Unschool Radical

What a week! Son was taken by ambulance to emergency room because of bad case of croup.. he really had a tough time!
Was so scary for everyone, the staff was fantastic.

He took tons of steroids by mask and nothing worked until they tried epinephrine, which has some nasty side effects! My son had a total personality change! He was on hyper drive for about 4 days.. I like he had had 10 espressos or something.

He is much better now- Thank goodness!

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Big news for comic lovers- Marvel comics will be putting up some of its comics up on the web and make available to read online!
In an effort to introduce new and younger readers to the original comic books of Spider-Man, Fantastic 4 and X-men Marvel will launch Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited tomorrow. The site is up and running now- and you can view 250 comics free- Incliding “Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman #1″

The read is easy to use, has an “auto-forward” and graphics are clean and crisp- top notch.

The issues will be older ones- at least 6 months old. You will not be able to download- they can be viewed on web browser only.
The cost is on the pricey side- $9.99 a month, or $4.99 monthly with a year-long commitment.

The site will also offer community forums for comic book lovers.

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My family suffered a terrible loss this week and it has left most of it reeling. I don;t want to post any details out of respect for others that would like to keep their privacy but the tragedy has given me a whole new perspective and meaning to my day to day living. I am really going to ease my own pain by easing others.

Tags: Unschooling // 1 Comment »

I have not posted here for a long time. Not because I haven’t been thinking about - but I have only wanted to post honest thoughts and feeling and ideas and I was growing uncomfortable with sharing such personal stuff online. I can see though various tools how people find the site and I realized that wow-people were really reading this and sometimes people that scared me!

I have been struggling what to share and how much to share and then because I want to be honest about how I feel- I just write nothing.

I am going to try an work my way through this and post more. I have made a decision that it is better to take a risk than to do NOTHING. Plus there are so many other great blog out there that I would in some way like to help promote them.

I believe in unschooling in practise and as a lifestyle If I can in some way help “normalize” then I will do my best!

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This year we have begun to have a lot of sleepovers at our house. It is a great way for them to socialize and have fun and to get to know their friends better. One great thing about homeschooling is sleepovers are not limited to weekends. One of my daughter’s friend is moving away in a few weeks and she wants to do something special- so she is organizing her first slumber party. I have left her to it on her own with as little involvement as possible.

She has :

-gathered names and phone numbers in a “book”

-Looked at calender and days available.
-Made phone calls
-Hand written her own invitations and decorated with hand-stamping and embossing kit ( I encourage her to use these as often as i can-this was another of my craft projects that went wildly out of control- but that’s another post)

She will also expand her skills by planning a menu and writing out a shopping list. I will give her a budget to work with. There has been great debate over what movies are “just right” I would love to hear ideas for great movies for slumber party for girls 8-11 years old. So far on my list for her to check out is “Mean Girls“. “The Goonies“ , “The Princess Diaries” We are still working on menu and and other slumber party stuff. Will break out the nail polish, etc. Please post comments and suggestions !

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This is kind of neat- the artist uses only gum as his medium- no dye or other colours- he makes different colours by chewing different types of gum.
Gum Art Link

This site heavily uses Flash and can take a while to load.

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Most people have an opinion on this. I struggle with mess all the time- I try and let things go and not worry about it - but for the most part our house is in chaos, I can’t find anything and I do get frustrated. I can’t be frustrated enough though or house would be tidier! Not the dirty kind of mess- but laundry piled high, toys, etc all over the floor hallway a mountain of roller blades, bike helmets and coats kind of mess. This is choice I or we make. We choose to take off for the day and go strawberry picking rather than stay home and cut the grass and vacuum the family room. The challenge I have to come to realize for me is not the constant trying to keep up with the mess but accepting the clutter and moving on or dealing with the clutter and moving on.

We had company this weekend and it took about 3 hours to get the house in shape- I have to admit its nice to walk on freshly vacuumed floors and not trip over anything. I am telling myself maybe we should keep this up and I could feel this way all the time.

At any rate my point is- its my choice to live this way and I figure my kids should have the same choice. My daughters room looks similar to mine- books piles high, clothes every where, papers strewn on every surface. Last week she had a sleepover with other girls and spent 4 hours organizing, sorting and cleaning without my nudging she didn’t to be embarrassed and took it on herself to clean up for the kids coming over. I was talking on the phone with a non-homeschool friend this morning and she was was talking about getting her daughter to clean her room up- I pointed out that her room is “hers” and should be a place to express herself and do as she wants and said if you let t go you may be surprised that when she tales “ownership” of her room pride may come and she might take it upon herself to clean up- or not . That I felt that letting kids make their own choices helped develop self esteem and understand natural consequences. Bullying the into doing something can serve no higher purpose- and in my mind vacuumed rugs are no match for self esteem and life lessons.

Tags: Unschooling Concepts and Ideas // 1 Comment »

Breasfeeding and Breastfeeding Ads have been big in the news lately- here is a great article and MANY resource links on the risks of NOT breastfeeding:

Breast milk has agents (called antibodies) in it to help protect infants from bacteria and viruses. Recent studies show that babies who are not exclusively breastfed for 6 months are more likely to develop a wide range of infectious diseases including ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory illnesses and have more hospitalizations. Also, infants who are not breastfed have a 21% higher postneonatal infant mortality rate in the U.S.

Some studies suggest that infants who are not breastfed have higher rates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the first year of life, and higher rates of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, overweight and obesity, high cholesterol and asthma. More research in these areas is needed (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005).

Babies who are not breastfed are sick more often and have more doctor’s visits.

Also, when you breastfeed, there are no bottles and nipples to sterilize. Unlike human milk straight from the breast, infant formula has a chance of being contaminated.

http://www.4woman.gov/breastfeeding/index.cfm?page=519

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Argh. Yes another example of the sexualization of the female body and people being disgusted over the site of a baby getting its food from its mother. We think nothing of the violence in Television and video games yet flip out at the site of an infant breastfeeding.
In this case, Babytalk magazine features a very nice cover of a baby nursing at his mothers breast- nicely photographed and no nipple be shown.
Here is article on Cbs’s web site about the controversy
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/28/national/main1844454.shtml
and here on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/27/nursing.cover.ap/index.html

I am personally saddened when I see an article like this in mainstream media. It just reinforces to young women, pregnant women and society in general that breastfeeding is”bad” or “dirty” or “shameful”
Its the reason why last week at a family BBQ I almost told my 2 1/2 year old he couldn’t nurse because I was worried about what people would think- and I am not a shy person or embarrassed at all about nursing in public. Lest you think I am some kind of exhibitionist, I am 41 years old and quite “rubanesque” anf feel no desire to flaunt my body
I wish breastfeeding would stop being America’s dirty little secret.

Tags: Breastfeeding Support, Unschooling // 1 Comment »

Education: Class Dismissed

By: Hara Estroff Marano
Summary: It’s every modern parent’s worst nightmare—a school where kids can play all day. But no one takes the easy way out, and graduates seem to have a head start on the information age. Welcome to Sudbury Valley.

“I’ve learned a lot about how my mind works by paying attention to how I unicycle,” Ben declared in preparation for high school graduation. And from the time he was 12, Ben paid attention to nothing so much as unicycling. When students elsewhere were puzzling over, say, the periodic table, Ben, along with a handful of schoolmates, was mostly struggling up and racing down New England mountainsides, dodging rocks, mud and other obstacles. His “frantic fights to maintain balance” demanded both deep focus and moment-to-moment planning. But they gave him something missing from most classrooms today—a passion for pursuing challenges and inhaling the skills and information (to say nothing of the confidence) to master life’s complexities.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20060424-000004.xml

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