Do you read John Calypso’s blog? Vivaveracruz. They “unschooled” their son and look at him now. Still a teenager and raking in more than $100,000 a year. The program seems to work. Stick with it.

I am nodding my head big time. Kids just sort of do what needs to be done on their own. I am watching Mia do the same thing your girls are doing and it stuns me how much she is learning on her own. It is priceless. Same with Quinn. We follow the schedule a bit, but on our own time, if that makes sense…..like, if he gets really into castles, we may spend forever there, and just dig deeper. He loves knights and such, so he is anxious to dive into that section.

Man, you guys have science MADE there. Reef system, ichthyology, tidal flow, etc etc. Grab some ichthyology books and put them on the shelf. The kids can ID the fish they see while snorkling etc and make a “life list” of the fish they come in contact with. You may end up with a bushel full of budding marine biologists.

The computer thing is sticky. Cory says that if we let them have unlimited time, they would grow bored with it and shut it down. The issue I have is the constant fighting over whose turn it is. Gah! It drives me nuts. So I bought an egg timer, and everyone gets an hour, then “ding” on to the next kid. They can get back on after everyone has a turn, and start over if they desire… it seems to be working so far. We also don’t bring the electronics on the boat. There is just too much to do outside and the time is so limited when we are out.

We recently found a marina south of us that we will sail to in the coming weeks and spend some time….it is fabulous, and full of sea life. All of the kids were enchanted by it. It will be a nice vacation spot within a short distance.

I have started planning my meals, and I have a list that I keep in the kitchen. We just add to it each time we need a food item, and at the end of the week I shop off the list. I’ll let you know how it works…so far, I am pretty much sticking to $200/week….I might try and trim it a bit, but it will be tough.

The “eating out” category needs some serious trimming as well…..it might be the adult beverages that drive this baby up, so in that case the budget may just need to stuff it.

You are wrong ……snakes at the door are WAY CREEPY!

School often holds back the bright kids. If they can learn at their own pace they will often end up having much more depth in a subject than they would had they been in a classroom with a bunch of other kids of differing abilities.

I am certain that your kids are getting a better education than my daughter was getting from the International American School in Cancun. She was bored silly there. She had 3 or 4 excellent teachers there and numerous bad ones who just made her miserable. On balance it just wasn’t right for her to be there. Too much elitism and snobbishness and not enough learning.

I’ve always thought I should take more responsibility for my daughter’s learning but I don’t have the mindset for that. Fortunately she’s been lucky enough to attend a couple of good schools, and is now in a REALLY GOOD school back in Colorado. The kids’ learning is very self-directed and there are no grades given. I’m very happy with her school now.

Keep up the good work. What you are giving your kids is priceless and will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

If your kids are on the computer too much you might encourage them to download Alice:
http://www.alice.org/ It’s an environment for programming that makes it easy for upcoming computer nerds to learn to program.

And why are you fighting with old versions of Excel when you could download Open Office??

I’m frequently referred to as an “unschooler”, even a “radical unschooler” because my 12 year old son (who quit school at the age of 7) does whatever he likes (in every area of his life) and gets most of his education from videogames, TV and the internet. But I’ve never used the term “unschooling” myself. I refer to my son as “self-educated” (for people who can’t handle that, “self-educated under my supervision”). I also have a 23 year old always schooled daughter with three university degrees (who was also, incidentally, allowed to do whatever she liked). So I’m not necessarily anti-school. Definitely not anti-education!

The fact is, my son is out of school not because of what my wife and I believe about education but because of what we believe about parenting.

Now that being taught at the speed of watching paint dry is far behind him and he so enjoys learning at the speed of thought, I think it’s highly unlikely he would ever be interested in ’school culture’ again, but he’s definitely becoming more interested in structured and even pre-organised learning and I think that’s a perfectly natural development.

For me, it’s about self-motivated learning. Whatever form it takes. I kind of cringe, to be honest, when I read of unschoolers who believe it isn’t unschooling if it looks like something you would find in a school classroom.

It will be interesting to see if any learning attitudes change as the kids get further into their teen years.

I am sending positive thoughts your way that all continues to go well.

Do the kids want to learn spoken Spanish (Mexican) or spoken European Spanish? Are they interested in grammar as well? We have some CD’s for learning spoken European Spanish if you want them.

Love,

Aunt Kathy

love, papa

PS> Does unschooling mean you don’t know how to spell? (running and ducking…. Even when YOU were not unschooled? (running and ducking even faster ::))

So, we’re doing Ancient Cultures this year and it is perfect after a year of World Cultures (that, to be honest, we are STILL finishing up). But I also have to admit that I mixed up some of the SL 6 core with SL 5 core and I’m actually reading SL 6 readers with the SL 5 history, ack. It all works though.

We’re doing SL 6 with the boys, SL 1+2 with the girls as they’ll listen in on the SL 6 stuff also. We have a LOT of SL 1+2 left over, so that should work well, but I’m also going to be looking for more Ancient Culture books written to their level for them. Because you can never have too many books. I think I’ll go back over Core 1 and Core 2 and see if I want to order anything else – I really think this is easy to stretch to a 2 year program, especially since it is a combination of two years, and really who cares how long it takes as long as we’re having fun. I honestly don’t think you can take too long to dwell on Ancient Cultures and World History.

Girls are doing Singapore 1A and 1B (and I have 2A through 3B on tap if they find they’re flying through 1A and 1B). Boys are doing Teaching Textbooks 7 and Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals.

The boys and I have been doing the Bravewriter program and I personally, am enjoying their musings and returning to mad ritin skilz. The girls have been doing “copywork” forever as they are in the peak of the writing phase that all my kids have gone through. I’m also thinking of Writing Strands 3 and 4 and maybe 1 and 2 for the girls for more writing ideas.

Jesse wants to learn Spanish and Latin and I just really need to kick myself in the ass and speak Spanish much more frequently. I VERY frequently remember at the END of the day (crap! I should have spoken Spanish today). Ellen is LOVING the days I speak Spanish also and Sissy is very Spanish-intuitive so I really need that kick. I learned Spanish “off the street” and have no idea how to implement a formal approach so I think the OPOL method will probably be just as effective as formal study.

We’re doing the TOPS science experiments and Ellen LOVES reading various Usborne science books we already have. We’ll have to see how the boys respond to the Chemistry and Physics we’ll cover in the TOPS series before decide what, if anything else, I’ll get for them.

To round everything out, I am REALLY excited about Artistic Pursuits and we’re finding that we might have a source for materials right here in town. Jesse isn’t interested in the hands-on aspects of our art program but is willing to listen in and see if anything piques his interest.

I also throw at least one meal a week into the menu that is new and different. I also make sure the kids have meals they adore or a backup of PB&J if they don’t.

Is that more helpful?

My kids excel at learning because they are not pressured to learn, not coerced to do anything schooly. I think there are two basic ideas that you kind of have to accept (but have been proven in our household over time). Kids are naturally curious and will WANT to learn. You can see that right now with the girls – they are constantly drawing, writing, “reading”, doing math in their head, asking us what different sums and multiplications end up to be, how to spell this or that – they don’t need to be sat down and forced to write or manipulated to do more. They like to hear books on subjects from Greece to dogs. They will listen to subjects some would consider “over their heads”. The only way you can stifle a kids learning is to force it.

Second, kids will listen to logic. When you treat them in a respectful and non-coercive manner, they will consider and make sound judgements. I expressed to the boys my concerns that constant computer play (which was begun slowly, over the last couple months) was going to dull their minds. I’m not sure about this. There are many families where kids play computer games for years, come out of their room one day and enter college, mastering Calculus and a foreign language in a month. And this is where I branch off from the real unschoolers. I’m not willing to take the chance that my kid won’t have had a sound foundation in the 3 R’s by the time they came out of the room. There are Very Very Many families that this has not been an issue in. The kid one day decides he wants ‘X” and within a month they’re doing X. I know it is very possible because the boys are learning punctuation from playing Runescape (computer internet game) but I want to expose them to more.

Unschooling works exceptionally well – especially if you’re in an environment where you can expose your kids to a wide variety of ideas, concepts, philosophies, other kids, classes, mentors, etc. Here it isn’t working so well so we’ll expose through traditional means. The kids are very open to trying and will push through difficulties without the need for me to push them. I encourage but I do not force because they can decide on their own if the payoff is worth it.

I don’t think we’ll ever agree with the path we’ve taken to raise our own kids and I’m certainly not trying to convince you that mine is right. It is definitely right for my kids and my family but I would never presume to say you are wrong because each family is different and each family has its own journey to travel. I really do value your input and opinion and I hope you understand I’m simply sharing from my side.

Now, how about we talk about Wayne’s penis?