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May 8, 2010

Everyday is Mothers Day Happy Mothers Day!

Every second of everyday a Mother is made and a human life conceived see the miracle of  life and Motherhood watch the video with music On Eagles Wings sung by my cousin Nokomis..

Everyday is Mothers Day, Happy Mothers Day today, tomorrow, everyday!
Celebrate life, celebrate Mothers..

Apr 30, 2010

What is Unschooling? Video By Dayna Leigh Martin

This is a great video that really explains unschooling as well as her experiences with unschooling...




Radical Unschooling - A Revolution Has Begun

Apr 26, 2010

I like To Think Of Unschooling As "Consequential Learning"

Message From A New Unschooling Mom

         I like to think of unschooling as "consequential learning." Learning is a consequence of life and life is a consequence of learning. For us, our daughter is six and so far unschooling is working for us. She sees the logic and reasons behind learning something to accomplish something else. When she learned how to write her name, she used all capital letters. She saw no need to write lower case letters - "Mom, I can already write my name." I could have forced her to practice writing lower case, create issues and a hate for writing. Instead she later wanted to learn how to write lower case letters because she saw how that is how most words are written and she wants to "sign" her name. She had practiced writing lower case letters for almost two hours on her own. Now when I point out that she hasn't practiced in a bit, she will sometime during the day practice in her books. Of course, I leave them conveniently open and ready for her. No fighting! That is just one example of how she is involved in her learning. She also watches PBS shows and we spring off them for extra activities - things she is interested in. I believe it does take an involved parent(s) to see and observe their children to take advantage of learning opportunites based on their child's interests when they happen. Or to let daily life activities teach, for example, as in math and science in cooking . Perhaps when she is older she may require or want a more structured approach. Perhaps...


Unschooling Mom from Michigan

Apr 23, 2010

Unschooled Children Learn Because They Love Life And Learning!

"The Best Way To Learn Is To Teach!"

A great saying but if you are an unschooler you might prefer this one.

"The Best Way To Learn Is To DO!"

I agree with both, unschooling as well as homeschooling is a one of a kind learning experience for the whole family. The parents learn by guided teaching and answering the many questions of a young healthy mind. And the kids learn much, much, more by doing things them self, looking up a topic and searching for the answers. The children learn because they love life and learning! And the topics they study are topics they have chosen to learn.

The fact is you learn and absorbed waaaay more when you are interested in the topic, you have a driving desire to learn it. The information has more value to you, you will remember it and be more likely to use it.. Not only that life experience is a great teacher and can teach us all the subjects as long as we stay active! Homeschooling / unschooling is not for the lazy, but active life loving learners.

If you went to school like me you would probably remember constantly being forced, bribed into learning and absorbing info that you just were not interested in at the time or not at all. It was a chore to learn and not fun ( so not what learning should be about ) and all so they can test you on it later. In unschooling you and your children learn because you want to know about something.

No stickers, or points are earned for learning, or bribed to the child in order that they make them self learn. The only reward is self satisfaction, a great self esteem, and the all around good feelings of bettering ones self.

Not that these things can't be achieved in a school, only that these things are achieved as unschoolers feel in a better way and without all the extra negative stuff that can come out of public school or even a private school. Homeschooling provides a safe place where your children can learn about them self, their family, the world and anything else they are interested in! Apposed to being away from their family 7 hours a day Mon-Fri most weeks a year, were they are taught in a production line fashion.

In conclusion to this post, I feel that homeschooling and unschoolng offer us freedom to learn and grow in the direction our hearts take us. I am glad I am learning about unschooling as well as homeschooling and the best part is I am absorbing everything I learn because I want to learn it.

I love to learn about many things and have only begun my education since I have been an adult. I went to school my whole childhood up until I was 16 years old were I finished school at home. That is when I really started educating my self on topics like health, and exercise. I even loved learning about it so much I got my personal training certification at 18 years old and worked at a gym.

I can honestly say that school taught me how to read, write, spell, and do basic math. My real education was the unschooling I provided myself at the age of 17 when I graduated from high school independent study.

I hope I have inspired you to look into homeschooling and the unschooling philosophy for your family. If you already home school I hope that by me sharing with you what I am learning about it you may also have the desire to continue to learn about this wonderful way of living life with your children!


More from this blog on Unschooling:

Eclectic Homeschooling

What is Unschooling? Home Schooling

The Unschooling Handbook



Apr 21, 2010

The Unschooling Handbook

A Great Book For Any Homeschooling Parent

            I have just started reading the book The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith. I want to learn about the unschooling philosophy and methods. I feel it can really help me to understand how I can be the best teacher mom I can be and also allow the world and children to be the teacher.

Basically unschooling is a way to allow the child who is an individual the opportunity to learn what they love when they feel like learning it. Typically unschooling requires no special curriculum, testing and schedules. You simply live your life spend time with your children learn together, play together and just enjoying your life and family the education is a bonus.

The fact is you learn the best when you are into the subject you are learning and you can spend as much of your free time doing it as you like. A 10 year old unschooled child may love to learn about model air planes and he may love it so much that he spends many hours a day on the subject. He will build model air planes, read books about how they fly or how to build them from scratch. This will eventually lead to using math to measure wing spans, calculate speeds, etc..

A 13 year old unschooled girl may love baking and cooking so much that she reads about it, watches television programming about it, she may even cook and bake for the whole family most day of the week. This would also lead to math skills and much more who knows the child will lead their own mind. Education is not a problem because the child learns about the real world and all skills necessary to be a productive adult and then some!

I do like this concept and feel it is a key factor missing in education today, I would like to explore these ideas more and see how they can fit into my families home school experience.


The Unschooling Handbook

Mar 19, 2010

Dinosaur Theme Activity Pages

My son is interested in Dinosaurs so I have found some great activities to go along with our book reading. I hope you all enjoy these resources too!

Dinosaur theme worksheets and activity pages

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