Drop-of-a-Hat Flexibility: Heather Burditt's Interview

Heather and her husband TJ are raising three boys in Vermont. She blogs about her family's radical unschooling life at Swiss Army Wife.

By the time you're finished reading this interview, you will have a totally new image to go with the Star Wars theme.

As Yoda says, “Doo-doo or doo-doo not... there is no try.”

It all happened a long time ago, in a bathroom far, far away...

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

We’ve been homeschooling Skylar, who is 10, since January 27, 2006. We began the journey to Radical Unschooling shortly thereafter. Milo who is 4.5 has never been to school and Phoenix will turn 1 on July 9th. Sometimes, I get ahead of myself and think we’ve been homeschooling for 4.5 years, rather than 3.5. It feels like longer, but not in a bad way, just in a “Wow, this lifestyle is so awesome, I feel like we’ve been living it forever!” kind of way.

For Mother’s Day my husband gave me a framed copy of the withdrawal letter I wrote to my oldest son’s then principal. That’s how I know the exact date.

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 family loves to travel. We love vacationing. Seriously, who doesn’t? We vacation so much that it doesn’t even feel like vacation anymore. It just feels like life. If the children were in school we would literally have to ask someone else permission to go on vacation! Plus we’d be limited to a certain number of days! Vacationing off-season also affords us the ability to travel more often.

Being flexible is a HUGE benefit of unschooling. We can make a decision or change our minds at the drop of a hat. If something really interesting is happening, we can jump in the car and go! Recently an empty warehouse caught fire in downtown, we were able to jump in the car and find a good place to watch it burn. The boys thought that was pretty darn cool!

Sometimes, when TJ takes a lunch break we can all go for a swim, or bowling, or for ice cream. Flexibility gives our family more opportunities to connect with each throughout the week.

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?

Believe it or not this is a hard question to answer. Our fun is a result of our lives, not necessarily of homeschooling. You could say that every moment of every day is part of our homeschooling. It never stops, so long as our lives continue.

Some of the most fun things we do, ironically enough, include other unschoolers. Conferences are so much fun and so magical for us all.

We do lots of fun things and take lots of fun daytrips. One of MY favorite things about that is that we can go during the week when most kids are in school. Places that are less crowded tends to make things a lot more fun.

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

Oddly enough, this is a hard question to answer too! Since we are ALWAYS unschooling, funny moments just happen. Here is one of my favorite stories as of late.

TJ and I sometimes joke that as soon as our children were able to sword fight, they were making light saber sounds. Star Wars is pretty popular around here. Milo eventually learned to hum the theme song, and he did it often.

Then one day, after using the toilet, TJ and I hear him singing from the bathroom, to the tune of the Star Wars theme, “I went pee and poop – wipe my butt.” That was absolutely one of the most hilarious things that had happened in a very long time and we love sharing the story. Milo loves it too!

The Relationship Factor: Joyce Fetteroll's Interview

Today's interview is with Joyce Fetteroll. She lives in Massachusetts and keeps herself busy with lots of projects so I had to work a bit to score this interview. She says I happened to remind her at just the right time, apparently a lull before another project-filled storm. Sometimes I get lucky.

I really wanted to learn a bit about Joyce because she has one of the best resources I've seen to help people learn about unschooling and peaceful parenting philosophies. Her site, Joyfully Rejoycing, is just loaded with information and even though I'm done homeschooling and my kids are adults, every time I go to her site I see another question that I just can't help clicking on to see what she has to say.

Now let's see what she has to say in answer to my 4 questions...

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

We've been unschooling since Kathryn would have been in kindergarten. She's 17 now so legally we're weeks from being done.

Joyce's Daughter, Kathryn

Ironically Kathryn's last year in preschool allowed us to unschool. While she was at preschool I plowed through AOL's homeschooling boards, starting at the Calvert end that appealed to my engineering half that loves structured learning, to unschooling, where the posters seemed to be the only ones having fun and not complaining about how to get their kids to do their work.

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've become almost oblivious to the school schedule that I'm not conscious of where it would have limited us anymore. ;-)

Kathryn was able go out to work with her father. Carl's an adjunct professor at Springfield college and she took a couple of his math classes starting at 14.

He's also the coordinator for the Massachusetts Senior Games and directs sports programs for the disabled so has had a lot of opportunities to help with both of those.

Probably the biggest benefit is that her help is perceived as legitimate work rather than a special day off from school.

Most recently, unschooling has allowed her the flexibility to stay up late talking to internet friends on the phone. I sometimes feel bad she's keeping her schooled friends up but their mothers seem very supportive and understanding. :-) She's visited one in Texas and the other has visited here from Michigan and they've had grand times together.

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'm trying to think of something grand but what keeps popping into my head is going to the Friday opening of the Boston Anime convention and openings of big movies like Harry Potter and Star Trek when all the kids are still in school. I suspect people think I'm a really cool mom who has allowed her daughter to skip school for a movie. ;-)

I think more than the fun factor for us has been the relationship factor. Schooling parents don't have any idea how much school damages their relationship with their kids. They think the distancing and rebelliousness is just how kids are. I have a 17 year old who actually likes me -- which is actually the norm for unschoolers!

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

Finally remembered one! There are always funny things, but one ties into unschooling. On Christmas Eve we had family over for dinner. I was struck by the idea to have a birthday cake for Jesus. I must have heard it somewhere, but even though we're atheist I thought it was a pretty cool idea.

So I set the cake out and went to light the candles and asked the kids whose birthday they thought it was. All the Catholic cousins looked blankly and Kathryn piped up (on her own, I hadn't told her) "Jesus!"

Maybe a clue that gentle absorption works better than pushing?

Hey They're Talking About Us In Germany!

This morning I checked out the online stats for this blog and found out someone came here from Germany. To see that someone came from another country is not unusual, they might arrive here for many different reasons such as doing a google search on a keyword term that happens to show up here. Sometimes people come here as a result of seeing my free online book for homeschoolers or my freelance writing website.

But this time it was specifically German homeschoolers. One blogger was asking for good links and in the comments section, this blog was recommended. Cool, huh?

Since it was all written in German, I had no idea what they were saying so I had to do some work to figure that out. For all I knew they might be saying this was the worst blog they've ever seen. So I googled for an online translation site, found one very easily and simply pasted in the text. It did not come out grammatically correct but it worked great because I could understand what they were saying. Here's the site I used: Free Translation Online . I'm sure there are many others, I just grabbed the first one I saw.

As I understand it, there is no homeschooling freedom in Germany. But perhaps bloggers like these two will be able to play a part in changing the situation. I hope so because they deserve to have the same freedom, flexibility and fun as we do here, don't they?

Learning Isn't About Feeding Kids Factoids: Kelli Traaseth's Interview

Today we get to meet Kelli Traaseth and her family.

She lives in Georgia with her husband Tim and their three children. Here they are in a picture taken last Fall when they went to see the musical Wicked. You can read about her family's adventures at her wonderfully-named blog Our Joyful Life.

WARNING: If you do visit her blog, make sure you move any drinking glasses and breakables a safe distance away from your computer area because you are going to quickly find yourself up out of your chair singing and dancing.

At least, I hope I'm not the only one that does that. If you're reading this blog, I know you like to have fun, so I know you did it too. Right? Right?

Well, anyway, read on to discover what Kelli learned about the futility of feeding kids factoids...

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

We've been unschooling for 8 years, since 2001. Alec was 8 at the time, Abbi was 6 and Kyra was 4. I can't believe it's been 8 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)?

Gosh, there are just so many benefits for us from living a free flexible life.

My kids have been able to delve deeply into their passions, not worrying about time limits or constraints from a school schedule. I've seen such happiness and joy in their faces when they've accomplished something they're doing. It's just wonderful.

They are able to get the sleep they need, when they want it. If they want to stay up later, they can. If there's something going on early in the morning, we can do that too. Just last week my daughter Kyra asked if I wanted to get up to see the sunrise. It's so cool to see the choices they make.

Also, my husband's job has changed a few times in the years that we've been unschooling so not being tied to school has been so helpful in our moves. And.. those moves have brought us new friendships and closer to other friends. We are now near lots of other unschooling families and we're loving 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 fun things! One that really comes to mind is playing video games together, we've played several online games together. Playing those games has been a blast, helping and adventuring together is so much fun. We have these wonderful experiences to talk about and connect over now.

Going to unschooling conferences has also been an awesome fun event that we've experienced. When we traveled to different conferences we were able to sight see the surrounding areas, from the Grand Canyon when we went to a conference in Albuquerque, NM, to whale watching when we went to a Boston conference.

Playing and having fun is a major component in our life, we wouldn't have it any other way!

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

A life changing event that we laugh at now took place before I found unschooling.

We had just started homeschooling and I thought it would be a good idea to do unit studies. It was February and I thought we'd do a Mardi Gras study. I looked up all sorts of info on Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Fat Tuesday.. all of that. We read about it, we watched videos and we made things. I was pretty proud of myself.

Then someone asked me how our homeschooling was going. I responded with an excited, "Great!"

I turned to the kids and said, "Wasn't the Mardi Gras unit great??"

Looking for a resounding nod or yes from the kids, I got a quizzical look, from all 3kids. "Remember Mardi Gras? New Orleans?"

Nothing.

"Remember... we read about the parties, the church stuff, the celebrations?"

Still nothing...

"Remember the masks we made?"

Then the girls both replied with "oh yeah!"

Alec, my son, still was looking at me with a "what the heck are you talking about" look.

Right there I saw and understood that I needed to find some other way to "homeschool".

So it's not really laughing funny, yet to us now we see I was pretty funny trying to get my kids to blurt out some factoids or information that I fed them. They showed me!

I then went on to read more about homeschooling and I found unschooling. I'm so glad for the whole experience.

We laugh every day with each other. Seeing connections in what we do from day to day is one of the most fun things about living this unschooling life. :)

It's Okay To Enjoy Learning: Susan R's Interview

Susan is the second mother I've been in contact with who loves living beside the cornfields of Illinois. She has a blog called Corn and Oil where she works to keep families informed of news and other items of interest that relate to maintaining homeschooling freedom in Illinois.

Between Shakespeare in town and strange chicken genetics on the farm this family understands it's okay to enjoy learning...

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

We’ve been homeschooling since 1995. We pulled our 4th grade son out of school in the middle of the year. Our 3rd grade daughter thought we were having too much fun, and she came out of school a week or two later. We had two toddlin’ twins at the time, and they have never been in school.

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 finally got over feeling guilty that I was doing something wrong while getting our kids educated. It’s OK to enjoy learning and great freedoms in our family time. We’ve been having so much fun over the years.

We live in a rural area which we greatly enjoy. We’re also in between 2 college towns and we’ve been able to take great advantage of museums, programs, shows, and open houses that revolve around the universities. Our travel plans have taken us on their dad’s business trips to Washington, DC and the Chicago area.

Our son gave a 4-H Public Presentation of Shakespeare’s Henry the 5th St. Crispin’s Day speech at the state fair last year. (We’ve had lots of time to truly enjoy the Bard’s brilliance, and his battle stories seem to be our boys’ favorites.) Kelly loved the speech and had it memorized with all of the flourishes.

When the judge gave commentary, she stated that the kids needed to be careful to “speak to the audience” (family members), and not be too “high brow." We appreciate that we are going against that particular stream of thought. Kelly took it all in stride and these farm folks will be high-browing it to the Shakespeare Festival again this summer.

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?

Most of our travels would not have happened if we weren’t homeschooling. We’ve been on a couple of Caribbean cruises in the spring and fall that we’ve really enjoyed. (Endless ice cream seemed to be a big hit, along with snorkeling and hiking.)

This spring, our kids went down to Atlanta, Georgia with other Bow-Dacious String Band members for an American String Teachers Association workshop. That, and the subsequent tour coming back up would not have happened for our family, if we hadn’t been homeschooling.

The kids and I hit the local park trails walking or riding our bikes many times. We know when the hummingbirds would be migrating through a particular area filled with jewel weed, and we’ve spent time hunting morels with friends. (Sometimes with public schooled friends skipping out on a perfect spring day.)

We’ve not ever cracked a science textbook open for studies. My philosophy, backed up by their dad, is that learning science is a very hands-on endeavor.

We’ve studied fungus, earthworms, earwigs and owl poo in the great outdoors.

Our dogs have run into a skunk or two, and we’ve run away from a skunk or two.

Our chickens have also provided food for thought (and tummies). We just finished hatching out some chicks, and had some mishaps where we learn from our mistakes.

We also had our sweet, little bantam hen turn out a chick whose daddy is a very large Salmon Favorelle. That is certainly an interesting genetics (and physiological) head scratcher.

Living every day at our farm, while participating in other activities ‘in town,' overflows with many enjoyable opportunities.

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

When our twin boys first learned how to ride bikes, we threw the bikes in the back of the truck and hit the parks on those glorious spring and fall days. Some of the parks have more than a few hills.

Those two boys always seemed to have an unintended, but magnetic attraction towards each other. I was the only one seeing the roller coaster sights of them running into each other, and they can still remember doing loopy loops in the air.

They think it’s hilarious now, but I can remember envisioning the two identical twins turning into one. Thank goodness for bicycle helmets and soft grass.

Creating Special Memories For Your Children

I need help. Yeah, I know that's not surprising to a lot of people, but really, can someone help a girl out here?

I'm technically not legally allowed to use the term girl to describe myself and I'm definitely not what you would call a girly-girl. As a matter of fact, a recent Facebook quiz told me I'm 100% tomboy. Which is perfectly fine most of the time.

However, my daughter decided to get married. And she totally ignored my suggestion to elope and instead has opted for a more or less traditional wedding. Which means she wants me to, gasp, wear a fancy dress!

So she dragged me out shopping and found one she liked. I liked it a lot too. She told me so. We bought it and it's been hanging on a bedroom door for a couple of months, constantly taunting me, reminding me that I'm going to actually be wearing a dress very soon.

The other day, I decided to try it on again, to see if I could work up some enthusiasm. I wanted to practice smiling while at the same time wearing a dress, which is quite a multi-tasking feat for me. So, I put on the sensible shoes I planned to wear and glided gracefully around the house practicing my walk and my smile. Everything was cool, and I was actually feeling pretty good about it all.

Until I tripped over the dress. Yep, I realized the dress was too long and dragging badly. Something had to be done.

I thought about just cutting off the bottom but that wouldn't work. This dress has all sorts of frilly stuff under there and if you mess with frilly stuff the fashion police might come over. Plus there's a label in there that says it's illegal to even remove the tag.

Then I considered going into the kitchen and spilling leftover spaghetti sauce down the front. But I forgot I already ate the entire batch in one sitting the other night when I started thinking abut having to wear a dress all day.

So, I finally admitted the best choice was to go out and get taller shoes. Which means spikey shoes of course. Here's what I came home with:



I did manage to find ones I could slip in and out of very easily so that's good. But I did not avoid the spikey heels which means I now have another project to complete before the wedding.

I'm going to have to learn to walk again.

This is where you come in. I still have a few weeks to practice but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. Of course I'm going to use the hands-on, I mean feet-on learning philosophy that worked so well with my kids, but I don't' know how well that's going to work.

So if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I might try them out.

Or, because I really love my daughter and want it to be a special day, I might just not practice at all. Then when I fall flat on my face walking down the aisle, I will have done my part in making her wedding day a very memorable event for all.

What do you think?

Unschooling on the Dairy Farm: Alex's Interview

There's one thing we can say about Alex: she really gets around! In hemispheres, that is.

You see, Alex grew up in Rio de Janeiro and now lives with her husband and two children on a dairy farm in Minnesota. If you want to learn more about her family's life up North with the cows, click here to go to her blog.

But first, read on to hear how mother's milk played a part in Alex's journey to a natural unschooling life...

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

I have not been homeschooling long. My oldest Naruto turns 7 this June and my youngest Gigi is 40 months old. But I am so glad I have been reading on homeschooling since Naruto was about 10 months old.

When I had Naruto he was what some call a high needs baby. I learned to be in tune and attentive thanks to this child that nursed 24 hours a day. When he was about 3-4 months I found Dr. Sears book, The Baby Book. I did not know that there was a name for what I was doing. It was Attachment Parenting.

I came to unschooling when I was surfing the net one day and found The Natural Child and Jan Hunt. It was my ticket to unschooling. There were several articles on unschooling and it was like a continuation of what I was already doing at that tender age.

In Attachment Parenting we trust our children and trust is paramount for one to Unschool. I kept reading and researching on unschooling and the more I read the more I agreed with it. I also became part of an online unschooling group (Always Unschooled) when my son was 2 and a half years old and found Sandra Dodd and joyfullyrejoycing.

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 works great for our family. We are Dairy Farmers and our schedule is far different from most typical American families.

My husband starts work at 4:30 AM and goes until 9:00 PM many days. He is usually able to take a few hours in the middle of the day to do things with the kids and the weekends are no different than the week days. If the kids were in school they would only have a few hours in the weekend to truly be with their dad.

We can go places that are usually crowded while everyone is in school and at work.

We can go to bed late and wake up late.

We can go to Cow Shows with dad any day of the week and be here when the calves are born to help him.

If we did not homeschool they would miss so much in their lives. Gigi does chores every day with dad and she would be very upset to miss that.

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 are all for fun stuff. We get to go to places with our homeschooling friends like theme parks and museums and have it all to ourselves. We get to play all day because for unschoolers playing and learning go hand in hand.

My kids are happy. They have fun. They learn everyday.


We have time to have many animals the kids want.

We have time to play games as a family.

We have time to run in the yard and explore places together. We have time to have fun.

Our lives are not separated between school life and home life. Most things we do, we do it because we like it and because we have fun doing them.

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

My son was in Cub Scouts this year and he got the most beads for completing electives in his den. People asked how we did it. We did not intentionally do it. The electives were just part of our lives because school takes the child's time away from family and the real world.

I guess they still think we intentionally completed those many electives. We just smile....

Even The Fun Stuff Counts: Theresa's Interview

Theresa is the mother of 4 children, ranging in age from 10 to newborn. She and her family live and learn in Indiana. Her children helped her with this interview and shared some benefits of the freedom and flexibility of homeschooling from their perspective.

Although you'd think someone with 4 kids would be comfortable with anyone coming around begging for some food, Theresa apparently draws the line at raccoons...

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

We started homeschooling the year my oldest was scheduled to enter Kindergarten. They were trying to charge us $60 a week for her to go half days. My husband and I decided that we could teach her what she needed to know for much cheaper. And we have never looked back. We are starting our 7th year.

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 of homeschooling is one of my favorite reasons to continue. I love the flexibility of being able to go on family trips whenever we want without worrying about someone else’s agenda. We recently bought a camper and have been loving it. We like being able to go to the campgrounds during the week when it is practically empty.

I also love the freedom to be able to study what we are interested in – rather than what is planned for a certain grade level. I have one child who likes writing stories, one who loves building things, and one who is obsessed with anything Pokemon. They learn so much when they can study what they love instead of what someone else assigns.

I read this question to my kids and this is their list of benefits:

1. Being able to sleep until nine – instead of getting up at six.

2. Being able to eat while doing school work.

3. Being able to go to the bathroom without getting a pass.

4. A lot less school – and more time for 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?

We recently camped at Turkey Run State Park. We hiked the trails and took some great pictures. We were able to visit the planetarium and the nature center. We had a blast. My husband, the principal of our school, declared we had covered state history, earth science, and PE – and the kids just thought we were on vacation!

I asked my kids this question – and they are having a hard time with it. I think it might be because when I say the word ‘school’ they tend to only think of workbooks. I never told them that the field trips to war re-enactments, participation in the drama group, being able to write and illustrate your own stories and the games they play all “count” as school in my book.

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

I am having a difficult time with this question, even though I didn’t think I would. My family laughs all the time. We are happy, and jovial, and rambunctious and spontaneous. My kids love to tell jokes and play pranks on each other. Surely I should be able to come to with at least ONE funny experience.

I asked my friends – both online and in real life. Nobody could remember anything that I had shared with them that would qualify as a funny story about homeschooling, that someone not on the “inside” would think was funny.

There is the funny story about the raccoon that wouldn’t leave us alone while camping. We were camping with two other families – and this stubborn little bugger kept going from one camper to the next trying to get into the food and the trash and the campers!

Actually – he didn’t look that little when he got brave enough to come right up to the camp fire and scare the bejeebers out of us moms, who were sitting around reminiscing about our college days. I laugh out loud remembering how far my friend jumped over the fire and into her camper to get away from him.

And then there’s the embarrassing story about how my kids used to answer questions from strangers about homeschooling. While daytime shopping for gardening supplies last year, one super perky cashier decided to start a conversation with my kids – who were NOT very patient while waiting in line. She asked if we were on Spring break. Before I could stop them, my kids, in unison said “we are ALWAYS on Spring Break because we are homeschooled.”

Kids Explain Homeschooling To School Administrator

I found something else in my old files the other day. It's a copy of a letter to the editor that my daughter, Melissa and her homeschooling friend, Anna, wrote in 1997. It was a response to a school administrator's letter which in turn was responding to an article written by Wendell Berry titled "Homeschooling Offers Hope of Effective Education."

The girls read the school administrator's response and got so irritated they decided to write a letter to the editor together, which did get printed. This was back in 1997. Here's their letter:

Dear Editor,

On February 16th, Wendell Berry wrote an interesting article on homeschooling. We are writing this because we were very disappointed in the letter the school administrator wrote criticizing Mr. Berry's article.

Mr. Thornton declared teachers "experts" on what was best taught to kids. If the teachers are experts, our parents should have learned everything they needed to know and had the capability to remember it.

Our parents know how we learn and what we need or want to learn much better than any teacher could, because they are with us more. So why should our parents send us to school if they have the time to teach us themselves?

Mr. Thornton said that Mr. Berry didn't spend enough time in public school classrooms. When has Mr. Thornton been with a homeschooler in his or her "classroom"? He doesn't even know what most of us do! Most homeschoolers went to public school for a period of time, or at least their parents did, so they have a view from both sides.

The great thing about homeschooling is that it can be tailored to each family's needs.

Sincerely,

Melissa, Age 13
Anna, Age 11

Little Blue School: Lydia Netzer's Interview

Lydia lives with her husband and two children in Virginia and in some online circles, she's known as lostcheerio, which I just love, but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I've always related to the little cheerio that falls out of the box, bounces off the counter and rolls under the refrigerator.

In addition to homeschooling her two children, Lydia is also a book doctor which I guess means she cures sick books so I'm going to keep her in mind because I have a really sick book idea in my head.

She blogs at Little Blue School and you can see some marvelous photos of her kids in action.

In this interview, Lydia just completely smashes the homeschooling socialization myth. It's now in tiny pieces under the refrigerator. I love her description of how homeschooling familes grow together...

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

I have been homeschooling for almost a decade, since I started the clock when my first child was born. I can't remember taking a break for more than two days, although there have actually been two times when I did pry myself away from my children and drive all the way to another state. Once I was away from them I spent a lot of time talking about them, the clever things they say, the way they brush their teeth, etc. I'm sure it was completely scintillating for everyone around me.

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)?

Today we had the kids' violin lessons in the morning, rather than after school, during the between-school-and-dinner rush when most people do it.

Then we did some solid school work, packed up the van and went to Busch Gardens on a school day. If the weather is nice, we can pound through the school work and fly out the door to the zoo, the park, the pool. Or we can take the schoolwork with us and enjoy it in a rose garden.

If it's a quiet Wednesday morning, we can go to the art museum when there's no one else there, and sit in a gallery and listen to the art.

We travel during the slow seasons, play when it's sunny, and homeschool hard when it rains. It rains enough that both my kids are working above grade level.

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 I have homeschooling is when my children, who are four years apart, are working together on a topic. It has amazed me, since my daughter became old enough to be interested in school, how much it's possible to really school them both at the same time. They can both engage with the same subject matter at their own level, and these are the times when I've kind of pulled back and thought, "This is awesome!" Last summer we did a lot of work on Egypt and elections, and this happened frequently.

The other really fun thing that we experience because of homeschooling is the mixing of social groups that happens when homeschooled kids get together. The way they grow together is more like cousins than friends sometimes. For the most part, they accept each other as just who they are. They get over their bumps and stumbles together, with the help of their parents and all their "aunties" and older siblings, and it has been a real joy to watch these relationships develop.

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

The hardest I've laughed recently has been on the road. I teach a creative writing class to six little homeschooled kids. They are all eight or nine years old.

Frequently I have had three or four of them in my van, and their chatter has been wildly entertaining for me as I drive. Listening to them talk to each other -- my son and these other kids -- is just hilarious.

They're so nerdy, so passionate about their nerdiness, and so completely un-self-conscious about it. It's almost beautiful. Whether they're talking about minutiae of astronomy, or putting the 50 states in alphabetical order as quickly as possible, or about the obscure origins of some breed of dog, they're so completely unaware of how nerdy they sound, or even that it's something to be understood or tolerated -- I just love hearing their uncensored interactions.

It's not just the vocabulary, so far beyond their years, or the stuff they know, which baffles me, but just the sweet earnest way they share it with each other, that is so gorgeously funny. And awesome.

It's The Sleep, Stupid!: JJ Ross' Interview

JJ lives, learns and sleeps in Florida. She has a blog called Cocking A Snook! where she shares advice and opinions on all things educational. And controversial. Apparently, provided she's had enough sleep, she's not afraid to say what she thinks.

This blog has replaced a website, Parent-Directed Education.org that she and her friend Nance Confer (who will be highlighted on this blog soon) used to run.

JJ is another one of those parents who used to be quite deep in traditional institutional education as part of her career but managed to crawl out. And she's not going back. As a matter of fact, the only thing she's ever going to crawl into now is a bed or couch when she's feeling sleepy...

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

We never schooled our son and daughter, not even at home -- although we had a close call at the usual kindergarten age. We didn't exactly know to call it "unschooling" although it was in fact unschooling from the start. So it's been almost 20 years (gasp!) since I retired from my public school policy career and came home as a first-time mom.

Our daughter is a full-fledged junior at FSU now after dual-enrolling in community college and playing around in courses she loved (writing, theatre, history) for a few years. She's planning to backpack around Europe with a girlfriend this summer.

Our son is five years younger, so he's 13 and every inch a free-spirit unschooler. School would have destroyed him. See him in his kilt here!

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)?

SLEEP! I've long suspected that it isn't some deep educational theory that makes homeschooling so productive compared to "school" -- it's the sleep, stupid! If there's just one thing that makes for cheerful, resilient, well-adjusted kids who love their own lives and don't have anything to rebel against or complain about, it's every member of the family getting all the sleep needed and wanted, when -- and only when! -- they want it.

Each of our children has a different natural rhythm and it changes somewhat year to year for each child, too. Their dad and I also have different sleep patterns from each other. Unschooling gets the public out of our sleep, makes it a private matter and lets us all respect our own needs and each other's, without judging and shaming and trying to control each other.

And in turn, getting artificial control of sleep schedules out of our way, made the liberal arts and especially community musical theatre, possible as real-world learning for my kids -- no worries about "school nights" and bedtimes and homework.

I could write an entire curriculum based on what they've learned through musical theatre! See also Ignorance Makes the N-Word Even Scarier Unspoken and and this from Favorite Daughter herself.

In fact, funny story -- Favorite Daughter at age 17 in her college honors history class, answered a bonus question for a perfect score on the final, that her professor couldn't figure out how she knew, because it wasn't in the text of the lecture notes: name all five of the members appointed to write the Declaration of Independence and the colonies each represented in the Congress. So he asked outright what her secret source was, and got a good laugh when she started singing, "But Mr. Adams" from the musical 1776.

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 joke that our whole curriculum is "power of story" but it's only funny because it's literally true. Our house is overflowing with books, not textbooks but real books stacked and shelved in every room including the kitchen and foyer, by every bed, the living room and dining room. (AND we have a library!)

And story isn't just in books. The rest of the house is bulging with movies and music, family pictures and objects with stories of their own. So the fun stuff we do is all power of story too -- musical theatre and Irish step-dancing, unschooling the bagpipes too.

Maybe my personal mom-favorite all these years has been the fun of going to the movies with my kids in the middle of the week, the middle of the day, whenever we want. Just because we want.

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

Well, the way we officially began homeschooling was funny because I had dutifully enrolled Favorite Daughter in kindergarten. I took her to the orientation on the Friday before school started that August, and it was really overwhelming even to me as a former school administrator, just so many handouts and procedures and codes and details.

It was a combination K-1 class and I was told "no" when explaining she would want to sit up with the first graders during storytime instead of "napping" since she didn't nap. That's what made me change my mind over the weekend and withdraw her on Monday morning.

But it turns out that the reason Favorite Daughter was so grateful for that change was the school buses. She was given a complex coding sheet from the transportation dept. with different routes color-coded and had been told she would ride "the black bus." All weekend she had been worrying without saying anything, because to her all the buses were yellow!

Searching For Nuts

Back in 2002, I wrote an email message on a board where we were talking about nuts and seeds and I said this:

I did some research on nuts. Did you know that if you type "nuts and seeds" into google, you'll get about 21,000 hits?

I wondered how much this search term may have grown over the past 7 years so once again I typed "nuts and seeds" (I include the quotes) into google, but this time I came up with 439,000 hits. That's quite a change, isn't it?

I'm not too surprised though because it's pretty obvious to me that there are a lot more nuts out there.

Which is good because I need the company. :)

Time To Connect With Each Other: Ren Allen's Interview

Would you want to have tea with this lady? I sure would!

This is Ren Allen who lives in Tennessee with her radically unschooling family. Ren has two blogs. One is about her family's unschooling life called Learning In Freedom. (You should be able to guess that I really love that title.)

Her other blog is called Tea With Ren, which is her more personal blog.

Ren is active on unschooling email lists and speaks at various unschooling/homeschooling conferences around the country. She really enjoys the fact that homeschooling gives her family plenty of time to connect with each other, and make messes...

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

We started after my oldest child left one year of school (kindergarten) in 1996.

He's 19 now and living in Hendersonville NC.

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 could go on and on about that freedom. We live our lives as though school does not exist and that means we focus on living well. Living well is about connecting with each other, with our passions and learning what we love all the time. I can't imagine giving our freedom of choice in how to spend our time and our lives, over to anyone else.

We have more time to really connect with each other, to make plans that suit our needs, to travel and play and work around our family's desires. I think schools can really intrude on family time and make it difficult to create a joyful, playful atmosphere in which rich connections naturally unfold.

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 a lot of great memories! At this very moment I am out in Oregon traveling with two of my sisters, their families and three of my children making many more fabulous memories. We spent the day traipsing around my Grandparent's farm, laughing, hiking, eating, celebrating my 40th birthday and doing the chicken dance. Yesterday was spent down at the Oregon Coast seeking out sea stars, anemones and watching some crazy children jump in numbingly cold surf!

Our favorite memories seem to revolve around messes. There was a night when we shot film canisters across the dining room, spraying baking soda and vinegar on everything! From Mentos/soda explosions to celebrations with sparklers and late night sleepovers, we spend a lot of time laughing.

There are plenty of quiet spaces in between. Space for quiet reflection and gardens and tea.....but our fun times seem to include some sort of mess.:)

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

My youngest child gives us a lot of "funny" lately. Funny phrases and descriptions of the eight-year-old mind.

We were recently discussing our move from Florida to Tennessee a few nights ago and the contrast of mountains and beach.

"But why do they call it TenneSEE Mom? There's no seas around here."

An experience we laugh about now--because it was so miserable--is a time we visited family in Alaska and all of us got a 24 hour stomach flu. There was an entire house full of kids and adults puking their guts out for a day and a night. I remember helping two of my kids while they were ill, all while I was retching my guts out. It was SO insane and awful but we laugh so hard about it now and have many fond memories of that summer trip.

For us, unschooling is simply living life, so all of my examples are about things we do as part of our living. There's a lot of funny and messy in the living!