Unschooling NYC

This is a debate currently taking place amid the NYC homeschooling community.  Should we make ourselves available to news outlets and reporters doing stories about homeschooling?

Many people seem to feel that the media cannot be trusted at all; that they will slant every story to the negative, or that increased exposure will mean increased scrutiny from the powers that be resulting in less freedom for us.

And of course there are stories that take a negative slant toward homeschooling and people who believe that home educators should be more heavily regulated than we already are.

But my personal experience … Read more

For those of you out of the Free Range loop, Lenore Skenazy is a journalist who came to the forefront a few years ago when she wrote a column for the now defunct New York Sun about letting her then 9 year old son ride the subway alone.  She meant it as a basic human interest story, but much to her surprise she was promptly branded the worst mom in America for, as some said, putting her child’s life in danger.   (Her son made the trip with no difficulties and arrived home enormously proud of himself.)

After that, Skenazy wrote … Read more

If there were any lingering doubts that the number of homeschoolers is on a rapid increase, they were smashed today at the annual NYCHEA Not Back to School Picnic in Central Park.   We’ve been coming to these picnics since Maya was 4 years old, and this one had the biggest turnout by far.

My guess is between 300-400 people attended over the course of the afternoon (kids and parents), including more new homeschoolers than I’ve ever met at a picnic before.  These included families with teens and families with young kids, many in their first weeks of learning outside of … Read more

Years ago, my friend Aliza (the same friend who first introduced Joshua & I to unschooling through her amazing kids) was nominated for a MAC = Manhattan Association of Cabaret & Clubs Award for a song she had written.   A MAC is the cabaret version of a Tony, and  her song was titled, “I’ve Got The My Baby’s not Heterosexual Blues”.    I’d give anything for a recording of it because it is every bit as good as the title.

When she received word that she’d been nominated, Aliza said, “I looked at the list of nominees and mine was the … Read more

I find it somewhat ironic that one of the things schools stress when they talk about student success and achievement is the level of “parental involvement” – the more the better – but these same schools (and by schools I mean everyone from administration to teachers) often disdain the idea of homeschooling because we parents aren’t formally trained educators.

One might be tempted to say, “Hey, in or out, people.  There’s no greater parental involvement than in unschooling/homeschooling families.”

Except when schools talk about parental involvement, what they intend is for the parent to be the enforcer of the school … Read more

One of the things people say to me when they find out we unschool is, “I could never spend that much time with my kids.”  Another thing they say is, “What do you do with them all day?”

Both of these statements imply that because my kids are not in a school building and kept separate from me for 7-8 hours a day, that I must spend my every waking moment finding ways to engage, entertain and of course teach them.   I’ve been told it must be “exhausting” and “a lot of work”.

Here’s something you need to know.   It … Read more

A couple of weeks ago, over on my Green Mangoes Blog, I wrote a post titled What would Bono do?.  In it, I talked about how cooperation and change does not usually come about through attacks or name-calling, but rather by finding a common ground and having empathy for those with whom you are working.

This post is along those same lines, and I am writing it because lately I’ve noticed a lot of anger coming out of some members of the unschooling community.   People with whom I agree but whose methods in communicating to those who disagree have … Read more

Earlier this week, Ben & I walked into a local bookstore in the little town where we are vacationing with my parents.  The woman running the place smiled at Ben and said, “So you’re not in school, which either means school hasn’t started for you or, you’re homeschooled?”

You have no idea how rare it is for someone to actually consider the fact that my kids might not go to school at all.  One of the things Maya says she’s not looking forward to when we get home is the return of the almost daily, “So, no school today?” comments … Read more

And now, from the chronicles of “Days That Will Not Go Down in Unschooling History but Might Very Well Make Someone Else Feel Better About Their Own ‘Off’ Days”, I give you:

What Do You Mean You See No Trash In This Room?  Are You Kidding Me?!

Tomorrow we leave for a week in Michigan with my parents, which means of course that today was prep day in which all errands, chores & last minute purchases had to be made.   Mostly by me.   I was so annoyed about this that I actually wrote a list of all the things I … Read more

First of all, let me say that this article by Farran Powell, titled “Homeschooling on the Rise in NYC” is great.  It is a 100% positive look at homeschooling in the city.  When Farran spoke to me and then came to our home, she was lovely.  She took a ton of photos and was truly interested in what we do and how we live our lives.

So it’s all good.

Despite that, there is one particular sentence of her article that I need to correct.  There were other minor corrections I’d have made if I’d seen the article in advance … Read more