Unschooled Journalism: Helen Hegener's Interview

Today's interview is with Helen Hegener. She and her husband Mark have unschooled 5 children, all adults now. The Hegeners have been publishing a great magazine about homeschooling since the early 1980s, Home Education Magazine. This magazine helped me a lot while I was homeschooling my two and I think I still have a box of old issues down in my basement.

She lives in Alaska which I find particularly interesting since I just finished reading Into The Wild . Helen, if I ever end up in Alaska, I hope you'll help me out because I certainly don't want to stay in an old bus in the wilderness!

I don't think I'd ever end up in a situation like that though, because I'm not much of a camper. And I married the right guy too because his idea of roughing it is staying in a hotel without a hot tub.

Okay, on with the interview...


1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

Our family has always homeschooled - unschooled, really - and it's a generational thing for us: my younger brother and sister (both in their 40's now) never went to school, and my grandkids are now being unschooled! But closer to home, Mark and I raised five totally unschooled kids, who now range in age from 24 to 35.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

Because I was largely unschooled I was able to play with writing and journalism and computers and everything that eventually led to our starting Home Education Magazine in 1983, and hopefully that has benefited many families besides our own over the years (thanks, Mom!).

Our kids have been able to pursue their own interests and that has led to following their own dreams, developing their own businesses, and unschooling their own kids.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Wow, there have been so many, but I'd probably have to start with the traveling we were able to do as a family, from coast to coast and from Arizona to Alaska. I grew up in Alaska, and we traveled up here many times before finally settling down here for good a few years ago, and we loved the freedom to take as long as we wanted to on the road, exploring interesting places and taking side roads... It was great to be able to go camping, fishing, canoeing, sailing, or just riding our horses whenever we wanted to, without the need to worry about school schedules and commitments.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Just one? Okay, one of my favorites was when our daughter Jody was about 12. She was spending the summer helping wrangle horses at a friend's guest ranch, and a group of kids from a fancy private school had come for the weekend. They were curious about this girl their own age who'd never been to school, and one day while out for a ride a few of them decided to try testing her math knowledge, so they got into a sing-song recitation of the times tables, figuring she wouldn't be able to keep up.

It took her a little while to see the rhythm and make sense of what they were doing, as she'd never been taught the traditional times tables, but she went along and was even figuring out some of the answers by the time they got up into the double digits. When the schoolkids got to 12 x 12 = 144 they quit, but Jody didn't know that was the stopping point and she kept right on going, 13 x 1 = 13, 13 x 2 = 26, 13 x 3 = 39... and left all the schoolkids with their jaws dropped!

This is Jody, on her horse named "Cool."

A Family Project: Group Stories

Group stories are fun writing projects you can do with your kids. The process is easy. One person starts the story by writing a few sentences, then another person writes a bit, and so on and so on. Each person is free to write as much or as little as they want when it's his or her turn to write. Leave a notebook out on a coffee table for as long as it takes. I think the story I'm about to share took us several weeks to write.

In this example, it's easy to see who was in the news often during the time we wrote this. Also see if you can see the influence of a 10 year old boy who loves action and an 11 year old girl who was quite the animal lover...

PETER'S SURPRISE

Tonight would be the first time Peter Piccolo would conduct a major concert. He wanted everything to be perfect. But he didn't know that the mother mouse and her ten babies were napping comfortably under the bass drum.



Peter knew that some very important ladies were coming. Just then the ladies entered. They included: Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Julia Roberts, Whitney Houston, and Oprah. They took front row seats beside the bass drum. The orchestra started with the bass drum. It didn't wake the mice yet but the second time it did. They crept out and Julia Roberts screamed!

After she screamed, the mice scurried up a trombone opening. No one else saw the mice so they just thought Julia was going crazy.

Peter Piccolo was fuming. Why did she have to go crazy at HIS concert? He finally got everyone settled down, apologized to the crowd for the interruption, turned towards the orchestra and raised his baton. First the strings played. Then there was a blast from the trombone. The 11 mice came flying out. One landed right on Barbara Bush's nose! She put it down on the ground and kicked it and screamed.



The poor little mouse went flying again, bounced off the kettle drum and slid down the front of Whitney Houston's sequined gown. Everyone stared in amazement as she wriggled and twisted around. Then Oprah said, "Oh, she's doing that new funky hip-hop dance. The group MOJO showed it to me on my show last week."

She started following Whitney around and imitating her moves. Hillary and Barbara looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and joined in. Peter Piccolo's name should have been Peter Puzzled. He just stood there and watched dumbfounded. It seemed Oprah was having the time of her life.

And finally the mouse dropped off and crept out of the place. The other 10 went under Oprah's legs. Finally, Peter saw the mice and scooped them up with his music book and let them go out the back door.

When he came back in, the orchestra was on their feet playing wildly and everyone in the audience was dancing in their chairs. After it was all over, the people gave the orchestra a standing ovation. A newspaper critic took Peter's pictures and wrote an article about the whole episode called: "Piccolo's People Perform Perfectly." Peter read it and smiled, thinking, "Thank you, mice."

Divorcing Boxed Curriculum: Valerie Moon's Interview

Although she now lives in Missouri, near Kansas City, Valerie homeschooled her children while living in Europe and now provides information to other American military families around the world.

She also has a work-in-progress blog-book for military parents who want to homeschool which you can see here.

From September 05 to September 08, she was active in spreading news about homeschooling and promoting the ideas of freedom in homeschooling as a blogger at Home Education Magazine's News & Commentary .

Valerie also has a personal blog, Happy As Kings.

Obviously, Valerie has been quite the resource for other homeschoolers. As far as her family goes, however, her best resource in the form of talent may be her ability to sneeze with flair...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

I started homeschooling our three younger children in 1990, roughly a year and a half after I learned about homeschooling. The twins were ten and our youngest was eight. We continued until the kids received their diplomas in 1998.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

When we first started homeschooling, I chose a boxed curriculum, just as do many first-time homeschoolers. By the end of the year, the kids and I wanted to divorce each other, but I knew that homeschooling held a lot of potential for good times together if only we could get out from under boring lessons. That summer, I decided that we'd start over 'from the beginning' in order to give ourselves a fresh start with our learning.

I planned to go back to the beginning of time-as-we-know-it, and keep moving until we returned to the present, and that's what we did. We read creation stories and scientific accounts of what scientists think happened to set our present state of affairs in motion, looked at early Earth geology, flora and fauna to include a trip to a museum of paleontology where we saw fossils of archaeopteryx. My son's class had visited the museum when he was in third grade, but our independent visit was far more interesting than the group encounter we'd had two years before.

We enjoyed the flexibility of cruising through eras that didn't resonate with us, and slowing down during the periods that we enjoyed learning about. We were able to approach the time periods from the standpoint of the most interesting happenings, whether they were artistic, scientific or literary.

The kids were free to express their opinions, and I was able to use these interjections to explore different interpretations of events. I hope that this helped the kids sharpen their ability to see events from various viewpoints.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

-- The day we found that the rabbit had munched off a corner of Asimov's Chronology of the World. Asimov's book was the book that kept us from straying too widely afield, as well as providing what are now called (in the Age of Google) 'interesting search terms.'

-- The day Dinah (our Siamese cat who is now 15 years old) brought into the house a young bird that couldn't quite grasp the concept of glass in the windows.

-- The day Dinah brought a marathon-worthy mole into the house.

-- The day Dinah fell in the neighbor's ornamental fish pond.

-- Playing Poohsticks from a bridge over a forest stream.

-- The day I sneezed so loudly during a walk in the forest that an echo came back.

-- The day Bearby (a handmade member of the family whose current existence is in the form of a stuffed bear) bought a dirndl dress during an outing on a scenic drive in Austria.

-- Pushing the van out of a deep sand shoulder along the side of the road in a small Belgian town near the sea.

-- Discovering what the footprints in French roadside bathrooms mean ("put feet here")

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

One day, while reading aloud to the kids, I looked up to see this looking at me:

Educating Since Birth: Jill's Interview

Jill and her family live in Indiana and what I find a bit different about her journey to homeschooling is that her husband brought up the idea to her first. But smart lady that she is, once she started asking around and doing her own research, she soon realized she'd been doing it all along...

1.) How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

When our first born child was about two years old, my husband brought up the idea of 'homeschooling' to me. I had never heard of it before, but after speaking with a couple women who were already educating their children at home, I began doing my own research. I scoured the internet, browsed at bookstores, and investigated books at the local library.

It finally dawned on me - I had already been educating our child since birth! 'Homeschooling' just takes on the academic side of it, which didn't scare me at all since I had always gotten A's and B's throughout my formal education years. I've also always been a bookworm. If I don't know the answer to something, I do know how to find it! So - to answer your question, I'd have to say 13 years because that's how old our first born is now.

2.) One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

We are able to use that flexibility to work around sick days, snow days, vacation time, my husband's days off from work - or days that he has to travel for work, if/when there is a death in the family, etc.

Of course, these events themselves are all opportunities to learn life lessons as well. Home educating is not just about academic book work. Each day is an opportunity to explore and learn - not just from books/workbooks/textbooks. We appreciate the freedom to spend extra time on subject(s) that interest us enough to explore them more in-depth.

We enjoy being able to have our own schedule, which is not dictated by outsiders. We can get up as early or sleep in as late as we wish.

We are able to schedule interesting classes/workshops/extracurricular activities during the daytime hours. The children's academic book work can be taken along with us and done in the car, and/or done during evening hours or on weekends.

My retired in-laws live down the road from us, so our children have the flexibility to spend daytime hours with them, often times learning valuable skills such as woodworking and welding. The in-laws recently purchased the Rosetta Stone Spanish computer program, and our children are learning with them.

Our younger child loves art and doing crafts, so has the freedom to spend extra time working on those subjects. We try to put in vegetable and flower gardens every year, so we have the flexibility to do the gardening chores as needed.

3.) Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Part of the fun for me, as a parent, is to witness first-hand when my children "get" something - when the 'lightbulb going on' moments happen for them.

We've also had much fun going on field trips together, hiking together, bird watching together, playing educational board/card games together, watching educational videos or tv shows together and discussing them, reading together and discussing the material read, creating snow scenes together (not just snowmen), and playing in the rain together.

I enjoy observing my children when they participate in 4-H activities, workshops at the local playhouse, and their extracurricular activities.

Vacations present opportunities to have fun while learning. If/when my husband's job requires him to travel, the children and I will sometimes go along. While hubby is in training meetings/etc., the children and I go off exploring whatever field trip opportunities are available in the area.

4.) We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Watching and enjoying the creativity of my children. They like to draw their own comic strips, which are often very humorous. Our older child likes to create stop-action movies on the computer, and these are often times very funny. Experiencing first-hand the development of my children's sense of humor. They often times come up with hilarious observations about whatever subject matter we are reading about or studying. We share lots of laughs together.

Student Seating Assignments

Lots of relaxed homeschoolers say they have no need for things like student seating assignments and seating charts but that's not true. We found a seating assignment chart very valuable in our family:

Rule #1: Today, Parent gets recliner, kid gets the beanbag.

Rule #2: Tomorrow, Parent gets beanbag because it's not fair that kids have all the fun.

Always Learning: Sandra Dodd's Interview

Anyone who does an online search to learn more about the educational philosophy called unschooling will probably run into the name of Sandra Dodd at some point. Sandra has been out on the front lines for a long time now helping people understand that learning happens quite naturally, if we only relax and let it happen.

Sandra has a website about her life in general, another link inside this website about unschooling in particular, and a blog. She also runs an email list and is generally all over the internet sharing her thoughts about unschooling.

Let's see how she answers my 4 questions about homeschooling freedom and fun...

The Dodd children in 1998.

The Dodd family in 2008.

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

Over 18 years, and attachment parenting for four years before that.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

When we were sharing one computer, we would work shifts on it. Kirby would stay up late, I would get up early, the younger kids could use it during the daytime. We didn't time "turns," but would let whoever was using it use it until he was done, but Kirby knew he could have it to himself when Holly and Marty fell asleep, and I knew if I got up at 6:00 in the morning I could have e-mail and message board for an hour or two before anyone got up. Eventually Kirby got his own computer. After a while Marty got one, and then Holly. Our habit of showing people the good stuff remains, though, and of sharing photo files.

We could have company, or visit other people, on weekdays as well as weekends, and that opened up the schedule tremendously. Because there weren't three or four hour times when we couldn't get to food, the kids didn't need to be hungry, or wait and wait for a school cafeteria lunch or an after school snack. By the time they were old enough to have their own jobs, they were easily able to remember to eat before they went in, and wait for a break for more food. They didn't need to "train" for it.

Because I was able to be home with them, they didn't have to wait hours to consider whether to talk to me about something or to just share with school friends, as I usually did when I was a kid. Other kids don't always make the sagest of advisors.

We could watch movies together at leisure, and pause and come back to them, or watch the good parts over and over. Some families are trying to squeeze a movie in between "dinnertime" and "bedtime" and wouldn't even think of watching one in the morning or during lunch!

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Meeting other unschoolers has always been fun. Our children knew other unschoolers in town, but to meet a whole family with children who also were happy and not school-bound was always a joy.

I think everyday things were made more fun by unschooling, because when we went to a play or to dinner or a picnic or to visit grandparents, the preparation and the drive and the discussion after were sweet and peaceful and supportive. We weren't argumentative and blaming as so many families around us were. It was very rare for someone to get too cranky to talk to others in the car, even on cross-country trips. We sang along with the radio and CDs a lot, too. Surely the most rulebound of families might have had similar fun, but ours wasn't occasional, it was the predominant mood.

When someone was very sick or had minor surgery, it helped that school wasn't a factor (nor "schoolwork"), but that the new injury or disease or recovery became an opportunity for learning, compassion and aid.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Once Marty was eight or nine, he woke up hungry and whiney. I said I had a hard time understanding him when he was whining, and could he say it another way. He stood at attention and in a movie-marine voice said "MOTHER, I require Food NOW!" I couldn't stop laughing.

Kirby was 14 and had an 8th grade girlfriend who invited him to her middle school graduation. Marty and I were delivering him there,and we were parked right outside the front of the school. No one else was around at all. Kirby was reaching into the back seat of the car, where Marty was, for his jacket. The school bell rang—one of those big domed wall bells. I wasn't surprised at all, but both Marty and Kirby jumped in fear and Kirby jumped back and said "What was THAT!?" Kirby was 14 and Marty was 12 and they had never heard a school bell before.

Quicksand in Connecticut: Deb R.'s Interview

Deb lives with her fascinating family in Connecticut and boy do they love water. I'm not just talking about this photo she sent to me of her family on a boat. I'm talking about "the water experiment," a project the family worked on for years.

Oh, and one more thing. Just a warning, after you read this interview, you will likely have a certain famous song from the sixties in your head for days...


1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

Since Joshua was born, and he's about to turn 11.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

Two related incidents from Oct 2008 spring to mind. At the beginning of October, Rick (hubby) was hospitalized for a couple days. Joshua was able to be there with him, spend down-time at home with various family members (grandma and aunt both spent time with him while I was at the hospital), and in general "process" the experience in his own time and at his own pace without having to haul himself off to school every morning.

Then at the end of October, my dad was hospitalized with a heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery - leaving my mom (who is a heart patient herself) home alone. We were able to just drop everything and go down to be with them for a week - no 'excused absences' to sort out, no homework to make up, just being there for them to handle whatever needed doing. Even my siblings who live nearby were somewhat limited because their kids had to keep up with school.

More mundane things, too, such as traveling during the 'off season' to avoid crowds; going to the movie theater at 8 pm on a Tuesday night - we often have the theater to ourselves even for popular new releases because families "have to" get the homework done, baths, pack backpacks, and get to bed 'on time'.

For Joshua, being able to focus literally hours of his time on something, regardless of what day it is or even what time of day it is, is another important facet of the flexibility of homeschooling. There’s no divide between “school time” and everything else; no need to stop reading a book or designing a new scenario in a game because the clock says that now it’s “time” for math or history. He can also eat, sleep, move according to his own internal clock instead of someone else’s – school schedules can really mess up the natural circadian rhythms by requiring kids to eat at set times (which can be anywhere from 11:30 to 1:00 for lunch times – and it changes each school year in many cases).

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

This took some thinking because we don't usually divide things up into homeschooling and the rest of life. Fun stuff happens because it's part of life.

After thinking a bit, we found some things where school would have gotten in the way of what we did by the nature of its schedule requirements. Things like getting up in the wee hours to watch a lunar eclipse then going to breakfast at Denny's together (we were leaving Denny’s about the same time that the school buses were rolling by our house).

Staying up late to watch a meteor shower while bundled in sleeping bags in the back yard.

Hanging out at Starbucks to watch a dual fly-by of the ISS and shuttle at 8 pm in the middle of the week (we often get alerted to stuff like this through homeschooling friends and message groups which is cool).

Spending time at the beach sans crowds by going before Memorial Day and after Labor Day – that’s really fun because it’s warm enough to enjoy the beach (though the water can be “bracing” lol) and we have the space to explore and build sand castles and not stand in line for the bathrooms.

When we first moved into our house, Joshua was 3 ½. We moved some patio pavers and found layers of gravel and sand underneath (which is normal for making a patio). He and Rick created “the water experiment” that lasted for some 3 or 4 summers. They’d turn on the hose and run the water across the area, creating rivers and exploring ideas like erosion, sedimentation, dams, and so on. They even made a small patch of ‘quicksand’ by tucking the end of the hose under a patch of sand so it bubbled up. They put a small rock on top and watched as it slowly sank down into the sand. How cool is that!

Tying in to the idea of flexibility, Joshua fell in love with Arlo Guthrie’s song, “Alice’s Restaurant” a few years ago. Lo and behold, the Guthrie family was touring and had a stop planned in our area. As an 8 p.m. concert, it was not designed for kids really – we ended up getting home somewhere after 11 p.m. But Joshua got to hear “Alice’s Restaurant” performed LIVE by the one and only Arlo Guthrie! Out of the packed auditorium, we spotted maybe half a dozen grammar school aged kids – it was a school night and 11 p.m. is way too late to stay up with the school bus arriving at 7:30 the next morning.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

This is a tough one because things that might seem 'funny' to others probably seem pretty 'normal' to us (we are, admittedly, a bit “weird” to quote DS) and things that are funny to us often get blank looks from others. A 9 year old quoting Monty Python, for instance, gets odd looks from many folks.

Many moments we recall as 'funny' are related to the reactions of others. For instance, an acquaintance, upon finding out that we "homeschool", asked DS (then about 6) what his favorite subject was. From her perspective (as a school teacher) that was a reasonable question.

DS, trying his best to be polite, pondered a bit to answer her question. We don't divide life and learning up into subject sized pigeonholes. But, from various children's programs and such (school is a major focus of much of children's programming in one way or another), he had discerned that a "subject" is a category of something you do. After a bit of thought, he said "videogames!" and ran off to play, triumphant at figuring out this perplexing question. I loved his answer and watching the other person react and recover (startled, shocked, then a bit of "that’s so cute").

Deb in CT

How To Mute A Trumpet

My daughter played the trumpet for several years and one day she noticed the sound seemed muffled. It sounded like a mute was on the instrument but it wasn't.

We looked down the horn and we saw something brown deep inside. We had no idea what it could be. We poked, prodded and shook the trumpet trying to see if we could get whatever it was out of there.

We couldn't really see down the horn very well, but there had to be an object lodged in there; it just did not sound right at all when she played. I even brought out the vacuum cleaner to see if the suction could release whatever it was but that did not work either.

Finally, by using a hanger, we loosened the object and it rolled out and bounced on the floor.

It was the little buckeye her uncle gave her. Lucky, for us, wasn't it? I mean, you know, if it was a black cat, we'd probably never have been lucky enough to get it out of there.

Free To Love Learning: April's Interview

April is another home-state buddy living in Indiana and clearly understands how freedom enriches her family's homeschooling experiences.

I mean, without freedom, her little guys might never have had the chance to learn the difference between reflecting pool ice and reflecting pool scum...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We have been homeschooling for 12 years.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

We have been able to vacation "off season" of everyone else and that has been wonderful as we never have to deal with the crowds you might expect at places that can also be very educational.

Our State is very lenient on any guidelines. This greatly reduces the need some might feel in meeting State Guidelines while missing out on other wonderful things to learn about.

Our children do not have to experience the stress it would cause them to have to be tested.

We are more free to love learning because we WANT to learn, not because the government is forcing us to.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Camping during "School weeks" and doing school while camping. Field trips as a family where we all learn together and can discuss the things we have learned.

My children growing together and being each other's best friend. Our family being so much closer than other families who are separated all day long.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Hmmmmm..........OH Yes! Hubby reminded me of the time we went on a major field trip to Washington DC. We were on a walking History tour and I was talking to the guide.

Suddenly, the guide looked past me and gasped. Our middle son, who was 5 at the time, was in the reflecting pool outside the Lincoln Memorial.

(Image provided through Wikimedia Commons.)

Our older son (age 7) had noticed what he thought was ice on the edges and had told his little brother to go out on it.

It was actually scummy-like foam, but I suppose it could have been mistaken for ice, although it was September and the temperature was in the seventies!!! The poor little guy was covered in wet scum clear up to his thighs!

Living As If School Doesn't Exist: Pam Sorooshian's Interview

Whenever I read Pam's name, I think of two things: math and tongue twisters.

Back in the mid-nineties, I remember reading many wonderful email list messages about learning math written by Pam. She was always out there explaining that math can be fun and doing her best to help homeschooling parents who had math anxiety, which was probably always due to previous experiences with traditional schooling. Click here to go to a nice page compiling some math wisdom from Pam.

The reason I think of tongue twisters when I think of Pam is obviously due to her last name. See, every time I sound it out in my head, I imagine what it would be like to say it quickly 10 times. I'm going to have to quit doing that though because I always end up spitting all over my keyboard and that can't be good.

Pam might be up on all the latest when it comes to math, but she's having trouble with the newest internet fads like blogging. Oh, she has a blog, she's just not real sure what to do with it. I think she has a great idea though and you can read it here.

But first, how about reading her "homeschooling is freedom" interview...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We started homeschooling when the kids were 10, 7, and 4. They are now
24, 21, and 18.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

We have lived as if school didn't exist. We ignored the public school course of study and never chose to use any homeschool curriculum. We focused on living a life filled with interesting and varied experience and on pursuing activities that gave us joy and satisfaction.

In the process, the kids learned all kinds of things - some that they might have learned in school and lots that they never would have had the chance to learn. They each had the freedom to follow their own interests, and they continue to pursue their passions as young adults.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Well, the obvious is that we had Disneyland passes and spent a lot of time there. We also traveled a lot, especially to unschooling conferences which are great fun. We went to a lot of musicals, even took the train from California across the country to New York to see Broadway musicals.
We've done a lot of camping, over the years, often with other unschooling families. We spend a lot of time playing games of all kinds. For many years, we have spent one long day per week in the park, picnicking and playing with other homeschooling families from morning to night.

Every day was fun - that's how we lived.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

The girls were rehearsing for a performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in which they played fairies. Rosie was not reading yet, but carried her script with her during rehearsals, just like everyone else.

One day, I came in from the grocery store and she was upside-down on the living room couch - head on the floor, feet up on the couch. She had her Midsummer script and was reading it with great expression - just like the actors. I was quite amazed that she'd memorized so much of it until I suddenly realized she was actually READING it.

She hadn't shown that she could read anything, prior to that, other than a little Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.

-Pam Sorooshian

To Understand Unschooling, Observe A Cat

Being an unschooler is kind of like being a cat.

Cats pretty much do what they want and if something is not interesting, they just stare at you, yawn and move on to something better, like a nap perhaps.

However, if a cat sees something interesting, like a mouse, it perks up and has no trouble concentrating for as long as it takes to reach its goal of catching it.

If a cat falls from some height, he can always flip himself around in time to land on his feet. Unschoolers don't worry about missing something "important." They always land on their feet because they are confident in their ability to learn.

Cats do not like water. Unschoolers do not like pre-packaged schooling because it gets their brain fur all wet.

So, live your life like a cat, follow what interests you, not what others tell you is important.

In other words, develop a Cattitude!

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I have no idea why several of my posts involve cats. I don't even like cats. I wonder if that's why it took me longer to wrap my head around an understanding of unschooling than some other people. Hey, that might make an interesting survey! To see if unschoolers are more likely to be cat lovers or not. Hmmmm.

What Homeschoolers Can Learn From Baboons: Betty's Interview

Today we meet Betty who lives in Indiana. No, no, this is not a portrait of her! It's just a clue as to what you are going to read about a particularly funny adventure she had while homeschooling.

Her youngest is now in college but Betty continues to work with homeschoolers in her local area, teaching theatre classes. It's a good thing Betty knows a lot about acting because it sounds like she acted as if she did not notice anything unusual that infamous day at the zoo...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We homeschooled our youngest daughter Emily for 8 years. She's now a Freshman at IU and loves it. I, however, think I may be homeschooling forever! I still teach theatre classes for homeschoolers and recently agreed to serve as President for the Homeschool Cooperative I founded with friends. Just to help them out. :)

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

While I remain ecstatic about our homeschool experience and its freedom and flexibility, I also believe it takes a different type of discipline. A discipline in which the entire family becomes committed to "learning." It isn't always easy and takes a lot of effort to be constantly aware of encouraging of real learning. But it's fun!

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

So, so many. But some of our favorites revolve around the Big Red Porch Van. Good friends of ours homeschooled the same years. The mother and I remain the best of friends and for a period of about 4 to 5 years we spent much time in their huge cargo van fieldtripping our way around Indiana. What fun! The "edventures we had"

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

So many, some such inside jokes only we would find them amusing. However, there is one special zoo field trip...with the aforementioned Porch family. My friend and I decided to take the kids to the zoo, so we loaded up our kids and a few of their friends and off we went for a wonderful summer adventure day in Indianapolis.

It was great and then we came to the baboon cages. We'd been all reading and talking and "learning" together about all these great animals. You know the usual informative home schooling talks from mom. As we came up to the cages and all the activity occurring there, it became slowly obvious to my friend and I and then with red faces, to our children and their friends that two of the baboons were engaged in...uh...well..you know, procreation activities.

As the pre-teens and adults stood there unsure of what to say and blushing, the youngest child, age 8..said Look Mom, that monkey is being mean to the other one. What's he doing? It sure put sex education in a new light for all of us...To this day, as young adults the kids say they can't hear the word baboon without being transported back to that day at the zoo...but we all laugh about it!

Picnics, funny speeches, laughter every day. It was and is truly what we love the most about our homeschooling memories. We have photo albums full of friendly faces and minds and hearts full of loving memories.

Of Bladders and Bowels: Natisha's Interview

Natisha, or Tish, as she is known on a couple of homeschooling email lists, lives in Indiana with her adventurous and fun-loving family. I advise you to hit the bathroom and empty your bladder before reading her interview...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We are now in our third year of homeschooling our youngest 6 children, ages 14 years, 12 years, 9 years, 6 years (or as she says, 6 and A HALF), and 5 year old twins.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

The flexibility is the most enjoyable aspect of homeschooling, in my opinion. When a family member is in need of my/our presence for some reason, or a friend needs assistance, we’re free to switch our schedule around or postpone it, whichever is required, so that we can assist whenever we’re needed.

As secretary for my husband’s law practice, I have the flexibility to implement a lightened workload for the kids on those days when I’m extraordinarily busy with office duties. On those days, the older children help by caring for their younger siblings, being their “teacher” for the school day, and playing with them when Dad and I are busy in the office. Those are real life lessons no traditional classroom will offer!

The freedom to pick up and move our classes outdoors when the sun bursts forth from the clouds on an early, warm spring day is something we all cherish.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

We generally always have fun no matter what. Yes, there are days where one, or more, of us is cranky and we get on each others’ nerves, but thankfully those days are easily forgotten because we enjoy each others’ company and generally always have fun.

My most favorite fun times are those times we’ve taken our school on the road – walking the neighborhood to document the wildlife and plant life we see; trips to the soccer park to play and pick wildflowers; and, most of all, warm spring days spent in the yard gardening, looking for “pretty rocks,” and just exploring God’s world all around us.

Another thing that happens quite often, which I think is fun, are those times when we get into deep discussions about almost anything you can imagine! It isn’t uncommon for that to happen during out-loud family reading and I absolutely LOVE IT! Because we homeschool, we have the freedom to run with these unexpected occurrences and not only learn more about the issue being discussed, but about each other, too. It doesn’t get any cooler than that, in my opinion!

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

The funniest thing that happened during our homeschooling adventure thus far is…well, I’ll just share with you the letter I sent to my family after school that day and you can see for yourself!

Hello to all. You may or may not know that Daddy was gracious enough to pick up some pig blubber and a pig's bladder for me earlier this year down home. Once here, we kept them in the freezer, just like Daddy had, the blubber wrapped in plastic bags and the bladder submerged in water, frozen in an old gallon ice cream tub. I read in the Little House cookbook that these things should keep just fine like that until I was ready to use them. We were all excited to have these unusual goodies on hand!

Earlier this summer, the day finally came when we rendered lard and cracklins from the huge mound of blubber Daddy brought. It was a process that took a long time, but it worked like a charm! There were lots of cracklins and the kids soon learned why Laura Ingalls' mother said that cracklins were "too rich for little girls." My crew kept creeping into the kitchen to sneak a handful of cracklins as they were draining on paper towels and, as a result of not listening to me or Caroline Ingalls' wise words, they all suffered stomach aches that night and runs the next day. LOL I did manage to keep a few cracklins out of their hands. They're slated for use as seasoning in johnny cakes AND the kids learned a lesson, so it was not all for naught!

Today I decided we would do with the bladder, which had thawed in the refrigerator, what we had always intended to do with it: clean it, blow it up, and use it as a ball in play....just like Laura and Mary did every year at butcher time. The kids were all excited. I was too, to be honest.

We all gathered round the sink and they watched as I took the lid off, poured out the slightly bloody liquid and revealed the bladder. Their mouths were agape. I started rinsing the bladder in running water and I noticed a smell I hadn't smelled in a long time: the faint smell of a pig farm. PEE-YEW! I didn't pay much attention, after all, I had raw pig innards in my hand right then and I have no clue how a pig smells inside!

I continued rinsing the bladder and finally held it up at eye level trying to figure out how this was all going to work. "Where do we blow the darned thing up at?!" is what kept going through my mind.

Something squished out of one end into my hand. I thought, "what the heck is this, I didn't know bladders had stuff in them?!" and I kept washing.

Then a smell hit me full force in the face, darn near knocking me over. I let out an "Oh, my Lord!" and by this time, the kids were running away, some of them gagging from the stench.

That's when I knew without a doubt that what I held in my hands and what I was continuing to wash out of this bladder into my kitchen sink (UGH!) was pristinely preserved pig poo.

I wasn't holding a pig's bladder, but rather a part of a pig's intestines, the former owner of which hadn't had a nice, cleansing bowel movement prior to his slaughter at the butcher shop.

Judging by the consistency and smell of the stuff, the portion of anatomy I held in my hands over my kitchen sink was VERY CLOSE to the working end of a pig, so close in fact, that I think it might be safe to say that the butcher in my hometown believes a pig's bladder and anal sphincter are one and the same. Isn't that special?

The smell is gone, the sinks are cleaned and sanitized, and the offending pig poo and incorrectly identified porcine part are all gone. My stomach is no longer churning and the same can be said for the kids'.

What isn't gone is the irony that right smack dab in the middle of this city, where there is no farmland as far as the eye can see, I, quite literally, ran into fresh pig poop. Who would've thunk it! Just another reason to thank the Lord you are not ME.