::Essentially Unschooling::

A favorite in my yard ...

2010-04-07T19:30:00.000-04:00

Do you know what this plant is called?
(large jpg file so it may take some time to load on your page)

Testing: the Lifeblood of Learning

2009-09-18T13:57:00.000-04:00

It seems to me something very basic is wrong about testing students. The meaning of testing is to try something to see if it's good, interesting, worthy, or true. Is that what schools do with students?

I think the best purpose of testing is for learning. A person tests what is being learned about and judges what is interesting to them about it and then tests it still further to see what else there is that's interesting about it. Therefore any test in the hands of the person learning benefits them, even if the thing turns out *not* to be interesting.

In my opinion, to the degree that the test is the property and instrument of the learner, it can facilitate learning. Tests don't belong in the hands of teachers.

Here are some ways that testing is what learning itself is all about. To go by the list below, testing is simply put "experiencing" anything at all in the world to find out what's valuable about it.

Test: to try, tempt, feel, sample, choose, approve, prove
Chois: French for to choose, to taste, test
Approve: to attest something with authority; to try, test something (to find if it is good)
Prove: to test, prove worthy
true: O.E. triewe (W.Saxon), treowe (Mercian) "faithful, trustworthy," from P.Gmc. *trewwjaz "having or characterized by good faith" (cf. O.Fris. triuwi, Du. getrouw, O.H.G. gatriuwu, Ger. treu, O.N. tryggr, Goth. triggws "faithful, trusty"), perhaps ultimately from PIE *dru- "tree," on the notion of "steadfast as an oak." Cf., from same root, Lith. drutas "firm," Welsh drud, O.Ir. dron "strong," Welsh derw "true," O.Ir. derb "sure." Sense of "consistent with fact" first recorded c.1205; that of "real, genuine, not counterfeit" is from 1398; that of "agreeing with a certain standard" (as true north) is from c.1550. Of artifacts, "accurately fitted or shaped" it is recorded from 1474; the verb in this sense is from 1841. Truism "self-evident truth" is from 1708, first attested in writings of Swift. True-love (adj.) is recorded from 1495; true-born first attested 1591. True-false as a type of test question is recorded from 1923.

What Jon Kream said on FB

2009-09-16T13:11:00.001-04:00

And I quote:

"Children are not just awesomely cool. They are YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. They didn't ask to be here, you dragged them into this world. They naturally know what they like/don't like, when they are hungry/not, what they want/don't want and what their bodies need. 'Eat it or fix something ... is shirking your responsibility once YOUR needs are met . We prepare and share meals with each other out of love for our families, not to meet some minimum traditional standard of care set by society, ("I made dinner its not my fault she wont eat it") It is your fault - If you cant want to prepare food they want, in order to meet their needs because you love them, then at least do it because its your responsibility to feed them what they need, not what is convenient to feed them. The alternative shows them that their best interests are not yours and negatively impacts their attitude towards and relationship with you and food forever."

art is ...

2009-06-15T08:14:00.003-04:00

So here it is. I have a li'l meme to play with, if anyone's interested. Feel free to pass it around if it strikes you as fun. I'm not going to tag anyone because tagging's not my thing. It might not see much net-time, but that's ok.

Art can be related to anything. Put a word after the phrase and see what you come up with. Email me or something to let me know where you put it and I'll link it to the end of this post. I like it even without any other word after it, just --- ART IS.

ART IS ________________ .

old crossroad signpost

2009-06-14T21:31:00.004-04:00

Can barely read these signs and it was kinda getting dark anyway. I love these things.

lego love

2009-06-14T18:23:00.001-04:00

Star Wars!

Old Timey Store

2009-06-13T17:45:00.000-04:00

betwixt & between passions

2009-04-26T07:34:00.018-04:00

I wondered this back then, and it still plagues me today, why can't dance be dance and acceptable on its own terms, why must it be viewed as somehow less than dare I say "math"? The arts in general have this stigma as being peripheral, somehow less than other things in life, like, "That's nice dear, your drawings are nice, but now you need to go out and get a real job.", or "How can you use that skill to get a job later?". As if art can't be your life, as if it is just something you do in your spare time, like a hobby. --Jenny Cyphers

My two biggest passions in life haven't made me money: art and mothering. You can make money from these but you might not always want to. Or someone might but I haven't.

This is not simply out of altruism. ;) There is a huge problem with making money from one's passions: moneymaking can supplant one's passions with the desire to make money or survive and in doing so it often distracts from the very thing one loves and places a certain amount of focus onto money. Some people might not mind that but I do. Here's my theory: the freer it is, the less valuable it *seems* to be; the more costly it is, the more burdensome or overwhelming it can be and the less empowering it tends to be in the hands of those who buy it. Whether one makes money from a passion or not --either way-- doesn't necessarily translate that passion for what we love for someone else.

Brian loves cars. It's his passion. His most difficult challenge by far is NOT working on cars but pricing his work. If he undercharges, people seem to think it was easy (even when it wasn't) and also wasn't a vital repair and sure it's possible to do things that aren't necessary to make a car run or last longer, gosh if there's even time to and in the view of the uninitiated it all looks pretty mystifying. If he charges more than the car owner expects or can afford (not talking about overcharging at all!), a few people seem to think they're being robbed even when they're getting a great deal for the work put in.

Where in that is the question of passion or translating it? Basically it depends on if you're playing to an appreciative audience, if there's interest in what you're trying to do.

So I have the supposed flipside of this for lovers of the arts (me included): the stigma of math. The love of quantifying (the more the merrier!) and the fascination (dare I say art?) of number patterns and brain teaser puzzles are supplanted by the utility of math. You know. What's it good for? Algebra.. what do I need to know that for? If I'm not an appreciative audience, math is lost on me. That's the way it was in school. Now that my numbers are 44, it's great that the word is IF not is. Once I figured out I could enjoy it for free or pay for the knowledge and still have fun with numbers, that was pretty cool. The last course I took was statistics. For some reason (I think because all my years with unschooling turned on some things for me to do with learning), it was really much more interesting than I thought it would be, along with speech class. I had saved both of those scary courses for my very last semester of on-campus classes. What turned out to be a very cool semester for me.

Maybe charging for a passion to those who are new to it or bored by it is to consequentially turn it into an authority. And that can be off-putting.. or not, depending on the reception of it. Math. A word breathed with awe and fear. And in the same kind of breath. Art. Either of those things can be overwhelming and burdensome or seem to lack importance to an audience who doesn't appreciate them.

But for those who love the same love, it's something to share and be friends in. To sing of all together now.

Edit: This is another old blogpost I had never published because it's one of those wandering around things. I read it again and rewrote and added. And thought, what the heck. Good enough.

Free in Doing and Being

2009-04-22T06:52:00.011-04:00

[Things] are more likely to change once you no longer "need" them to. --Scott Noelle

I did a post about six months ago on something serendipitously named Immersion. For me the process of actually unschooling has been and continues to be very like learning a language. Dive in and do it. This was one of the very first pieces of advice I heard about unschooling. And I might add: do it, mistakes and all.

I spent much time thinking about unschooling, getting annoyed at roadblocks and mistakes, and did a little here and little there. And eventually I had added enough of the principles to make unschooling work that it seems now I'm beginning to get a little more fluent. Amazingly, I'm getting where breathing is easy!

We are not full-fledged unschooling, not enough to satisfy me or any of us really. Brian and I are still working out some kinks. At this point, I know it's just a matter of persistence in trusting one another.

To quote myself: Relating to others in your family might entail lots of interruptions which is hard to think of as *flow*-- but that's what it is ... the ebb and flow in our lives.

Now I'm to the point I don't think of them as interruptions but as necessities, requirements, real needs when my child wants my help or company. When I wrote the above I wasn't as convinced of trusting Karl to that extent. The whole process of doing things with Karl was conflicted and chaotic. Intellectually I was convinced of trusting my child. In reality I wanted to be more trusting.

I am one to yell when things aren't to my liking. It's awful. I knew I didn't want to yell but that knowledge wasn't what helped. What it took was for me to continue to push myself to BE with Karl and awaken my ability to breathe underwater, so to speak. The yelling has subsided on its own, without me having to directly change myself so much or unlearn stuff.

This has been my own personal evolution into a deeper relationship with my child and with my partner too. We are all simply talking these days.

*What* a difference.

It was great to spend more time (than I wanted to at first) and see what Karl was into even more closely than I already had been doing. The view upclose and personal grew which fed my desire to be with him and not miss a minute. I'm sure I will miss a lot, because life is like that and there are true interruptions. Yet I *know* I won't be saying I wish I had missed more. It'll be the other way around.

One of the best payoffs is I'm no longer concerned about my own rights, my own freedoms, etc. I'm not constantly feeling that "HEY, what about me!?" That's such a great freedom right there. See above quote on change when you no longer "need" it to happen. All those things are improving without me worrying over what I can't directly do anything about.

I'm really not unlearning anything as I thought I would need to. Which seems bizarro. I'm used to nothing happening unless I *make* it happen. More old ideas melting away.

My mind is simply experiencing the changes along with my body as I move through trusting more, doing more, living more, and ENJOYING more! And that's how I am slowly but surely convincing myself what makes unschooling work.

By doing it.

nothing like the sun

2009-03-03T12:14:00.009-05:00

It's a glorious thing to see a five year old sleeping. Yum. Sleeping children remind me of ripening fruit, green trees, luxurious cats, a summer day dropped in the doldrums of midwinter, a beam of sun, a cozy ray of warmth. Living to the fullest.

And naturally this kid goes with food very much better than I thought a picky eater might. I prepared an array of food late this morning, and packed up a lunch of the same items for Brian who is on his way to work after half a day off today from the snowy weather shenanigans we've been enjoying since night before last. He had the whole day off yesterday.

See?

This is why I think it works very nicely to let a child sleep in. I can make foodstuff as he sleeps and while my own mind emerges from a state of being befogged and bemused of a morning. Between the two of us, it will last 1/2 a day. Ok. It's almost 3 pm now and I've refilled chips (my idea which he gratefully ate up) and apple slices (his request).

So... en la manana: first thing Karl goes for is pizza of course (only a couple of bites out of the three slices? shh.. I keep my incredulous thoughts to myself), and Munchies Cheese Fix mix mmmm... which is soon forgotten for the delicious carrots and celery dipped in ranch peppercorn dressing. Moving on to the apples popped into brown sugar/cinnamon dip and then his mouth. Then he mows through the chips, a perennial favorite of his which I try to keep on hand. He stops, for now, without touching the meat cubes I have on toothpicks (I've eaten the ones that have disappeared so far), the peanut butter sandwichettes (I'm the only who has eaten these), or the thawed fruit (it's great but I've only picked at it after eating so much else).

I have been watching Karl's progress from the corner of my eye for the sake of blogging about this particular grazing on a field of appetizers. All while I mess around online, typing this and looking at that and the other. The platter of food rests between us on a tv tray, being shared. Me on one computer and Karl on the other, which happens to be my computer but ah well that is for me later today. Karl is uninterested in playing Peggle, which he seems to have on for the dancing beat of music in the background. His focus is the food. He's been working on it for over 1/2 an hour after waking from slumber at noon. Last night was a run on Batman vs. Mr. Freeze, Spiderman 3, and Tom & Jerry starting about 10 pm. About 1 pm Karl moves over to Netflix on his dad's laptop by the bed for more toons.

Amazingly he has eaten raw carrots, celery, and apple in their respective dips, plus a handful of chips and a couple of bites of pizza. I used to think Karl didn't like veggies. So far, he is not at all fond of the cooked veggies or soups I make for me and Brian at meals. It seems that he enjoys eating raw veggies and fruits.

Have You Been Looking for This?

2008-12-20T18:53:00.010-05:00

The Mindful Parenting talk with Ren Allen and Sandra Dodd at the 2005 Live & Learn Conference.

EDIT: Also the Parenting Peacefully talk with Richard Prystowsky and Sandra Dodd at the HomeSchool Association of California Conference in August 2002 is here in the comments to this blogpost. (I'm not quite savvy enough to embed that here in blogger, where for some reason, the embed code doesn't work... so thanks very much for that handy link, Sandra.)

Later Edit: Well golly ... I played with it again and this time I was able to get the Parenting Peacefully talk to load onto my blog. I don't know *what* was so hard about it the first time around. And so here it is...

The Parenting Peacefully talk with Richard Prystowsky and Sandra Dodd at the HomeSchool Association of California Conference in August 2002
Side One

Side Two

If for no other reason, it's good to have these for reference right there in front of my nose on my own blog. :)

There's only uno Koopa!

2008-11-24T15:04:00.002-05:00

Karl's comment after watching Mario in Spanish, "There's only uno Koopa!" He's on the 2nd part at the moment.

El Gato

2008-09-08T19:51:00.003-04:00

Karl and I had an interesting conversation in the car today (first time we've been in the car for a while what with the homebody streak he's been on lately).

He mentioned that it's very easy to speak English. And I said well it is if you were born into the English speaking world... there are many parts of the world that kids are born into which are Spanish speaking such as Mexico. He knows about Mexico from watching Dora and Diego stuff off NickJr. He said I wish I had been born in Mexico then I could speak Spanish *and* English. I love how he thinks... he wants the best of both worlds. So I said I've been to Mexico and that I bet he would love it, and then said I would show it to him on the map. Now's not the time at almost 8 pm and Karl is snuggled up in bed with a cold watching Winnie the Pooh. I can go one better than that actually if he's interested and show him pictures of my trip taken while I was in Mexico. Wish I had a scanner that works. Karl knows a few words in Spanish and our favorite that is pretty good for laughs is "el gato."

Deschooling some more ....

2008-09-05T06:58:00.016-04:00

... it's supposed to be about the kids. I would like to be less in the way.

I feel at least two ways about that. One is my kid(s... I have one but hope to have more) deserve/s the kind of childhood that is unclouded by any bad I perceive from mine. Another is in order to be successful, parents would want to understand how their childhood shaped certain aspects of their parenting style, and how to reformulate what doesn't work well in unschooling (or parenting either for that matter).

Thanks to Pam Sorooshian, I have a way to separate the junk in my psyche from overwhelming my child's homelife: reframe the way our children see us by treating children (and in my house it's important to include me and Brian who aren't children anymore in this designation too) as guests.

Would you expect a guest to be:

Seen and not heard?
Disciplined?
In need of modeling to? Behave So Your Children [aka Guests] Will Too (not a bad idea but a funny perception on guests, eh)?
Required to have permission slips?
Arbitrarily or automatically taken "sides" against in favor of the host/parent?
Expected to help out and do chores?
Told to listen?
Ignored?

I mention modeling because though it is important in realizing what our behavior actually says to our children, it can be a strange way to interact with them if they end up feeling that our relationship and their lives are about mimicking adults. I want Karl to know that he has choices, and even at 5 he amazes me with the simplicity and directness of his decisions. I think that has to do with the above... he *doesn't* have the kind of baggage cluttering up his ability to make decisions simply.

Thank you, Pam, for the "children as our guests" idea.

2008-08-27T08:11:00.003-04:00

So last week Karl and I were playing in the dirt at the park. Then over the weekend, Brian was off work and we went to a much closer park. Brian played the bridge troll while Karl and some other kids had conversations with him about how much they had to pay but of course they could resort to speed or trickery to get past as well, and there was much laughter as the troll let them pass.

The last few days it has been raining like a monsoon with the hurricane weather stirring up along the coast. With us being much further inland on the other side of the state, we get tornado watches and warnings in this kind of weather. Brian and his co-workers went to the pit yesterday for a while and then everyone was sent home early to avoid prolonging the workday and sitting for hours longer in the pit. I was glad to know he was safe.

Today's Fill In

2008-08-22T12:08:00.007-04:00

Dancing to the rhythm while playing guitar makes me screw up and lose my place which is fun too for having lots of laughs (speaking of which, I want to get back into playing guitar again as it's been a while).

When I drive I may not know where I'm going at all times, a condition I managed to avoid this week with the help of Brian's GPS. I really do get around better with one of those.

I saw Karl standing with his feet buried in a heap of piled up earth and he moved too quick for me to take a picture of it and enjoy it at the same time so I took other pictures when it was handier-- we had a blast and Karl said "Dirt is just little tiny rocks that are really really small."

Give me song, give me air, give me wings --- goes with the guitar playing thought.

Next week I am looking forward to the end of August, the beginning of Autumn.

And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting to bed earlier, tomorrow my plans include going to a party in Tennessee for some young unschoolers and Sunday, I want to camp out with Karl in our yard beside a tent if possible, just like he asked, and roast some marshmallows to make smores!

Remind: Rewind

2008-08-22T09:38:00.022-04:00

As to finding balance itself ... that's a different thought to me somehow. Where's the balance in changing all the time? I haven't found it. I'm not a balanced person and don't know that I want to be. Maybe someday I will want balance. And then if balance is even achievable.. that's a whole nother thought.

I jump from side to side to side and back again and twirl round and round with ideas, I don't think of it as anything like balance. It's more like accumulation of experience and knowledge and the expansion of concepts to encompass more and more and more.

Probably one big (maybe THE big) reason I wrote Immersion is because I'm in the midst of the above thought about balance and my lack of it. At the time I said I didn't want balance. Haha.

Well almost immediately I get a helpful comment that influenced me to rethink what I'd said. (Gosh that's so often the case these days.. think something then uhoh-- rethink it --or REWIND.)

So here's what I have decided: I want to rethink, rewind, regroup, re-whatever more frequently than I've been wont to do in the past. The reason I want to do that is so that I can arrive at my next step more quickly than I would otherwise. Reflect. There's another "re" word. Haha. Reword.

A little aside: One of the most helpful things in the world is rewording things to fit a new paradigm. I might start writing it all out on separate little post-its to plunk around the house for reminders. My new vocabulary in recent years has replaced old terms with new ones. Such as: "learn" in place of "teach" and "do" in place of "try."

Back to the beginning of this blogpost... rewinding (insert sound of a cassette winding--- zzzzip). So, balance is becoming less underrated in my mind. I am seeing that the value of balance, making tiny adjustments constantly, is to avoid the danger of falling over. Pretty simple thought. Another good thing in favor of balance is to adjust my momentum in the process as needed rather than constantly spinning at a high rate only to grind to a halt. To avoid getting stuck in thinking the same thoughts.

The benefit to "mind rewind" is that my thoughts come out a little different each time, unlike a tape recording.

Funny thing happened on the way to writing this blogpost: a list of "re" words:

reason
rethink
rewind
regroup
reflect
reword
remind
recent
record
repertoire
replace

I *swear* the tricks my mind plays on me are unconscious attempts to bring more order to my thoughts. ;)

~Katherine

Immersion

2008-08-14T14:52:00.001-04:00

[Things] are more likely to change once you no longer "need" them to. --Scott Noelle

Relating to others in your family might entail lots of interruptions which is hard to think of as *flow*-- but that's what it is ... the ebb and flow in our lives. Which leads to a metaphor of the sea--- and how our lives can be very like the ocean.

We can either dive in and immerse ourselves or try to float, surf or sail on the surface never experiencing what we want in our lives as fully as we could ... and right next to that in our consciousness we see waves that come and go which we consider to be interruptions to our flow as they go back to ebb and then cycle back again.

One of things I've truly enjoyed about attachment parenting and about art and about cooking and laundry and driving the car and housework (yes I actually enjoy it sometimes) is the cyclical nature of it, the opportunity to hone my skill at whatever I put my hand to. It's called process.

And I think the reason I enjoy the cycles in attachment parenting, which can extend into unschooling and so on is because I first experienced process in making art. Creating, and creating again.

With parenting, process is the opportunity to remake ourselves in new ever expanding roles. Lately I've heard from long time unschoolers whose relationship with their children is changing... again ... as they leave the comfortable nest and the way things were changes yet again. It's been very inspiring to me to read these things. More flow. Ocean life. Uncharted as yet until at least one child goes through and then the next child is different. And so on.

As to finding balance itself ... that's a different thought to me somehow. Where's the balance in changing all the time? I haven't found it. I'm not a balanced person and don't know that I want to be. Maybe someday I will want balance. And then if balance is even achievable.. that's a whole nother thought.

I jump from side to side to side and back again and twirl round and round with ideas, I don't think of it as anything like balance. It's more like accumulation of experience and knowledge and the expansion of concepts to encompass more and more and more. It's doesn't remain a jumble of stuff in my head but starts out that way and sometimes it takes a long time to cycle back to connecting dots and find meaning.

Connection. Making more connections. This is all very unschooly. But the process for me is not neat and streamlined. It's an ocean with currents that know where they're going but I am rarely privy to the knowledge. Sometimes I have access to a little chart here and there but certainly not anything comprehensive.

I watch where the currents go and continue to follow them seeing where they take me.

Art. Motherhood. Homelife. Family. Life. It's all like that. The ocean.

Names and Naming

2008-08-13T19:42:00.017-04:00

Subjects: Fields of study, disciplines
OR : .......Underlings, subordinates, dependents

Well here we are on the subject of Learning and how that relates (if it does) to Subjects.

An academically-minded friend once said something that sounded very wise: When you can name something, you can own it. Or something to that effect. He was going to Wake Forest Seminary School at the time.

Since starting the journey of motherhood, I no longer believe many things that once sounded so wise.

Like most children, Karl learned to walk, sample a wide variety of foods, make choices about where he wanted to be and what he wanted to be doing, and to make his decisions well understood to others. All before being able to talk well or at all or to name anything. You don't need to say you're walking or eating in order to master the acts.

Since I began deschooling I found that I don't need to call something "Reading, 'Riting, or 'Rithmetic" in order to own it.

In list discussions, I've related the story about how grades and assessments dogged me during my school career in the so-called area of Reading. The final assessment for Reading when I graduated high school said that my comprehension was not up to my grade level. This with a great SAT score. I'm still wondering how I did well on the SAT with the reading comprehension I had. It's a mystery. Maybe that SAT was just a fluke. I could certainly think of it that way.

I can name the subject Reading all day long and think I was quite capable of reading almost anything in the English language and still not have it be "mine" according to someone else's assessment.

By the same token, I can do all kinds of things without once figuring out the exact category it fits into. How do we pigeonhole purposedly basking in the sun or going to the bathroom? Maybe those are things we can do without Learning anything.

Subjects are not evil. But they are fluid, relative and arbitrary when externally applied. Almost anything a person can know or do can be useful to oneself in lots and lots and lots of applications. We naturally may gravitate toward a lot of naming and categorization so that we can remember it later for something else. Other things, we don't bother tabbing or filing away because we use it so much.

In academic settings, you can put pretty much anything under tons of subject headings, depending on the viewpoint or the different kind of expert who is coming up with the name of something. When reading about astronomy in college or university, probably no one bothers to call it Reading anymore but instead it's named Astronomy or Stargazing or Mythology or Zodiac or Spirtuality of the Native American (or Greek/ Roman or African or other ethnic...). The subjects get more and more specialized the further beyond grade school we get. I took a course called Native American Art which could have just as easily have been called History or Sociology or Religion or any number of other things.

Some course names don't fit the content very well. An English course I once took in Irish Literature was almost totally about Politics and History with very little Literature referred to. Some students felt cheated of their literature.

In the same way, we may describe outloud our children's interest with numbers as Math. They might feel cheated of what they were experiencing as simply numbers or counting. When thumbing through a Dr. Seuss book, our children may not welcome hearing that they're reading or may treat such words as distractions, feeling that the subject Reading has nothing to do with thumbing through a book. Can we read the pictures or are we just looking at the words or just noticing how the pages land after being leafed through?

Often subject areas have more to do with credentials for learning than anything concrete. Defining the learning taking place is an attempt to feel that something is being accomplished. At home, we don't need a system to justify funds and such, a system that is the source of much stress and anxiety. Stress on children who want to learn and also, lest we forget, stress for those who hope to facilitate learning has a way of stripping the fun out and leaving a trail of dry boring words.

Talking about subjects in the home de-emphasizes the experience of the child who would rather play with anything and everything in life. No experience really needs to be categorized, unless you want to separate learning from not learning, which after all can't be done. Very much the point of Learn Nothing Day is realizing that it's impossible to avoid learning even when we think we're doing nothing.

Thinking of myself as a provider of specific grains and bits of information to cover required subjects for my child is daunting. By releasing myself from the duty of naming each piece of knowledge, especially in his hearing, what Karl gathers is his from the beginning and remains his to use and categorize (or not) as he sees fit. And I avoid interrupting his stuff with my stuff.

The silver lining behind this cloud of unknowing is realizing that I too can live my life without naming what I'm doing and still have so much that's mine, even if I don't call it Learning.

My Review of Tohama Rebounder Mini Trampoline

2008-08-08T15:54:00.001-04:00

Originally submitted at The Trampoline Superstore

ThisTohama Rebounder Mini Trampoline features UV resistant grade A mat which is made of black color polypropylene and highest quality blue color PVC pad. This Mini Trampoline is offered in 38" and 40" diameter.

Quick Compare Ratings

Cool Toy

By katherand from Spartanburg, SC on 8/8/2008

Pros: Easy To Use, Easy To Setup, Quiet Operation, Sturdy, Strengthens, Easy Storage, Comfortable

Best Uses: Great energy while I TIVO, For fun around the house, For my kid's exercise

Describe Yourself: Rarely Workout

No assembly to speak of. Easy to store against any wall in the house. Fits in most rooms in the house. Versatile. We jump while watching TV or cartoonnetwork.com *and* me and my son have a blast on it together.

(legalese)

Normal Lorman Morlan Romnal

2008-08-02T12:57:00.011-04:00

Normal.... A normal day for us is probably just a variation of normal for many people.

We play games.

We have been amassing more games to play, and most of these were $1 per game at the thrift store.

The other week we went to a children's museum:

Find more photos like this on Radical Unschoolers' Network

Watching Cartoonnetwork.com while jumping on the trampoline.... not for me but Karl takes right to it.

SO...

2008-07-16T17:45:00.006-04:00

... maybe it's true. When somebody calls somebody a name. I just watched Naomi Aldort's youtube. And to be sure it does make me feel weak and a little queasy to think somebody shouldn't say .... whatever it is they're saying.

Resisting what somebody says is beside the point. Their point is theirs. Might be true, might be true of a lot of us, might be true of all of us, or might not be true.

Oh.

Boy, don't I trip over the simplest things sometimes.

Can I just repeat Tolkien here? It fits.

You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

and here I go again (me)

Shopping for a New Camera

2008-07-14T09:36:00.006-04:00

My camera was stolen right from under my nose about 2 years ago. This means all the pictures uploaded online at the moment are at least 2 years old. (Actually there are a handful uploaded recently from my low resolution cell phone camera.)

Time may seem to be frozen in spots on this blog. But awwww. I crow over them as only a mom can crow over baby pictures.... with puddly-headed fondness.

Brian has been shopping for a new camera. One that records nice long videos too. It's cheaper than the one we had that only took pictures and limited time video clips. With a bigger lens for better light. It's cheaper and it's better. Can't beat that.

It *is* coming and so are new pictures. More fodder for puddly-headedness.

Skeedoo ...

2008-07-08T00:12:00.014-04:00

... meaning skidaddle. Begone. Outta here. Let's skeedoo. Let's split.

Caio.

We have a quirky array of lingual make-believe that we live in here. One favorite is "hossie britch" an affectionate name for our child. I have recently been told he prefers his real name, thank you.

I have stopped using nicknames where kids are likely to taunt Karl as a baby. Or worse... a boring baby. I'm saving them for use in private at home. Same with kisses and hugs.

Children don't need school to meet bullies.

Well, we were overwhelmed not too long ago by a particularly awful act of a kid yelling directly in Karl's face at the top of his lungs. AND we were temporarily without the car when this occurred and sat stunned for a couple of hours in front of the living room TV. Karl and I napped off and on while the kid in question directed his audience NOT to look at his video game mistakes, occasionally screaming.

We skeedoo'd as soon as Brian arrived. Skeedoo'ing is usually a zippy thing. This was a dazed sort of skeedoo.

I'm thankful. I am thankful that I don't see this as an honorable milestone in Karl's life.

Karl's biggest dilemma all along has been understanding WHY. Bullying is 100% nonsense. That doesn't mean it's without a reason or cause. Suffice it to say it seems that the consensus for now is to stay away. Karl hasn't been asking to go over there anymore.

So. People can sometimes be mean. I've said sometimes people don't know how to interact well with others. I've talked about our inability to change others, how wonderful to have a heart open and warm and liking people despite crappy behavior, and most of all how your own opinion of yourself matters a great deal, more than someone's opinion making you out to be the kind of person you're not.

Skeedoo means one other thing. It has with it the idea of shedding one place where the fun has died down to leap off to another. That's what Karl has been up to lately. Shagged right on over home. I've offered going places. He has been busy doing other things and *not* interested in running around.

P.S. or maybe a postmortem to this post: The above is a great example of how I resist SO much, and then it turns into the most inane babble as I work my way around this rock and that rock, figuratively speaking. Watch Naomi Aldort's youtube. You might like it... or not. I found it SO very useful.

Damn. I am *determined* to lighten up.

SERIOUSLY.

:P~~~~~~~~

Learn Nothing Day

2008-07-01T05:29:00.007-04:00

Ah now... a day for nothing. Isn't this great? Let's all have a vacation. Check into the land time forgot? Some place where nothing's doing. If you can't be there in person, go there in your mind.

Ahhhh...... Relax.

Wait. Why do we need a vacation?

We relax everyday.

However! Learn Nothing Day could be a great way to celebrate unschooling for people who aren't really sold on it. Try it. Try not to learn anything. I just dare ya.

July 24th.

If you manage not to learn anything that day, I don't know if you'll be able to talk much about it... because it's nothing, right?

But if you try and you can't pull it off, I'd love to know how you failed to learning nothing but instead ended up learning something. Jot me a note if you tried and failed to learn nothing.

Have fun. Happy Learn Nothing Day!

~Katherine

http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday/

What.Unschooling’s.About

2008-03-22T16:39:00.017-04:00

Unschooling as a philosophy springs from the writings of John Holt. The short version is raising a child with none of the trappings of school, even at home, a totally unfamiliar idea for me until the last few years. Basically unschooling is an explanation of how learning occurs naturally and thrives best outside schools and other teaching environments.

Unschooling may sound the same as “no learning” but that would be like saying “no thinking.” “No’s” or “un’s” don't reveal unschooling, an idea which leads ... as Suzanne Carter says… to “unchaining or unbinding” and many of those other freeing notions.

I said it’s a philosophy but that’s not it’s true nature. When you add people, it's just living life.

Among unschoolers it's commonly said that learning is a by-product of living. As long as we live, we have the opportunity to learn. It is a by-product of living. Life reproduces itself in a myriad of ways. Doing produces knowledge. And even not doing produces knowledge. In choosing one thing over another, you get something like this: not going to school can put an emphasis on the world outside school. The very best thing about it is that no one needs to stay aware of education or learning. Just be intent on going where interest leads and the fun will follow.

In a family, unschooling can have a way of permeating all of life, and lead to freedoms not typically available. The thought is the child and the family will grow through experience, so that in essence we have a homegrown child foraging off the garden that life is. That doesn't mean putting a child in isolated environments. It’s not the polar opposite of more structured styles of parenting. And optimally unschooling is intensely interactive.

I began unschooling simply by joining unschooling groups. Thanks to the ideas in Frank Smith's Learning and Forgetting, I realized that I could just get on the same path and go. I learned a lot online for free on this site and this site. It's seems I needed a continual flow of information. ;) I listened and read.

What's the value of living like this? For a child, unschooling can mean not being bound to predefined concepts, being free to question, accept, move on or return to ideas later. It can mean fitting or charting thoughts about the world onto an internal puzzle or map (thanks Sandra Dodd for that word picture). And gradually making a unique passage, straight or meandering, rather than commit to a predetermined route before even knowing where s/he wants to go. Having the space to think for oneself from birth onward, to just play with ideas and things. Uncoerced, amply supported and interacted with. Allowed a wide array of choices as soon as interested.

Which brings us to the point of unschooling …

Happiness.

That’s as good a reason as any to go on an unschooling venture.

"You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." - TOLKIEN

flickr spell

2006-04-20T00:39:00.000-04:00

Cute huh? flickr photos lined up to spell out whatever you type in.
Try your word here.

Karl's comments after my post

2005-12-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

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