So often I find myself wondering what to do and how to facilitate learning at the direction of my children and in the last year, I have struggled most with Girly.
And it’s kind of stupid because for one, she TOLD me what she wants. All I needed to do was follow. I didn’t. So that was the first mistake to correct. Continue reading Focus on forgotten fundamentals: exposure and experiences
Here is the thing: when you remove curriculum and school-y stuff, a lot of parents have no idea what to DO. It seems absolutely unfathomable that we should be doing NOTHING in relation to our child’s education.
To be fair, you’re not doing NOTHING. Here is how “nothing” happens in my house (and some things I need to get way better at)… Continue reading How to make unstructured learning successful
So, my post on the importance of deschooling went mini-viral… but then people had questions. Most notably: how do you know when you’re done… Continue reading How to know when you are done deschooling
Thanks for bearing with me on my pause from writing. So much has happened in the last month that I can’t really talk about publicly at the moment just because it’s still in progress. Suffice it to say that my family is facing some pretty big challenges that may end in some pretty big life changes. Continue reading Behind the scenes of monumental challenge and survival
October 11, 2012… it was a stunning day. Girly was a month away from being 4 and BigGuy was 8–on the cusp of 9. I was so discouraged–having lived in Illinois for 2 years and not feeling like I had “fit” anywhere really. I ran into someone I knew loosely and she invited me into a small circle of families that changed my life for a while in a way that has changed me forever. See that picture? That was the second time we were all together. Let me tell you what this group was like–what made them so incredible… Continue reading Waxing reminiscent of my dreams today
And so the school year begins… fuh realz. We are on roughly day 6 of having a daily public school class for the BigGuy and Girly is lagging behind. Notsomuch in academics but just in “having things to do”. So that is my next great endeavor… What to do with Girly? Continue reading So far, so tolerable
Oy… did mama get a lesson toDAY. People, lemme tell you something: my Master’s is in Secondary Education with a specialty area of Education Technology. I taught high school in the business department and that included (other people) teaching office productivity applications and an end-to-end systems architecture overview (which I taught) but it did not include teaching typing, netiquette or some of the other ins and outs of collaborating or learning online.
And you do not learn this well on your own. This is how I found out…
And so comes the time to look back at the last few months and assess what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what to change and what to keep. I probably wouldn’t be doing this except that we tried to make a monumental change and I’m not sure we’ve managed it well. In my former career, “continuous process improvement” was actually part of one of my job titles. It’s something I fully embrace.
So let’s review… Continue reading The semester in review…
Sho ’nuff did. So, I have not been able to get my act together–especially to facilitate Socratic/thinking discussion.
But I was inspired by my son’s willingness to write when the writing was about the fictitious land he created and made a map for. Then I saw a TEDx talk on hackschooling. Suddenly, I remembered the whole reason we’re homeschooling is to allow our kids the experience of learning by way of the things they love–that drive them to learn. Continue reading Totally hacked my son’s education today
My blog post on allowances was posted to Facebook and someone asked me “what happens when they don’t do their chores?”
Fair question… because that happens. So here is how I handle it at my house… Continue reading How I get my kids to do their chores
Educated Adventures 