As the refugee issue has heated to a boil in our country, my girls have formed their own opinions on the matter. They decided to do something to make refugees in our country feel more welcome. They, practically on their own, organized a holiday drive for the refugee center closest to us. After about…
It’s not other people’s concern and comments over socialization and “keeping up.” It’s not the worry that you’re doing it wrong. It’s not the moments when your kids are bored and trying to figure out what’s next. It’s not the constant work of making sure your kids have what they need to explore their various…
We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions — if they have any — and…
— John Holt
Nobody grew taller by being measured.
— Roland Meighan
This. In this brilliant article, Bloomberg columnist Megan McArdle writes about a conversation with a young girl in 10th grade. This girl is so afraid of not getting an “A” that she is afraid to try anything new. In our current system of education, kids almost have to get a 4.0 to feel like they…
It happens all-too-often: I run into a homeschooling parent that thinks the way I once did, and I cringe for days afterward. Did I truly once rate my value as a parent and a facilitator of education by how “far ahead” my children were than others? Did I truly once worry so much about how…
All I am saying in this book can be summed up in two words – Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple – or more difficult. Difficult, because to trust children we must trust ourselves – and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.
Unschooling isn’t a recipe, and therefore it can’t be explained in recipe terms. It is impossible to give unschooling directions for people to follow so that it can be tried for a week or so to see if it works. Unschooling isn’t a method, it is a way of looking at children and at life.…
“As the pace of life, especially for children, has quickened — as we have striven to improve schools, increase productivity, accumulate wealth, and provide a far more technological education — the consequences of our intentions are not always what we intend. Our lives may be more productive, but less intuitive. In an effort to value…
We were at the library today (hence the Instagram pictures instead of real ones :) ). My 8-year-old and my 6-year-old came to me, wanting help to find something new to read. They were ready for something new. I got excited, hoping to introduce them to some of my old favorites. I offered Charlotte’s Web…
How do we see our children? How do we teach them to see themselves? Unschooling is all about trust. Trust in who they are, trust in who they can become. Life is all about something so much more glorious than the mundane everyday experiences. But the mundane everyday, and how we react to it, is…