It's already Fall? Where does the time go?

This 'school year' finds us with our youngest still at home of an age to be considered ninth grade should he decide to go to high school. Every year I toss him that option as one of his choices and just like all the years before, he turns me down. He is quite content to continue on as an unschooler. He has grown so much! Just think. His next birthday will mean taking his Driver's Test for his Learners Permit! I'm not worried about him learning to drive though as life on a farm has already taught him those skills. He's growing up and soon will be a full fledged man off to college. I'm so proud him and my girls, too. This year has seen my oldest daughter celebrating her first year of home ownership and my second daughter just now moving into her own first home. They are starting out their adult lives nicely. It's a good feeling to know they are doing well and have a decent start. So where have I been you ask? This summer, we went camping. We traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky,

Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee,

then continued on to the National Whitewater Center near Charlotte, North Caroline.

We tent camped along the way and spent our days hiking, exploring,

spelunking,

ziplining, mountain biking, and kayaking.

It was awesome!!

Boys & Home Ec

Many moons ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, I was sent to middle earth, ehm.. school, somewhere near the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Or somewhere east of there...


Back in those early days of civilization, me being of the gentle persuasion, I was tasked to learn the gentle arts of tending a home; Shearing sheep, carding the wool, spinning the wool into thread, weaving it into material to be made into clothing, curtains and carpets... Along with the art of learning to clothe my future family, I was tasked with learning how to properly feed them; Growing vegetables, tending chickens, plucking chickens, making fire, and how to set a table. Those were the days.... (All due respect Mrs. Lynn! I loved your class and your Early American Club!)



My girls have grown and now are tending homes of their own which finds me now in a home with two men. The oldest (my spouse) has realized that he wasn't taught these skills back when he was a youth on the farm. Back then, the woman (his mother) tended all these needs. The younger male has also been reliant on his mother for years, too! This is a situation we are working to rectify. As mom, I'm also learning new cooking skills to do away with the ancient practices taught to me that have now been shown to not be oh so healthy, too.

If you have been following our life saga and unschooling journey, you know my son has been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. At first we were a bit freaked out and then we came to acceptance and now we have moved into learning coping skills which include learning how to eat, proper nutrition, and exercise.

This journey has included reading many books and trying to find the doable, sane, common ground, ways to eat clean and healthy. The other day while following a clean recipe for beef stew, my oldest daughter pointed out that one of the ingredients for the stew is a known gas producer so it should be left out of the recipe. And this is where one comes to realize that food preparation is truly a science not to be neglected.

I'm not going to list out any links nor books as I can't truly recommend any particular one at this point. There are many excellent resources and there are many that will steer you off the right track. We are still working our way through weaning items off our grocery list and finding doable alternatives.

Currently, after a hard workout, protein shakes have been a Godsend for my son. They are something that his system can tolerate and take the edge off. He has been learning to cook so he, hopefully, will never have to rely on fast food when he is grown. We will be working on learning all we can so all of us can live a long and healthy life.



George after earning his first belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
Ossss!

Eight Year Olds and Unschooling

This is a response to a worried mom of an eight year old.

I'm coming into the discussion a wee bit late and have skimmed the majority of responses and have just a few points to add:

Jane McGonical was on TED Talks. You can view here.


The original poster states a few concerns I'd like to address:

"but I miss my cheerful son who in younger years would happily be up for all kinds of adventures."

"if we do go out, a hour or 2 later he's ready to go home."

"I hate to make an arbitrary ban/regulation of this, but it seems like it might be helpful."

We started 'homeschooling when my son was 7yo and moved into full blown radical unschooling by the time he was 8yo. He is now 14 so I've run the gambit of much of what you address in your questions and this is what I have learned.

1) You haven't really 'lost' your cheerful son. He has grown and his interests have grown with him. Ask him what sorts of adventures he'd like.

When my son was 8, I pulled up the Dwarf Fortress website and let him read it to see if he would like that sort of game. (Got the link off the homeschooling Mensa site so I had no clue how my son would take to it.) He liked what he read and is still actively involved with the game/forum/linked branches/etc ever since. To this day if you looked at what he is reading on his iPod, it's usually something linked from this original site.

Do I worry? Not at all! What I have done is stay connected and in tune with what has him so intrigued. I take the time to listen and get engaged with him and his interests. This also gives him someone close that he can talk to about all his discoveries. It has allowed him to ask crazy questions like, 'Can a carp really kill a man?' which lead to us researching everything about carps and how big they grow, the probability of 'man killing carps' and a game designers right to be as silly as they so choose to be.

Along with Dwarf Fortress, I, who was NOT a gamer in any sense of the word, learned to play Runescape, World of Warcraft, and tons of other 'addicting' games. But my learning wasn't limited to just learning games! No! By bringing my boy home from school, I was now his number one person to whom he spent the most time with. I'm the one he talked to about EVERYTHING. This meant I got to enter his world and I considered it my place to know his interests and feed them. I read all the books he read (and he reads a lot!) so he always had someone to discuss the stories and plot lines with.

When his interests expanded beyond my time constraints/desires/and or tolerance, (I got motion sickness from some of the xbox games) my spouse jumped in. The two of them watched every Star Trek, played Halo, and discussed all types of weighty subjects even doing the math to see if the directors got it right. This lead to them getting into Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawkings to name a few.

My point being is your 'happy son' is still there. You might just need to get to know him again as a slightly older child with slightly grown interests.

2) My son also grew to hating to leave the house. To the point at one point, I feared he would become a shut in. He balked at having to even accompany us to the store. Well, turns out it was just a phase. The store bored him and being a typical boy, he really hated shopping ~ unless it was like a gaming store ~ but even then, he could look online at home and skip the actual store shopping. He had grown out of play dates and playgrounds. He hated roller skating and the likes. He always carried reading material and getting his nose out of a book was near impossible.

Sure, we could intrigue him out to things he was interested in like one year for his birthday we spent the day going to the parks that had the big cats (The Big Cat Rescue & Busch Gardens)but that would be cost prohibitive to do often. My spouse took him to see the Space Shuttle launch close up a few times, but even things like this didn't happen often enough to make it a weekly adventure.

The good news is age does in fact change this. When my son turned 13, he began to take an interest in people again. Now at age 14, he is actively involved in taken martial arts classes with adults and teens alike making many friends. Turns out that he really wasn't 'anti-social'. He was simply 'anti-interested'.

3) Arbitrary rules do not work. They never worked for my parents. They've never truly worked for anyone. Sure, you can make all sorts of miserable consequences but does it truly work? You might get compliance but you won't get growth.

Teaching the 'why' behind the reason makes more sense to me. My son knows that if he stays up late on a day he needs to be up early the following day, he will be too tired and grumpy. If he goes to bed too early in the evening, he is going to wake up extra early the next day, etc, etc.... I once had some lady give me crap that if I didn't force my child to sleep 8pm to 7am the next day, he would never be able to function as an adult and I was doing a disservice to society as a whole. Considering all the crazy shifts I've had to work in my life, I can tell you that her concept is totally off! The whole world is not asleep between 8p and 7a. Nor should it be.

So as far as 'arbitrary rules' go, what has worked better for us, is talking about the cause and effect of choices and learning to make wise choices. Yes, kids as young as eight can handle these sorts of discussions.

Well that's my $.25 for what it's worth.

May your New Year be blessed with laughter and joy!

Vicki

Shaolin & Brazilian Ju Jitsu

In 1986 I earned my black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate. What a day! I still remember it as if it was just yesterday abet my body isn't nearly so tired nor sore, lol. I still remember the first day I walked into the dojo to see about signing up. I wasn't looking for a black belt then. I just didn't want to become another statistic and end like my big sister. Back then, I referred to my first gi as 'my three hundred dollar pair of pajamas'. (Bet the Sensei wouldn't have liked to know that!) Fond memories.

2011, after over fifteen years of none training nor keeping myself healthy, I have once again joined a dojo. This time my youngest child has joined me. I'm enjoying watching him learn the techniques as he progresses. Already in only a few months, there's been great changes in his form, strength, and attitude. It's a beautiful thing to watch my quiet introverted son start growing into a strong young man. It warms my heart to have this chance to share my love of the martial arts with him.

After the first weeks of training, my son felt he wanted more time in the gym. We were already attending all the scheduled classes and he was working out at home everyday. We asked the Sensei for privates so we could feed this hunger but he felt my son was still too new.

Maybe it's just a side effect of unschooling but I tend to think it's just my way. I had a teenager with a craving to learn so I wished to feed that craving while it was still there. I researched where all the other martial arts schools were in our area and when they held classes. I found a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) school otherwise known as Brazilian Ju Jitsu (BJJ) that had classes that wouldn't conflict with the first dojo's class times. (Or at least not too much.) It looked promising so I asked my spouse to take my son over and check it out.

HA! They were gone a very long time! Turns out that my spouse and the instructor had much in common. Both my spouse and son decided to give the place a try. It's now been over a month and we have officially joined the world of BJJ! Yes, I, too, have joined BJJ along with my spouse and son. My son and I are doing both Shaolin and BJJ. My son is getting faster and stronger everyday. I'm praying to get faster and stronger everyday.

LOLZ ~ Never too late to take up a new sport!
Wish me luck!

Red Eagle Racers: 2 Months in 3 Minutes

George had the unique experience of assisting the Red Eagle Racers prepare for the Tampa 2011 RedBull Flugtag!


George sitting in the pilot's seat. No, he wasn't the actual pilot. John is at the tail of the racer checking things over.

The Zen of Unschooling

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

Zen: such an interesting concept. Much like Unschooling in many ways. Trying to explain unschooling to one like the above mentioned professor garners about the same results. One has to be open to receive.

One of the great, persistent myths of education in our culture is that children become reluctant learners as they grow older. In fact, what they become reluctant about it going to school, where they’re bullied, regimented, bored silly, and very effectively prevented from learning…We know what works for children up to the age where we ship them off to school: Let them be around you, pay attention to them, talk to them, give them access to as much as you can, let them try things, and that’s it. They take care of the rest. You don’t have to strap small children down and teach them to speak, all you have to do is talk to them. You don’t have to give them crawling lessons or walking lessons or running lessons. You don’t have to spend an hour a day showing them how to bang two pots together; they’ll figure that out all by themselves–if you give them access to the pots. Nothing magical happens at the age of five to render this process obsolete or invalid.

Daniel Quinn

Enjoying Life

Many years ago, as I was learning about unschooling, a woman in the group I was conversing with wrote a tearful story about her daughter. Someone had been asking about rules and such which had started the conversation towards ambiguous thoughts in the mainstream on the ways children grow and learn. This story has stayed with me through the years as it truly made me consider just what is really important. Having lost my older sister when she was barely twenty and I was only fifteen, has lead my thoughts down this road before and left me to ponder just what does really matter in this life.

I guess I should tell you the gist of this mother's story. This mother had a beautiful daughter whom she unschooled. They spent wonderful days together exploring, and learning, and being as joyful as they could. One day, the daughter died leaving behind a heartbroken mother. She was able to share with us that had she the chance to do it all again, she would still love and spend her days with her daughter the same way. She was so glad their days were not filled with fighting over homework, chores, and other ambiguous things that would have tainted the joy of the every day.

Recently, I rushed my son to the emergency room for extreme abdominal pain. On the way, he told me he couldn't feel his arms nor even his heartbeat. He began to panic. So did I. I called 911. They dispatched an ambulance as the dispatcher, too, began to panic with us. The fire truck met us. (Here Firefighters are first responders trained in emergency medical skills.) They advised me there was nothing to be done accept to get my son to the Emergency Room, and considering where we live, it would be quicker for me to continue the drive myself. So I did.

In the ER we learned that my son was fighting an infection and that part of his bowel was inflamed. It was bad enough that they put him into the hospital and called in a Specialist. Anyway, he has now had further testing that revealed he has ulcers in his colon and severe swelling of his small intestine. The doctor started him on three different meds and has ordered more testing. So far all we know is the first biopsies weren't found to be cancerous but they were very infected. It's looking like he is suffering from Crohns but the doctor hasn't made that a confirmed diagnoses yet. She is still waiting on more tests results.

Last week, during the follow up doctor's appointment, when we learned of the biopsy results, the doctor mentioned that school would be starting soon and that my son would need to learn coping methods for stress as stress is thought to make the attacks worse. My son told her that wasn't a concern as he is unschooled. She started to debate 'school' then quickly altered it to asking him if he planned to go to college. He told her yes, he was. She then went on to explain that school and youth come with immense stress. >.< This is where getting into a debate about the concepts of learning with someone who obviously has devoted much of their life to learning, isn't worth it. Obviously, the GI Specialist enjoys learning as one would require this ability to truly enjoy their work, but chances are, they were also traditionally raised, plodding through school the way most people do.

So later, when my spouse and I were alone, we talked at length about our son's future and whether or not college was really a necessity. If it was a choice between serious stress that would cut our son's life short, or not going to college, we were all for skipping the killer stress. There are many ways to live one's life without throwing a mountain of stress on one's shoulders. College is possible without carrying a mountain of stress, but to do that, is really up to the person involved.

So me being me, I got talking to my son about this and he told me that he wanted to go to college so it wouldn't be stressful to him. Recently, before his trip to the ER, he had read an article about the person he most admires: Tarn Adams, the creator of Dwarf Fortress. This lead to a discussion about how Mr. Adams has chosen to live his life and the point that seems to come across the loudest, is he is happy!

How many people can truly say that they get to be happy in that which they do? It's a wonderful place to have one's life. This is the charm of unschooling. Unschoolers get to be happy about life and learning! So many people hear 'unschooling' as 'un-educated' and that is so far from the truth! The GI Specialist after spending a short amount of time with my son, told her staff she was impressed with the intellectual young man. Yes, over hearing that, did in fact make me smile.

Through the freedom of unschooling, my son gets to learn at his own pace, things of interest to him. He tends to enjoy the weightier subjects of math, physics and computer languages. He has been putting forth effort to write well, as he has become active on a forum where other intellectual types converse. He has found his intellectual peers. I do not need to force him to study. Recently, I came across another online free resource for learning Python called 'Snake Wrangling for Kids'. I had printed it out and left it on his desk for him to peruse should he want to. (He has already learned some Python via other means so I wasn't sure if this manual would be helpful or not.) Last night, I found him working his way through this new manual and he showed me his beginning progress on a simple program he had just written. Recently, there's been other times, I've found him working his way through Kahn's Academy which is another terrific free resource. He is enjoying learning. He does in fact, plan on going to college and therefore, he is making sure he will be ready.

Biology and Math

Question asked: For the original Life of Fred books you have to be able to do long division. I assume they need to be done sequentially but I am not really sure.

I bought the complete original series of LoF when my son was 10. He asked if he could just read them as novels instead of working the math as he went. I told him of course! He read and giggled his way all the way through the complete series. Later, when he and his dad were busy discussing quantum physics and black holes, my son decided he really needed to get a better handle on the higher maths. He jumped right into the calculus book and after a bit of struggle, he decided that it would make sense to go through the math in a more step by step procedure actually working the problems as he went. (We had already talked about this, but coming to his own realization was beautiful!)

He is now 13 and every so often he picks up the books and works his way through them. He now has a strong grasp on Algebra and Geometry. As for Biology, he has had an intense interest in that since around age 8. Back then he wanted to learn everything he could about cats. I looked for every book I could find, every video, and I totally disregarded 'age level'. Soon he was reading college level biology books just because he was interested. We let him breed his cats and raise all the kittens. He's pretty much an expert on cats and all their biology now. (Our vet was impressed.) Also, in letting him learn all he could about cats, he now has a solid foundation on the biology of mammals which has lead to many more studies including humans.

For my son, the most beautiful part of unschooling, is the freedom for him to be able to explore a subject as deeply as he likes. I just pay attention to his interests and do everything I can to feed those interests. Needless to say, his bookshelves are loaded with books on biology, physics, religions of all forms, mythology, math, tons of various reference books, tons of D&D books, comics, tons of fiction and classical literature, to name a few. He has access to the local library should he want it. He has unlimited access to the web. He has unlimited access to video games. He has unlimited access to a menagerie of pets and a life outdoors.

Today finds him in a kayak with his dad and a family friend who till just recently worked at NASA while they wait to watch the final launch of the space shuttle. Yesterday had him working on a SeaDoo learning to rebuild a carburetor.


Who knows what he will learn tomorrow? I'm sure it will be something interesting.