Unschool Radical

yuck. More and more I can’t be around so-called mainstream families and a lot of homeschool moms. We are radical unschoolers which isn’t that odd here- but other similar style parenting families may not have kids my kids play with….

Yesterday my VERY shy son met a friend at a homeschooling event.. the mom was quite nice and her little boy adorable ( 4 years old ). The other older kids were doing something and I mentioned I had some paints, etc and did he want to do them with us- he replied he couldn’t because he had to do his homework. Yikes…

Later on the two boys talking about games and my son asked me for his Game-boy to show his new friend. His mom stopped me and said that she would prefer if her son didn’t look at it- and that he kids were not allowed video games…

My son was totally perplexed. I find it hard trying to explain other people stupid ideas and concepts to my kids. I am being blunt here. I normally don’t refer to other people ideas as stupid… this is one place I feel like I can be very raw and honest and not choose my words carefully.
I did tell my son that other families have different rules , etc and it REALLY bugged me that now MY son couldn’t play with his game boy… well I could have taken it out but in my mind wold have been more cruel to have that little boy watching B. play then B. waiting to play until later…

I have come across other families with rules that make no sense to me and have to curb my behaviour and go along with it. We have a boy come visit us and stay over night and his dad doesn’t allow him to have sugar… I though this was some kind of food allergy thing but turns out its because of dentist bills. The kids can have sugar Christmas, Halloween and Easter. They CAN have potato chips, raisin, dried fruits, etc which are just as bad if not worse! Have they not heard of a tooth brush??? So while they are here I am supposed to police them… which I just cant do so I tell parents that there kids can follow the rules but I am not here to enforce rules… Would I be different if it was an allergy- yes.
I have a very good friend who is vegetarian as are her kids. were were out one day and her daughter ordered a chicken sandwich and I asked her if it was okay and she said yes. I did feel weird… I mentioned to the mom that I felt I had to respect the child’s desire to have the sandwich and not follow a “rule” … The mom knew exactly where I was coming from and told me her kids could eat whatever they wanted and was their choice. Whew.

A religious thing? I don’t know. I am a DIE HARD atheist and believe people have a right to follow there own spiritual path,. I don’t think I could “enforce” if Jewish girl went fro a piece of bacon at the table. I highly doubt an orthodox family would let there kids stay in a home that wasn;t kosher and if they did there are all ready all kinds of rules being broken.

I certainly don’t think I would push the issue and wouldn’t serve pork but diary + meat would be hard. Tough one for me.

I am not sure I can even respect religious laws. I have been grappling with the idea of tolerance being the same as condoning vs. the right to choose your own path and feel more and more strongly that tolerating a stupid religion is the same as condoning (and by stupid I mean ALL ) . My belief is that religion is a weapon used to CONTROL thoughts and actions of people and very dangerous.

I also know if I were to express my real feeling my kids would have a VERY small pool of kids to play with I can’t just narrow my social choices to other radical unschooling, atheist families. Hard one to balance.

Tags: Unschooling, Unschooling Concepts and Ideas // 8 Comments »

I am not sure what ht our house this month. My children are at each other’s throats. I have a 10 year old girl and 4 year old boy. They have always got along and my daughter ADORES her little brother.

This month full blown wars have occurred over things like- she is looking at me. I don’t want her to watch TV. I don’t like her singing. Don’t hug her. She is on wrong side of the couch, etc. For her part she looks at hi extra hard when he doesn’t want her “looking” at him and sings louder when he asks her to stop.

He is asserting himself as a person and experimenting with free will.
The worst for me has been the crazy/nuts jealousy over our affection. I get a glare from him if I hug her. I I say thanks for putting laundry in dryer he glowers and says he helped too ( he didn’t)

World Was 2 erupts over the computer situation. The both like to be on the computer. He likes Youtube ans she likes making moving. Their own computer dies a couple of months ago and they have been suing my laptop.
I couldn’t take it anymore and went out to buy a new one yesterday to solve the problem . Nothing is stock. I went back to their older computer and took it apart ( did I mention I am bit of a geek?) . Checked everything and still wouldn’t work. I didn;t think ti was power supply because fan worked on and off- but yup- was power supply. Got a new one for 10.00 used yesterday and now back up and running ../ ( well sort of- the USB ports don’t work so will install a USB card later today)

I am stuck here. I have consciously tried t make sure this would not happen- by letting each person be their own- never comparing them, modelling like crazy, etc. I am struggling here!

My son has had some serious health problem in last few months and I am wondering if it is backlash from her perceiving that he is getting more attention than him.

My husband is trying to be sensitive however he does tend to expect her to take the “high” road all the time and I try to remind him- and myself- that she is still only 10.

Any ideas or thoughts?

Tags: Unschooling Family Life // 2 Comments »

I ALWAYS get post Christmas blues. I dont; love the day so much as the season! I love the baking and visiting and most of all the crafts. Feel a but of a void now that I don’t have candy canes to make, gingerbread to bake or card to design! Mu husband is Jewish an doesn’t get Christmas… so he is always happy to see it go away

Kids are still pretty rangy and house is a mess… I *may* take down tree today. At least I plan on getting rid of red and gold plaid place mats in dining room.
At any rate- every healthy and well . We plan on taking a road trip in February so at least i have that to plan for.

Kids start there routine as of tonight ( dance lessons) and next week they start skiing- which reminds me I have to figure out where the resort is!

Tags: Unschooling // 1 Comment »

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!

Tags: Unschooling // Add Comment »

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.

Tags: Cool Stuff // Add Comment »

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!

Tags: Unschooling // Add Comment »

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 !

Tags: Unschooling in Action // Add Comment »

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.

Tags: Art, Cool Stuff // Add Comment »

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 »