tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1260312988602074882024-03-14T11:48:55.237-07:00Unschooling CatholicsWhere Catholicism and Unschooling meet.Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-46349749199478564652013-06-02T04:00:00.000-07:002013-06-02T04:00:09.526-07:00Unschooling and teens....<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An article about teen unschooling by a young adult who unschooled :</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-boles/five-reasons-to-quit-scho_b_3267545.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Four Reasons to Quit School and Become a Teenage Homeschooler</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">If you've spent your entire life in school (as most teenagers have), it's hard to imagine life without classes, grades, and curriculum. So when you try to imagine how homeschoolers learn, it's easy to think that they simply do "school" at "home."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While some traditionally-minded homeschoolers certainly feel compelled to pore over state-mandated textbooks in the comfort (and loneliness) of their houses, there are also many teenage <em style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">self-directed learners</em> who create their own curriculums based on their passions, interests, and goals. You're more likely to find these teens interning for a cool company, road-tripping with friends, or building a garden than doing textbook problem sets at home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some homeschoolers are so adamant about self-directed learning that they use an entirely different word to describe their approach: <a href="http://whyunschool.info/" style="border: 0px; color: #ed0978; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">unschooling</a>. The unschooling philosophy is simple: do what you love, and the learning (and eventually, money) will follow."</span></div>
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Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-64075459363858129032013-04-07T20:08:00.001-07:002013-04-07T20:08:28.117-07:00A Science post<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the Unschooling Catholics email list, we were asked a question:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I'm having trouble letting go of the traditional high school Science sequence. What have your kids done for Science and did they have any trouble with college acceptance if they did not complete the traditional Science sequence? "</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A response...and please feel free to share your ideas, too!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I found even in high school that it was best to go with passions and interests. University is always something we kind of expect and so all by sons have gone or are studying for degrees, the youngest Unschooler starting university a year early this year at age 17.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now some of mine have been Science "mad" and so we naturally sought Science resources for them eg volunteer work at a Science museum, applied for and studied in a program for gifted Science high school students at a university, I organised a weekly lab session for homeschoolers at a Scienceworks venue, buying books and reading on Science, buying a Chemistry set and setting up a mini lab in the laundry away from toddlers, investigating Science courses like Open Uni and Unilearn ( online/external mode and I think the US has online courses, community college)...you get the idea!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Others were not really into Science so I just strewed resources and articles and experiments and outings and nature study and cooking and life and wrote it down on our transcript/report as General Science.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The kids who want and need Science follow the interest and need; others follow Science in life. And like everything this all comes down to the unschool idea of passion and motivation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of mine was keen on Latin for example so for a year or so he had a Latin tutor. That would never have worked for another son but for him there was no pushing and no mum micro managing because it was what he wanted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same could apply for the field of Science.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some good resources are the book <a href="http://www.skylarksings.com/">And the Skylark Sings with Me</a> by David Albert - one of his daughters became interested in Science and did correspondence Science college courses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also good ideas in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Teenage-Liberation-Handbook-Education/dp/0962959170">The Teenage Liberation Handbook</a> by Grace Llewellyn and examples of real life teens following interests and including Science at al in <a href="http://www.fun-books.com/authors/Grace_Llewellyn.htm">Real Lives: Eleven teenagers who don't go to school</a>, also by Llewellyn. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Cafi Cohen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/And-What-About-College-Homeschooling/dp/0913677116">And What About College?</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is good just for the appendix on how to log life as learning and count hours as credits for transcripts!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MacBeth always has great Science resources on her blog - here is one with some <a href="http://macbethsopinion.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/best-chem-lab-book-for-home-use-and-more.html?m=1">suggestions</a>! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-27620127020824734212013-02-02T16:28:00.004-08:002013-02-02T16:28:57.001-08:00All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An interesting blog post on the new Core Curriculum for four and five year olds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">"Remember the Robert Fulghum book from years ago called </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_I_Really_Need_to_Know_I_Learned_in_Kindergarten" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px; text-decoration: initial;">"All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten?</a> <br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">In that book, Fulghum wrote that every lesson that you really need from life </span><a href="http://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/842/36.html" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px; text-decoration: initial;">is taught to you when you're in kindergarten:</a><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /></span><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 1em 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of what I really need<br />To know about how to live<br />And what to do and how to be<br />I learned in kindergarten.<br />Wisdom was not at the top<br />Of the graduate school mountain,<br />But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.<br /><br />These are the things I learned:<br /><br />Share everything.<br />Play fair.<br />Don't hit people.<br />Put things back where you found them.<br />Clean up your own mess.<br />Don't take things that aren't yours.<br />Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.<br />Wash your hands before you eat.<br />Flush.<br />Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.<br />Live a balanced life -<br />Learn some and think some<br />And draw and paint and sing and dance<br />And play and work everyday some.<br />Take a nap every afternoon.<br />When you go out into the world,<br />Watch out for traffic,<br />Hold hands and stick together.<br />Be aware of wonder.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">That's what used to be taught in kindergarten.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now under the Gates/Broad/Murdoch/Obama/Bloomberg/Cuomo/Klein/Rhee/Duncan/Bush education reform movement, they don't teach any of those things anymore.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">Instead they teach how to get an eating disorder or a drug habit or an alcohol problem or workaholism or a shopping compulsion or OCD or a sex addiction or neurosis or any number of other issues because your kindergarten years have had all the joy and fun taken out of them and have been replaced with high stakes testing, higher order math and language lessons, and cutthroat competition with your peers.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">It's not a mistake that the same oligarchs who have brought this insane Common Core to fruition do not send their kids to schools that use Common Core.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">They send them to Waldorf schools.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">Or Quaker schools.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">Or Montessiori schools.</span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">Or the Lab School. </span><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;">You know, the kinds of schools that aren't run like army drill camps, where the teachers aren't graded using test scores, where the kids don't take high stakes standardized tests all throughout the year, where students get to explore meaningful subjects and lessons rather than endless test prep and drills."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.796875px;"><a href="http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/how-is-common-core-for-kindergartners.html">Perdido Street School</a></span></span><br />
<br />Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-54895442616867367022012-12-26T19:35:00.001-08:002012-12-26T19:35:27.543-08:00If I could tell a new homeschool mum one thing.....<br />
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If I could tell a new homeschool mum one thing, it would be… to give it ( whatever it is) Time.</div>
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Time. The biggest secret in homeschooling/unschooling.</div>
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Time for a child to mature, so that the boy who hates writing at age six<br />(“why do I have to do this”) is just given time to mature, no pressure to write, just sharing books together until one day he finds his voice and writes and blogs.</div>
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Time for the shared experiences to be shared, to shape the child, to allow him to explore, think, play, be a child…so that he chooses, as a teen, to study ancient languages at a university winter school and needs no nagging about homework. He has had time to find out what he likes and how he learns.</div>
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Time to spend with family and friends, exploring persona (today it’s Batman, tomorrow it is a Roman soldier), learning how to interact with others, to control temper, to think of others, to learn about self.</div>
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Time to read and read together without school schedules and have-tos.</div>
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Time for that stubborn toddler to grow into a self disciplined, determined young man. Time for that very sensitive child to grow into a young man who thinks deeply and spiritually.</div>
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Time to cook, to do crafts, to play games, to climb trees, to visit and re-visit museums and libraries, to learn.</div>
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And time for mum to realise that things that seem major and crisis making and overwhelming now will pass.</div>
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Time has been my homeschooling secret. Regardless of circumstances and living situations, I have learned to give myself and my kids time.</div>
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Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-21613781343368692772012-11-15T04:14:00.001-08:002012-11-15T04:14:41.379-08:00Unschooling and Shakespeare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From <a href="http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com/1004/Shakespeare_through_an_unschooling_lens.htm">Life Learning Magazine</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>There’s a lot of giggling going on in the back seat of the car. We’re on our way home from the prestigious Golden Boy indoor soccer tournament. My eleven-year-old son Daniel has a gold medal around his neck after a hard-played final. He also has a book in his hand – not exactly standard “Grade Six” reading fare. It’s Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare – and he and his eight-year-old brother are quizzing each other on the lines that they are memorizing. And giggling.… They are giggling at how funny these lines are. I, on the other hand, have tears in my eyes, a smile that reaches to Pittsburgh, and a heart overflowing with gratitude that we are able to <span lang="en-us">learn without school</span>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the beauty of unschooling. That warp and weave of every day life and learning. </span>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-57596623965584294182012-11-07T03:53:00.000-08:002012-11-07T03:53:34.666-08:00An oldie but a goodie!<a href="http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/earl_stevens.html">What is unschooling? By Earl Stevens</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge,<br />not knowledge in pursuit of the child."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">- George Bernard Shaw<br /> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: arial;">It is very satisfying for parents to see their children in pursuit of knowledge. It is natural and healthy for the children, and in the first few years of life, the pursuit goes on during every waking hour. But after a few short years, most kids go to school. The schools also want to see children in pursuit of knowledge, but the schools want them to pursue mainly the <i>school's</i>knowledge and devote twelve years of life to doing so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">In his acceptance speech for the New York City Teacher of the Year award (1990), John Gatto said, "Schools were designed by Horace Mann ... and others to be instruments of the scientific management of a mass population." In the interests of managing each generation of children, the public school curriculum has become a hopelessly flawed attempt to define education and to find a way of delivering that definition to vast numbers of children.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The traditional curriculum is based on the assumption that children must be pursued by knowledge because they will never pursue it themselves. It was no doubt noticed that, when given a choice, most children prefer not to do school work. Since, in a school, knowledge is <i>defined as schoolwork</i>, it is easy for educators to conclude that children don't like to acquire knowledge. Thus schooling came to be a method of controlling children and forcing them to do whatever educators decided was beneficial for them. Most children don't like textbooks, workbooks, quizzes, rote memorization, subject schedules, and lengthy periods of physical inactivity. One can discover this - even with polite and cooperative children - by asking them if they would like to add more time to their daily schedule. I feel certain that most will decline the offer.</span></td></tr>
<tr><td style="line-height: 24px;" valign="middle"><span style="font-family: arial;">The work of a schoolteacher is not the same as that of a homeschooling parent. In most schools, a teacher is hired to deliver a ready-made, standardized, year-long curriculum to 25 or more age-segregated children who are confined in a building all day. The teacher must use a standard curriculum - not because it is the best approach for encouraging an individual child to learn the things that need to be known - but because it is a convenient way to handle and track large numbers of children. The school curriculum is understandable only in the context of bringing administrative order out of daily chaos, of giving direction to frustrated children and unpredictable teachers. It is a system that staggers ever onward but never upward, and every morning we read about the results in our newspapers.</span></td><td style="line-height: 24px;" valign="middle"><i><span style="color: #202090; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Children pursue life, and in doing so, pursue knowledge.</span></i></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="line-height: 24px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: arial;">But despite the differences between the school environment and the home, many parents begin homeschooling under the impression that it can be pursued only by following some variation of the traditional public school curriculum in the home. Preoccupied with the idea of "equivalent education", state and local education officials assume that we must share their educational goals and that we homeschool simply because we don't want our children to be inside their buildings. Textbook and curriculum publishing companies go to great lengths to assure us that we must buy their products if we expect our children to be properly educated. As if this were not enough, there are national, state, and local support organizations that have practically adopted the use of the traditional curriculum and the school-in-the-home image of homeschooling as a de facto membership requirement. In the midst of all this, it can be difficult for a new homeschooling family to think that an alternative approach is possible.</span><span style="font-family: arial;">One alternative approach is "unschooling", also known as "natural learning", "experience-based learning", or "independent learning". Several weeks ago, when our homeschooling support group announced a gathering to discuss unschooling, we thought a dozen or so people might attend, but more than 100 adults and children showed up. For three hours, parents and some of the children took turns talking about their homeschooling experiences and about unschooling. Many people said afterward that they left the meeting feeling reinforced and exhilarated - not because anybody told them what to do or gave them a magic formula - but because they grew more secure in making these decisions for themselves. Sharing ideas about this topic left them feeling empowered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before I talk about what I think unschooling is, I must talk about what it isn't. Unschooling isn't a recipe, and therefore it can't be explained in recipe terms. It is impossible to give unschooling directions for people to follow so that it can be tried for a week or so to see if it works. Unschooling isn't a method, it is a way of looking at children and at life. It is based on trust that parents and children will find the paths that work best for them - without depending on educational institutions, publishing companies, or experts to tell them what to do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Unschooling does not mean that parents can never teach anything to their children, or that children should learn about life entirely on their own without the help and guidance of their parents. Unschooling does not mean that parents give up active participation in the education and development of their children and simply hope that something good will happen. Finally, since many unschooling families have definite plans for college, unschooling does not even mean that children will never take a course in any kind of a school.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Then what is unschooling? I can't speak for every person who uses the term, but I can talk about my own experiences. Our son has never had an academic lesson, has never been told to read or to learn mathematics, science, or history. Nobody has told him about phonics. He has never taken a test or been asked to study or memorize anything. When people ask, "What do you do?" My answer is that we follow our interests - and our interests inevitably lead to science, literature, history, mathematics, music - all the things that have interested people before anybody thought of them as "subjects".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">A large component of unschooling is grounded in doing real things, not because we hope they will be good for us, but because they are intrinsically fascinating. There is an energy that comes from this that you can't buy with a curriculum. Children do real things all day long, and in a trusting and supportive home environment, "doing real things" invariably brings about healthy mental development and valuable knowledge. It is natural for children to read, write, play with numbers, learn about society, find out about the past, think, wonder and do all those things that society so unsuccessfully attempts to force upon them in the context of schooling.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">While few of us get out of bed in the morning in the mood for a "learning experience", I hope that all of us get up feeling in the mood for life. Children always do so - unless they are ill or life has been made overly stressful or confusing for them. Sometimes the problem for the parent is that it can be difficult to determine if anything important is actually going on. It is a little like watching a garden grow. No matter how closely we examine the garden, it is difficult to verify that anything is happening at that particular moment. But as the season progresses, we can see that much has happened, quietly and naturally. Children pursue life, and in doing so, pursue knowledge. They need adults to trust in the inevitability of this very natural process, and to offer what assistance they can.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Parents come to our unschooling discussions with many questions about fulfilling state requirements. They ask: "How do unschoolers explain themselves to the state when they fill out the paperwork every year?", "If you don't use a curriculum, what do you say?" and "What about required record-keeping?" To my knowledge, unschoolers have had no problems with our state department of education over matters of this kind. This is a time when even many public school educators are moving away from the traditional curriculum, and are seeking alternatives to fragmented learning and drudgery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">When I fill out the paperwork required for homeschooling in our state, I briefly describe, in the space provided, what we are currently doing, and the general intent of what we plan to do for the coming year. I don't include long lists of books or describe any of the step-by-step skills associated with a curriculum. For example, under English/Language Arts, I mentioned that our son's favorite "subject" is the English language. I said a few words about our family library. I mentioned that our son reads a great deal and uses our computer for whatever writing he happens to do. I concluded that, "Since he already does so well on his own, we have decided not to introduce language skills as a subject to be studied. It seems to make more sense for us to leave him to his own continuing success."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Unschooling is a unique opportunity for each family to do whatever makes sense for the growth and development of their children. If we have a reason for using a curriculum and traditional school materials, we are free to use them. They are not a universally necessary or required component of unschooling, either educationally or legally.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Allowing curriculums, textbooks, and tests to be the defining, driving force behind the education of a child is a hindrance in the home as much as in the school - not only because it interferes with learning, but because it interferes with trust. As I have mentioned, even educators are beginning to question the pre-planned, year-long curriculum as an out-dated, 19th century educational system. There is no reason that families should be less flexible and innovative than schools.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's mentor and friend, said:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><i>I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less "showily". Let him come and go freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself... Teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">Unschooling provides a unique opportunity to step away from systems and methods, and to develop independent ideas out of actual experiences, where the child is truly in pursuit of knowledge, not the other way around.<br /> </span></td></tr>
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Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-31293373170156730132012-10-20T21:12:00.004-07:002012-10-20T21:12:41.381-07:00Learning through play<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">National guidelines in Australia support the importance of play in learning. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The guidelines recognise the importance of play, particularly in the way it develops creativity, teaches sociability, negotiating and linguistic skills, and stresses that learning is not limited to a time or place." <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/let-the-children-play-new-national-guidelines-advise-20111007-1ldgg.html">Guidelines Recognize The Importance of Play, The Melbourne Age</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Something we unschoolers knew all along. </span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Creativity - our cooking, our free arts and crafts, our Lego, our dress ups, our imaginary play, our forts and cubbies and cars and dolls and music and...</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sociability - getting along with each other day after day, park days, play dates, church, parihs activities....</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Negotiating skills - whose turn is it to sit in the front of the car or to have a go at the Playstation or...</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Linguistic skills - we talk, we read, we watch movies, we talk some more, we write,we journal, we are on facebook and blogs and twitter, we learn prayers and poems and languages, we sing, we play games...</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning is not limited to a time - stories and looking up links on Google at bedtime and watching just-anther-episode - oh, it's midnight already?</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning is not limited to a place - writing journals while having ice creams at McDonalds and mum feeds the baby, working on a Maths sheet or reading a religion book in the car on the way to skating, sitting on the sofa to read and use the laptop or lying in the grass outside with that book and play cards and throw balls and everything else....</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning through play.</span></span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-47863197245072153932012-10-01T04:31:00.001-07:002012-10-01T04:32:27.905-07:00What do unschoolers do all day?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A great <a href="http://simplehomeschool.net/uninvolved-unschooler/">post</a>, discussing principles. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Principles? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1. We focus on exposure, not mastery.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">2. We focus on strengths and potential, not weaknesses.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">3. We focus on modeling.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">4. We focus on relationships.</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #213f74; line-height: 1.158em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. We focus on time, not content.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">6. We focus on our conviction and faith in the path we’ve chosen. </span></h3>
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Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-60122218793928858812012-09-16T04:06:00.004-07:002012-09-16T04:07:01.145-07:00The world has become my teacher and I can never accept a go-between again<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Quotes from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-I-Became-Autodidact/dp/0440550130">The Day I Became an Autodidact</a> by Kendall Hailey. One of the best books on self learning, for teens and adults, that I have ever read. A delightful, personal glimpse into the life of an autodidact.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The world has become my teacher and I can never accept a go-between again." p. 129<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"What I hope to Do: Love so much today I don't need tomorrow." p. 133<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"When I was in school, my life was what was due next week, and that's not enough of a life." p. 142<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I got the most heartbreaking letter from a college friend today. Ever since I had known her she wanted to be an actress, and so after graduation, when I was afraid I would not see her again, I wrote to tell her what a wonderful actress I thought she was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> "She wrote today that she did not get into the acting school she wanted to, so she is giving up her dream of being an actress. It takes so little to destroy a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> "I sometimes look at adult people and wonder how they could have ended up so sad, and yet here I am at the formation of what may be some very sad lives. We are changed people once we let go of what we hope for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> "Most of my dreams are pretty silly, but I will not let go of one of them, no matter how much of what is laughingly referred to as 'real life' gets in the way. As Ruth Gordon said, the key to success is: Don't Face Facts." p. 144 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-11693319699167684172012-09-12T05:17:00.004-07:002012-09-12T05:17:53.585-07:00Learning All the Time<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">Here are some of my favorite quotes from John Holt's </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learning-All-Time-John-Holt/dp/0201550911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257869837&sr=8-1" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; line-height: 20.78333282470703px; text-decoration: none;">Learning All the Time</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Real learning is a process of discovery, and if we want it to happen, we must create the kinds of conditions in which discoveries are made. We know what these are. They include time, leisure, freedom, and lack of pressure. </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>...what often happens to kids in school is that they are required to repeat, as sense, what makes no sense to them, to the point where they give up trying to reconcile what people say about the world with what they really feel about it. They accept as true whatever authority says is true. They do not try to check or test it. They soon forget even how to test it.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>What children want and need from us is thoughtful attention. They want us to notice them and pay some kind of attention to what they do, to take them seriously, to trust and respect them as human beings. They want courtesy and politeness, but they don't need much praise.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>...organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to one hundred percent false.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The idea, the very idea, that we can teach small children how to learn has come to me to seem utterly absurd.</i></span></blockquote>
Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-224941046740341152012-08-28T20:00:00.002-07:002012-08-28T20:01:18.975-07:00The Importance of PlayI was reading an interesting blog post for work on the importance of play and on traditional games for children. Not just for nostalgia but for what is learned and shared during these games.<br />
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For work? I am the Coordinator/Director ( in other words, Nominated Supervisor and Educational Leader) at an Out Of School Hours Centre...before and after school care.<br />
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So much of what we do at OOSH resembles my unschooling household.<br />
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So much of what we do and did in unschooling was play, new forms of play and traditional forms of play. Play for all ages.<br />
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And why is this play important? Read the whole blog post but this excerpt gives a glimpse:<br />
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I think there is something important about these traditional games that cannot simply be dismissed as rose-tinted, sepia-toned nostalgia. And I think the time is right to revisit these games and breathe new life into them.</div>
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There is something wonderfully pared down and self-reliant about many traditional games. They rarely need equipment. Many can be played almost anywhere, and can cope with a wide range of ages, abilities and numbers of players (I once saw two siblings play hide-and-seek for about fifteen minutes in a five-metres-by-five leisure centre reception area.) And the rules can be endlessly adapted – just as long as a sense of fair play is respected.</div>
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Outdoor games also provide children with valuable rehearsals for everyday life. Think about all the tasks that are involved in a game of tag, for instance. Players have to decide who is ‘it’. They have to agree safe spots, and how ‘time out’ works. And they have to sort out disputes about whether or not someone was tagged. The physicality of tag, and indeed many traditional games, demands accurate risk management. When chasing or catching, players have to try to make sure they don’t hurt each other too much, and it’s not a great idea to collide with any non-participants who happen to stray into the area. That is a pretty impressive list of physical, interpersonal and social skills. <a href="http://rethinkingchildhood.com/2012/08/22/traditional-games/">Traditional Outdoor Games: Tim Gill</a></div>
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<br />Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-53147148445435775452012-08-17T04:55:00.003-07:002012-08-17T04:55:32.468-07:00On Fairy Tales<br />
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"Not long ago I talked to a teacher who, having invited me to talk at her school, was having a bit of trouble with the head teacher who thought that fantasy was morally suspect, irrelevant to the world of the nineties, and escapist.</div>
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Morally suspect? Shorn of its trappings, most fantasy would find approval in a Victorian household. The morality of fantasy and horror is, by and large, the strict morality of the fairy tale. The vampire is slain, the alien is blown out of the airlock, the evil Dark Lord is vanquished and, perhaps at some loss, the Good triumph -- not because they are better armed, but because Providence is on their side. Let there be goblin hordes, let there be terrible environmental threats, let there be giant mutated slugs if you really must, but let there also be Hope. It may be a grim, thin hope, an Arthurian sword at sunset, but let us know that we do not live in vain."</div>
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<a href="http://www.concatenation.org/articles/pratchett.html">Terry Pratchett: When Children Read Fantasy</a> </div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-80647697496816127752012-08-06T05:03:00.001-07:002012-08-06T05:03:33.828-07:00An Unschooling Journey<br />
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A Homeschooling Journey: Illness, a Baby Girl, and a Move Towards Unschooling </div>
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On Tuesday morning my oldest son slept on and off for hours at a time. This was unusual for him. Around noon he asked me to make him a grilled cheese sandwich. Before I finished preparing it, he fell asleep once again.</div>
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That afternoon my four boys and I climbed into the minivan and drove to the medical center. My son needed a physical for summer camp and since he appeared to have the flu or maybe something worse, I scheduled an appointment for him. The pediatrician checked his vital signs and talked to him and seemed satisfied that he was healthy. I sensed that was not true. He actually needed to sit down for a couple minute break on the walk into our pediatrician's office from the car. I asked her to test his urine, because my husband and I were suspecting diabetes. She agreed it was a good idea to check. A few minutes later she came back to the room with the grim news that he did indeed have type 1 diabetes and started the procedures for admitting him into the ICU.</div>
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That was a sad, sad day. Our journey with this illness has been challenging and heart breaking at times. However, one small thing stands out in my mind after the fact: my educational philosophy throughout this crisis.</div>
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I am ashamed to admit that while my son lay ill in bed those few days before that dreadful Tuesday afternoon, I sat with him and read his "school work" to him so that all three boys would stay on schedule. No one else remembers this or finds this fact significant. But I do. It is one of those decisions I will always regret and also the decision I will always be glad led me to where I am today - on the path to becoming an unschooler.</div>
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It didn't even occur to me right away, not until the next fall. I designed the new school year's schedule with my old educational philosophy in the forefront of my mind. I bounced from one son to the next all day long, each day, until dinnertime, checking off all the items on our lists.</div>
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Then one day I thought to myself, "How am I going to keep up this crazy pace with a new baby come next January or February?" I started reading the unschooling Catholics yahoo group every morning with breakfast. I reread Suzie Andres' book "Homeschooling with Gentleness" and read for the first time her book "A little Way Of Homeschooling." The Holy Spirit inspired me to make many changes to our daily learning routine. I followed the lead of one of the ladies on the yahoo group to create a focus for each day. I bought my oldest son a fun math program to keep his interest in this area alive. I also found a gentle writing program through the recommendation of other Catholic unschoolers. Learning did become more joyful.</div>
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In January, our baby girl arrived. I believe God sent us her as a gift to help us move past my oldest son's diagnosis. Up until that time my life was overwhelmingly focused on checking blood sugars, counting carbs, giving insulin shots, testing for ketones, and wondering if I would walk into a room and find my son unconscious. Preparing for and taking care of a baby actually eased the stress of taking care of my son.</div>
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When I really knew my perspective had changed was when I began to feel uncomfortable when family and friends starting asking if we were "back to school" just weeks after giving birth. When people asked if we were going to "school" into the summertime to make up for lost time, I said "no." My second oldest wanted to spend the day reading, and I thought that sounded like a good idea. My oldest son started writing a book about his favorite computer game, and I noticed his spelling was improving. Before my enlightenment, I would have surely home schooled into June and July if we had "taken off from school." I also would not have considered a computer game a worthy educational tool.</div>
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I am still on my homeschooling/unschooling journey. It will probably take me some time to more fully embrace the ideals of unschooling. However, I hope by trusting God, I will gently guide my children to a lifestyle of loving God and loving learning - my goals from the beginning.</div>
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by <span class="il" style="background-color: #ffffcc;">Gina</span> Peterson blogs at <a href="http://www.catholicbreastfeeding.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.catholicbreastfeeding.<wbr>blogspot.com</wbr></a></div>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-28297188792566921222012-07-14T16:29:00.000-07:002012-07-14T16:32:26.641-07:00Toddlers and unschooling<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Toddler unschooling. A discussion on our Unschooling Catholics email list.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Isn't it just living life with toddlers? Yes.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But.... we all need new ideas. And it is often counter cultural to be living with toddlers without plans for preschool or school or even school at home. How will they learn?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As John Holt pointed out many times, children are natural learners. if we don't squash their interests. And if we share our lives with them, share the big wide world.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaHtsghUlf2KzPvmUqIUMJtGipalEjcAxvfD0VAiynV1Q9KF1Z1IVt1Ydt8WNJKELUhKbSjohfu6rBHWfI_bkEDM3HsQArqjT3bN_koC0_L_OXcf_L9pwFmTqoKL2iE7XYARiE9udFrOw/s1600/whole+parent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaHtsghUlf2KzPvmUqIUMJtGipalEjcAxvfD0VAiynV1Q9KF1Z1IVt1Ydt8WNJKELUhKbSjohfu6rBHWfI_bkEDM3HsQArqjT3bN_koC0_L_OXcf_L9pwFmTqoKL2iE7XYARiE9udFrOw/s200/whole+parent.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here is a link on <a href="http://sandradodd.com/toddlers">Toddler Unschooling</a>.... ..with many micro links contained within. With a reference to this book ( see image), one I found helpful as a young mother of young children. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enjoy. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And share your ideas! </span><br />
<br />Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-75762872556863540052012-07-14T16:09:00.002-07:002012-07-14T16:09:44.359-07:00Twenty Weeks for Six Years of Maths<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">This article was originally posted on the web site for The Sudbury</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Valley School in Framingham, MA, as one of their free articles.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Although this is no longer available on their site. This is the web site for the <a href="http://www.sudval.org/01_abou_01.html">Sudbury Valley School</a></span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"And 'Rithmetic</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Sitting before me were a dozen boys and girls, aged nine to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">twelve. A week earlier, they had asked me to teach them arithmetic.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">They wanted to learn to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and all the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">rest.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"You don't really want to do this," I said, when they first</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">approached me.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"We do, we are sure we do," was their answer.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"You don't really," I persisted. "Your neighborhood friends, your</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">parents, your relatives probably want you to, but you yourselves</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">would much rather be playing or doing something else."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"We know what we want, and we want to learn arithmetic. Teach us,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">and we'll prove it. We'll do all the homework, and work as hard as we</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">can."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I had to yield then, skeptically. I knew that arithmetic took six</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">years to teach in regular schools, and I was sure their interest</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">would flag after a few months. But I had no choice. They had pressed</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">hard, and I was cornered. I was in for a surprise.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">My biggest problem was a textbook to use as a guide. I had been</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">involved in developing the "new math," and I had come to hate it.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Back then when we were working on it -- young academicians of the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Kennedy post-sputnik era -- we had few doubts. We were filled with</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the beauty of abstract logic, set theory, number theory, and all the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">other exotic games mathematicians had played for millenia. I think</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">that if we had set out to design an agricultural course for working</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">farmers, we would have begun with organic chemistry, genetics, and</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">microbiology. Lucky for the world's hungry people that we weren't</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">asked.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I had come to hate the pretensions and abstruseness of the "new</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">math." Not one in a hundred math teachers knew what it was about, not</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">one in a thousand pupils. People need arithmetic for reckoning; they</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">want to know how to use the tools. That's what my students wanted now.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I found a book in our library, perfectly suited to the job at</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">hand. It was a math primer written in 1898. Small and thick, it was</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">brimming with thousands of exercises, meant to train young minds to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">perform the basic tasks accurately and swiftly.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Class began -- on time. That was part of the deal. "You say you</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">are serious?" I had asked, challenging them; "then I expect to see</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">you in the room on time -- 11:00AM sharp, every Tuesday and Thursday.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">If you are five minutes late, no class. If you blow two classes -- no</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">more teaching." "It's a deal," they had said, with a glint of</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">pleasure in their eyes.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Basic addition took two classes. They learned to add everything --</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">long thin columns, short fat columns, long fat columns. They did</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">dozens of exercises. Subtraction took another two classes. It might</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">have taken one, but "borrowing" needed some extra explanation.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">On to multiplication, and the tables. Everyone had to memorize</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the tables. Each person was quizzed again and again in class. Then</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the rules. Then the practice.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">They were high, all of them. Sailing along, mastering all the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">techniques and algorithms, they could feel the material entering</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">their bones. Hundreds and hundreds of exercises, class quizzes, oral</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">tests, pounded the material into their heads.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Still they continued to come, all of them. They helped each other</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">when they had to, to keep the class moving. The twelve year olds and</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the nine year olds, the lions and the lambs, sat peacefully together</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">in harmonious cooperation -- no teasing, no shame.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Division -- long division. Fractions. Decimals. Percentages.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Square roots.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">They came at 11:00 sharp, stayed half an hour, and left with</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">homework. They came back next time with all the homework done. All of</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">them.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">In twenty weeks, after twenty contact hours, they had covered it</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">all. Six years' worth. Every one of them knew the material cold.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">We celebrated the end of the classes with a rousing party. It</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">wasn't the first time, and wasn't to be the last, that I was amazed</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">at the success of our own cherished theories. They had worked here,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">with a vengeance.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Perhaps I should have been prepared for what happened, for what</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">seemed to me to be a miracle. A week after it was all over, I talked</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">to Alan White, who had been an elementary math specialist for years</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">in the public schools and knew all the latest and best pedagogical</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">methods.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I told him the story of my class. He was not surprised.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"Why not?" I asked, amazed at his response. I was still reeling</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">from the pace and thoroughness with which my "dirty dozen" had</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">learned.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"Because everyone knows," he answered, "that the subject matter</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">itself isn't that hard. What's hard, virtually impossible, is beating</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">it into the heads of youngsters who hate every step. The only way we</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">have a ghost of a chance is to hammer away at the stuff bit by bit</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">every day for years. Even then it does not work. Most of the sixth</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">graders are mathematical illiterates. Give me a kid who wants to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">learn the stuff -- well, twenty hours or so makes sense."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I guess it does. It's never taken much more than that ever since.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Classes</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">We have to be careful with words. It's a miracle they ever mean</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the same thing to any two people. Often, they don't. Words</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">like "love," "peace," "trust," "democracy" -- everyone brings to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">these words a lifetime of experiences, a world view, and we know how</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">rarely we have these in common with anyone else.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Take the word "class." I don't know what it means in cultures</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">that don't have schools. Maybe they don't even have the word. To most</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">people reading this, the word conveys a wealth of images: a room with</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">a "teacher" and "students" in it, the students sitting at desks and</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">receiving "instruction" from the teacher, who sits or stands before</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">them. It also conveys much more: a "class period," the fixed time</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">when the class takes place; homework; a textbook, which is the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">subject matter of the class clearly laid out for all the students.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">And it conveys more: boredom, frustration, humiliation,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">achievement, failure, competition.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">At Sudbury Valley the word means something quite different.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">At Sudbury Valley, a class is an arrangement between two parties.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">It starts with someone, or several persons, who decide they want to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">learn something specific -- say, algebra, or French, or physics, or</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">spelling, or pottery. A lot of times, they figure out how to do it on</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">their own. They find a book, or a computer program, or they watch</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">someone else. When that happens, it isn't a class. It's just plain</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">learning.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Then there are the times they can't do it alone. They look for</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">someone to help them, someone who will agree to give them exactly</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">what they want to make the learning happen. When they find that</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">someone, they strike a deal: "We'll do this and that, and you'll do</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">this and that -- OK?" If it's OK with all the parties, they have just</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">formed a class.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Those who initiate the deal are called "students." If they don't</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">start it up, there is no class. Most of the time, kids at school</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">figure out what they want to learn and how to learn it all on their</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">own. They don't use classes all that much.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">The someone who strikes the deal with the students is called a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"teacher." Teachers can be other students at the school. Usually,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">they are people hired to do the job.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Teachers at Sudbury Valley have to be ready to make deals, deals</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">that satisfy the students' needs. We get a lot of people writing the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">school asking to be hired as teachers. Many of them tell us at length</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">how much they have to "give" to children. People like that don't do</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">too well at the school. What's important to us is what the students</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">want to take, not what the teachers want to give. That's hard for a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">lot of professional teachers to grasp.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">The class deals have all sorts of terms: subject matter, times,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">obligations of each party. For example, to make the deal, the teacher</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">has to agree to be available to meet the students at certain times.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">These times may be fixed periods: a half hour every Tuesday at</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">11:00AM. Or they may be flexible: "whenever we have questions, we'll</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">get together on Monday mornings at 10:00AM to work them out. If we</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">have no questions, we'll skip till next week." Sometimes, a book is</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">chosen to serve as a reference point. The students have their end of</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the deal to meet. They agree to be on time, for instance.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Classes end when either side has had enough of the deal. If the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">teachers find out they can't deliver, they can back out -- and the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">students have to find a new teacher if they still want a class. If</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the students discover they don't want to go on, the teachers have to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">find some other way to occupy themselves at the appointed hour.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">There is another kind of class at school, from time to time. It</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">happens when people feel they have something new and unique to say</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">that can't be found in books, and they think others may be</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">interested. They post a notice: "Anyone interested in X can meet me</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">in the Seminar Room at 10:30AM on Thursdays." Then they wait. If</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">people show up, they go on. If not, that's life. People can show up</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the first time and, if there is a second time, decide not to come</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">back.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I've done this kind of thing several times. The first session, I</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">usually get a crowd: "Let's see what he's up to." The second session,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">fewer come. By the end, I have a small band who are truly curious</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">about what I have to say on the subject at hand. It's a form of</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">entertainment for them, and a way for me (and others) to let people</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">know how we think.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Persistence</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">It's a problem with words again. The way I just described it,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">learning sounds casual, loose, laid back. Easy come, easy go. Random.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Chaotic. Undisciplined. Often I wish that were true.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">When school first opened, thirteen year old Richard enrolled and</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">quickly found himself absorbed in classical music -- and in the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">trumpet. Richard soon was sure he had found his life interest. With</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Jan, a trombonist, available on the staff to help him, Richard threw</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">himself into his studies.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Richard practiced the trumpet four hours every day. We could</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">hardly believe it. We suggested other activities, to no avail.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Whatever Richard did -- and he did a lot at school -- he always found</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">four hours to play.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">He came from Boston, 1-1/4 hours each way every day, often 1/2</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">hour or more on foot from the Framingham bus station. Like the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">proverbial postman, "in rain or shine, hail or sleet" Richard made it</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">to school, and to our eardrums.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">It was not long before we discovered the virtues of the old mill</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">house by the pond. Built of granite, roofed with slate, nestled in a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">distant corner of the campus, the old neglected building took on</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">sudden beauty in our eyes. And in Richard's. In no time at all it was</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">turned into a music studio, where Richard could practice to his</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">heart's content.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">He practiced. Four or more hours a day, for four years.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Not long after graduating from school, after completing further</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">studies at a conservatory, Richard became first horn of a major</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">symphony orchestra.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Richard was followed soon by Fred, whose love was drums. Drums in</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">the morning, drums in the afternoon, drums at night. Emergency action</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">was in order. We fixed up a drum room for him in the basement, and</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">gave him the key to the school so he could play early, late, and on</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">weekends.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">We discovered that the basement wasn't all that isolated</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">acoustically from the rest of the building. It was often like living</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">near a jungle village, with the constant beat of drums in the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">background. Fred moved on at the age of eighteen after two years. We loved him, but many of us wished him godspeed.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">It isn't only music that brings out the stubborn persistence we</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">all have inside us. Every child soon finds an area, or two, or more,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">to pursue relentlessly.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Sometimes, it isn't even material they enjoy. Year after year,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">older students with their hearts set on college drive themselves</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">steadily through the SAT's, the infamous "aptitude" tests which</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">measure children's ability to take SAT tests -- and which colleges</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">everywhere seize upon to help them make their hard admissions</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">decisions. Usually, the kids find a staff member to help them over</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">rough spots. But the work is their own. Thick review books are</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">dragged from room to room, pored over, worked through page by page.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">The process is always intense. Rarely does it take more than four or</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">five months from beginning to end, though for many this is their</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">first look at the material.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">There are writers who sit and write hours every day. There are</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">painters who paint, potters who throw pots, chefs who cook, athletes</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">who play.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">There are people with common everyday interests. And there are</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">others with exotic interests.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Luke wanted to be a mortician. Not your most common ambition in a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">fifteen year old. He had his reasons. In his mind's eye, he could</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">clearly see his funeral home ministering to the needs of the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">community, and himself comforting the grieving relatives.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Luke threw himself into his studies with a passion: science,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">chemistry, biology, zoology. By sixteen, he was ready for serious</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">work. We took him out into the real world. The chief pathologist at</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">one of the regional hospitals welcomed the eager, hard-working</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">student into his lab. Day by day, Luke learned more procedures, and</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">mastered them, to the delight of his boss. Within a year, he was</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">performing autopsies at the hospital, unassisted, under his mentor's</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">supervision. It was a first for the hospital. Within five years, Luke was a mortician. Now, years later, his funeral home has become a reality.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Then there was Bob.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">One day, Bob came to me and said, "Will you teach me physics?"</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">There was no reason for me to be skeptical. Bob had already done so</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">many things so well that we all knew how he could see things through</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">to the end. He had run the school press. He had written a thoroughly</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">researched (published) book on the school's judicial system. He had</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">devoted untold hours to studying the piano.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">So I readily agreed. Our deal was simple. I gave him a college textbook, thick and heavy, on introductory physics. I had taught from it often in the past, even used an earlier version when I was a beginner. I knew the pitfalls. "Go through the book page by page, exercise by exercise," I told Bob, "and come to me as soon as you have the slightest problem. Better to catch them early than to let them grow into major blocks." I thought I knew exactly where Bob would stumble first. Weeks passed. Months. No Bob.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">It wasn't like him to drop something before -- or after -- he had</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">gotten into it. I wondered whether he had lost interest. I kept my</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">mouth shut and waited.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Five months after he had started, Bob asked to see me. "I have a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">problem on page 252," he said. I tried not to look surprised. It took</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">five minutes to clear up what turned out to be a minor difficulty.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">I never saw Bob again about physics. He finished the whole book</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">by himself. He did algebra and calculus without even asking if I</span><br style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">would help him. I guess he knew I would. Bob is a mathematician today."</span>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-21908411945463562722012-06-10T20:26:00.001-07:002012-06-10T20:26:20.484-07:00What is unschooling?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From our Unschooling Catholics email list...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #081c8c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Susan : I thought it might be good to address that idea about the difference between relaxed, eclectic, etc. The labels can always cause some issues, but we need words to try to have a dialogue, so we work with what we have and hope<br />to gain understanding.<br /><br />I have seen many dismiss unschooling, even saying they have 'tried' it for a month, a year, during a challenging time when they couldn't manage curriculum, etc. But I think a primary difference between unschooling and other 'styles' comes from a complete shift in one's way of thinking. I recently had a friend say that she had 'homeschooled' her children one day when it was a snow day. I told her that it was more a shift in lifestyle and doing a workbook one day with your dc doesn't give the flavor of what you might do. I think the same about unschooling...it can't be merely dabbled in. It involves a willingness to change into a different type of lifestyle even than 'relaxed' or 'eclectic'. The journey gets turbulent at times (well, it has for me). On the ouside, it may look any different way...busy, hectic, slow paced, relaxed, high pressure, highly structured or loosely structured. The key differences are on the inside.<br /><br />I know that despite the fact that I read some John Holt when I first decided to educate dc outside the school setting, it took a lot of introspection to see the many ways I still had an agenda for my dc. I still wanted to pour knowledge and information into them; I still wanted to have them love and learn form the great opportunities I would provide. I still wanted them to know their math, how to read well, spell, etc. And I admit I even hoped they might excel 'early'. <br /><br />For me, it was a real journey of self discovery in examing all the things about school and how they had permeated my thinking. And a real journey in observing dc and their learning. A real journey of faith...do I trust God to inspire them? Do I trust the diverse gifts given by God can be 'enough', even if they don't follow "what your whatever grader needs to kow"? Can I trust myself enough to really be present with my dc? To accept, and love them on their own life journey. Do I have it in me to actually *be* the example of someone they ought to emulate?<br /><br />And it is a challenge to be this in a society that measures and looks at results, expectations what have you been 'doing'? Sometimes I don't know - we live, we love, we laugh and enjoy. Sometimes we work through conflict and difficulty, Life brings us so many experiences, and it is all worthwhile.<br /><br />We are fortunate here to have some members who have lived and experienced this for years. And have felt a desire to provide a place to converse openly with others.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #008f58;">Leonie: I think unschooling implies attentiveness - to the child and her needs, to the family and the season of family life.....I think the time spent in planning lessons in more conventional homeschooling becomes time spent with the child and in attentiveness. And sometimes it means time spent on one's own passions - modeling the following of a passion and thus that learning happens all the time, throughout life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #008f58;">I said once that not everyone has to unschool or unschool in the same way. I stand by that. :-) I think there is a definition of pure unschooling ( perhaps Rue Kream's book Parenting a Free Child has such a definition) and then there are definitions like Suzie Andres' one ( in Homeschooling With Gentleness: A Catholic Discovers Unschooling).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #008f58;">I think we find our own paths and sometimes the paths meet with ideas from Charlotte Mason . Sometimes the paths meet or we re-trace our steps.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #008f58;">Family life, and thus unschooling, for me is never a recipe or a straight flow - it is the ebb and flow, the changing seasons. :-)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #008f58;">I think, for me, unschooling also means questioning my paradigms so, I really question why we might behave one way in parenting or why we might want a maths book ( or whatever).</span> </div>
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<span style="color: #081c8c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Susan: As usual, wise words from Leonie! I agree that unschooling is not for everyone. And for those who go this route, I almost wonder if it makes an unschooling family as unique as a snowflake. Each family constellation made up of unique individuals, and each family group with its own ebbs and flows. (I sometimes wonder if that’s why I find it challenging to find unschooling families irl. I know of a few in this area, and we are all very different enough that we don’t cross paths often – though it is always lively and fun when that happens.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #081c8c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do think that while John Holt coined the term and wrote prolifically, some ideas cross over into others thinking and being with children, discovering how they learn, respecting dc as Jesus did… “ A little child shall lead…” And many of the ideas that affirm unschooling for me can be found in the writings of many saints. Also, the historical perspective comes into play…school ‘systems are such a tiny blip on the radar of history, and schools systems in industrialized societies even smaller. Learning has occurred throughout human history, and our faith informs us that right relationships, loving God in the first place and others – that has a higher importance. </span></div>
</div>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com177tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-1702835671237756462012-05-29T21:17:00.002-07:002012-05-29T21:17:13.927-07:00Sharing with family<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A question that often gets asked on our Unschooling Catholics email list is...what do I tell grandparents? Cousins? Relatives? How do I explain this to my parish priest when Father asks? What do we share about unschooling at family gatherings, especially if everyone seems a bit anti?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have found that the best approach is just to share all the marvellous things we do...and then gradually ask questions about the other's life and the topic is safely steered. If someone is particularly interested, I will share our learning is life, life is learning approach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ultimately, I think the proof is in the pudding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the meantime, Julie from Bravewriter has shared tips in her post on <a href="http://blog.bravewriter.com/2011/11/17/when-they-dont-get-it/">/When they don't get it</a> ....</span><br />
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<br />Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-74612384947022369252012-05-19T23:28:00.002-07:002012-05-19T23:28:39.880-07:00Learning at home in the school of life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What a great description of unschooling. "Learning at home in the school of life."<br />
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From a newspaper article in an Australian newspaper . <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/learning-at-the-home-school-of-life/story-fn6ja7nc-1226254174554">“When you home-educate, especially using the natural learning method as we do, learning becomes so much part of your lifestyle, you don’t even realise you’re doing it. You’re just having conversations,” says Wight. </a>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-51726314673742554542012-04-13T06:00:00.000-07:002012-04-13T06:00:01.742-07:00Homeschooling as Life" My primary discovery in my relationship with Dotty was that homeschool is a LIFE lived—richly, fully, with crafts, activities, face paint, the arts, books, and lots of cozy eating times with the people you love."<br />
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So says Julie, from Bravewriter.<br />
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And so say I.<br />
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Homeschooling is living a rich life, wherever and however we live. As someone who has lived in small and large spaces, rural and city, and often on a limited time and money budget…this rich life is the one constant.<br />
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Go and read Julie's <a href="http://blog.bravewriter.com/2012/02/17/shared-homeschooling/comment-page-1/#comment-124060">blog post</a>.Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-32064521189517845972012-03-17T07:34:00.000-07:002012-03-17T07:34:04.093-07:00Lenten Strewing<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt;"><i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Lent</span></i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days.<br />
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</span><i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">To strew (str)</span></i><i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><br />
</span></i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">tr.v. strewed, strewn (strn) or strewed, strew·ing, strews<br />
1. To spread here and there; scatter: strewing flowers down the aisle.<br />
2. To cover (an area or a surface) with things scattered or sprinkled.<br />
3. To be or become dispersed over (a surface).<br />
4. To spread (something) over a wide area; disseminate.<br />
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<a href="http://sandradodd.com/strew/sandra"><span style="color: #4d469c; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Strewing</span></a>, in unschooling terminology, means leaving material of interest around for our children to discover.<br />
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Do Catholic Unschoolers force Lenten penances and practices onto our children?<br />
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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.<br />
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</span><i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">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. </span></i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><a href="http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html"><span style="color: #4d469c; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Pat Farenga</span></a><br />
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We try to inspire, to be role models ( Ack! This is my downfall...). .<br />
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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.<br />
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Another member of our list discussed her strewing of possible Lenten reading material. A great idea!<br />
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Here, in our house, we are discussing our Lenten penances and Lenten reading – what spiritual reading will we do, or will be read aloud as a family? What will we give up or what will we do extra? Even just the discussion is helpful.<br />
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Right now, as part of the things on our bulletin board, we have a cartoon explaining Lent, and an article on Ash Wednesday.<br />
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I have also strewn the Dhouy-Rheims Bible on the camphour wood chest – cum - coffee table in the sitting room. The Bible is open to Matthew 5 – the Beatitudes. Fr. mentioned at Mass that we could try to read these during Lent and try to emulate some of the virtues described….I've asked the kids to copy these into their notebooks ( perhaps I should copy this into my journal?).<br />
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I am also trying to find some nice Lenten artwork for the computer background, too, for visual strewing.<br />
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The reading of something more spiritual during Lent and Advent is a practice we began , as a family, many years ago - maybe a year or so after I became Catholic. I was received into the Church in January 1995 and confirmed in March 1997.<br />
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I have found that the spiritual reading</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> <i>together</i> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">helps.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYWT9c0iG7RujEXZ39E9dm8Hz-ar4af6r9zKVhPSxgPnA9VUkeu-CXSnsabehCJgLNe6uR9oxYJ-zdsEt910w8McVX_ySI_OdaORI_GaL9taBT8G7WLy1cDzn-H-JrRfA6XXYiVRn_ss/s1600/lent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYWT9c0iG7RujEXZ39E9dm8Hz-ar4af6r9zKVhPSxgPnA9VUkeu-CXSnsabehCJgLNe6uR9oxYJ-zdsEt910w8McVX_ySI_OdaORI_GaL9taBT8G7WLy1cDzn-H-JrRfA6XXYiVRn_ss/s1600/lent.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 13.5pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">For St Benedict, the principal way to meditate and the main way to be in silence is through reading. In fact, in the Rule whenever Benedict uses the word' meditate', he is always referring to reading or to the memorisation of a text for later use in prayer. For him, meditation is always rooted in Scripture.</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">From : "Finding Sanctuary". Abbot Christopher Jamison</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt;"> <br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Finding the time for extra reading, or to read aloud to the kids, can be diffcult. I speak from my experience of failures in keeping up with such reading. We may not do this reading every day, but we aspire to read more days than not.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> And when we undertake such spiritual reading, we find that we grow together, we talk, we laugh, we sometimes pray - and that certainly helps our unschooling.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.chrysostom.org/" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #4d469c; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">St John Chrysostom</span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">wrote ~</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> <i>" 'I am not,' you will say, 'one of the monks, but I have both a wife and children and the care of a household.' This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of scipture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world and who receive wounds every day, have the most need of medicine."</i></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-56462773966243923672012-02-28T04:05:00.001-08:002012-02-28T04:08:56.813-08:00A View on Un-Parenting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4QMffntTymD08KoIKRdov9qc0RLDK3Kktg5y6wFyPSOAeBCXQHImlgvuEeMIzWlb0VF2iMxhnVAe7VCPTlVA4qKa9J5QHYG5oZsJIqt2H7LmIPVOeZzmc-Yg4AaDbIrN0R36aqMTncc/s1600/unschool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4QMffntTymD08KoIKRdov9qc0RLDK3Kktg5y6wFyPSOAeBCXQHImlgvuEeMIzWlb0VF2iMxhnVAe7VCPTlVA4qKa9J5QHYG5oZsJIqt2H7LmIPVOeZzmc-Yg4AaDbIrN0R36aqMTncc/s1600/unschool.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the Christian Unschooling blog...<a href="http://christianunschooling.com/2011/05/12/unschool-myth-unschooling-is-unparenting/">Unschool myth...unschooling is unparenting</a> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4em;">Excerpt - </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4em;">One of the biggest misunderstandings I’ve found that people have with unschooling, particularly in Christian Unschooling, is the question of guidance. People seem to jump to the conclusion that unschooling = unparenting. It’s a BIG problem. Frustratingly so. Christians assume that if you’re unschooling it means you’re not guiding your children or “training them up”.</i><br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4em; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 8px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> <span style="line-height: 1.4em;">So, for the record, let me very clearly state –</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">the parenting philosophy behind unschooling typically involves a LOT of guidance</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">, y’all!</span></i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4em; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 8px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> <span style="line-height: 1.4em;">In my opinion, a</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">large</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">foundation of unschooling is</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">based</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">on guidance. Being a guide for your child, sharing your experiences and interests, your opinions and your beliefs. But not</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">forcing</span><strong style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </strong><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">a bunch of unnecessary baggage and schedules and lessons on them.</span></i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Adobe Garamond', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 8px;"><br />
</div>Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-61062438300345872952012-01-28T01:50:00.000-08:002012-01-28T01:50:18.516-08:00Blogging an unschooling morning..Friday morning here.<br />
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I was set to work outside the home one to six in the afternoon so there popped up a free morning ....which is rare. <br />
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My alarm was set for early so I could go to mass at Tyburn convent with the Benedictine nuns. Ah, peace..<br />
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Came home, kids were exercising, showering, Facebooking...<br />
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I did a few chores and chatted to my twenty year old about stoicism.<br />
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And then my sixteen year old started making pancakes for breakfast.<br />
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With that smell in the air I did a Taebo workout ..Cardio Scilpt. Go Billy Blanks!<br />
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And then made and had some pancakes myself. <br />
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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).<br />
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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!).<br />
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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.<br />
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And we looked at the saint book for today.. Sts Fabian and Sebastian.<br />
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And two sons started a game on Playstation 3.<br />
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That's our unschool morning .<br />
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Anyone else?Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-87577989799241629552012-01-15T00:02:00.000-08:002012-01-15T00:12:43.597-08:00No curriculumA great read. On <a href="http://www.parentatthehelm.com/7604/why-you-dont-need-a-curriculum-for-learning/">why you don't need a curriculum</a>.
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You don't, you know..<br />
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From Linda Dobson:
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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.
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Traveling the Learning Path Independently
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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.<br />
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Learning Happens Within
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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).
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You don’t necessarily require a curriculum at home, because you’re addressing education instead of training.<br />
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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.
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Adapted from The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities by Linda DobsonLeoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-63644221173088205322011-12-21T18:53:00.000-08:002011-12-21T18:53:54.355-08:00I don't have time to do record keeping!<i></i>I don't have time to record learning!<br />
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Neither do I. <br />
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We are too busy living and learning, to record that unschooling living and learning.<br />
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Yet I need to keep records for the state.<br />
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My solution? Download the objectives, the outcomes, the syllabus for the required courses of study. Keep in a file.<br />
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And keep an (almost) daily log. Brief. To the point. Curriculum areas and children assigned via initials. <br />
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Example?<br />
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A. (Anthony in other words)<br />
21/11/11<br />
*Games Day with other homeschoolers (M, T, PD....Maths, Technology, Personal Development)<br />
*Kumon Maths (M)<br />
*Chores and life skills (PD, WE...Work Education)<br />
*Work at Kumon Centre (WE) <br />
*Make a custard tart for the Presentation of Our Lady and read about the history of the solemnity (H, FT...History, Food and Technology)<br />
* Reading Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold (H,E...English)<br />
*5BX Fitness (PE..Phys Ed)<br />
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23/11/11<br />
*Read Catholic Apologetics by Fr Laux (E, H, PD)<br />
* Read and discuss The Christian Gentleman..values, social mores of different times and cultures (PD, E, H)<br />
*Kumon Maths (M)<br />
*Practice piano and guitar (Mu...Music)<br />
*Drama class (D..Drama)<br />
*Watch Breaking Dawn and discuss movie, characters, the plot, the techniques, values and emotions (E, PD, F&T...Film and Technology)<br />
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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)<br />
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Very, very simple. In journals or exercise books or on the computer or a blog.<br />
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And if you want more simple record keeping ideas, see the book<a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-About-College-Homeschooling-Universities/dp/0913677116">And What About Colleg?</a> by Cafi Cohen. Leoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126031298860207488.post-28182301901519442962011-11-18T16:56:00.000-08:002011-11-18T16:56:36.618-08:00A few unschooling ideasWe are often asked what it is that unschoolers do all day.<br />
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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.<br />
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Check out this great, well, checklist if homeschooling. A virtual cornucopia of ideas. <br />
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<a href="http://sandradodd.com/gold/abc">The ABCs of Unschooling</a> by Mary Gold. <br />
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I love...X: x-rays, xylophones, X marks the spot on a pirate map<br />
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Y: yoga, yodeling, yarn dolls, yo-yo's, Yahtzee<br />
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Z: zoos, zithers, ZoomLeoniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11596513344737230084noreply@blogger.com1