Fizzing, Foaming, and Oozing: Tara's Interview

If you live in the Northeast and notice the sky glowing one day somewhere in the vicinity of Central Maine, don't be too concerned.

It's probably just Owen, Tara's son, working on his latest experiment. Owen has a particular fondness for chemistry and that really keeps Tara on her toes.

Tara blogs at Periwinkles and Pine and boy is she a fantastic photographer!

I feel like I'm right there with Owen as he works on his various projects. And best of all, I don't have to clean up any messes...

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

My son Owen, spent three weeks in Kindergarten before my husband and I decided it was not a good fit and we dove headlong into homeschooling. We are beginning our fourth year of learning at home and have never looked back!

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)?

Owen will tell you that the freedom to sleep in and not have to scramble in the morning to catch a school bus is pretty great! This is the same boy who spends most every evening reading until the wee hours, so it all makes sense and balance is achieved.

I enjoy being able to design our homeschooling adventures around my son's
interests, following his lead and getting caught up for a few days or a few weeks in the subjects that he is inspired by. We are still exploring chemistry and the Table of Periodic Elements after nearly three years because Owen really loves it.

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?

There are so many!

We had a great time designing cell structures using candy, exploring all the critters found in our pond and then there was the animal scat identification project using chocolate playdough.

Making ice marbles last winter with balloons, water and food coloring was pretty cool too.

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

Owen is into goo, slime and kitchen concoctions. I have entered the kitchen more than once to see the entire table covered in cornstarch, flour, food coloring and oozing substances.

He always says the same thing - "It's science, Mom!"

Little Bits of Fun: Sarah's Interview

Today we spend some time with another Minnesota momma. Her name is Sarah and she homeschools the two little cuties pictured above. She’s known as Ruralmama online and blogs about their life at Homeschool On The Edge Of Nowhere.

Sarah speaks thoughtfully about the importance of the little bits of fun that sprinkle themselves around as a family lives and learns together. One day it could be the fun of picking strawberries and the next, it could be trolling for dead things…

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

I really feel as though we've homeschooled since my eldest daughter, Boo, was born 8 years ago. I was on the Dr. Sears bandwagon, attachment parenting--the whole nine yards and really felt like we'd sacrifice some indefinable thing if we sent her off to preschool. I don't want to come off as one of those homeschool parents that sounds like she is trying to coddle and keep her children in a bubble; the 'thing' I felt we would lose was her ability to be an individual, creative, funny, and interesting.

But more than that, I felt that our relationship with her would change in a negative way and somehow would become 'less". When her sister, Pickle, was born, almost 4 years ago, we felt that same connection. Homeschooling just felt natural and right to us.
 
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 so lucky to be able "to do or not do" as we please. My daughters have a very open schedule that includes math, reading, art, music, science, and lots of 'home ec,' but each day in our house looks different. They pick what they are interested in for the day and go with it until they are ready for the next interest. I know that kind of flexibility doesn't exist outside of our option to homeschool.

But some days we just chuck that all aside and do a needed family thing. Recently my grandmother was very ill and we just ditched it all in order to go visit her at the hospital for the day.

My sister, who does not homeschool, had a much more difficult time pulling her kids out of daycare and school in order to accomplish the same visit. Luckily, they were able to get there as well, but the amount of effort it took just to take some necessary time out with the family reminded me of how flexible we truly are.

Another example is that my father, the girls’ grandfather, is laid-off some winters (he's a landscaper) and we get so many opportunities to play with him, go out to lunch with him, and involve him in our field trips. Again, I can't imagine being able to do this if we weren't homeschooling!
 
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?

I think watching the girls "get" something for the first time is amazing fun.

When Boo first learned to read--really read--her whole face lit up like it was Christmas morning. That was very fun for me.

Another was just this week, when Pickle began to write her numbers all by herself (and they were recognizable to her as "right"), and she started chanting "Yay me, yay me!". Too much fun for me.

I think too many parents miss out on these kinds of "fun times" with their kids and have to do screamingly big things to "make fun." Don't get me wrong, taking that trip to Disney World with Grandma in the middle of March was incredibly fun as well, but I think that the little bits of fun along the way are what continue to make me want to be a homeschooler.
 
4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Dead things fascinate my dear daughters.

Out around Grandpa's house there are a large variety of semi-feral cats, who tend to kill things and leave them deposited on the lawn or in the garden. Boo's apparent job upon arriving at Grandpa's house is to run around checking to see if there are any new dead things to find. Of course, once she finds them she has to bring them to us for identification. My dad never ceases to be simultaneously horrified and proud of her finds, carefully burying them in the vegetable garden after identification.

She's found a wren, a shrew (the thing was HUGE), and more odd beetles and bugs than you can imagine. Pickle is the same way, but she saves her dead-thing trolling when we’re at home.

My dad claims that this just cinches it that we are homeschoolers. Then, he usually offers to find us some bonnets (a long-standing joke of his that all homeschoolers teach their kids how to reload gun shells and wear bonnets.

The Homeschooling Gift of Time: Sybille Kramer's Interview

Boy, do I have a treat for you. Today's interview is from a homeschooling family in Italy!

I met Sybille while on one of my twisting, turning trips on the internet and somehow ended up at the top of the boot-shaped country. She lives in South Tyrol, Italy and blogs about her family here.

Sybille speaks German and Italian but very little English. She is trying to learn and one way she works on it is to read homeschooling blogs from English language writers.

She used google's online translation to help her answer my questions and was relieved when I told her not to worry because I would correct any spelling and grammar.

I did change a couple places for readability, but you will see that I kept her answers pretty much as she wrote them to me. It just seems more authentic this way.

As you read through this interview, you will clearly see that it makes no difference what country we live in or what language we speak, sometimes when Mom just isn't paying attention, funny things happen...

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

We have been Homeschooling since June 2008. John (13) went two years to public school here in the village, but we realized that for his personality it just was not right. So he went for a few years at a private Montessori School, guided by parents. Even Sandro (10) attended this school for three years.

Unfortunately, this project because of the financial problems, ultimately failed. So we thought about: what now?

And we decided to try Homeschooling. It was a great decision, but here in South Tyrol nobody else is Homeschooling and we have no direct role models.

All ask us: Is it not prohibited, will you not be arrested? But we found out it is legally ok, fortunately. We still have a family acquaintance who homeschools, but they do Unschooling and the kids are even younger, that is also a difference.

Through my friend Carmen (also from South Tyrol)- she lives and works now in America doing Montessori-inspired coaching for Families and Schools, New Learning Culture - we learned more about Homeschooling and how it could be in the different ways. So we feel that it can be a "normal" thing, and we have quickly become accustomed, and we love this way to live and learn.

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)?

It is mainly the small freedoms that we enjoy: getting up, when we have slept enough. Go to sleep when we are tired. Food and drink, when we are hungry and thirsty (and not when the bell rings at school).

When something special happens, we always have time to watch it and talk about it just in that moment. Yes, it is precisely the time that makes a difference: time for ourselves, for our own interests, for our own rhythm.

John often says, the best of Homeschooling is the time that he can use for his projects. And the worst at the school was that there were other schedules saying what you have to do from this to that hour.

Yes, time is freedom, really!

The family life, relationships, benefit from this: when Dad comes home from work in the evening, the children do not have immediately to go to sleep because the next day they must get up early because of school, but they can spend time with him. Every day, not just on Sunday.

We also take beautiful trips on days when other children are at school - because the weather is so beautiful.

We go to the museum, if something interests us, we do not have to wait for Sunday. We can spend time on ourselves.

This really is luxury and we enjoy it very much.

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?

There are many small situations every day that are funny! And this is the most important in learning: it must make you happy, awake good feelings!

Among the most beautiful things are the shared cultural experiences. In the winter every Wednesday evening in the next village's library there is cinema hour. If the children go to school and the next day at 6:30 would have to wake up, this would not go. But yes, now we can do it sometimes!

It's fun go out of the house at 8 p.m. with a some juice or tea and biscuits, and to think that all the others go to bed already ... In the library all look at us and ask the children: Could you stay awake so long, must you not be at school tomorrow morning?

And they answer: No, we do not go to school ...

- We have seen such beautiful movies together and enjoyed that, for example, "Der fliegende Händler (Les Fils de l'Epicier)." And it is a great pleasure, then come together to talk and to tell about...

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

I have noticed that children, learning with homeschooling in another way than at public school - with many discussions and practical implementation - learn the things more for themselves and remember better.

For example, we had this funny experience: It was a while ago that we have learned about Human Rights.

I walked with the children and our young dog Indy. Because Sandro always quickly ran ahead of us, Indy also wanted to race, but that was not good on the road and with the leash.


So, I called: "Sandro, do not run as fast, or else Indy will tear on the leash because he wants to seek thee!" And you know what he replied?

He says: "Mum, if you forbid me to run, it is against human rights."

Yes, and yes he did right!

I had a good laugh and then I said: "Okay, I don't forbid it, I appeal to your sense of responsibility... " Thus, it works.

Another story was with John. We learned a long time ago about the emigration of Englishmen to America and read about the Puritans, we had viewed photos on the Internet as they were dressed.

After a few months, I had completely forgotten about it.

One day John came and asked: "Mum, what is the name of the people in America with the blue dresses and special hats?"

I was concentrating on something else, and said without thinking much: "You mean the Smurfs?"

That was obviously a very stupid answer, and also because the Smurfs come from Belgium and not from America, and it was so funny and ridiculous.

How could I know that he was only searching for the word "puritan?"

Their Color is not in the Crayon Box: Amy's Interview

Amy is known as MamaTea in the blogosphere and she blogs about her family's exploits at Wake Up. Start Learning. .

She lives with her husband and two sons in Minnesota "among woods, water and a zooful of animals."

You can tell by just looking at these two little guys that they are full of curiosity and a love of learning. Mom never knows what the day will bring and the daily questions number in the thousands and they never stop and their energy lasts forever and it's constant chaos and...

She loves every minute of it.

I think MamaTea is right that there's not a crayon color that matches them very well, but of course that's exactly what makes life fun...

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

I still love that question, because it means we’re actually doing it. I had always wanted to homeschool, but was pretty sure my husband wouldn’t be on board. Turns out he was. There's just something undeniably sexy about a husband who says “Ok, sure. Let’s homeschool”.

Our boys are 5 and 6. They have been homeschooled since "the beginning", whatever you consider that to be. :)

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)?

Freedom and flexibility are the main reasons we were drawn to homeschooling, and later, unschooling. My husband works in law enforcement, so his schedule is chaotic, at best. He knows what days he has off…until they change. And they always do. I often wonder how many drop-of-the-hat days with Dad would have been lost if the boys were in public school. Being able to spend time as a family whenever is the coolest.

If I didn’t have the benefit of immense freedom and flexibility with my kids, I think I’d need a padded room.

Simply put, their color is not in the crayon box.

They pop out of the toaster as something different every day.

Their energy is not unlike the Energizer Bunny…on cocaine.

Their questions are constant. They don’t stop asking until they understand.

And perhaps I'm just a whackjob, but I don't think any of those things need to be taken as negative :) Thus, the choice to be home.

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?

Unschooling is life. Our life is fun.

There’s an odd comfort in chaos - knowing we can switch from archery to musical theater to fishing to painting to computers to construction to snuggling to hiking to baking bread to whatever else.

It's knowing that whatever we do matters, and if it doesn’t work…it doesn’t really matter.

The world is our playground. It's all fun.

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

Announcing the decision to homeschool to my in-laws felt very much like something out of a comedy flick. It was Easter, and since we’d recently moved, someone asked my oldest what he thought about starting kindergarten the following September in a new town.

He promptly announced he was not going to school.

There was a sort of “Awww, isn’t that cute” giggle among everyone.

My oldest then explained he was going to be homeschooled. Everything got quiet. I mean, really quiet. It was like one of those, “Um...gee…isn’t this ham delicious?” kind of moments.

But my oldest was so proud of himself. He got to drop the big news. It was perfect.

Some of the funniest times are just the conversations we have and the looks we get from people who happen to be in the general area. For instance, a recent conversation between my youngest and I while visiting a nursing home:

Him: What does that sign say?

Me: It says this place “bans guns on its premises."

Him: What about cops?

Me: Well, I guess they could have them.

Him: So who are they talking about?

Me: Well, adults can go take a class and get a piece of paper that tells everyone they have a license to carry a gun with them.

Him: And?

Me: So that sign is saying even if you have that piece of paper, you can't bring a gun into this place.

Him: Why?

Me: Well, some places just don't want people bringing guns in. You know, accidents and all.

Him: But mom, the bad guys wouldn't pay attention to that sign anyway. Because they are bad guys. So the guns would still be in there anyway.

Me: Well, um...yes. You're probably right. Good point.

It's all gorgeous, delicious fun, isn't it? :)

The Freedom To Express Themselves: Cheryl Westra's Interview

If there's one thing Cheryl's family loves to do to, it's expressing themselves through the power of costume. The picture below was taken several years ago when they were headed to a Story Book themed homeschooling "UnProm."



But, trust me, you haven't seen anything yet.

Throwing flour on blue jeans doesn't even come close to what you are about to see. Sit back, relax and have fun learning all sorts of interesting things about this fun-loving family I found playing dress up in Kansas City, Missouri.

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

We have been homeschooling for 15 years. We started after checking out all the local school options for kindergarten for our eldest son; we decided that we were having too much fun at home and did not want to give up our freedom. We graduated our second son this year and are now only officially "homeschooling" two.

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 I think of the freedom of homeschooling I am overwhelmed at all that encompasses. Freedom to follow our own daily rhythms to sleep, eat, use the bathroom, etc. We rarely leave the house before 10 am and are usually up til midnight or later.

Freedom to stay involved with an activity for as long as we want and not having to switch gears after 50 minutes is up. In our house that may mean hours of Legos creations, days spent laying on couches/floors/beds reading, hours spent playing the same song over and over to master the fingering, or counting & recounting babysitting money to readjust how long it will take to purchase the much coveted netbook.

Freedom to take advantage of opportunities as they arise such as dropping everything to catch and hive a swarm of bees, house sitting for a friend and experiencing a touch of adult independence, stopping to watch a building demolition, accepting a friend's invite to go swimming or horseback riding, or driving to the state capitol to watch a favored bill be debated. Freedom to participate in evening activities without worry that homework had to be done first or that it would take away from family time.

We love to travel. Traveling and visiting sites off season, or when school is in session, allows us to spend the time we want looking at things and being able to actually interact with the exhibits and people.

In May & June of this year my two youngest & I took a month long road trip. While most of our destinations were planned around visiting family & friends, we took many side trips and visited many sites that interested us.

The campgrounds in DC & Cape Cod were empty and wonderfully quiet - we actually got to commune with nature! We had a very personal tour of the Louisa May Alcott house in Concord, MA. The beaches we went to were sparsely populated; the museums were ours to explore and we felt no compunction to move along because of the line of people behind us.

We've frequently traveled in winter to enjoy the snow and winter activities that our home climate precludes. I coordinate a biannual autumn group camping trip to St Louis that is scheduled so as to take advantage of the lack of school field trips. We have the entire City Museum to ourselves for the bulk of the day!

As I write this it occurs to me that the field trips I took in school were unsatisfactory & unmemorable (well, except for the time my face was so swollen with poison ivy that I had to keep applying calamine lotion throughout Plymouth Plantation - I remember that one), while those spent with my family are the ones I remember.

School field trips are great at exposing children to the idea that there are cool things out there, but the reality of large groups of same aged kids all trying to see/do the same thing at the same time means that little learning/experiencing actually occurs and certainly none with any depth.

I hope that my kids remember the time in DC when we stood for an hour watching the beekeepers work the hive on the lawn of The White House, or the time we compared the eras and styles of the First Ladies' inaugural gowns at the Smithsonian Museum of American History for so long that we ended up getting kicked out because the museum was closing, or the time a conversation with an Iowa naturalist about the effect of flooding at their site turned into a side trip to the nearby town to see first hand the devastation wrought by flooding and trying to imagine that on a citywide scale such as New Orleans experienced, or the hours spent watching the marine life in aquariums in Monterey, Dana Point, Omaha, & Boston, or the biweekly volunteer hours we work at the local food pantry.

Lastly, I think of the freedom to express ourselves and to explore parts of our personalities in a supportive environment. My then thirteen year old son had no second thoughts about his safety when he chose to go to our Spring Formal wearing a dress and heels, or when he decided to explore fashion design as a career. He was comfortable with his identity as a heterosexual male and felt comfortable within our homeschool community to try on different roles. I have a hard time imagining this happening in tradition middle or high schools. (NOTE: Yes, that is her son, Cam in this photo. He thought it would be fun to include this. Doesn't he look great?!)

Or the freedom of my 11 year old daughter to dabble in grown up things on her schedule & comfort level, and to be a little kid the rest of the time without premature sexualization of her clothing/music/language/interactions.

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?

Road trips and group camping with other homeschooling families is great fun! For 13 years we've had group camping trips to St Louis. There is nothing like exploring fun places with friends and then hanging out at the campfire while the kids toast marshmallows and the adults enjoy a cold beer.

Earlier this summer we joined other families we had never met for a week's camping on Cape Cod organized by a member of the Secular Homeschool and UUHomeschool lists. Despite the rainy cold weather, we had a blast (perhaps remembered slightly more fondly than experienced at the soggy time).

Our homeschool group has a yearly all ages UnProm that is a themed costumed party with live music and carnival-like theme-appropriate game booths. This year is Mythology. Costume planning & plotting has already begun with lots of research.

The year it was "Walk Like An Egyptian" as we studied ancient Egypt and created Coptic jars from paper mache & carved hieroglyphics into "stones" of insulation.

The Renaissance themed one inspired an exploration of lepers & leper colonies when mom decided to buck the Noblewoman or Peasant woman attire most were adopting, to wear burlap and sport latex lesions.

The past themes & activities are remembered fondly and the creative juices churn as we explore possible future themes.

For several years we had members who were Girl Scout Leaders and we would rent the nearby Girl Scout Camp during the week. We had a wonderful time ziplining, rappelling, and creating nature crafts. I miss rappelling.

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

The most recent was at the Speech & Hearing Clinic at our local children's hospital. My youngest, 8, was participating in a study that was exploring hearing loss issues among children who were critically ill postnatally and had received a specific treatment. His participation involved a hearing test, which he passed with flying colors.

As we were being his results the Audiologist said something that triggered my talkative son to blurt out (oh so loudly it seemed) "well, you know I can't read".

Both clinicians whipped their heads to look up to me and one asked "Is this true?"

Why, after 4 late readers (with one a very late reader), 3 of whom now read fine and who choose to immerse themselves in the world of literature, do I still stumble when unexpectedly faced with a stranger's judgment?

I watched myself give too much information in a rush to reassure them: that I was not negligent (in my eyes, although maybe in theirs), that he was not learning disabled, that he did recognize many words, that I believed he would catch on when he was ready, that late-readers generally were not distinguished from early readers once they "got" it, etc.

As I rapidly babbled all this I was acutely aware of what I was doing, how guilty my justifying made me seem, and yet, no matter how loudly the rational me yelled SHUT UP in my head, I could not lol. Of course, dear son thought nothing of it and had moved on to the stamp collection, trying to decide which one to choose to put on his shirt. Sigh.

She Always Knew She Would Homeschool: Kandy's Interview

Kandy was homeschooled herself and it must have been a good experience for her because she's now carrying on the tradition with her own family. They live in Kansas and she writes about her family on her blog, Unschooler Mom. She also started an unschooling group for her local area.

Kandy chose to be a bit more mysterious when answering the question about a funny experience, but it does sound like she's had a few adventures while exploring nature. I know how she feels.

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

I was homeschooled for seven years - from fifth grade through my highschool graduation. I always knew I would homeschool any kids I may have. I have two sons. We began homeschooling them three years ago, when my six-year old was three years old. 

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)?

I started an unschooling group almost two years ago. I love it that we can meet during the day, instead of having to save all of the fun activities for evening when the kids are getting tired and cranky.

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?

I think some of our favorite days are our "park days." These are days that we walk to the park that's four/five blocks away and spend the day there. We fill the backpacks with books, a picnic lunch, a sack for anything natural we might find my sons to use to make an art collage out of when we get home, and just enjoy the day.

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

I admit that I am a very traditional learner. My sons are not! They love exploring nature. I have done things I never would have dreamed of doing had it not been for my sons. I have been hiking in the hills, searching for shells by the lake, played with slugs, and so much more. Some of these adventures have not been pretty - for me, anyway. :^)

It's Unanimous, Unschooling Wins!: Holly Graff's Interview

Holly lives in New York and is pictured here with her daughter, Lucia. Holly blogs about their unschooling lives here.

Holly's family gives us another great real-life example of the benefits of freedom from school. When her husband, Nick, took a temporary job in France, of course Holly and Lucia went along. She has another blog where she recorded that experience.

Of course lots of fun and interesting things happened while they explored and learned in France, but nothing beats the adventures they had with those racing cartoon sperm...

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

We've been unschooling for the past three years. Lucia had a wonderful experience with an exceptional pre-K teacher who had both the freedom and the creativity to create a fun, democratic, child-centered classroom. Seriously, she had 4-year-olds voting on what they should do for their group projects. It was awesome, and Lucia was always excited about school.

Maybe it's because we were so spoiled by that experience, but public school kindergarten came as a great shock the following year. Lucia no longer had any sense of ownership of her classroom or autonomy in her learning. She no longer enjoyed going to school. She seemed completely drained, both physically and emotionally, by the end of the day and lost her former ability to talk enthusiastically about the goings on at school.

The combination of Lucia's experience as a student and mine as a high school teacher convinced us that school is not for us. I can't tell you how much happier we are since we started unschooling!

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)?

Freedom! Yes!

Once we left school we suddenly realized the extent to which our lives had been shaped by the school schedule. We thought, "Hey! We can do anything now. We can go live in France!" So we did.

My husband got a temporary assignment through his company's office in Paris, and we lived there for seven months. Lucia and I spent our days looking at art and architecture, visiting historical sites, learning French, learning about the culture, and traveling around Europe.

It was an incredible learning experience for all of us!

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 most fun comes from spending time with other home/unschooling families. It is so much fun to hang out with other open, curious, thoughtful parents, watching the children explore something new, enjoying that together. We've been lucky enough to do that in foreign cities, at the zoo, at a museum, and even in our own back yard.

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

We definitely laugh a lot, but one of the funniest moments happened in Paris when Lucia was 7 years old.

Nick thought it would be cute and funny to buy me a French children's book that told the story of human reproduction from the point of view of a little cartoon sperm who gets to swim in a big race, the winner of which receives for his prize a wonderful egg!

Thinking we weren't quite ready to have that discussion with Lucia, I hid the book in a drawer. But, as luck would have it, Lucia found the book. "Is it about a tadpole?" she asked.

Alas, no, I thought. “It’s about sperm cells and egg cells and how they come together to make a new baby.”

Her interest was piqued, so that night I read her the book, and we discussed the birds and the bees. The next day she began retelling the story to me using some of her dolls and toys to act it out.

She started off by introducing the sperm and his best friend who were both very fast and loved to race each other. They had to practice a lot because “once every minute a race was held, and the prize was an egg.”

Despite all efforts to keep a straight face, maybe I revealed something in my expression because she stopped and quickly corrected herself, “No, I mean, not every minute. Only once every year. They held this race once every year.”

Winging It Worked Well: Lynda's Interview

Lynda is another mom who didn't really plan to homeschool/unschool. It just sort of happened and certainly made sense because of what was happening with her family.

But obviously she and her family took to it very well.

I especially like what her kids did to learn more about what it's like to be uber-rich. Now that's what I call some creative hands-on learning. Read on to find out what I mean...

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

We have one left (17 years old). We started back in the 60s, purely by accident, when our 5 nieces and nephews came to live with us. Their mother was hospitalized and would be for an extended period of time. They were traumatized and so I figured they didn't need the stress of school and I kept them home for a year. I hadn't a clue about homeschooling and we winged it and later found out we were unschooling. The kidlets were happy, we were happy and a whole bunch of learning took place purely by accident.

And, to the question I'm sure someone is going to ask, cause someone always does , when my sister-in-law was able to care for her children again, they were tested before returning to public school. They tested at or above grade level.

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)?

With homeschooling, in our case unschooling, it is just part of everyday life and not separate. There is no "Oh, we have to stop this and do that now because it is school." No one says, "You are now in grade x, y or z and you must learn a, b or c now."

Unschooling gives you the freedom to TRULY be an individual. To reach for stars or dig for bones. To read or not read. To be a math whiz or not.

No one is there trying to make you into who you aren't and then getting upset because you are the square peg and won't fit in the round hole.

I now know more than I ever wanted to know about dinosaurs, the solar system, biology, Russian, German, Japanese, high fashion, turkeys, and a whole list of other things we'd never have investigated in depth.

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?

Oh boy, again, the list is soooooo long.

Making "clothes" for a pit bull when youngest decided to learn about tailoring.

Up to our elbows in frosting when the kidlets decided they wanted to learn cake decorating.

Another time they read in the newspaper about some visiting dignitary and decided they wanted to know what it was like to be uber-rich and stay where presidents and royalty had stayed. They raised money and we rented a suite at the Claremont. They indulged themselves with room service and they all ordered foods they'd never tried before.

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

Many long years ago the kidlets made some t-shirts. On the back was a picture of the old red schoolhouse with the red circle and line through it. Over the top it read "No MORE!" and on the bottom "Kiddie Prisons." On the front was "Free to be me."

They wore them everywhere.

Youngest and I were in Safeway when a woman (the usual busybody type) came up and asked youngest (she was about 6 at the time, 17 now going on 30, of course ) "well, why are you in school today?"

Youngest looked at the woman like she was a dull bulb and said "We don't do school," and held the front of her t-shirt out. She waited until the woman read it and then did a spin and leaned a little forward so the woman could read the back of it.

The woman made a tsk, tsk noise and stomped off. The cashier just about choked as she tried to stifle her laughing.

Expanding The Social Circle: Ellen's Interview

Ellen and her family live in Wisconsin where it can get really cold. Yeah, yeah, I know the kids look nice and warm in the photo above, but that's summer! I'm pretty sure Ellen couldn't find a good picture taken during winter because the kids were buried up to their hair in the snow.

Ellen says one of the biggest benefits for her family in regards to homeschooling is the ability to hang out and learn from lots of different familes but it looks like her kids are starting off quite well in helping others learn too as you can see here.

She runs a homeschooling website called Homeschool Recess and I noticed her slogan is right up my alley because it says

"Where homeschoolers come when it's time for fun."

It makes me feel better to know that they are expanding their social circle because they're going to need that extra body heat in a few months when the snow comes.

More from Ellen...

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

My oldest would be going into 3rd grade this year if she were in school, so we've been "real" homeschoolers for 3 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)?

My favorite everyday benefit of the flexibility of homeschooling is that it means that my kids can stay up late reading and still get the sleep they need, because they don't have to get up early to catch a bus. I also love that we can drop everything and spend all our time outside when spring comes after our loooong Wisconsin winter, or for the first good snowfall.

We also like the way homeschooling makes it easy for us expand our social circle beyond our immediate neighborhood. We live in a town right on the border between farm country and the Twin Cities metro. Because we have time, we are involved in activities with city folks, suburbanites and farm families, and we love learning from and with all of them.

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 like to go on normal family outings at times school families typically can't, because it lets us avoid crowds (we aren't fans of crowds). We've been to a large resort in the Wisconsin Dells, and had it almost to ourselves, and have made a study of when local museums have a lull in school field trips (the first couple weeks of school & immediately after winter break). Disney World is much more fun at a slow time of year. :)

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

I'm not sure how funny it is, but it's interesting to me to see the little things my kids don't know because they are homeschooled that I once considered standard knowledge for a child.

Standing in line is no problem-- we do that at the grocery store, but opening little school-sized cartons of milk is tough.

Raising hands to ask a question? No problem.

Figuring out and remembering what grade they would be in school, or even exactly when in the year kids change grades? Baffling. :P