Unschooling NYC

My poor children really have very little chance of becoming overly p.c.   There are many reasons for this, one of them being that I Tivo David Letterman every night and then watch my favorite parts (Top Ten List, guests I like) during the day, usually when Ben & Maya are in the room.   And I laugh hysterically at things I’m sure make some people gasp.

For example, this bit by Louis CK.  (Sorry, but the thing about the lions had me in tears and my kids laughing right along with me.)

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC6-vWBS1-8… Read more

Anyone familiar with the musical “Title of Show”  (hi Andrea!) will recognize the title of this entry, since it is one of the songs from the show.  This song tells us about the ‘vampires’ – the people who try to tell you that you aren’t creative, your drawings are no good, your ‘songs are derivative’ – and instructs you not to listen to them.    It tells you, in very humorous fashion, to follow your passions and dreams despite what people around you might say.

Life learners deal with a lot of vampires, mostly of the ‘education’ variety.   Vampires are often … Read more

There is a widely held assumption that the only way to learn anything about a topic is to ‘study’ the topic directly.   Preferably in an institution set up specifically for the study of defined topics.   Because of this, people also assume that if you choose not to attend such an institution, you will not learn anything.

Homeschoolers avoid some of these assumptions by virtue of the fact that what they do has ‘school’ in the description.   They have school at home.   They follow a curriculum which provides them opportunities to learn about specific chosen topics.   Probably not as thoroughly as … Read more

I have mentioned before that when I was a kid, I hated it when the cicadas began their yearly song;  it meant summer would soon be over and I’d be heading back to school.  This usually happened during the first week of August.   Summer break ended after Labor Day.   I still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I contemplated the dwindling number of days before the first school bell rang.

Nowadays the cicadas sing much earlier.  The kids in New York’s public schools have barely had time to forget anything they ‘learned’  before the cicadas … Read more

Maya and her friends in The Donators met today at our house to wrap up three months of fund-raising for Heifer International.   Their goal was $500.   After the final tally they’d raised $366 with their own donations and through donation jars they placed at our store and at a local bakery.   Then, thanks to Joshua and his partners at Arties, who agreed to match whatever funds the kids raised, they wound up with $740.

I can’t tell you how much fun it is to watch a group of kids get so excited about giving.   They chose a heifer (of course) … Read more

Maya is getting to the age when she would like to start babysitting, but unlike when I was sitting for neighbor’s kids, here in New York she is up against professional nannies and babysitting services who screen their sitters and use mostly college students majoring in Early Childhood Education with minors in Theater Arts and such.    So at only 11 years old she is at a disadvantage.

However.   She is her father’s daughter, which means she is nothing if not determined.   So when she heard from a friend that the Red Cross offers a class in babysitter training, she was … Read more

Remember a few days ago when I mentioned that I wanted to have a day of sewing?   Today was the day!   My thanks to my friend Kristin for allowing my kids to come up and play at their place all afternoon, thus giving me almost 5 hours of uninterrupted sewing time.   My favorite way to sew is by re-purposing old clothes and making them into something fun and new.  A friend of mine and I once pitched a book called “Re-Sewn” full of such projects.     Creative differences with the publisher caused its’ downfall, but the ideas get used all the … Read more

I don’t write my posts in advance.   Sometimes I wish I could – you know, write 4 or 5 and save them as drafts, then publish one each night – but I work better in the moment, at least with this blog.

So when the WordPress server goes down, which isn’t very often thank goodness, my writing routine gets screwed up.    Tonight the server was down for awhile and that, combined with a debate on the effectiveness of government that I’ve been having with my cousin on Facebook this evening, means my ideas for tonight’s post got derailed and diluted.… Read more

Some days just have them.   Today, for example.   We went upstate to a water park for the afternoon, but this alone cannot explain it.   The first hour that we were there was chaotic, as the place was literally overrun with groups of day-campers, and the staff clearly did not know how to handle such crowds.   But at around 2pm, the campers all got on their buses and drove away,  and we spent the next two hours riding water slides and playing in the wave pool without long lines or fear of being jumped on by a pack of boys who … Read more

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at a birthday party for Maya’s friend Kaitlyn.  Kim and Tim, Kaitlyn’s parents, always throw a great party near the Hudson Beach Cafe up at 103rd and Riverside.   There are a few people who come to Kaitlyn’s party who I see only once a year – at Kaitlyn’s party!

Joshua and I were sitting and talking to one such parent who is originally from England and whose ex-husband is from Ireland.  They have four kids – two boys and two girls.    As we sat chatting the discussion inevitably made its’ way to the topic of … Read more