Unschooling NYC

It’s the question that lurks in the back of every unschooling parent’s mind.  Am I doing enough?  Am I paying enough attention to my kids’ interests and doing enough to facilitate them?   Are days spent playing on the computer, making videos, building Lego ships and then watching “The Voice” or “Biggest Loser”, successful from a growth and learning standpoint?

A lot of times I see unschooling like the proverbial question about the tree falling in the forest.   In other words, if I don’t see and put a label on what my kids learn, is learning really happening?

Panic about subjects … Read more

A few days ago my Mom sent me this link to an article about Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil.   Mr. Lucas is of particular interest to me because he’s from my hometown in Indiana, but also because he created his original product – an oil additive that would make large truck engines run smoother – out of necessity and without a degree of any kind.

Lucas left home at 15, and worked on a farm till he bought his first semi-truck at the age of 21.   After 16 years as a driver he started his own trucking company in California, … Read more

Sometimes walking around New York is like being in the middle of an enormous installation of performance art.  Union Square was in full swing this gorgeous afternoon, and as I made my way north on Broadway I couldn’t resist a photo.

Love the yellow jacket and the Cigar Man (and there he sits!)

Upon reaching 23rd & Broadway, in the ‘prow’ of the Flatiron Building there was an installation of artwork by the artist Gwyneth Leech.   I’d passed it before, but today Ms. Leech was there and of course nothing is more fun than chatting with the artist, so … Read more

As an unschooling parent it’s easy to feel like you are all on your own.  Even though there is a large homeschooling community in NYC, the unschoolers among us are scattered, and I don’t see any of them on a regular basis.   Our email lists have been full of posts on AP testing and college admittance procedures for homeschoolers, neither of which is relevant to us at this point (and may never be, as my kids are not thinking college but business).  So on days when it seems all around me the talk is of sending kids to high school, … Read more

The day was going so well.

The kids had Spanish, we ate a leisurely lunch, and I was enjoying chatting with my friend Kristin while our kids played.

Then, from the other room, the sound every parent dreads.  A loud thump followed by a long, drawn out “Maaaamaaa!!”.    Before anyone could react, Ben came running out into the kitchen, holding his hand against his head as blood ran out from under it and down his face, screaming.

Oh my god, the blood was EVERYWHERE!  Gushing all over the floor as Kristin grabbed paper towels and I pressed them against Ben’s … Read more

Why do people like to talk so much about how tough they’ve had it?   As though somehow it makes them a better person?  As though working in a dead-end job, or better yet, two dead-end jobs just to make ends meet, or being thoroughly unhappy in a career is some sort of badge of honor?

Surprisingly this comes up a lot when people question unschooling, or are giving reasons why kids need to be in school.    Basically it boils down to them saying, “Kids need to know that the world is a hard and unforgiving place.  Not everything will go … Read more

As a kind of follow up to yesterday’s post, I want to talk a little about parenting in an unschooling family.   First of all let me say there is no one model that all unschoolers follow.   Since unschooling is different in each family – remember, standardization is anathema to unschooling – identifying an ‘unschool parenting model’ would be next to impossible.

I can only talk about what I know from my own experiences, both in our family and families with whom we are friends.

Perhaps because of the fact that we spend so much time with our kids, unschooling parents … Read more

To be honest, I don’t quite know where to begin with this.  Sometimes an event or topic comes along that is so disturbing that it is difficult to organize my thoughts around it.  But I will try.

Let’s start with this:  I am aghast.  Appalled.  Disbelieving.

Last week, a father of a teenage daughter posted this video on YouTube, intending to humiliate her for remarks she made about him to her friends on Facebook.  The video ends with him taking a .45 and shooting 9 rounds into her laptop.

Charming.

As bad as that was, however, it paled in comparison … Read more

You’ve probably all heard the phrase, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”

It would be more appropriate to say, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?”

The first phrase looks nice on posters but in the back of our minds we all know that never failing is not an option.   We also know, both from our years in school and from society, that failure is generally frowned upon.

And so we stay seated on our dreams and ambitions, reading posters and wishing that in fact we could create a world where we would … Read more

It’s funny, because everyone knows there is no such thing as the perfect parent, perfect child or even perfect family.   Catch someone in a rational moment and they will tell you as much.  They may even admit to their own faults and imperfections, if you know them well.

Why is it, then, that when discussing unschooling, people nitpick at its’ imperfections?   Even though, in my humble opinion, they are far fewer than the imperfections to be found in our compulsory educational system.

Or, on the flip side, why do people say they ‘could never do that’ when told about unschooling, … Read more