Re: [UnschoolingDiscussion] Digest for unschoolingdiscussion@googlegroups.com - 1 Message in 1 Topic

[Emma Goldman-Sherman]

Yes, NYC is pretty muggy in the summer time.  We live way uptown on a lot of park land, and in the summer we don't go downtown at all.  

Thanks for writing with the link.  I will get on that list.  This one is very quiet.  I am hearing more and more that it is a process... this unschooling, and I should have known, like all good things we learn in life.  Are your kids thinking about college?  Does that make them more focused (not to say they weren't -- I am just asking)?

 Emma

On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 11:35 AM, <unschoolin...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

  Today's Topic Summary

Group: http://groups.google.com/group/unschoolingdiscussion/topics

• Newbie - Emma [1 Update]

 Topic: Newbie - Emma

Melissa Lake <meli...@gmail.com> Sep 22 07:26AM -0700 ^

 
Hi Emma,
 
I love that when your son was 3 he refused to go to school because they
wouldn't let him wear his Superman costume! That's my kinda kid!! I have 2
bio boys (15 and 13) and a daughter from China (7). How fun that you live
in Manhattan! My brother, sister in law and niece live in Jersey City and
SIL works for MTV in Times Square. We live in Arizona and absolutely LOVE
to visit. What a fun place to live. My daughter and I spent a week there
in July and the humidity about killed me. I thought since I'm used to 110+
most of the summer, a little humidity wouldn't be a big deal. Haha. My
daughter and I took the ferry from Hoboken to Manhattan on a Sunday and
walked to the Build-A-Bear store so she could find a friend for her bear
Alice, who is from Phoenix. So she now has Alice from Phoenix and Alice's
best friend, Alicen, from Manhattan.
 
My kids have never been in school and when we started out, we were
homeschoolers. We gradually moved toward unschooling and have been
unschooling now for the past 3 years. I'm most active on the
unschooling-dotcom site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschooling-dotcom/?yguid=321209154
 
Melissa
 
 
 
 
--
Melissa Lake
"I have no respect for a man who can only spell a word one way." - Mark
Twain
 
<http://www.autowebbusiness.com/app/?af=1377160>


 

--
FAQ and Posting Policies: http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingdiscussion
Archive and Membership options: http://groups.google.com/group/UnschoolingDiscussion
To unsubscribe, email: UnschoolingDiscu...@googlegroups.com

--
Emma Goldman-Sherman
mom to Edward (8) and Israel (5)

NB:  This email is not monitored regularly, so if you need a prompt reply, please call me at 212-544-2367.  Thank you.

[Schuyler Waynforth]

This list is very quiet. I don't know why, but it whirled for a while and then got caught in a smaller and smaller eddy. Two other lists I read regularly are always learning (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlwaysLearning/) and unschooling basics (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingbasics/).

On unschooling as a process, Kelly Lovejoy wrote a while ago about the stages of unschooling. http://sandradodd.com/kellylovejoy/stages. It may actually help to read that while thinking about your question about Melissa's kids thinking about college. Your children are 8 and 5 and you are worrying about where they'll be 10 years from now. 10 years is a lot of days, a lot of moments, a lot of connections that could be made, a lot of joy. And if you spend that 10 years worrying about whether or not they are going to get more focused on learning you may miss a lot of the really stuff going on in front of you.

Someone posted a quote by Ira Glass on Facebook yesterday or the day before about beginners:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I think deschooling is like that, it takes time, it takes dedication, it takes doing it. The longer you do it the more skilled you are at not seeing school and school outcomes as the purpose of a childhood.

Schuyler

[Sandra Dodd]

-=- I am hearing more and more that it is a process... this unschooling, and I should have known, like all good things we learn in life. -=-

http://sandradodd.com/howto/precisely
That might help you with seeing what kind of process it is. There's a process to get to the process, even, but at some point it becomes the way you think, and then the way you live.

-=-Are your kids thinking about college? Does that make them more focused (not to say they weren't -- I am just asking)?-=-

Focus isn't a good goal, with unschooling. Not for the kids. For the mom, for a while, perhaps, to learn how to get away from hoping her children will "focus." But the advantage from learning from and in the real world is that it's expansive. It's as big as everything, literally. :-)

Rather than be overwhelmed by that, though, live in the moment, practicing making little choices that bring you incrementally nearer to the way and the place you want to be. Today's "Just Add Light and Stir" happens to be about that!

http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2011/10/eliminate-half-world-in-good-way.html

Sandra

[Sandra Dodd]

Schuyler wrote: "I think deschooling is like that, it takes time, it takes dedication, it takes doing it. The longer you do it the more skilled you are at not seeing school and school outcomes as the purpose of a childhood. "

http://sandradodd.com/doit
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling

Sandra

[Melissa Lake]

 Are your kids thinking about college? 

My 15 year old wants to go to college.  I have no idea if my 13 yo or 7 yo will want to. 

Does that make them more focused (not to say they weren't -- I am just asking)?

Focused on what?  They are always focused on something even if what they are focused on is their own thoughts.  Focused on academics? No.  I strongly believe that there is no reason to waste a child's life "preparing" them for college.  If and when they decide to go, we'll help them meet the entrance requirements. 

 Emma