Unschooling NYC

On any given day, I can think of a lot of ways I might be a better unschooling parent to my kids.   It occurs to me that they don’t play instruments or love musical theater like many of their friends.   They aren’t wild about science and nature, also like many of their friends.

The list of the things I haven’t provided them or inspired in them is long.

But when we travel, all of those doubts fall away and I think, “Yes, this.”   This I have been able to give them and inspire in them; a love of going to … Read more

Here is Episode 2, wherein I might verge a bit on preachiness?  But hopefully it is informative and enjoyable anyway…

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Today on Facebook my friend Wendy Priesnitz shared a link to this article by John Holt written in 1971 titled “Deschooling Society”.  If you have time you should definitely read the entire thing, but I’m going to highlight a few paragraphs that, looking back from a distance of 42 years, seem not only relevant but almost prophetic when applied to the situation in schools today.   And which give even more credence to the idea that encouraging your kids to learn on their own outside of a school situation is the only way to go.

Here is Holt:

“To quote

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Yes I love my kids, love to spend time with them, travel with them, laugh and learn with them.   I’m that mom.

If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have chosen this lifestyle for us.

Kind of goes without saying, doesn’t it?

However, the following statements are also true:

I’m that mom who says “Sure!  Bike riding in Central Park twice a week would be great!” but then keeps forgetting to haul out and clean the bikes, pump up the tires, adjust the seats….  Until her daughter reminds her that it is now almost August and we have gone bike riding exactly … Read more

Ok so this video thing is super cool and also a little nerve wracking.  It’s similar to the first time I heard myself on tape and thought, “Do I really sound like that?!”     I’ve seen myself on video before, but somehow this is different.  More deliberate or something.  (And without professional hair and makeup people at the ready.)

This is just me.   Talking to you.

It’s not perfect and I had to stop watching it because I kept thinking of other ways to say what I said.   Kind of like the endless editing that writers – or at least this … Read more

This week I am jumping into the arena of YouTube web series or vlogs or whatever else you want to call them.  My series is titled “Deconstructing Unschooling” (or D.U.) and the first installment will go up as soon as my daughter teaches me how to do the editing!  (More likely scenario?  She winds up doing it for me.)

My plan is to keep things light, to avoid preachiness, breathiness or much talk about “energy”.    I hope it will make people smile and/or think “Hey this is interesting and if she can do it, then so can I.”

I’ll be … Read more

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that – but you are the only you.” ― Neil Gaiman

This holds true not just for writers.  Do what you do in the way only you can do it.  Do the thing that you can do all day and never tire of it.  There will always be people who are better than you at a particular skill.  But you are … Read more

How do you know who to trust?

My kids and I have had many discussions about trust over the years.  We’ve talked about it in terms of everything from  their on line activity to interactions with strangers and acquaintances.   We’ve talked about how trust is definitely a two way street and that once a trust is broken, it can be next to impossible to completely restore it.

For unschooling families, I would say trust is at the heart of what we do and how we raise our kids.  We trust that they know themselves; their minds and their interests and … Read more

I would say that thinking for oneself is a key factor in self-directed learning; not taking everything at face value or believing something just because some “expert” says it’s true.

It is astonishing how often people forget to think for themselves.  It is a trait that is actively discouraged in our schools and by our media.   Peddlers of medicine or dogma or party politics don’t want people to ask too many questions, and all too often, the people comply.

The last 24-48 hours have been filled with a lot of stories, accusations, judgments and opinions.  Some of it directly related … Read more

The more I learn about learning, the less I understand why many educators believe all kids need to learn the same subjects at the same age and in more or less the same fashion.

That’s not how true learning works.

But, the critics say, if you let kids just learn whatever they want, how will they acquire that all important “general knowledge” base?  How will they become good, contributing citizens?   (By the way, I’m not sure why becoming a good citizen or having a broad general knowledge base is intrinsically tied to compulsory schooling, but a lot of people seem … Read more