Homeschooling in the United Kingdom: Mike F-W's Interview

This is the flag of Wales, which is part of the United Kingdom and where Mike F-W and his family live.

But more specifically, they actually live in Snowdonia National Park which looks like a beautiful, relaxing place. No wonder he signs off his email messages with the slogan, "Your man in a hammock."

Mike runs a website for homeschooling families in the UK, where he keeps them up-to-date on the legalities and also provides support.

Let's see what he has to say about homeschooling his family in the U.K.

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

I have been home educating my 4 children for 17 years now with my partner. The eldest now has an MA and is an editor, the next a BSc and is a pediatric nurse. The third is studying for a BA, in photography and the fourth is still at home doing Open University courses.

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 children have been able to tailor their education to their interests. It meant they could work as intensely as they wished or at times relax and consider what they were interested in next and how to pursue that interest. They picked up skills as they needed them and sought the answers to problems and issues as they occurred.

It also meant not having to deal with goals set externally by those with little idea or even interest in what might drive a young mind's pursuit of learning.

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?

Spending days upon days in warm weather reading books in the open air at a local arboretum when they were little is something I remember well. Never having to worry about any of those institutional school type problems, it was nearly completely stress free.

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

On one occasion an elderly female ex-head teacher (at the arboretum mentioned above) asked our eldest, aged 9 or so, why he was not in school today. He answered quick as a flash "I burned it down," accompanied by a manic grin. It certainly avoided the follow up questions. It's now our standard reply to such questions when asked in public.

Every Day is a Holiday: Sarah Haliwell's Interview

I've gone traveling again. Sarah Haliwell and her daughter Rose, who is pictured above, live in New Zealand where Rose enjoys the freedom of homeschooling so much she considers every day a holiday.

Sarah blogs about her family's life of holidays at Stars in Her Fingernails .

It sounds like education and learning are going very smoothly in this family with hardly any friction at all.

Can't say the same about pram wheels on rocky ground though...

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

As I decided to homeschool when my daughter was about six months old, I guess you could say I've been homeschooling her all her life - ten years. We started lessons formally when she was three, but have drifted in and out of unschooling ever since.

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 am an inherently inconsistent person. I go crazy when placed in a strict routine. So homeschooling suits my flawed psyche!

We love being able to just walk out the door in search of wildflowers on a beautiful day, or welcome friends in at any time, or respond to our natural inherent rhythms even as they change seasonally.

We also really value the flexibility that allows us to knuckle down with books and whiteboard sometimes, if the mood takes us, and luxuriate in free "life learning" other times.

We have got so far out of the school mentality that we never pay attention to term holidays or grades or anything like that. The other day someone asked my daughter what grade she was in, and neither of us could answer the question. I actually had to count it up on my fingers, because the woman wouldn't accept my daughter's response of, "I'm sort of multi-graded."

The same woman was also distressed to learn that Rose would keep on doing lessons through the holidays ... but probably more distressed when Rose said she only did lessons maybe two or three days a week so it all evened out in the end!

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'll always remember the day our homeschooling group went on a nature walk to sketch trees, but the children found a river in the forest, and set about experimenting with different ways of damming the river. All the organised lesson plans were thrown out as the children played at science and the mothers sat sunbathing on the river bank.

At home, we have fun telling jokes about Peter the Great and King Canute, and staying up late to finish the last chapter of Tom Sawyer, and rolling down mountainsides while most children are doing maths in sweltering classrooms.

But to be honest, it is almost always fun. As Rose would tell people when they asked her if she was not in school because of some holiday (or at least she answered this way before she realised how much it disturbed them) - "I'm homeschooled. Every day is a holiday!"

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

When my daughter was about four, my mother took her to the zoo with some friends and their children. At one point, my daughter asked what a strange noise was.

One of the mothers said in a very slow sing-song voice, "that's just from my pram wheels going bumpity bump over the rocky ground."

My little girl looked up at her coolly and said, "Oh, you mean friction."

The woman gaped.

My mother leaned forward and said quietly, "It's alright. She's homeschooled."

Unfathomable Gifts of Love: Susan Gaissert's Interview

Today's interview is with Susan Gaissert, who has a blog she calls The Expanding Life. This photo is of her daughter on a Minnesota prairie but the family lives in the Northeaster U.S.

Susan shares her experience of how the freedom of homeschooling can really enrich a family's life, in particular when needing to care for an elderly family member.

And speaking of family members, read on to see what Susan and her daughter learned about their little toad family...

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

My daughter spent one month in kindergarten. Since then she's been home, and she is now just about sixteen years old. So, we're at about the ten-year mark for homeschooling. Actually, in our hearts, we've always been unschoolers, and as time went on, that spirit grew stronger and stronger. Our house is filled with books, notebooks,pens, and pencils, and we just happily read and write the days away.

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)?

Our freedom brought us unfathomable gifts of love. I was the only child living in the same state as my aging, ailing mother and because my daughter was home, I had the flexibility to take my mother to doctor's appointments, to do her errands, and to just plain visit with her, without ever having to worry about getting back home in time to pick up my daughter from school.

My daughter spent thousands of hours with my mother, and they became best friends. For the last four years of her life, my mother lived with us, and my daughter -- because she was home -- was able to be an integral part of the experience of living with and caring for and adapting to the needs of an elderly person. The cohabitation enriched us all, especially my daughter, I think.

Another benefit of flexibility and freedom has, of course, been the opportunity to travel. Our biggest trip was to Minnesota and South Dakota, where we saw the Betsy-Tacy book sites and the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites there.

Not being tied to a school schedule comes in handy so often. We regularly attend book discussions in New York, and when we get home, we are often hungry, so we go to the neighborhood Applebee's and eat at 11:30 p.m. We have a good time, and we probably would not do things like that if we had to get up at 6:00 a.m. for school.

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 Minnesota/South Dakota trip was a lot of fun, and so is our yearly trip to Cape May, NJ but then schooling families can take trips and have fun, too.

I guess our "fun times" come from the large amounts of time we spend together.

My daughter, my husband, and I share innumerable "in-jokes" that can make us laugh anytime, anywhere. The topics of the jokes come from all the shared experiences we have had -- all the time spent in one another's company, instead of being separated by a school schedule and homework.

We also love to watch old sitcoms together ("I Love Lucy," "Dick Van Dyke," "The Odd Couple," and "Father Knows Best") so that provides lots of fun.

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

On a trip to Kitty Hawk, NC, we found two adorable toads and brought them home with us. We named them Lucy and Ricky and looked forward to having a toad family.

After waiting a very long time for Lucy and Ricky to mate, we did some research and learned that Lucy needed to be renamed Fred. We had to adjust to having bachelor toads instead of a traditional toad family.

We still laugh at how we just assumed that one of the toads we arbitrarily picked up would be male and the other one female. Now, with our toad knowledge, we won't make that mistake again!

Proudly Raising Little Geeklings: Christy's Interview

Christy, mom of the two children pictured above, blogs about her family at Growing Urban Wildflowers.

Because Christy loves crafts and her husband, Jeff, is a mechanical engineer, she claims her children are doomed. Doomed to be geeks.

Well, I certainly hope she's right, because in my experience geeks are the most interesting people on the planet...

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

Like most families where the kids have never been to school, we've been "homeschooling since birth." However, we made the conscious decision to homeschool when our oldest daughter, K, turned 5 and we had to choose whether to sign her up for kindergarten or not. We went with "or not!" K will be 8 this winter, and her little sister G will be 4.

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)?

Oh, wow, there are so many benefits to homeschooling I don't know where to start.

Early on, when I was researching homeschooling, I read somewhere not to be worried if one of your reasons for homeschooling is to let your kids sleep in... and that was one of my big benefits, with my kids never up before 8! Truly, having well-rested kids is half any battle, and the benefits just stack up from there.

Like many homeschoolers, we do most of our traveling in the "off-season" - trips around here mostly happen in the fall; we just got back from 14 days tent camping in Colorado and South Dakota. Last spring we were able to take a week long trip to a Caribbean island - talk about learning culture differences and making friends from all over!

On a more kid-personal level, there isn't a benefit much greater than being able to tailor your children's education exactly to them. K was a completely self-taught reader at age 5, and was reading Boxcar Children books by the time her school-mates would have been on to "Hop on Pop."

We were able to feed her love of reading easily with unschooling for the first few years (where she spends hours and hours a day reading until I kick her outside regularly); now, she's been asking "when do we start school?," so we're going to do what I'll call "structured unschooling" very slightly based on Charlotte Mason's methods. We'll see how that goes and adjust from there! (Oh, look! Another benefit!!)

One last benefit is that our girls get to see the reasons behind how we live and the choices we make as a family. They've met the farmer and visited the farm from where we get our grass-fed beef locally, they come with me each week to pick up our CSA box and love to see what's inside. They attend church and Sunday School regularly and know why they do. They know why we shop local, and meet the merchants, because they come with us.

I think just as important as knowing how to do something, is knowing why you are doing 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?

The local park system does homeschool days, and we've had a wonderful time with other homeschooled kids of all ages learning about maple syrup, rivers, local geology, farming in the 1850's, and astronomy, just to name a few.

On the trip we just completed, on our way home we stopped at Mitchell SD's Corn Palace... and wandered around to the side where it looked like they had been working on affixing the corn to the wall. A guy poked his head out a side door and we started asking him questions about the process, and he was extremely friendly and happy to chat with us - even told the girls to pick out corn cobs to take with them! (Bet they don't do that with all the school kids who come through!)

We're looking forward to making many more fun memories!

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

Haven't had a real "funny situation" yet, but we're sort of "funny" people." ;)

As kids of a mechanical engineer dad and a crafty-geek mom, our kids are doomed!

They have a strange but wonderful wind-turbine fascination (which we have been known to pull off the road to visit), K loves Think Geek catalogs (who doesn't?), knitting and embroidery, paging through Wired magazines (while watched over by me), and assumes her dad can build or fix anything (mostly true).

G knows her own way around an embroidery needle and sharp sewing scissors (again, watched by me!), and has an infatuation with putting things in lines or compartments by category. We are proudly raising little geeklings!

Homeschooling Is Freedom Help Needed

Hi everyone,

I'm writing this blog post to let you know that I don't think I'll be able to keep this project going much longer. I've really enjoyed doing it the past year or so but other projects are now taking more priority and I just don't have enough hours in the day.

All parts of this project are time consuming, but the real time sucker is finding people who may be interested and then working to get the questions returned from them. That's no surprise, heck, homeschoolers are busy helping their children learn with freedom and flexibility!

There may be some options though if anyone is interested in keeping the project going. I could add others to the blog posting list who can just continue to find people, send out the questions and add them to the blog.

Or when the interviews that I've already requested stop rolling in, I could just stop there and leave what I have compiled already. Even though it's been a fairly short time I've been doing this, I do think it's a great collection of interesting families and experiences so as it stands, it could be a nice resource for people to read.

As of right now I have interviews scheduled to go up through Friday November 13th. (Eww, maybe I should get at least one more so no one gets hit with any bad luck or anything!)

What do you think? Anyone have any ideas, or perhaps want to take over the project?

This Family's In Exploration Mode: Dawn Smith's Interview

In this photo: Fionna, in exploration mode.
I hope you're ready to go traveling once again because Dawn and her family live in Nova Scotia.

I bet you didn't even finish the laundry from the last time we left the states, did you? Don't worry I didn't either, which means we're both so used to the smells we won't notice.

I just hope Dawn can handle it.

Dawn blogs about their adventures at her blog, To The Outskirts, where, among other things, she shares marvelous photos taken during their nature hikes.

Read on to hear the story of their recent "Epic Nature Hike." It's downright amazing...

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

We feel like we have been homeschooling since birth but officially this is our second year. We have a daughter who just turned six and a three-year-old son.

We kept our daughter home for preschool while we were in California, then she spent a few months in Primary (Kindergarten) at a public school here in Canada. After we satisfied our curiosity about what it would be like to have her in school, we brought her home for the rest of the year.

Now she is home spending her days learning right along side family, friends and neighbors.

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 nature of my husband’s work means that he is very busy in the summer and fall and has much more time to spend with the family in the winter and early spring. Since we homeschool that is when we can spend more time together as a family.

That includes everything from having Dad home for extra long lunches, to taking extended weekend trips to Grandma and Papa’s farm or being local tourists when all the other tourists have fled south for the winter.

Since we have only been in Nova Scotia for a year we have been in what we like to call exploration mode. It is great fun to walk into a museum and have the place to ourselves. We have learned so much from the interpreters who have the time to focus on our little family and answer our many questions.

The other benefit I see in this realm is time. We have the time to explore and focus on the interesting things that we see out in the world and the topics that truly interest us as individuals and as a family.

Our “epic nature walk” comes to mind. We have a nature walk just about every morning. We are usually gone about an hour but I always bring snacks and such just in case.

On this particular day we had the privilege to sit and watch ants carry a small caterpillar back to their home, find a beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that had come to the end of its lifespan, catch and observe a tiny toad, watch dragonflies skim across the water hunting for food and collect dragonfly larva shells from those dragonflies who had left them behind to move on to the next phase of life.

Then on top of all of that we watched a dragonfly emerge from its larval form, spread its wings (after it had crawled up a rock and onto my daughter’s hand) and fly for the first time.

It was truly magical. Our one-hour nature walk turned into a four-hour epic nature walk because we could take the time to watch nature work its magic. That is true freedom and flexibility.

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?

One fun time that comes to mind is the Halloween party in the park. A wonderful setting with huge trees all around. The kids running up and down the hills and around the trees in costume. Creative games and delicious not too-over-the-top sweet food.

I think the thing that made it so much fun was that everyone was so relaxed and there was really no schedule. It started around a specific time and things like games and food were going to happen when it seemed like everyone was ready for them. So you could go whenever you liked, or stay until the sunset. It was just a whole lot of fun and I am not even a big fan of Halloween.

Another really fun time we had was our trip to Joggins Fossil Cliffs here in Nova Scotia. One of my daughter’s major projects is about dinosaurs and prehistoric life so we decided to travel to Joggins.

It was a super-fun trip because, once again, we had the place to ourselves. The interpreter we met up with on the beach spent over an hour helping us to identify the fossils we were finding in the rocks. It was great fun and a wonderful learning experience for all of us.

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

I think one of the funniest times we have had in regards to homeschooling was when a waitress asked if she could send her son home with us to be homeschooled.

We had traveled to a local spot in the off-season and our daughter was really interested in the lobster tank in the restaurant. Since it was the off-season, the waitress spent all kinds of time with her talking about the lobsters, showing how to tell a male from a female, etc.

Along with prehistoric life our daughter also adores the ocean so she had all kinds of her own information to share. I think she shocked the waitress a little and after I told her that ocean life was one of her projects for homeschooling she asked if I would take her son home. We all had a good laugh.

Learning Math On The Job With Dad: Paul's Interview

Okay, it's time for us to return to the states and visit with Paul, who lives with his family in Indiana. Paul and his wife helped their son learn about math by simply involving him in their daily lives.

And, since he was a teenage boy at the time, he kept busy demonstrating his own math knowledge by subtracting from their food supplies constantly...

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

We homeschooled our youngest son for 6 years, from 7th grade until graduation. I wish we'd started sooner and homeschooled our oldest son as well.

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)?

During a good part of our homeschooling time I was working in the field, out of our house, as an appraiser and insurance adjuster and I took Nathaniel out on jobs with me during the day.

He learned first hand about the practical applications of math and geometry as I measured and then figured the surface area of roofs. I would have him do the math to figure the square footage of the different shaped roof slopes and he learned the different formulas for different 2 dimensional shapes.

He learned about construction measurements (how many square feet to a square of roofing, how many bundles to a square, how to figure how many square yards of carpeting are needed to carpet a house and the best way to minimize waste, etc.).

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 Nathaniel had the most fun with his mom who used cooking and baking to teach fractions, nutrition, chemistry, science, etc. As a teenage boy, eating was one of his favorite things to do. Imagine that!

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

The funniest things all revolved around going out during the day while the government schools were still in session. The looks and comments we'd get.

People, especially older people, would come up and say, "Why isn't he in school?"

And we'd explain that he was in school.

Learning From Life In New Zealand: Camille's Interview

Strap on your seatbelts everyone! We're taking another trip around the world today so we can visit with Camille and her family who live and learn in New Zealand.

Camille has traveled a long way herself, when it comes to her understanding of education and learning. She has two older children, ages 20 and 18 who were not homeschooled and she learned enough from their experience to convince her to homeschool her son, who is pictured above.

Interestingly enough, Camille told me that when she found this photo to send to me, she noticed the sheet hanging up on the wall. It's from the days when she was more structured with her son's education. Since then, though, she has discovered the benefits of unschooling and says that paper is long gone. Seeing the photo reminded her of "how far we've come..."

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

We have been homeschooling or unschooling our son, age 5, since birth. What we are doing now is a natural extension of what we've always done. He learns new things everyday just as he always has and is loving and learning through life :)

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 freedom for me is two-fold: On one level we can take advantage of doing things as a family at anytime, rather than after school or on holidays etc. We can go to parks, visit museums, libraries, etc., without the crowds and at our leisure.

On another and probably more important level, our son has the opportunity to learn all the time, when we are out, at home, wherever we are - life is just learning for him. We provide information on what's interesting to him at any given time & it's amazing what he learns when there's an interest - it shouldnt be surprising though as we as adults are a lot more inclined to learn something we are interested in for sure :)

Also he gets to associate with a lot of people of various age groups and relates well in various situations - hes not confined to the one age group.

He is not required to sit for hours and learn things he is not interested in, this would not work for him as he is active and does not do sitting still well as many little boys don't. :)

Just have to share that his older sister who is now grown, started going for her school visits for a week before starting school. After the last day, we had finished the morning there and were leaving, she said to me "Thank goodness we don't have to go THERE again!"

That was only after 5 mornings!!! Made me think that's for sure. :)

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?

Yesterday we had a hospital appointment which was 1 1/2 hrs away from where we live. After the appointment we all went to the petting zoo, just on a whim, spur of the moment because we had the time and didn't have to be back at any schedule. We had heaps of fun, had lunch, saw the animals and enjoyed the sunshine and the stroll around.

We do things often on the spur of the moment, a few days ago he had a new water pistol - pump action, we spent alot of time running around soaking each other and having lots of fun.

We get to go and visit family at non-peak times due to not having our lives organised around school; it works for us.

Also I think that his self confidence is a lot higher due to being homeschooled & his life is a lot more enjoyable I believe.

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

It amazes us how much my son learns about topics without us consciously talking about them.

For example.... One day quite a while ago he stood on a chair and got some moisturiser down to me and said he'd like to rub some on my legs - YES that would be great.

I pulled my trouser leg up and he saw they were cold and a bit speckly.

He said "You look like you have Chicken Pox."

I said, "Chicken Pox! How do you know what Chicken Pox looks like?"

He said... "I just know things."

It was so funny and cute. I was surprised as he's never seen Chicken Pox or even heard about them that I can remember, but somewhere in our days of learning and observing he'd picked it up - he was 4 at the time.

Homeschooling on a Tropical Island: Colleen Smith's Interview

I'm jealous of Colleen. She's living and learning with her family on the tropical island of Guam. For me, that would be the perfect situation and sounds like it is for her too.

Colleen blogs at Memoirs of an Unschooling Teacher and has recently started a resource center for homeschoolers living in Guam.

Her family has been involved in running several businesses over the years which is a great way for kids to learn from 'real life.'

Currently they run a driving school in Guam. If I lived in Guam, I don't think I'd need to know how to drive because I'd never leave the beach.

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

I have been homeschooling for over 20 years. We didn't realize we were homeschooling when we first started, and I used to count our homeschooling years based on when we pulled our first son out of public school - just before he entered 2nd grade. He is now 24.

But in reality we were homeschooling him since he was born. Or at least since he was about 18 months when he first asked me "what's that" and it took me a while to figure out he wanted to know names of letters so he could figure out how to read. He taught himself to read by age 3. All I did was answer his questions and provide him with the learning tools.

Oops...guess that was a longer answer than necessary! LOL.

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)?

Only a few examples? Oh my. I'll try to limit myself here.

Homeschooling is all about freedom & flexibility for me! My husband and I run our own business, a driving school on Guam. We've been doing this for over 7 years as our own business (14 on Guam total). It is a true family business. We live 40 minutes out of town in the "boonies" and have to drive into town everyday to run our business (except Sundays, we do honor the Lord's Day). So everyday we pack up the kids and bring them to work with us.

Our office is right on the beach on Guam ( I know, tough life we lead). Our office is our "home away from home" and has a cozy back room that the kids can hang out in and the classroom is used by the kids during the day. I only teach the driving class two evenings a week and on Saturday mornings, so the rest of the time the office/classroom area is free for the kids to use.

Recently I just took all of our homeschool books and resources (games, manipulatives, felt stories, etc.) and organized them into a "resource library" that I have opened up for all homeschoolers on Guam. (see my webpage: http://www.guamhomeschool.com).

My second eldest son works for the family business and runs a northern office two days a week for us. So he is either up there, or hanging out with us. It is great that our 20 year old son still lives at home and can help with the family business.

It is especially helpful for him as he is borderline Aspergers. Homeschooling was great for him and allowed him to pursue his love of music. He composes and creates wonderful instrumental music and makes his own CDs. He is also self taught in Piano and Guitar.

In the course of homeschooling we have run several businesses - a Snack shop at a daycare I worked at (both older boys manned this and learned all their math skills that year!), a website business (my eldest son learned web design and was our webmaster at 14), roof repair, various direct marketing businesses, and now our driving school. Our children have always been involved in our businesses and that has counted towards their homeschooling.

It is the freedom to be able to make your own hours that I love the best. Currently we open our office at 11am, so that gives me the morning to laze around the house, or get out there and exercise or pay bills. Kids can sleep in as late as they need, or wake as early as they want.

Oh and the biggest freedom? Homeschooling allowed us to move halfway around the world to live in a tropical paradise. We started our homeschooling journey in BC Canada and moved to Guam in 1995.

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?

Living on a tropical island with the beach as your backyard is definitely a fun factor. When we first moved our driving school office to the beach location (18 months ago) my very blond 5 year old daughter would beg me to let her swim everyday. Often she swam in only her shorts and no shirt. She is very brown from all that sun and her hair is white blond.

There is a local legend on Guam about a girl who becomes a mermaid - Sirena. Because Cassie is so blond and because she often swam with no shirt on, in the water she takes on a very mermaid like appearance. A new coffee shop opened up down the beach and the owner told me that the appearance of "Sirena" in the waters was a drawing card for many of her clients! The first time she saw my daughter swimming she nearly fainted from fright thinking she was a real mermaid.

Aside from being able to swim year round, we have enjoyed many aspects of our homeschooling lifestyle. Our many pets are a source of joy and fun in our lives. Currently we have 2 mice, one dog and about 14 cats. Not to mention the roaming chickens who think they live in our yard and the geckos and toads in the carport. In the past we have had rabbits, guinea pigs, parakeets and finches. We've even had a snake or two, but those are not a source of joy. LOL.

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

We think this is kind of funny. Not sure if others would appreciate the irony of it all.

Our eldest daughter, almost 15, decided the other day that she would attempt to spend the entire day without learning a thing. I have no idea what prompted this goal. But she was determined.

However around 11:30pm that night she was playing her Phoenix Wright video game when it mentioned potassium cyanide. Instinctively she looked it up on Google and proceeded to read all about it and then read on about some other poisons and their chemical compositions.

Suddenly she remembered her goal of "not learning anything for one full day" and realized she had blown it by 1/2 hr.

We find this especially amusing since we are unschoolers and it just goes to prove that even when given the freedom not to learn you can't help but learn!

Freedom to be a "Night Owl": Jan Hunt's Interview

Jan Hunt lives in Oregon, where, according to The National Audubon Society, there are 11 species of owls.

But they forgot about a special type of owl, the human night owl. Jan's son is a member of this species and he thrived when given the freedom to homeschool because he did not need to stick to an arbitrary school schedule.

Along with knowing a lot about night owls, Jan also knows a lot about children and respectful parenting. She runs The Natural Child Project, an interesting site where you can get all sorts of information on the topic.

I'm not a night owl and I'm working on this post quite late so I'm feeling really tired. I'm going to go to bed now but feel free to stick around and read this and other interviews. Just do it quietly, okay?

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

My son Jason unschooled from the beginning; he's now 28 so in a way we're still 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)?

Jason has been a "night owl" since birth; having to get up early for school would have been really stressful for him - and for us! By unschooling we were able to honor his biological rhythms.

Schools assume that every child is (or should be) on the same daily rhythm, even though it's common knowledge there is considerable variation. It has also been found that disruption of the circadian clock is linked with cancer and other serious diseases, so following his own inner timetable has very possibly helped him to stay healthy.

We've often taken family vacations in the fall just after school starts, so we avoid the crowds, and can take advantage of off-season rates.

Jason used to love it when school started because it meant the playgrounds would be free except for other unschoolers - and they were the nicest kids to play with!

But most of all, Jason has had the freedom to learn what he wanted to learn, when he was ready to learn it, and to do so in his own way. He now has no concept of something being "educational" and thus boring. Everything interests him!

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?

Every day has been fun! There's nothing more fun than watching a child learn about the world! We could hear his first word, watch his first step, and be there for a million other "firsts". What a delight!

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

A neighbor, who had a son Jason's age in school, once asked me in the spring if I was "giving Jason the summer off". The idea was so preposterous it really made me laugh! How would I even do that? I'd have to say, "OK, Jason, no more questions until September!"