will eventually lead. Be careful not to squash them; instead, nurture them.
3. Bring the world to your children and your children to the world. Revel in what brings you together as a family. Watch tv and movies and listen to music and the radio. Laugh together, cry together, be shocked together. Analyze and critique and think together about what you experience. Notice what your child loves and offer more of it, not less. What IS it about particular shows that engage your child—build on that. Don't operate out of fear. Think for yourself and about your own real child. Don't be swayed by pseudostudies done on school children.
4. Surround your child with text of all kinds and he/she will learn to read. Read to them, read in front of them, help them, don't push them. Children allowed to learn on their own timetable do learn to read at widely divergent times—there is NO right time for all children. Some learn to read at three years old and others at 12 or even older. It doesn't matter. Children who are not yet reading are STILL learning—support their learning in their own way. Pushing children to try to learn to read before they are developmentally ready is probably a major cause of long-term antipathy toward reading, at best, and reading disabilities, at worst.
5. It doesn't matter when something is learned. It is perfectly all right for a person to learn all about dinosaurs when they are 40 years old, they don't have to learn it when they are nine. It is perfectly all right to learn to do long division at 16 years old, they do not have to learn that at nine, either. It does not get more difficult to learn most things later; it gets easier.
6. Don't worry about how fast or slow they are learning. Don't test them to see if they are "up to speed." If you nurture them in a supportive environment, your children will grow and learn at their own speed, and you can trust in that process. They are like seeds planted in good earth, watered and fertilized. You don't keep digging up the seeds to see if the roots are growing—that disrupts the natural growing process. Trust your children in the same way you trust seeds to sprout and seedlings to develop into strong and healthy plants.
7. Think about what is REALLY important and keep that always in the forefront of your interactions with your children. What values do you hope to pass on to them? You can't "pass on" something you don't exemplify yourself. Treat them the way you want them to treat others. Do you want respect? Be respectful. Do you want responsibility from them? Be responsible. Think of how you look to them, from their perspective. Do you order them around? Is that respectful? Do you say, "I'll be just a minute" and then take 20 more minutes talking to a friend while the children wait? Is that responsible? Focus more on your own behavior than on theirs. It'll pay off bigger.
8. Let kids learn. Don't protect them or control them so much that they don't get needed experience. But, don't use the excuse of "natural consequences" to teach them a lesson. Instead, exemplify kindness and consideration. If you see a toy left lying in the driveway, don't leave it there to be run over, pick it up and set it aside because that is the kind and considerate thing to do and because kindness and consideration are values you want to pass on to your kids. Natural consequences will happen, they are inevitable. But it isn't "natural" anymore if you could have prevented it, but chose not to do so.
9. We can't always fix everything for our kids or save them from every hurt. It can be a delicate balancing act—when should we intervene, when should we stay out of the way? Empathy goes a long long way and may often be all your child needs or wants. Be available to offer more, but let your child be your guide. Maybe your child wants guidance, ideas, support, or intervention. Maybe not. Sometimes the best thing you can offer is distraction.
10. Be sensitive to your child's interest level. Don't push activities that your child isn't interested in pursuing. Don't let YOUR interests dictate your child's opportunities. If your child wants a pet, be realistic and don't demand promises that the child will take sole care for it. Plan to care for it yourself when the interest wanes. Do it cheerfully. Model the joy of caring for animals. Model kindness and helpfulness. Help a child by organizing their toys so they are easy to care for. Plan to care for them yourself much of the time, but invite your child's help in ways that are appealing. If YOU act like you hate organizing and cleaning, why would your child want to do it? Always openly enjoy the results of caring for your possessions—take note of the extra space to play in, the ease of finding things you want, how nice it is to reach into a cupboard and find clean dishes. Enjoy housework together and don't make it a battle.
11. Don't pass on your own fears and hates about learning anything. If you hate or fear math, keep it to yourself. Act like it is the most fun thing in the world. Cuddle up and do math in the same way you cuddle up and read together. Play games, make it fun. If you can't keep your own negativity at bay, at least try to do no harm by staying out of it.
12. Don't try to "make kids think." They WILL think, you don't have to make them. Don't use every opportunity to force them to learn something. They WILL learn something at every opportunity, you don't have to force it. Don't answer a question by telling them to "look it up" or by asking them another question. If you know the answer, give it. If you don't, then HELP them find it. Speculating about an answer often leads to a good conversation. If your child stops seeing you as helpful when they have questions, they'll stop coming to you with their questions. Is that what you really want?
13. When you offer a child choices, be sure they are real choices. Offer them choices as often as you can. Try to limit the "have to's" as much as you can. Frequently ask yourself, "Is this really a "have to" situation or can we find some choices here?"

Pam Sorooshian

This week's Strewsday...

2011-09-07T21:25:00.001-07:00

On the dining table...

...a statue of Our Lady, with rosary beads nearby...for the nativity of Our Lady

...the book, Saints, A Year in Faith and Art

..another book, Monet and The Impressionists For Kids

...a Catholic newspaper article, interview with Bishop Long, OFMConv, a new Auxillary Bishop of Melbourne.

The dining table is the hub of our house...a good vehicle for strewing!

Of Mates and Museums

2011-08-31T02:02:00.000-07:00

Of Mates and Museums

It's Strewsday.

Our strewing this week has been both tangible and intangible.

Mates and museums.

Because I am a social being I tend to assume that my sons are the same.

Because they always had each other, seven boys Unschooling together, there has always been someone around .. to hang out with, talk to, play with, share with, argue with. And extras too.

So that now there is only one Unschooling son home during some days, the others all off at university, well, the extras play an even more important role.

It is nice for Anthony and me to have time together... You know, the youngest sometimes is rushed around in a large homeschooling family. And it's nice for us to have homeschooling adventures.

But I am also very busy with work. And, to be honest, Anthony also needs his time away from me, with friends.

With mates.

This last week has been strewn with mates.. Friends over for gaming and nerf gun sessions. Friends to take to a debate at a brother's university. Friends to hang out with, to go to drama class with, to go to rock climbing with, to have guitar lessons with.

A few special friends enrich our lives and the lives of our children. Thoughts, ideas, conversation, shared books/movies/music/games.

That's both the tangible and intangible strewing.

Alongside a tangible ... A trip to the museum. A spontaneous spur of the moment trip. Because we are museum members and were spending time with an older brother before he left for overseas.

We found the museum had a special exhibition.. Birds of Paradise. A wander around there and through the dinosaur section, a reading of an article on recent paleontology ,made our impromptu strewing, our impromptu museum visit, even more interesting.

Which brings home to me two points about strewing ... Strewing can be people or ideas or ourselves, looking nothing like school; yet learning happens.

And strewing can be spontaneous, surprisingly serendipitious.

2011-08-16T21:27:00.001-07:00

Strewsday

And so Tuesday rolls round again.

Time to think about our strewing this week, and share others, as Faith describes in her strewing blog.

My biggest strewing this week?

Conversation. Talking. Thinking out loud.

Thomas was reading the news. And mentioned the British PM and some of his quotes...including a poverty of culture. And then the discussion started, with four sons and myself. On the value of a liberal arts education, rather then education simply for utilitarian purposes.

After mass on Friday night (okay, a little bit during, too!) we made reference to liturgy and varying approaches to liturgy in the parish churches that we attend.

We later debated perseverance and ability and work ethic.

And discussed words and looked up root words.

We enjoyed banter and word play and quips.

This is strewing our conversation. Thinking out loud. Discussing. Sharing ideas and forming opinions and looking up information to round out the discussion or debate.

When they were little, we would play word games and I Spy and similar ..now they are older we enjoy quips and quotes.

When they were little, sometimes this discussion centered on books...on why Edmund was jealous and mean in The Lion, The Witch, The Wardrobe.

Now they are older, is still centres on books...F Scott Fitzgerald...was life really
like that for the bright young things?

When they were little, I would think out loud. Do my Maths calculations so they could see and hear how Maths works in real life, how we did addition or rounding up or estimating.

Now they are older, I still think aloud..plans for the budget, for work, for life.

When they were little, I would model social interactions and conversation mores...well, now I still do the same!

Or I would apologize after a cross or grumpy word, hoping to be a better role model Next time, hoping to show how important it is to control temper and to say sorry if we forget to do so. Or to try not to swear. And now they are older, I still model these sorts of interactions.

So I strew my conversation. A planned conversation, about a saint or a virtue. A go with the flow conversation, about books and life and history and movies and music, meandering style. A practical conversation, adding up out loud, working on time or money management .

Conversation is a less concrete sort of strewing than, say, leaving a book around or getting out the box of Legos.

Less concrete yet no less important.

Thank You

2011-08-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

The other day I was riding in the car with my sons, 17 and 21. We have homeschooled for 15 years, easing into unschooling about 7 years ago.

We were talking about what we were up to lately, how we were managing our time and how to generally get done what we need to and also have time for life.

I shared with them about how I had to really make a decision all those years ago, to let go of curriculum and what the homeschool world was telling me to do and follow my heart, let them follow their interests and enjoy their childhood.

One son immediately, as if not even thinking or guarding his words, said "Thank you!" It was so spontanious, I knew it was from his heart. I started back and he said, "No mom, if you had not let me have that time I would not know what I loved to do and now I do. Thank you."

That made me smile and this is meant to encourage others who may be there.. not sure how much to let go and whether to trust their children. Trust- pay attention to their responses.. but TRUST.

Cindy

An Unschooling Mother's Prayer

2011-08-07T03:54:00.000-07:00

An expanded Marian version of "Let go and let God."

Mary, take over and resolve what I am not able to resolve. Take care of those things that are beyond my reach. You have the power to do so. Who can ever say that he was disappointed in you after having called you?

Mother, take over at this moment when I see nothing, when there does not seem to be any light in the tunnel, this moment of doubt, fear, this hour of making the right decision when everythinseems to be going against me. Amen+

(Thanks to Suzie , from our Unschooling Catholics email list.)

Involved parenting

2011-07-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

Unschooling can be seen as involved parenting.

Honestly.

Although it may look like our children playl day or our teens spend time with the books, the movies,, the video gamesthat they want...while mum chats or works...this is the surface look. For underlying every day is the principle of involved parenting.

We give our children the gift of unstructured time not because we are lazy or busy ourselves but because we see value in self directed learning, in learning through play and discovery, in learning to make choices and decisions, in finding interests, in time alone or time together or time alone.

The parenting is not hands off but hands on...visibly or subtly, almost invisible.

Unschooling is anything but passive and direction-less.
It’s about lighting a fire. Unschooling is not hands off.

Do unschoolers set goals?

2011-07-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

Do unschoolers set goals? I think sometimes we do and sometimes we just fly without goals.

And sometimes our dreams become our goals.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals in fact.

"Enter the B-HAG into our family. Suddenly I'm on a radical learning curve led by my kids. It dawned on me that instead of micro-managing their experiences, I could throw myself into their big dreams by offering the kind of support that an adult can give to a young person - I can drive, I can look stuff up in the phone book, on the Internet and in the community papers, I can fix hair to look like Lizzie Bennett."

And sometimes, too, are goals are by products of the time and discussions and life we live along the way. For unschooling is both quality and quantity time.

We lean on a truck and learn alongside.

"Women talk face to face, they say, but men lean side by side on a truck. Another version of leaning on a truck is fishing: facing the same way, doing the same thing. Traditionally these days parents and children move in different spheres and do different things, but unschooling families mix ages and activities."

Two unschooling books

2011-06-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

I heard about the first from Pat Farenga's blog....Here is his take on the book

Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything "by Laura Grace Weldon is a welcome addition to homeschooling literature. Starting from the point of view that “Natural learning happens all the time,” Weldon cites many familiar, and some new, books, research, and data to support that claim. This information can be useful to present to skeptics, if they are open-minded, but it is probably most useful to any parent wondering how much teaching they need to do with their child at home. In short—don’t teach unless the child asks a question. If you create a relaxed, open atmosphere at home the questions will flow from the kids, as the families in this book show and the parents of healthy, pre-school-age children can attest. Dr. Raymond Moore used to say that he could determine a good learning situation by who was asking the questions: if the teacher is asking the questions, it isn’t good; if the children are asking the questions, it’s a good learning situation."

I love the emphasis on natural learning, which essentially is what unschooling IS.

And Amazon suggested the second for me...a more practical how to book...As in I'm unschooling, so what do we do if we don"t do school?

Unschooling, A Lifestyle of Learning......".Let's imagine a life without school! In the absence of school, what do children do? They play. That is, they do what brings them joy. They do what calls to them. They do what they need to do to get from point A to point B, learning useful skills along the way. Let's imagine a life of unlimited possibilities! Unschooling parents and their children live and learn together, helping each other, making discoveries, solving mysteries, and sharing adventures. Ready to have some fun?"

The Saints

2011-05-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

The saints are often an inspiration for unschooling.

Recently, we had the feast day of St Philip Neri. Teacher of St John Bosco.

Both saints worked with boys and young men. Both saints had a lot to say about the care and education of the young.

And so both saints have been good mentors for me when it comes to unschooling.

Two quotes.

St. Philip Neri’s words: “Do as you wish, I do not care so long as you do not sin.”

"Run, jump, make noise, But do not sin…”-St. John Bosco

So...sometimes..let kids be kids.

And..sometimes..don't sweat the small stuff. Pick your battles. And keep the eternal in mind.

Very helpful for my Catholic unschooling.

Memories and Unschooling

2011-05-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Remind yourself that each moment we're creating memories. Think of those moments as photos in a photo album.

I put this quote on my blog yesterday - and several friends, in real life (? weird term but you know what I mean..) and in email, have commented on it. On how much it spoke to them. On how it reflects the why of homeschooling.

The why of homeschooling? Isn't homeschooling about education?

Not really.

Gasp! Did I say that homeshooling as not about education?

Well, yes. Simply because it is so much more than that .

Homeschooling, unschooling , is about life.

And creating memories. Memories that are stored away, that make up the child and then the adult. Formation, in other words.

I think that strong positive family memories, exposure to activities and ideas and to other people, are what make a strong case for homeschooling. For the advantages of homeschooling.

You never know what will strike a chord with a child. Ignite an interest. Be tucked away in the scrapbook of memories.

For this reason, we unschool. We live and thus, by living together, we learn. We laugh together, read together, play together , watch movies together, eat together, do chores together, do some schoolwork together, talk together, get cross together, go to Mass and pray together ~ and hopefully build on this storehouse of interactions.

Last night, we prayed the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yes, I was a bit silly during prayers - moving my feet in rhythm and prompting dh, the leader, simply because I have memorised this litany. Sigh. I am bad in prayers...

However, we did pray together, we did smile together, we spent time together and with our prayer intentions. Creating a scrapbook of prayer and family memories.

Today, we had French class at another homeschooler's home. The kids laughed as they listened to the CD and followed along in the French storybook. They tried to learn the Lord's Prayer in
French. They did French copywork, a la Charlotte Mason. And shared morning tea and active outside games.

Followed by going to the movies, meeting up with Jonathon and a family friend.

Lunch at Coffee Club....

A day of memories, fun, conversation and perhaps some sparks of learning.

A happy unschooling photo for that mental photo album.

"Education," said Sister Miriam Joseph, in writing on classical education "is the highest of arts in the sense that it imposes forms not on matter, as do the other arts, but on minds."

The Church clearly notes in the Catechism that parents are responsible for their children’s“moral education and spiritual formation.” This responsibility is so intertwined with the family“that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute” to the parents' involvement (CCC 2221).

To be honest, I am not necessarily the best person to talk about spiritual formation, being still in formation myself ( as my two or three regular blog readers know! ).

I hold, however, that creating memories, positive memories, educational and spiritual and relational memories, is important to the intellectual and spiritual formation of the child. Of the person. And of the family.

This is why I homeschool, why I am glad that we have homeschooled.

Memories.

The Little Way of Homeschooling

2011-05-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

Our new book about Cahholic unschooling.

Thirteen of us describe how we live unschooling in our homes.

Drawing from St. Therese, St. John Bosco, John Holt (How Children Learn and How Children Fail and Teach Your Own), we try to give you a picture of education and life without the constraints of typical modern education.

Suzie Andres addresses the question of whether a Catholic can happily unschool by explaining it as a sensible approach to the mystery of learning, certainly not as an ideology in competition with our faith.

The heart of the book is our honest description of our homes and education ... descriptions by mothers who have embraced unschooling in varying degrees.

Time

2011-04-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

How do unschoolers spend their time? It's often quantity, sometimes incidental time.

-picking up DS when he toddles out and wants to see what I'm cooking

-letting DD help chop things in the kitchen

-stopping in the middle of my chores to sit on the floor and read to DS when he asks so nicely--"Pees!"

-listening to DD "read" a book to me

-looking out the window with DS and talking about sounds we hear

-sweeping with both kids--each has a little broom, and everyone likes to pitch in!

-talking about all the instruments the dental hygienist used on DD's teeth this morning

-going for a mother-daughter jog before breakfast at DD's request and talking with her about hiking and camping while we go

-helping DD find a missing knee sock and missing (chewed) piece of gum in our playroom--reorganizing together after items are found!

-watching The Waltons together and discussing the lives of those Depression-era kids! :)

~ watching the birds at the feeder and trying to figure out how many species and what kind we have
~ going to the library's butterfly garden to do nature study
~ teen making food food for Michael (tube fed and on a blended diet), talking about nutrition and calories
~ working in the garden
~ talking in the car (the radio is broken!)
~ working on CGS things together
~ talking about Church issues in our parish - looking up things in the GIRM and CCC
~ reading books and discussing
~ having teatime
~ just trying to keep the house in order
~ talking about child development while watching Joseph and Peter - comparing them as they are only 3 months apart
~ attending some weekday Masses with whomever chooses to go
~ going to a parish mission and discussing what was said
~ going to the Lenten reconciliation service at two different parishes and talking about the differences
~ Wii fit
~ shopping together
~ cooking together
~ eating together
~ working in the garden
~ talking in the car (the radio is broken!)
~ working on CGS things together
~ talking about Church issues in our parish - looking up things in the GIRM and CCC
~ reading books and discussing
~ having teatime
~ just trying to keep the house in order
~ talking about child development while watching Joseph and Peter - comparing them as they are only 3 months apart
~ attending some weekday Masses with whomever chooses to go
~ going to a parish mission and discussing what was said
~ going to the Lenten reconciliation service at two different parishes and talking about the differences
~ Wii fit
~ shopping together
~ cooking together
~ eating together

Kids and Chores

2010-02-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

Sharing some links that help me in this area..again...and again....

Serving others as a gift

It is in the giving and serving and the listening that I grow. That the family, too, grows.

Chores with gratitude

Really, I think it’s better to have a dirty house and minimally prepared food than to have filth in the air from guilt, manipulation, and griping

Cleaning in bursts

Unschooling chores by working in service, with a positive attitude, in spurts and with others. Creating a new unschooling landscape. Doing cleaning while being with family..A two -for- one.

Creating an unschooling landscape

The answer for my family is that Unschooling impacts and changes our entire landscape: no schoolroom at home, but a rich, full, exuberant landscape that ranges from room to room and spills out into our yard and the woods beyond.

Helping Little Children With Lent

2010-02-23T23:31:00.000-08:00

A very helpful article.

HT ~ Beate.

The first and most important help for little children is that we as adults understand Lent and enter into it ourselves with real devotion and joy. If Lent makes its way into our home and into our conversations and practices that children can see, they will naturally grow up in a culture that embraces Lent as a season of grace.

Lenten ideas 2010

2010-02-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

Lenten ideas to strew, in a Catholic unschooling home.

Strewing, in unschooling terminology, means leaving material of interest around for our children to discover.

Do Catholic Unschoolers force Lenten penances and practices onto our children?

I doubt it.

Unschoolers tend to use a less didactic model of education and of homechooling and of life.

Unschooling is trusting the learner to be in charge of his or her own learning.This is also known as interest driven, child-led, natural, organic, eclectic, or self-directed learning. Lately, the term "unschooling" has come to be associated with the type of homeschooling that doesn't use a fixed curriculum. When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world, as their parents can comfortably bear. Pat Farenga

We try to inspire, to be role models .We aim to create a family culture of Catholic practices - so that living the liturgical year is like breathing. It is part of what we do and part of who we are.

We are unschooling strewing these things for Lent..

*A salt dough crown of thorns for the table

*A basket of Lenten books and spiritual reading

*A home made Lenten calendar – we have adapted ideas from here to suit our family, including memorising some prayers and have put the dates in for 2010.
But this calendar might be more suitable for younger kids.

What are you strewing for Lent?

St John Bosco

2010-01-31T13:31:00.000-08:00

Our unschooling and mothering mentor.

G K Chesterton

2009-10-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

From Orthodoxy by G K Chesterton – and this newness, this vitality, this appetite is something that attracted me to unschooling in the first place...learning through living and loving...

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life.
Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and
free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, Do it
again; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For
grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is
strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, Do it again, to the
sun; and every evening, Do it again, to the moon. It may not be automatic
necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy
separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the
eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is
younger than we.

Unschooling Teens

2009-09-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d share some favourite unschooling teens resources...

Alison McKee’s book, Homeschooling our Children Unschooling Ourselves. It talks of the journey of the parents to give up traditional schooling and homeschooling and how their 14 yo son ended up making his own path, after doubts and missteps, too. It is very honest.

Another nice book for unschooling teens and mums is The Day I Became an Autodidact.

And this article by Cafi Cohen.. Putting Together An Eclectic Curriculum

From the Older Kids column, by Cafi Cohen, originally published in the September-October 1996 issue of Home Education Magazine.
A friend of mine says, "Failure to plan is planning to fail." I agree with her. Yet I have always been uncomfortable completely structuring our kids' learning activities. They often did excellent work just by following their noses. Check out my son Jeff's progress during his teenage years towards earning his private pilot's license. At age 13, shortly after he started homeschooling, Jeff began studying for an amateur radio license, like his dad and I have. He listened to other amateur stations on the air, reviewed Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations, practiced receiving Morse code, and plunged into a self-instructional, radio-oriented electricity and electronics course.
Jeff soon realized that he needed more advanced math skills to handle the electricity and electronics for the technical portions of the FCC exam. He increased his pace through his Saxon Algebra book. After several months, he successfully completed the FCC General Class Amateur Radio Examination (and a year later, with more math under his belt, the Advanced Class exam). He was on the air.
As a licensed radio operator, Jeff spent hours each day talking to other "hams" all over the globe. One morning, he told me excitedly that he had met another teenage homeschooler on the radio. This contact, in another state, happened to be a member of the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program. During scheduled conversations over the next few months, the cadet described to Jeff his CAP flight training. He also explained other objectives and activities of the organization and told Jeff how to find a local CAP cadet squadron.
Jeff followed up immediately. He began attending CAP meetings and taking written and physical tests to work his way up ranks, similar to those in the Air Force. After several years of participation, he eventually qualified not only for CAP private pilot training, but also for a scholarship to pay for same. What a deal. I couldn't have planned it. Jeff certainly did not have this course neatly mapped out from the beginning. With Jeff pursuing his interests, one thing just led to another. Serendipity -- almost.
One thing led to another, yet none of it would have happened if we had not been both well-organized and flexible. Teenagers need to learn to set goals and follow through. "Failure to plan is planning to fail."Serendipitous events may occur (as when my son began talking to the other CAP cadet on the radio); but it is primarily those with a goal-oriented, planning outlook who will benefit from those lucky occurrences.
Parents' homeschooling roles change with older kids. Younger children ask questions, and the parent answers or helps find answers. With older kids, a homeschooling parent probably functions most effectively not as a teacher, but as a facilitator -- someone who provides physical support, acts as a sounding board, and helps with planning and networking.
Through years of trial and error, with both Jeff and his younger sister Tamara, we developed a facilitating approach to planning homeschooling activities with our teenagers: Putting Together An Eclectic Curriculum. Our eclectic homeschooling program incorporated traditional materials, unit studies, unschooling time, volunteer work, community activities -- and anything else that encouraged autonomy and enthusiasm for learning.
The process we developed involves both teenager and parents in making decisions. At first, some teenagers, especially new homeschoolers who are used to having no say in their education, may be apathetic. Ours initially were. Persistence pays off, though. Our kids improved markedly with repeated exposure to the process. To begin the planning an eclectic curriculum, we would first sit down and list the kid's current activities, academic and non-academic. Our kids were very active homeschoolers (possibly because, with household chores, I could make the alternative pretty unpleasant!), and this list could easily contain 15-20 items at any given time -- things like piano lessons, 4-H projects, self-selected reading, journalizing, volunteer work, cross-country skiing, gardening, and daily math problem sets.
Next, we brainstormed the kid's current interests, goals, and priorities. I learned not to ask, "What are you interested in?" That question was usually met with a blank stare. Instead, I would try to be more concrete. "What do you see yourself doing in 2 years? In 5 years? What have you always wanted to do that you haven't had the opportunity to do yet? If nobody were telling you what to do, how would you spend next week and next month?" With teenagers, interests change every few months, so we reassessed every three to six months. Once a year did not provide enough flexibility.
With our two updated lists -- (1) current activities and (2) interests, goals, and priorities -- we planned the next 3-9 months. Based on the interests, goals, and priorities, we reviewed the activities list and eliminated those activities which no longer fit. For example, when Jeff's CAP activities commandeered most of his time, he dropped 4-H.
Next, to address current interests and goals, we brainstormed new activities. When Tamara displayed an interest in medicine, we helped her find a hospital volunteer job. At one point Tamara wanted to drop piano lessons and take voice lessons. As a compromise (I wanted her to think about dropping the piano lesson for several months), we found a teacher who taught both voice and piano simultaneously.
We then reviewed the new activities list together and tried to assign academic classifications to the items on the list. The broad classifications were Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts, PE, and Foreign Language. The 4-H Public Speaking project became Language Arts; Diving Team practice was PE; rocketry projects were classified as Science; music lessons were Fine Arts; reading the morning newspaper and watching historical films comprised Social Studies; and so on.
Why these classifications? Both kids planned to attend college. I knew that eventually I would prefer to document their experiences in educationalese, the language of the educational establishment. I also knew we needed to assess ahead of time areas where the kids might need formal academic preparation -- which leads to the next part of the process.
Following completion of the new activities list, we would discuss those academic areas not covered by the kids' activities. As they approached high school age, we became particularly concerned with foreign language and eventually decided to try correspondence course instruction. Once we had shopped around, we added a Spanish course to the activities list. Another example? When Jeff's math abilities exceeded those of the most advanced Saxon text then available, we suggested that he add a college math course to his homeschooling program.
Many might say our approach was backwards, that we should have planned academics and then filled in activities around the academics. Instead we concentrated on those things the kids liked to do, things they would do without our urging -- and, a la John Holt -- found ways to call those things "school". Our teenagers spent a majority of their time doing things they chose, things they liked, things they planned. Usually they devoted less than an hour each day to formal academic essentials, those subjects not included in their self-selected activities. Even these more formal materials were usually pretty well received, probably because the kids helped select them.
Benefits were tremendous. Both kids -- anticipating the process -- came up with creative additions to their educational menus. Tamara suggested corresponding with two Russian pen pals as part of her foreign language and social studies training. Jeff wrote articles for the CAP newsletter, and we called it Language Arts.
In addition, both kids became self-directed learners. They not only became self-directed learners, they learned how to learn. As they experimented with different learning situations, their expertise in selecting resources improved. They developed networking skills. And they motivated themselves. From my perspective as a homeschooling parent, what freedom! Our process, in my view, was largely responsible. Our "programs" evolved along the lines of the kids' interests. We planned and we maintained flexibility.
Writing down the goals and posting them kept all of us on track. I did not schedule the kids' days and weeks. Instead, each morning for about five minutes, I reviewed with each teenager what he or she had planned for the day. (I also used that time to assign household and yard chores.) Sometimes I made suggestions or reminded them about something that appeared to be neglected. Occasionally, we reviewed the goals. I left scheduling specifics up to them. Implementation of their eclectic "curricula," with practice, became relatively painless and straightforward.
With our process, we took into account the ideas and preferences of both the kids and the parents. No parent can ever guess which activities and subjects will be attractive to their kids. The process provided a mechanism wherein, at least once every three to six months, we parents gave serious attention to what our teens had to say about their education.
Listening to teenagers is probably the most important thing that homeschooling parents can do. Listening to our teenagers saved us money and time. If one of them said that a certain text looked terrible, we learned not to press the issue, no matter how wonderful the material looked to us. Listening to our teenagers helped us find those activities and resources best suited to them.
At the same time, parents should not discount their own ideas about what is important educationally. As an example, our daughter Tamara disliked math and science throughout her teenage years. She plodded through her math texts. At my insistence, she also took some science, moaning and groaning through some of it, but dutifully completing survey courses in physics and biology. (She did well enough with the physics to pass the Advanced Placement examination.)
At college, Tamara initially majored in English. Now, after a year, that subject and related subjects bore her. Recently she has decided to change her major to physics and engineering (she has enrolled in a 3+2 program, where she will earn degrees in both subjects). I am so glad we vetoed her desire to avoid math and science as a high school homeschooler. Tamara concurs. She recently sent me the following Mark Twain quote: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." Such a gift.
After homeschooling two teenagers this way, I have learned that there is something of value in all of the different homeschooling approaches. At the same time, I confess to sometimes feeling lost listening to other homeschooling parents rave about program X or unschooling or unit studies, especially when they exclude all other approaches and resources. For us, trial and error worked better than copying anybody else or adopting a full-service curriculum or a specific educational philosophy. We made many mistakes; in baseball parlance, we had more strikes than hits. Fortunately, homeschooling gave us and the kids time to learn from those mistakes in a forgiving atmosphere. If something was not working, we simply dispensed with it and moved on.

How much do you spend on unschooling?

2009-08-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's really impossible to compare spending. I sometimes buy items that don't get used, or sit for months and end up in storage, and maybe get re-discovered someday. I could count grocery spending and movie spending and game spending and every spending because all of it is part of our family life and learning. Similarly, what we try to save, etc is part of our life and our journey of learning.
I may buy books, even some things others would consider 'educational' or 'curriculum', but I don't carry the labels in my thinking any more. A pile of dirt, a book. a dozen eggs, some people's trash - all of it is life and learning and not school.
Susan

In one way, I spend almost nothing on unschooling as we don’t buy textbooks or curricula – we use life, books, the library if we can pay the fines, movies, music. On the other hand, you could say we spend a lot if you count all our DVD hiring and buying, our games, our outings and the subsequent lunch out with friends.

So, what do we do all day if not use curricula? Today, we did folding of junk mail, our part time job – and this money making venture fits right in with our unschooling lifestyle, we have more time for this sort of thing. Computer games, piano, guitar, errands, prayers, mini golf with other homeschoolers for a birthday party and then lunch at the friends’ house with games, delivery of junk mail, reading religion related books in the car and reviewing Chinese for a Chinese Open uni course and doing an Italian assignment for an Italian Open Uni course, gaming, games of billiards, reading, someone is writing a story on the computer, someone is on facebook, listening to 60s music CDs in the car, watching Willow on DVD...So, we didn’t buy curricula but our money still gets spent, just on things of more worth or more interest or of more importance to the kids. And the kids made money today with their junk mail!
Leonie

I really don't keep track of what it costs us to unschool the kids. We just buy what we think we might be interested in reading or playing etc.etc. We are big readers so I would bet that most of it is spent on books and subscriptions to magazines. Most of our available cash this summer was spent on a new garden,chicken coop and a small shed. The kids requested the chicken coop. They missed it from our old home. We try to save money by picking up books at tag sales or library book sales. Since we took time to grow a bigger garden and can our food this year (also a request of the kids) We are hoping to save some money off of our grocery bill and put that in the vacation fun. We are planning on RVing across the country......maybe...LOL
When we first started I would spend money on things that we really didn't need. Now I try to borrow to see if it would be worth our money.
Most of our outings are free. Yesterday the kids picked, washed and cannned tomato sauce. They had a blast and want to do it again today. My oldest boy spent the afternoon at our Amish neighbors house shocking oats. All free things to do! They had a blast. Now that our oldest girl is getting ready for college and my oldest boys has a list of winter projects I am sure we will be sending more money on things. Our church always has something going on. Our priest gives lectures a couple times of year!!FREE My oldest boy is really into rockets and inventing things. So is my friends son. Two books on rockets were of interest to both boys. So we bought one and they bought the other! They swap when they are ready. My oldest boy also likes astronomy. His friend has a great telescope that he has brought over on numerous occasions. My friend from church can sew...we have eggs we can barter with for lessons.
I quess my point is do you have to spend money.? Welll... yes but you can also find many things to do for free. Wonderful things. Happy learning!

Dee

Typical Day 7

2009-05-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Our day yesterday was getting ready for visitors, French class here ( singing! Fun! And choosing recipes in French as our next class will be a French cooking class).

Catholic Homeschoolers here, a talk by a friar, a writing or colouring activity about Our Lady and lots of lunch and games and running around and shooting dart guns and playing the Wii and computer..

Then clean up, St Anthony Mass and Novena, dad came home as he’s been away for work and we went to see the new Star Trek movie...Fairly typical activity for us! ~ Leonie

Typical Days 6

2009-05-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share what we did today.
DS, 9, decided he didn't want to go to homeschool group again, so we decided to use our free entry for homeschoolers pass to get into Raglan Castle.

The weather was lovely, and we enjoyed clambering over walls,up spiral stairs and down dark holes.DD noticed swallows nesting in the stone work. We knew they were swallows because they had the same song as a toy swallow we had.

Lovely picnic. We talked about how we could make flapjacks-"Yours are not like these, these are lovely and moist!"

A school party was there at the same time. I was struck by the rigidity-they had to go where the teacher wanted to go, they had "educational" worksheets they had to fill in.

My children were delighted to get £1 each to spend in the gift shop-they spent many minutes deciding what they could get for that.

DD12 decided on the chocolate castle, dd6 and ds 9 both bought a pen and eraser.

All of the children took lots of photos. They loved the koi in the pond. We noticed these particular small birds landing on just leaves floating on the pond.

On the way home we popped into a garden centre to buy some trailing plants to go in our "new" watering can, which we rescued from the recycling centre yesterday.Ate ice cream as the weather was nice. ~ Catrin

Typical Days 5

2009-05-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

Not necessarily in chronoligical order...

Oldest son wrote a letter to Suzanne Collins. (author of Gregor the Overlander books). I helped him find her address, and he addressed the envelope. He played with Legos. He helped me serve lunch to the other kids outside. He helped his Dad put a new net on the trampoline. He finished one Gregor book and started the next one. He unpacked and put away his backpack from the Cub Scout campout.

Second son did a few pages in his Kumon math book. (Dad has promised a new Wii game when his book is finished) He researched how to defeat a character in one of his video games. He read a wikipedia article of how to escape from quicksand. He helped with the trampoline net.

Both boys read the parks and recreation brochure to identify which gymnastics class they want to take next.

5 year old daughter practiced writing some numbers. (She just picked up the book and started doing it!!) She asked me to take the training wheels off of her bike. She tried to teach herself to ride the bike. Oldest brother gave her some really useful tips. I lowered her seat and she tried some more. Dad told her to stop trying, that she needed an adult to help her and wouldn't be able to do it herself. (!!!! He obviously is not well read on the whole child-led learning, unschooling, John Holt, etc, concepts) She helped me cut out some fabric for aprons I'm going to sew. She helped me take care of the baby.

2 year old did some coloring and played outside with the neighbors dog. She also made pee pee in her underwear twice, and spread the coloring books all over the living room floor.
The baby mostly just smiled, laughed, slept and nursed. ~ Anja

Typical Days 4

2009-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

Betsy

Yesterday our day looked like this:

I woke up and prayed (or tried to with my 2 year old.) He senses whenever I get out of the bed and jumps up! I went to workout for an hour and was back by 8:30. Isabel, who is almost six, goes to a little homeschool preschool. It is all girls and she has all brothers. She really enjoys the girl time, Dh dropped her off on the way to work. I checked my email and messed around on the computer for awhile. Coffee is definitely happening at this time.

Jack (13), Luke (11) and Max (8) did the breakfast dishes and then backed a weekend bag. We are going to visit my sister in Syracuse. She is having a baby and is dying to have her bathroom finished. My dh is pretty handy and really likes her hubby, so we are heading up. Jack finished his mathbook he is working on. He did a little handwriting and worked on his annotated bibliography and Latin for the Homeschool Coop. He would like to go to high school and is motivated to do the work needed to get there. I REALLY hope he changes his mind. We are considering a Community College class next year.

I played Zelda for a little while with Max. He is my consultant. He really enjoys being on my team. He can't read yet, but is really quick with math and puzzles. It was Jack's turn to play and I went to pick up Isabel. It is about 45 minute round trip.

I made lunch for anyone who was hungry. The kids continued playing Wii. They gave it up for Lent, so I am pretty loose this week. Luke and I did the Barton Method for Reading and Spelling. It is a program for dyslexia. I think he has a mild case and he helps me practice. He then worked on some schoolwork on the computer. We are in a coop and he has a short story due next Wednesday.

Declan (2) went down for a nap. Max, who has severe dyslexia, and I did Barton.

Luke, Max and Isabel went out to play. Jack continued Zelda. Isabel and I played Zelda and then went outside.

We prayed the Divine Mercy Novena.

I went out for Indian food with friends, this doesn't happen very often and Paul had dinner with the kids.

This morning, dh worked out and went to Mass. Max has speech therapy and the rest of us are goofing off waiting to head to Syracuse. Luke has been out playing basketball. The weather here is finally nice.

I sometimes question what we are doing, mostly in the middle of the night! :-) I think Jack made unschooling easy. He loves to read and has on his own passed "grade level." The next two make me a little nervous. I know they are happy and kind. They are involved in baseball and are very popular with the coaches. They make eye contact when speaking with adults. That is an uncommon skill around here.

Typical Days 3

2009-04-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Willa

My 3 oldest kids are graduated. My oldest son is finishing his senior year in college, he composes music for the fun of it, plays a little classical guitar, writes stories, and programs games on the computer. My second son is still at home, interested in football statistics and history, Church history, and a knowledgeable naturalist. My daughter is going to college next year -- she writes in a group blog, plays several musical instruments, is spending quite a lot of time learning to cook and sew these days, and loves to look through thrift stores and other places to put together her own vintage design outfits.... she's also very interested in old movies and in GK Chesterton and apologetics.

My son who is going to high school this year is an athlete -- he loves football -- he's 16. The next one down is 13. Right now the thing that occupies most of his interest is computer games, though he loves logic puzzles and science projects and reads a lot too. He plays a little recorder.

The last two are ages 9 and 6. The 9 year old is special needs -- he had a liver transplant when he was an infant. The 6 year old is a livewire, very extroverted. I worry about him a bit because there are no real playmates up here for him. We are talking about moving closer down to the Fresno/Clovis area.

Yesterday wasn't a typical day because Sean, the highschooler, was sick and had to go to the doctor. Then toward afternoon Aidan got sick and by evening we were all feeling pretty bad.
We spent most of the afternoon watching videos.

Our unschooling is sort of different from some peoples'. I read a description on a blog of a mom who called their family's homeschooling style "unrelaxed unschooling" and that probably fits us. When I'm too relaxed I drift into my own world. In my "nature" I'm like CS Lewis who described the perfect life as studying all morning, taking a long brisk walk in the afternoon, and hanging out with friends and family in the evening conversing and sharing thoughts and ideas. But I have seven kids. I have to actually be quite intentional to interact with them in a learning atmosphere.

Hmm, maybe that IS a description of unschooling, come to think of it.

Typical Days 2

2009-04-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

Dee

We have 5 kids that range in age from 1 to 17. Our days have been spent building a chicken coop. We have 39 baby chicks that are ready to go outside!!

We have numerous projects going on right now! The kids are helping with them all.
We are redoing two bathrooms, building a coop and getting the garden ready. We are also planning for a month long visit from my MIL and FIL. My MIL has dementia.

Yesterday, most of the day was spent outside with the chicken coop.
My 14yr ds is finishing up a physics course at the local nature center.
My 17 yr spent most of yesterday watching a dvd on "how to change the needle on her sewing machine" LOL .
My 10 yr dd is very happy reading upstairs in her room. I am very happy about that one as I was sweating when or if she would be bitten by the reading bug.
My 6 year old is very happy doing some workbook type stuff. He does it in between other stuff. My littlest in very happy just to be the center of attention.

Throughout our day we stopped and talked about many different things that ran the gamut from politics to soil erosion.

Our day is really never typical. We kind of go with the flow.

Typical Days 1

2009-04-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Leonie

Tuesday in the Octave of Easter. And what did we do?

I got up early to work out with two sons, others were woken up around 7.30 or 8.00 am as we were going out.Kids tidied bedrooms ( kinda), got their own breakfast, played computer games, played guitar and piano, I briefly checked email and Facebook and blogs, did some computer work for my Kumon centre, prepared food for a shared lunch at Catholic Homeschoolers group. One son made me some porridge to make sure I'd eat breakfast! Gotta love these kids!

Eventually, I changed from workout clothes, too and we looked at the saint of the day, missal readings and plans for the day. Started laundry. Left to pick up a priest who was visiting our homeschool group, then off to Catholic homeschoolers, kids reading novels in the car along the way. And chatting to Fr.

At Catholic homeschoolers, my kids were disappointed to find no other teens turning up. But they listened to the talk about St Gemma Galgani and mysticism while I did crafts with the little ones. We prayed the chaplet of divine mercy, shared lunch, drove home, dropped Fr off at the friary – with listening to music and a discussion on relationship and covenant on the way!

Home to find two other sons had two friends over – so a big game developed with nerf guns in and out of the house. I washed up, cleaned the oven from the morning cooking, did laundry – then took one son to part time work at another Kumon centre. I stayed there for two hours, doing volunteer work for the other Supervisor, kids at home continued games and playing guitar and computer/video games.

Came home, chatted to boys and friends who were still playing, paid bills online, did some Kumon work on the computer, did the minutes of a parish meeting, cleaned up the house. One son made me some tea, friends were picked up, one son went to pick up another from work, we got ready for Mass.

Our Tuesday night mass and novena to St Anthony with veneration of the relic and blessed bread, was beautiful. Youngest son served at mass. We are very lucky to have solemn reverent masses in our parish.

Talked outside church to a few people, then went to friends, for pizza and to meet visitors from interstate and play games, talk, watch Robin Hood.

Prayed the rosary in the car and discussed relationships yet again.

In school terms we did oral language, group work, religion, society and environment, life skills, work education, computer education, social and personal development, physical education, reading and writing, music. Not bad!

Parenting Books..

2009-03-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

...as suggested by members of the Unschooling Catholics email list ( see sidebar for the link to the email list).

1.How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Faber and Mazlish
2.Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
3.Love and Anger by Nancy Samalin
4.Siblings without Rivalry by Faber and Mazlish
5. How to Really Love Your Teenager by Ross Campbell
6. Teaching Your Children Values by the Eyres
7. Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky Bailey
8.I love you rituals by Becky Bailey
9. Parenting with Grace by Popcak
10.Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen
11.Hold on to Your Kids by Neufeld and Mate
12.The Continuum Concept by Jean Leidloff
13.Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn
14. Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids by Sura Hart, Victoria Kindle Hodson
15.Please Don't Sit on the Kids by Clare Cherry
16.The Hurried Child by David Elkind

On discipline

2009-03-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

It is disgraceful to call them hurtful names... Keep an eye on that Brother who slaps the students and see to it that he stops doing it.St. John Baptist de la Salle

In general, the system we ought to adopt is called Preventive, which consists in so disposing the hearts of our students that they ought to be willing to do what we ask of them without need of external violence. I would like to think that coercive means are never to be used, but only and exclusively those suggested by patience and charity.~ Don Bosco

I found this about St. Anselm, but couldn't find the original quote: It’s best brought home to us in a story about St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. An abbot told Anselm of the difficulties he was having in bringing up boys in his care. The abbot was a disciplinarian, beating the boys for each and every misdemeanour. Anselm could not contain his disagreement: "In God’s name", he burst out, "I would have you tell me why you are so incensed against them. Are they not human? Are they not flesh and blood like you?" The boys, he said, need "the encouragement and help of fatherly sympathy and gentleness", not just blows.

"Just as love is the supreme commandment with regards to the personal God, so too only love can be our fundamental obligation toward the human person, created in God's image and likeness." JPII, Memory and Identity

Free At Last!

2009-02-17T04:54:00.000-08:00

The title of a book published by the Sudbury Valley School where students from preschool through high school age explore the world freely, at their own pace and in their own unique ways.

Sounds unschooly.

The book has some great snippets on learning through life. As does the website.

The whole time I was enrolled, I wasn't concerned about my education. I never felt I needed to create a "program of studies" for myself; I didn't ever again feel that was an important thing to do. I knew enough people outside of school to feel like I wasn't any worse educated than they were! I never asked myself, "Am I satisfied with the way I'm being educated?" I usually just came to school and tried to figure out what was going on, and if there was something going on that I was interested in, then I would do it. If there wasn't, I would go read. In general, I don't remember thinking, "Is what this person is doing ok?" I had the idea that it wasn't really my business what someone was doing. He was doing what he was doing and that was sort of the beginning and the end of it. The first thing I remember clearly spending lots of time doing was the Plasticene Village, a table in the art room taken over for full-time use for plasticene. On some days, I would do it from the moment I got there to the moment I left. I don't know how long it lasted, but it seems like it went on forever! We made houses and people; those were pretty basic. The more complicated things were machinery and stuff like that. You had to convince people your machinery worked, so you needed some superficial knowledge of how it ought to work, and you had to be able to point to where the different parts were. It was wonderful fun. All of us graduated many years ago, and it turns out that it wasn't a bad thing at all to be doing plasticene all day for a year or so! But I don't know how I would have dealt with that if I was a staff member then, and a parent said to me, "I can't believe it. My kid is playing with plasticene for a whole year. This is terrible." It's hard. I'd have to tell the parent, "Look, what's wrong with your kid doing this? He's having fun, he's probably learning stuff, although who knows what." I don't know how the staff dealt with it. From If you're doing one hard thing, it's not that different from doing another hard thing.

"Where do you work?"
"At Sudbury Valley School."What do you do?"
"Nothing."
Doing nothing at Sudbury Valley requires a great deal of energy and discipline, and many years of experience. I get better at it every year, and it amuses me to see how I and others struggle with the inner conflict that arises in us inevitably. The conflict is between wanting to do things for people, to impart your knowledge and to pass on your hard earned wisdom, and the realization that the children have to do their learning under their own steam and at their own pace. Their use of us is dictated by their wishes, not ours. We have to be there when asked, not when we decide we should be.
Teaching, inspiring, and giving advice are all natural activities that adults of all cultures and places seem to engage in around children. Without these activities, each generation would have to invent everything anew, from the wheel to the ten commandments, metal working to farming. Man passes knowledge to the young from generation to generation, at home, in the community, at the workplace and supposedly at school. Unfortunately, the more today's schools endeavor to give individual students guidance, the more they harm the children. This statement requires explanation, since it seems to contradict what I have just said, namely, that adults always help children learn how to enter the world and become useful in it. What I have learned, very slowly and painfully over the years, is that children make vital decisions for themselves in ways that no adults could have anticipated or even imagined. From The Art of Doing Nothing

Why do you unschool?

2009-02-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

On the Unschooling Catholics email list ( see sidebar for link..) someone asked - why do you unschool?

There are a myriad of reasons for choosing to unschool. And I hope to hear your thoughts.

Why do I choose unschooling?

I think unschooling works best for academics - unschooling encourages kids to follow passions and not learn just to pass tests.

I think unschooling is better for relationships - we really get to know each other and spend time together and question paradigms and seek joy.

I think unschooling is better for passing on our Faith - we share our faith in our day to day living and we live an open book life with our kids.

I think I unschool because unschooling works!

How does unschooling work?

Read How Unschooling Works.

Schooling works by pouring expertly selected bits of the world into a child. (Or trying to, anyway!)
Unschooling works by the child pulling in what he wants and needs. It works best by noticing what the child is asking for and helping him get it. It works best by running the world through their lives so they know what it's possible to be interested in.

And ~

That's how unschooling works. Kids build up knowledge about what interests them. They have a vested interest in understanding what interests them.
Unfortunately for new unschooling moms, what interests them usually doesn't look academic. It looks a lot like playing. (Play is how kids are created to learn!) Learning looks like video games and Harry Potter and making videos and reading and watching TV and playing with friends and pretend and chatting on line. It's really only after kids are grown and following their interests into college and jobs that we can see how what they did led to where they got. But the ongoing process doesn't look at all like school.

Unschooling Mathematics

2009-01-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

I unschool except for Maths. Do you say that?

How do we unschool maths?

Every family approaches this differently. Some do formal Maths regularly. Occasionally. Seasonally. When kids ask. Others see Maths in every day life. Set up maths games and activities. Cooking. Thinking aloud. Use TV shows like Numbers. And others just live and not worry about subject guidelines.

Looking for ideas? Some maths links ~

Developing an Unschooling Non-Curriculum - Math
I thought I'd share a bit of our math non-curriculum with the list.
First, it's a non-curriculum because it doesn't have a timetable attached to it or particular exercises to be completed. We do have specific ideas about what learning math involves, the steps involved in learning math and how math mastery occurs. There is definitely an agenda. I personally feel that numeracy is very important.
So, how do we encourage our children to become numerate, to learn math?
First of all, we act as examples. We use math daily, hourly. We have animated discussions over, for example, the number of tubs of Black Jack we'll need to seal our driveway or how much it costs us to feed electricity to our two computers. We care about the results, we make mistakes, and the mistakes have real-life consequences.
We also use math for fun; often trying to estimate, for example, the number of bananas we eat in a year or how many eggrolls would it take to reach the moon. I'm afraid we often get silly and laugh a lot while we're doing these problems. I hope that doesn't bother any of you who are very serious about math, but there it is.
We let the children stew in their own juices a bit when they're confronted with a problem that requires math. We let them get a bit frustrated. I think that it's important that children learn how to solve problems themselves. It's important for them to realize that they need to use their own brains to figure things out. So, we let them struggle with their problems

Unschoolers and Mathematics
Wild math looks different than domesticated math It looks more like conversations, using numbers to figure out something the child wants to know, video games, allowance, weighing things in the grocery store, finding the best deal among several choices—that is not as a lesson but what you would normally do—board games, figuring out “how long until?” when she asks, budgets, doing a rough estimation of the items in the grocery cart to see if you have enough money, baseball statistics, crafts, origami, wrapping presents ...

Unschooling math
Real life math probably bears the least resemblance to its schoolish counterpart than any other "subject". Because real life math is about discovering how numbers work rather than memorizing formulas to impose on numbers.

Real life math is, as an example, casually encountering percentages in a dozen different contexts and therefore slowly building up an idea of what percentages are and how they're used.

It's similar to the process of how we acquire new words. Usually when we're reading or listening to conversations we don't run and get the dictionary to look up a word we don't know. Generally we can get a good enough idea of its meaning from the context. And the next time we encounter it we add another facet to our understanding and the fuzzy impression of what the word means gets a bit more clear. And so on. The process probably accounts for our often not being able to define a word for someone else that we've not only read and heard dozens of times but even used.

For some reason people think multiplication and division are such difficult subjects that, after algebra, that's the one thing they question under "how will they learn?" But once a child realizes that multiplication is just a fast way to do repeated addition and that division is just a fast way to do repeated subtraction, a great deal of what causes math phobia in adults disappears. Multiplication and division aren't mysterious at all. They're just addition and subtraction short cuts.

One thing I've found helpful is expressing things in a couple of different ways. When we've come across percents, I've said "17% or 17 out of every 100," or "25% is the same as a quarter."

Another thing is solving problems out loud without pencil and paper so they can see how numbers can be manipulated. So for instance to add 138 + 53. (Hmm, a bit tougher than I normally pull off the top of my head! ;-) but kids do pick up on the process when they hear similar processes dozens of times.) 39 is almost 40 and 53 is almost 50. 40+50 is 90. But we added 2 to the 38 so we need to take away 2 from 90. And we subtracted 3 from the 53 so we need to add 3. That brings us up to 91. Then just add 100. So 191.

Radical Unschooling.

2009-01-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

On the Unschooling Catholics email list, there has been a fantastic in depth discussion on radical unschooling for Catholics.

How much freedom do we allow our children? Do we have bedtimes, curfews, gaming or food or other limits? Or no limits?

And how does no limits fit in with our Faith?

I encourage you to join our discussion ~ see the sidebar for details.

In the mean time, may I share some links?

Sandra Dodd Radical Unschooling

Joyfully Rejoycing

Radical Christian Unschooling

Freedom

He who is allowed to sin, sins less

Parenting as Structure - from Willa

Melissa Wiley on Radical Unschooling

Unschooly Books

2008-11-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

Come on - add your titles to the list.....

The Secret Garden

The Little Princess

The Adventures of Pippi Logstocking

The Swallows and Amazons series

To Kill a Mockingbird (Kids learn so much from life around them)

Whalerider
Mary Poppins
Heidi

Nims Island

Bridge to Terabithia

Surviving the Applewhites
A Vicarage Family ( and other similar books) by Noel Streetfield ( she wrote many)
101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith – also I Capture the Castle by the same author
Vanload to Venice – Verily Anderson
The Saturdays by Elisabeth Enright
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E. Konigsburg
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell ( not fiction but autobiographical)

Unschooly Movies

2008-11-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

Good Will Hunting (adult in many places, but great movie about doing things your own way)

Finding Nemo (letting kids go and trusting them)

Can't Buy Me Love (being yourself)

Chocolat (never shows girl at school, letting your child learn from surroundings, letting kids and selves be free)

Scent of a Woman (more anti-school maybe, than unschooling, but sooooo good!)

The Secret of Roan Inish

Uncle Buck (more anti-school, but also being yourself, having fun, doing things diffierently)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Kids learn so much from life around them)
Whalerider

Mary Poppins

Heidi

The Sound of Music

Searching for Bobby Fischer ("Innocent Moves" is the British title)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang

Whistle Down the Wind. (starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates)

The Snow Goose (starring Alan Bates)

October Sky

School of Rock

The Wild Thornberries
Pippi Longstocking! I just love her!
Fly Away Home (based on a true story)
Explorers (14yr old science whizzes build a spaceship in their homemade lab in lieu of getting beat up at school)

Goonies
Lord's of Dog Town. Its' an excellent movie and very unschooly. About skateboarding

Stand and Deliver

The Astronaut Farmer

Captains Courageous

Nim's Island

School of Rock

The Secret Garden

The Little Princess

Towards a Definition of Catholic Unschooling

2008-10-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

At the Unschooling Catholics email list, we are working on personal definitions of unschooling.

Unschooling can be as simple as not doing school.

It can be as complex as treating each family member with respect, respecting personal choices, education and food and TV and other choices.

While the term unschooling can seem rather nebulous, there is a common thread in all the lives of Catholic unschoolers.

Trust.

Trust in God and His Church.

Trust in the family.

Trusting that the child is born with a desire to learn. And that he/she will learn. Will know what he/she needs and wants to learn.

Trust that learning is everywhere, all the time, that one never stops learning.

Those personal definitions ~

Unschooling is...

To me it is real, natural learning and all encompassing. Ideas, concepts, subjects, etc are learned as they arise in a natural way. Toni

We don’t really do school, and we try to live with respect for kids and interests . Leonie

My quick answer is Child-led learning. We don't use curriculum. Elaine

I explain that we don't need a school room as we don't really sit down to do written bookwork, and though books are a big part of our life, we learn as we live, in a very organic sort of way, and most of what would be covered in school gets learned in living real life. Our children are driven to learn, and we don't interfere with that, but simply let them discover their own answers, and are available to give guidance, answers and mentoring along the way as they seek it, they mostly seem to be happy and confident in their learning. Lorna

I think most of us who are attracted to the term or who would apply it to ourselves, tend to be those whose entirely different manner of education involves at its heart, rather than at its periphery, the belief in the natural desire to learn, natural as well as individual development, and hence the freedom of action which is necessary for a good education. I agree with what others have said; this means "natural", "child-led". Rebecca

I guess for me unschooling is looking at the kids for who they are, and using any and all resrouces they need at any particular time. Trusting them to learn. Providing an atmsphere that encourages learning and discussion. When they need something formal to reach a goal or open a door, use it. But not be bound by a definition such as 'school' and waste time meeting other's goals or definitions. Cindy

Learning through life. Real learning happens in real, everyday life. Sarah

This is a work-in-progress. Please feel free to add your own definition of Catholic unschooling....

Links for All Hallow's Eve, All Saints and All Souls...

2008-10-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

I love these feast days - so much to plan for, so much fun to have, prayers to pray, activities to undertake, Masses to attend, parties, perhaps, to plan... We can't do it all so each year I just select a few things on which to concentrate...

Halloween

Halloween, All Saints and All Souls

Soul cakes - we've made these for several years, yum!

Prayer - De Profundus

Who They Are and Who God made Them To Be

2008-10-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

From Christian Unschooling.

The thing is, this is WHO they are and who God created them to be. Because they have plenty of materials on hand and the freedom to do and make they will run with it. They are allowed to watch as much tv and play as many video games as they like–which they do (unless of course they have a job they need to do like their dishes or someo ther parental request) but it is not nearly as much as one might expect–they watch, in general, much less than they would if I limited the time spent. Because they have freedom and materials on hand, they have TONS of movies and lots of video games, plenty of arts and crafts materials and the freedom to use scrap paper and other random bits of stuff they have much more interesting things to do than sit and watch DVD’s. ......... Sometimes things get messy (okay, usually–5 people at home all day means no house beautiful), sometimes too much is enough, and sometimes they fight, but in general it is a peaceful life overflowing with learning and activity, and we all are learning daily.

Beginning Unschooling

2008-10-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

How does one begin to unschool?

Or, how does one re-start unschooling?

There have been times in my life when I have moved away from my unschooling ideals and we have failed to connect. I have directed more than I like. I have to jump start my unschooling mode, my unschooling lifestyle.

What do I do?

I usually start , or jump start, unschooling by taking a holiday!

Act as though I am on vacation at home.

Do the usual chores and household routine then do what we'd like to do on holiday - hang out, watch movies, play games, talk, read together, listen to or play music, bake, do crafts, go to the park, visit places as though we are tourists in our area, celebrate the liturgical year.

Invite the children to join me.

Follow their lead.

Say yes more.

Just hang out and, after awhile, I notice interests starting to spurt, areas to strew, things to tweak, a routine and rhythm.

And this needs to be done for a good length of time - at least three-six months.

Whenever I do this I also keep a little log or diary - kind of inspiring for me to see what learning happens when I am not directing learning.

I have blog of our day to day unschool doings, it is just a log for the state but gives you some idea of what we do all day - St Anthony Academy .

And here is a good page on beginning unschooling

Finally, I try to remember to relax and enjoy and smile more. I read unschooling blogs and books and sites, I immerse myself in unschooling as an interest or hobby.

Teach Your Own

2008-10-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

A seminal book on unschooling, by John Holt.

Quotes ~

I have used the words "home schooling" to describe the process by which children grow and learn in the world without going, or going very much, to schools, because those words are familiar and quickly understood. But in one very important sense they are misleading. What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children's growth in the word is not that it is a better school than the schools but that it isn't a school at all.
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Of course, a child may not know what he may need to know in ten years (who does?), but he knows, and much better than anyone else, what he wants and needs to know right now, what his mind is ready and hungry for. If we help him, or just allow him, to learn that, he will remember it, use it, build on it. If we try to make him learn something else, that we think is more important, the chances are that he won't learn it, or will learn very little of it, that he will soon forget most of what he learned, and what is worst of all, will before long lose most of his appetite for learning anything.
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The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, He does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense ... School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning.
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What children need is not new and better curricula but access to more and more of the real world; plenty of time and space to think over their experiences, and to use fantasy and play to make meaning out of them; and advice, road maps, guidebooks, to make it easier for them to get where they want to go (not where we think they ought to go), and to find out what they want to find out.
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More quotes here.

So, what do Catholic Unschoolers Do All Day?

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It differs, from family to family.

Sharing some links. Please add your own!

How We Homeschool

How Our Family Came To Unschool

That photo album

Tidal Homeschooling

A Recipe for Classical Unschooling?

Memories and Homeschooling

Unschooling Tuesday

Math Stress?

First Week of School?

Connecting

2008-10-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

This morning we sat down and made construction paper jack-lanterns since Halloween is fast approaching....

Whenever I create, I think about "the important stuff."

Yesterday had been a rough day around here...one particular child didn't want to do what she was asked to do and was plagued with a foul attitude - and I quickly got into one in trying to deal with said child.

It was around 4pm that I had a breakthrough with this dear one. I simply asked her to snuggle on my lap with me and I gave her a kiss. I then apologized for my bad behavior. I don't recall if she apologized for her's - but this morning, things started to get tense, again.

So, rather than engage, I pulled out "stuff" to do art and sat at the kitchen table with the crew.

Quickly, all stress was off and we were connecting again because when the stress is off, we can actually discuss the problems instead of defending or reacting to them.

So, as I made my pumpkin decoration, I realized that it is usually over a project or story - or simply, undistracted time together that we connect.

What is it for you?

On the Christian Education of Youth

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Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child...attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of education....such men are miserably deluded in their claim to emancipate, as they say, the child, while in reality they are making him the slave of his own blind pride and of his disorderly affections... - Christian Education of Youth by Pope Pius XI

This quote, and this encyclical, has been used as an argument against unschooling.

What is interesting is that Suzie Andres, in her book on Catholic unschooling, uses this and similar quotes from the encyclical, to promote her understanding of why unschooling can be a choice for Catholic homeschoolers.

Andres writes ~ page 39 - A closer reading of the Pope's words will...show us that unschooling is not forbidden for Catholics. Note that the objectionable methods of education attribute to the child ' an exclusive primacy of initiative..'. We can respond that because the child is always the primary agent in his learning, it is fitting that he is often the initiator of his learning as well. This is precisely what unschooling allows. Unschooling, however, does not require that the child be the only or exclusive initiator.

Moreover, the Pope is especially concerned with preventing parents and educators from witholding religious instruction on the false belief that the child must initiate every area of his formation and education. In our defense of unschooling we have emphasized the need for parents to refrain from over-teaching, and the importance of their actively respecting the child's ability to learn without too much interference. But this is not equivalent to saying that unschooling parents cannot initiate areas of study.

Consequently, unschooling as we have defined it is not one of the modern systems of education the Pope here condemns.Furthermore, reading on in this encyclical, we find in the next paragraph a description which more accurately applies to unschooling, and which the Pope then approves.

Pope Pius XI states:'If any of these terms are used, less properly, to denote the necessity of a gradually more active co-operation on the part of the pupil in his own education, if the intention is to banish from education despotism and violence, which, by the way, just punishment is not, this would be correct but in no way new. It would only mean what has been taught and reduced to practice by the Church in traditional Christian education, in imitation of the method employed by God Himself towards His creatures, of whom he demands active co-operation according to the nature of each;.....Here we find that the Church not only allows for unschooling, but even places it in line with her tradition. page 40

A Catholic can choose to unschool, without fear of compromising their Faith.

Just as a family can live and share the Faith, so can a family share each individual's educational life; their thoughts, their interests, their activities.

Education happens, sometimes through osmosis and sometimes through a more rigorous study.

" All men by nature desire to know." Aristotle, in Metaphysics.

What is Catholic Unschooling?

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As an addendum to Maria's post below...

How do we define unschooling?

What is unschooling?

I think, perhaps, that unschooling can be an idea held in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. An idea that differs among people.

I say we are unschooly. That we learn from interests and from life, family centred learning, not necessarily using school methods or following a school curriculum.

And I like these unschooling definitions ~

Patrick Farenga, who succeeded John Holt as the Publisher of GWS magazine, : "When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world as their parents can comfortably bear." ( Teach Your Own, page 238).

Mary Griffith, author of The Homeschooling Handbook, writes about unschooling and John Holt: " Children learn best, he argued, not by being taught, but by being a part of the world, free to explore what most interests them, by having their questions answered as they ask them, and by being treated with respect.." ( page 56 -57).

In Homeschooling With Gentleness, Suzie Andres writes: "Unschooling is a form of education in which the child is trusted to be the primary agent in learning what he needs to know to lead him to happiness ( page 12)...'form of education' refers in particular to academic education, not to moral education....those who are trusting the child are his parents.They are trusting him to be the primary agent in his learning, but this does not amount to neglect on their part. The parents assume the role of secondary agents, meaning they do not forsake their duties in their child's education, but rather they recognize and honour his natural ability to learn...( page 12)....While other approaches tend to focus on the teaching done by the parent, unschooling concentrates on the learning done by the student..." ( page 13).

Finally, a simple definition/phrase, from Parenting a Free Child by Rue Kream: "Our unschooling is our parenting is our life together."

So, are we relaxed homeschoolers or are we unschoolers? To be frank, I doubt that the terminology matters. We are what we are. Learning and living together in Faith and with growth.

One Sunday, Fr mentioned that one's Faith should grow; it should not be simply the Faith one had at age twelve. There should be growth. It should be living.

The same with our learning, our homeschooling. It is not held static by a label but is organic, education that changes as the children and family changes.

We learn and add to our Faith, to our knowledge, to who and what we are.

That said, I wouldn't personally call myself a relaxed homeschooler, mostly because we don't have daily sit down basics to do and we don't necessarily have a framework within which we follow interests. We may do these things but we also may throw them all out and live life and learn that way together.

It may be that I see unschooling ( giving kids choice, learning from life) as a philosophy but how it works out in my life differs from season to season.

This has got me pondering

2008-10-06T07:00:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine and I were having a discussion about what unschooling is this weekend. I had always seen her as doing more schoolish stuff than I do but from something I had written and that she had read, she said, "We're really not that much different."

So, naturally, this got me thinking.

My friend said something about waiting till kids are ready to introduce different concepts, ideas....not just trying to "fill that pail."

I know we've all tried to define it as what it is for us...but could it part of it be the idea that we wait until the child is ready to strew material they're ready for - kind of like St. Paul - "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. "

What do you think? And if this is more a question for the loop, please delete this post.

For the Children's Sake, Part II

2008-10-06T04:15:00.001-07:00

As I read Leonie's post, I nodded as I usually do when I read her posts- and did a mental fist-pump.. Right ON!

But looking again at the post title, I was taken back to the book that shares the namesake. One of the first books I read when I began my homeschooling journey 12 years ago was For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaefffer McCauley. So Leonie's post title also brought me back to the loveliness of that book.

It is not an unschooling book, but it lays the framework of the beautiful unschooling life. It has a deep and profound respect and love of children. The author talks of how we must nurture our children, watch the process, be aware of them and show them how learning is lifelong and can be full of passion.

The author shares her journey of trying to find a school that didn't squelch that passion- and unsuccessful search and their subsequent path to homeschooling. The book leads on to Charlotte Mason, though not unschooling, again full of the philosophies of connecting, respecting children, making connections and viewing learning as a lifetime endeavor.

Lovely, lovely book!

I found it to be the perfect book to read at the beginning of homeschooling the kids.. and to pick up now and then and re-read bits. It all still applies. It is about loving our children.

For the Children's Sake

2008-10-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

At the park one day , another Catholic homeschooler and I and a group of children ( ours and those of friends) went for a long walk.

My friend is a more structured homeschooler. We are pretty loose and relaxed with our unschooling style. But we both talked about why we choose to live without school.

Now, this post is not a tirade against schools.It is, however, a post on freedom.

We live without school because we can.

We can take time to pursue interests.

To build relationships.

To just take time.

We can hang out in the wider community - life and learning and the adult world are not separate entities for my sons.

Are the children learning? Do they know their Faith?

More importantly, to me, - is their learning and their experience and knowledge of the Faith living ? Real? Meaningful?

My children, like me, are far from perfect.

Some positive things that we do share, though, are a love of music, of books, of movies.We enjoy talking about these things.

We pray together.

We go to Mass and to Confession together.

And, for the most part, we enjoy hanging out together.

Dh comes home not to angst filled evenings of homework but to family time.

School encroaches on a child's time - even after school hours are filled with homework. When does the family gather time to really know each other, to become friends?

This aspect of family life is so much easier and natural with homeschooling. Families with children in school can and do have super family relationships , I know - and homeschoolers are not immune to difficulties and problems - but family relationship in the long term seems to be more easily built via homeschooling.

And specifically by the experience of mindful parenting and unschooling.

Perhaps it is this idea of family relationship that really describes why we live without school.

We live without school for the family's sake.

Who We Are

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We are welcoming and supportive Catholic families, sharing how unschooling works in different families in different ways.

Our goal is to share information, ideas, thoughts and experiences and be a place for resources, inquiry, discussion and support, with charity at the forefront.

Some families may be 'pure unschoolers' while others are dipping in and we respect all members as they find what is best for their families and the education and growth of their children.

Some primary influences for Catholic Unschooling are Pope JPII and St. John Bosco.

We welcome questions and honest inquiry, yet are *not* a forum to debate the validity of either Catholicism or Unschooling.

We discuss our lives, Faith and parenting in a warm and welcoming environment.