September 4

I talked to Zena today, after over two weeks of not hearing from her. Not back to school camp ended today, and as I suspected, she had an amazing and enlightening time. She is now in Portland for the next week hanging out with friends from camp, and with Emmie, who lives here, and is also an unschooler.

Ruby has been playing on the computer non stop today, as have I, except for the hour or so that we have spent playing games with stuffed toys. Oh, and earlier Ruby casually alerted me to the fact that the stove burner was on fire...That was rather alarming.

I've spent the last thirty minutes looking at a Pit Bull Rescue site in MO. I'm considering, but not committing, just yet..

July 6 2008

Ruby and I had a great day together. By the time she came back to me from David's house, I had already written two blog entries and had begun an article. As soon as she got home we took off for the swimming hole. Stephens Lake Park, that is. It's a pretty cool park with a hefty lake area with part of it sectioned off for swimming. They have recently built a separate water feature. It's almost like a water park, with all the sprayers and fountains, and the digging in the sand. We picked out pebbles that we wanted from the bottom of the lake and brought them home with us.

After we finished there, we went to Cici's pizza. Man, that place is cheap. Ten bucks for the two of us, I ate until I was full AND she got a gumball toy and some candy. I'd totally forgotten about that place until it popped back into my head.

We played a game with the scrabble board and scrabble tiles. We would make words on the board, add up the points and then add those words and points to the other words until we reached 100 points.

Later on, she played briefly on the computer, making mermaids, like 80 of them, on this doll website. We took a night walk at 11:30 to the playground and we messed around there for half an hour, swinging, playing.

Got home, wrapped each other up in butcher paper to see if we could 'bust out'. Afterwards, poofy was playing in the paper.

We looked through a really cool book based on exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was neat.

Bedtime came around. Ruby did 6 pages in her Reading Comprehension book, and then I read a story to her called "The Unicorn's Wings."

It was a fine summer day.

And to top it all off, I finished the mowing this morning! Yay! I don't have to do it again for another couple of weeks!

It seems like a lifetime....

....since I started, and seemingly abandoned, this blog. Almost two full years have elapsed since last I wrote here, though it was begun with the best of intentions. This blog was going to be a record of all of the amazing doings and happenings that make up our unschooling way of life. All of the little moments of adoration, discovery and 'learning' would find their way to this webspace to be shared with unschoolers and non unschoolers alike, or so I thought at the time.

So...what is really going on here? Hmm...a lot can change in two years time. And indeed, a lot has changed. But the vibration is there...the chord that runs through our lives is ever tuned to the song in our hearts.

To 'sum up' the last two years would take a long time. There have been births and rebirths. There have been deaths and transformations. There has been travel, excursions and explorations, both inner and outer. There have been piercings, and even tattoos. There have been apprenticeships, part time jobs and a soon to be driving test. There have been parties and holidays and new pets. There have been museums and broken friendships and trips to the city. THere have been new friendships, new communities in which to grow, and as always, there has been the freedom to choose.

In 4 months, Zena will be 16 years old. She has been unschooled since she was ten. Her life looks different now, and so does her unschooling, as we have found , in essence, an 'Unschooling School' located in the nearby city of Columbia. It's called "Roots: Self-Directed Learning Community" and in this place, we have found the one thing that we were truly lacking...a circle of unschooling teens which Zena could be a part of, locally.

I've become a facilitator, of sorts, and it has been a curious thing, to see the dynamics of these young people at work in their unscooling lives. We've begun to incorporate the younger children, to a degree, so Ruby is able to participate as well. Zena has become a 'vegan chef extraordinaire' since abandoning the confines of the Raw Food diet over a year ago (much to my relief, as I found the whole thing extremely limiting and quite dogmatic. )

Ruby, having never been to school, is doing just fine, not missing waking up at the crack of dawn, not missing having her days pre-planned without her consent or approval. She's beginning to read more and more every day; little things, like street signs, food containers, and such...things that she is genuinely interested in reading.

My husband David was quite worried, even over this past Thanksgiving, when my little 4 year old niece 'seemed' to surpass Ruby in her 'reading skills'. I shrugged it off, though, knowing full well that my sister in law spends quite a bit of time making certain that her children are properly educated, and if that suits them, it's fine with me.

A few days later, for my husbands benefit mostly, I began asking Ruby if she would like to play some word games, and she was ready, willing and able. So I began with small words like 'cat' that she already knew, and then underneath that word, I would write 'hat' and under that, 'rat' and so forth, until we came up with every word that rhymed with cat. We did some really silly ones, as well, ending up with words like 'poop' and 'stinky'. In the last two weeks, she's asked to play word games numerous times, and she has begun reading on her own, now. much to my husbands relief.

So, despite the fact that I haven't written in almost two years, things have been working themselves out naturally.

I'm hoping that it doesn't take me another two years to post again.

What does unschooling look like?

1/20/06

We've been unschooling for about 3 1/2 years. In that time my oldest daughter, soon to be 14 years old as of this writing, has gained so many talents and interests...things that had she been in school she probably would not have had time to ponder and enjoy. Unschooling looks like keeping school out of our lives as much as possible. It looks just like summer vacation, except it's all year round. My girls Zena (13) and Ruby (4) pretty much have the choice to do what they want to do at any given time.

Zena spends much of her time doing crafts and making gifts for friends...in recent months she has crocheted hats and scarves for friends and family, customizng each one. She is attempting an ancient Japanese headdress called Kanzashi, (I think), and she is totally into Japanese movies and music, to the point of having downloaded over 2000 Japanese songs on our computer. She adores fashion magazines, especially Japanese fashion, and has developed a recent interest in photography, tattoos and body piercings, though she has none...Zena is also a die hard Raw foodist, and has learned a great deal about the body's functions and the effects of food in the diet as she has sought out this information. She's an incredible person and I am blessd to have her in my life.
Her maturity and her strong sense of self are evident within the first few moments of meeting her.

Ruby is a high energy 4 year old. Her world consists entirely of playing made up games. Her vocabulary is astounding, as she began speaking like an adult at a very young age, much like her older sister, Zena did. Ruby is non stop, except for when she is watching a movie or a program that she enjoys. She loves her toys, she loves being read to and is showing strong signs of reading skills. She's not into art like her sister was...prefering games and imaginative play to any onther activity... Since we don't have other children over here very often, we are her primary play mates. We occasionally go to play spaces, toy library, and have a special friend over. She does get social interaction with her peers, but it is limited. So far she has not seemed at all bothered by this. Even when there are kids around she still wants a me to play with her!

Unschooling looks different in every household. There don't seem to be as many opportunities for social exploration here as there are in larger cities. We tend to be home bodies, especially in the winter. We live, work and sleep on our own schedule, waking up well rested and ready to begin a new day.