Unschooling NYC

In the documentary “Long Way Down” in which Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman ride their motorbikes from John O’Groats in Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa, there is a segment where they spend some time at a survival training course.     They do this before the journey begins, and on the night they are camping there, it is raining.    The training coordinator tells them that the most important thing they can do is “give themselves over to the weather.”   Don’t fight it.  If you do, you will be miserable.

How very true.

Today we went to our friend Maeve’s birthday party, … Read more

“What are we really trying to do when we think about raising kids?..We’re trying to put in place the ingredients so the child is going to be a successful 35 year old.  It’s not really about getting an A in algebra.”

That quote is from an article in today’s Health section of the NY Times entitled, “School Curriculum Falls Short on Bigger Lessons”, which discusses the fact that schools and their emphasis on grades and testing does nothing to teach children essential life skills.    Which sounds great.  Almost radical, even.   Like something us life learners might say.

But (and … Read more

If you missed last years’ documentary, “Babies” I recommend you go out and get it.  It is available on DVD and through Netflix, and I picked up a copy of it last week.   We’d seen it in the theaters, but it is one of those films that I think everyone should watch now and then just for a healthy dose of perspective.

In case you haven’t heard of it, in “Babies” French film-maker Thomas Balmes followed four children from their first breath to their first steps.  One child was in Namibia, one in Mongolia, one in the U.S. and one … Read more

Last Saturday while we were in limbo land, waiting on Hurricane Irene, Maya amused herself with her favorite past-time, making and editing videos.    The results were some of the best videos she’s done to date.  We hope you like them too.  First, a hurricane weekend rundown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeIlRn3JL6U

And then my favorite, a ‘how to apply make-up’ tutorial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFlSZvu_h-8… Read more

Not once growing up did my mother exhort me to drink more water.      There was no concern about becoming dehydrated, and not because we never got hot or sweaty.   Farms in southern Indiana during the summer are hot, humid, sweaty places.   It was simply expected that if I or my brother got thirsty, we would drink.

Food was not a big deal in our house, either.  Mealtimes were not events.  My Dad often worked late and so we would eat early, when we were hungry.   Mom never told me I needed to eat more vegetables, or restricted certain snacks, or … Read more

Today was a ‘weary’ day.   No specific reason except that I sometimes get tired of constantly defending what we do, of being on the fringe.   I truly don’t see how Lenore Skenazy does it.   Yesterday I posted a link to her latest blog on the homeschool email list that I belong to and the very first person to respond basically said that letting your kid go out on their own is unsafe.   Of course some of my fellow unschoolers agreed with me & Lenore, but I find it exhausting to always be on the outside.

I guess this is why … Read more

An article in the NY Times today titled “Bullying Law Puts New Jersey Schools on the Spot” tells of a new law under which  “lunch line bullies…can be reported to the police by their classmates this fall through anonymous tips to the Crimestoppers hot line.”

This development is the result of fallout from a severe case of bullying which resulted in the suicide of a student at Rutgers University.  Of course bullying is unpleasant at best and despicable at worst; and in the Rutgers case it may well have been a criminal act.   But if we think the best way … Read more

The universe must think we need some work when it comes to patience.  First there was the 72 hour hurricane sit-in over the weekend, and then last night there was Waffles & Dinges.

Every Monday evening we walk over to Broadway to pay a visit to the Waffles & Dinges truck.   This is a truck that sells the best Belgian waffles on the planet (our preference being the Liege waffle with Spekuloos Spread or Nutella and either strawberries or bananas on top).    Usually there are a few people at the truck when we arrive.   They do a steady stream of … Read more

In Lenore Skenazy’s most recent post, “What’s the Difference Between a Sack Lunch & a Recently Beating Heart?” she points out that  “This is how society changes.  Not with a cataclysmic coup, but with thousands of little ‘tips’ that trade one kind of lifestyle (walking to school, dropping a kid off) with another (driving to school, coming inside, overseeing the lunch transfer).”

She is right, and some of these changes are made so gradually that we don’t even notice.   I’m guilty of falling for it as much as anyone.    Lenore has admitted in past posts that she tried to ‘child-proof’ … Read more

Clearly Irene does not watch her own press.   If she did, she would have known that passing through Manhattan without so much as downing a few trees in Central Park wasn’t what the media had in mind when they labeled her a “monster hurricane” equivalent in size and destructive power to Katrina.    A foot of water on the streets at South Street Seaport?  And in Battery Park City?   Please.   That’s standard Nor’easter fare.

Of course we are happy that there was no widespread destruction or lives lost.    And I know that Mayor Bloomberg was determined not to have a repeat … Read more