Unschooling NYC

Before we jump into the events of the past few days, I must send a big thank you to Pat Farenga.  In case you are unfamiliar with him, Pat worked closely with John Holt until his death in 1985, and is now the President of Holt Associates Inc as well as being the former editor of Growing Without Schooling magazine.    Earlier today I sent him a link to the PBS Metrofocus piece in which we were interviewed, and he posted it on his blog along with a link to Green Mangoes. (Thank you!)

Because of Pat and the people … Read more

Last Saturday Maya spent the afternoon learning how to use Final Cut Pro – the video editing software used by most professionals.   Since then she’s been stepping up her editing – she has better tools and is using them to get better results.

Her friend Maya Spo – Maya’s partner in crime when it come to joint video production – memorized an entire Garnier shampoo commercial.  (This was as a result of watching Project Runway on line.   The show is sponsored by Garnier, and as anyone who watches shows on their computer knows, each episode will usually have one sponsor … Read more

Scene:   Our living room

Time:  Yesterday afternoon at around 5pm.

Participants:  Maya, Ben and Maya’s friend Greta

Activity:   Using a rubber hammer to break open a toy from a McDonald’s Happy Meal (one that made sounds).

This happened after they’d spent time playing Super Mario Bros on the Wii.   Yes, video games are fun, but nothing beats cracking one of those toys apart and dissecting the insides.    Seriously.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps me from feeling I need to regulate time on the TV or computer or the Wii.   All our video games get played in spurts.   … Read more

I was just reading an article on a student blog titled “Helicopter Parents:  Is Hovering Harmful to Career Goals?” .   Before reading it I was able to supply the answer – “Yes”!    The thing I like about the article is that it points out that helicopter parents are not only attempting to protect their kids from any physical danger (whether real or imagined, and mostly imagined), but also from any type of conflict whatsoever.   Lenore Skenazy deals mostly with the first type of helicopter parent in her Free Range Blog, but what about the parent whose child never has to … Read more

Anonymous person:   Where do your kids go to school?

Me:   We homeschool.

There are generally about 3 responses to this:

AP:    Really?  Wow, you must be very patient.

Or:

AP:  Really?   Wow, you must be really dedicated.  That would be a lot of work.

Or this one, very popular at the moment:

AP:  Really?   You are so lucky to be able to do that.   My spouse and I both work so, you know, who would be with the kids during the day?

All three responses speak to myths about homeschooling.   Lesser myths, perhaps, that the Great Socialization Myth, but myths … Read more

The mother of all myths regarding children who do not attend school is that they will be socially backward.   Deprived of the opportunity to spend 7 hours every day in a room with 25-30 other children who are exactly the same age, how will they learn to socialize?   (Because as we all know, the only people we ever socialize with throughout life are people exactly our same age…)

This is what happened at our apartment today:   At 12:30 Maya’s friend Lexi came over to play for a few hours.  (For the record, she’s a year older than Maya and traveled … Read more

John Holt wrote that he didn’t think it necessary for children to constantly be surrounded by other children and to have a large circle of friends.  In fact he thought it was far better to have one or two close and carefully chosen friends.

In this he and I are in complete agreement.

Over my 44 years, I have developed and maintained only a few very close friends, and although there are times when I lament the fact that all but one of them live very far away, I wouldn’t trade them for a multitude of local casual ‘friendly’ acquaintances.… Read more

Even though I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about learning, one of the good things about life learning is that it happens almost without the kids knowing it, in many cases.    Which makes it a more natural process, like learning to walk or talk.    We don’t stop in the middle of baking brownies and say, “And NOW we are learning fractions!”

Ben is what I think of as a ‘true’ life learner.   Maya started out in a more traditional curriculum based homeschool routine, and I sometimes see it in the way she approaches things.   She has … Read more

A girl we know spent one year at the Laguardia Performing Arts High School.   She was homeschooled prior to entering Laguardia, got herself the audition and was accepted.   A few weeks into the year, she approached her Math teacher and asked if she might move to a desk at the front of the room because she was having trouble hearing the teacher during class from her spot near the back.    The teacher denied this request.

When I heard this story I thought, “Well that’s ridiculous.   Wouldn’t a teacher be encouraged by a student who wants to do well – wants … Read more

Maya just finished reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and I am reading it now.  This is a book I’ve always known about but never read.   It is set in 1912 Brooklyn and follows a young girl named Francie Nolan as she comes of age.   Her family is poor and the book is a chronicle of her life from day to day.   I had not thought to mention it here, except that there is a rather scathing description of the local school that Francie begins to attend at the age of 7, along with her 6 year old brother.   … Read more