Unschooling NYC

I will apologize in advance if this post is somewhat less than perfectly coherent.   See, I had decided what I would write about earlier this evening – Shakespeare and my experiences reading, acting and seeing Shakespeare plays and how that all tied in with going to the Rubin Museum to see Ralph Fiennes discuss his film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Corialanus”.    (Whew!)    But that was before I actually went to the Rubin.

Now that I am back home, I’m thinking I should talk about comfort zones as relating to my experience tonight.    But how can I not discuss Shakespeare?

So forgive … Read more

There’s been an article bouncing around Twitter and the blogosphere the past few days about a school board member who took a standardized test given to tenth graders in his school system.   He failed.

Cue endless discussions as to why he failed.   Is it:  A. the tests are too abstract  B. the tests are unrelated to the knowledge used in life, or C. This person might have known the answers while in school (and after many hours of test prep) but has since forgotten them?

I’m going with D. All of the above.

We can talk testing till the end … Read more

“Tell us about your typical day.”

People who want to talk to us about unschooling always request that we tell them about a typical day.   It’s my least favorite question, because I know that in their head, whatever I say will be compared to the typical day of a family with children in school.   Their typical day is easy to describe:    Drag kids out of bed to get them dressed & fed in time to leave for school.   School.  After school activities.   Dinner.  Homework.  Bed.   Repeat 5x a week.

One time when asked to describe their typical day, my kids … Read more

The Setting:   Ben’s room yesterday evening as I was saying good-night.   Him under the covers, lights out, with me snuggled next to him.   (In case you don’t know, he’s 7.)

Ben:  Mama?

Me:  Yes?

Ben:  (Ducking his head under the covers as he speaks)  I don’t believe in Santa Claus.

Me:   You don’t?

Ben:  (Shakes his head, which is still under the covers)  No.

Me:   Why not?

Ben: (Takes the covers down a little)  Well, I just don’t think he could really deliver presents to everyone all over the world in one night.

Me:   Oh.  Did Maya talk to you … Read more

BOOKS

98% of the books I’ve been reading lately are of the YA genre. (That’s Young Adult, in case you’re unfamiliar.)   It’s a label that should never stop someone of the OA (Older Adult) variety from picking one up.   Much of the best writing out there these days is YA in my humble opinion.

So let’s get started.  Right now I am reading the ‘Uglies’ series by Scott Westerfeld.   (Book 1 is Uglies, and I’m currently reading book 2, titled Pretties.)

I have a background story for this, which is that earlier this Fall Maya’s book club decided to … Read more

My post tonight is about changing the paradigm of education & learning in our culture.   Sometimes before I begin writing about a particular topic I do a little on line research, to see what others are saying or if there is any recent ‘buzz’.

When I searched ‘on changing paradigms’ the first thing that popped up was this animated video of a speech by Sir Ken Robinson.    Normally I insert videos at the end of a post, but not this one.   This one explains how the current paradigm of education came about and why it is no longer working… … Read more

No, it’s not a book deal.

But speaking of books, remember Michael Ellsberg?   If you’ve been reading this blog for even a few weeks, then you do, because I’ve devoted several posts to him and his new book, Education of Millionaires.

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be on Twitter when Michael tweeted that he was looking for a few people to help him do research and outreach on topics related to his book (topics like student debt, debates over the value of higher education vs. self-education, etc.).   It caught my eye and I clicked onto … Read more

After a month of blogging with no days off as part of NaNoBloMo  (National November Blogging Month) in which bloggers commit to post every day, I had decided earlier today that tonight I’d give myself a break.

But then my day went haywire.

First, we received the news that two of our dear friends are ending their marriage.   It is being done with mutual love and respect, which somehow makes it even sadder (although it’s much better than hate and disrespect, as there is far too much of that in the world as it is).    Joshua and I talked about … Read more

Hey, you know what’s a great toy?   Blocks.   Just wooden blocks of all shapes and sizes.

What, you knew that already?

Did you know that many kids really like to play with them?   That some kids can come up with amazing creations full of aesthetic appeal and employing pretty advanced skills in construction?

You knew that too?

So am I to believe that you just figured all this out about blocks on your own, without the benefit of a blocks expert?  You mean to tell me you’ve never attended a workshop on block building?

What are you, some kind … Read more

I found out about Peter Gray’s article from some of my new friends on Twitter.  Twitter has put me in touch with a much larger homeschooling/unschooling community than ever before.   For a long time I kind of groaned when anyone would mention ‘tweeting’, but I have to say, I have gained access to information I would never have found otherwise.

And it’s kind of addicting.

That said, one of my new ‘Tweeps’ as Twitter friends are called, posted a link to this article a couple of days ago.   I’m not going to set it up except to say that it … Read more