Unschooling: Educational Anarchy for the Whole Family

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation at the first Agora I/O Unconference. My talk was about unschooling. I gave a bit of an overview of the topic and used examples from our family's experiences.

I was a bit flustered at the beginning because I had some technical issues trying to sign in to the site. (This was presented live.) But once I started talking, I think I rolled along pretty well.

For anyone who is trying to explain unschooling to someone, or trying to convince someone that it is an idea worthy of serious consideration, maybe this video will help.

A New Project: Debbie and Carl

Just thought I’d make a post about a personal self-education project I’m doing. I created this project while I was in a bicycle-riding stupor one day. If you want to see what a bicycle riding stupor looks like, here you go:



Anyway, you can learn more about my project here.

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?

How To Think Outside The Box

Okay so I told everyone last week that my son sent in his entry from Paint A Cat Day. Now, the fact that this 24 year old young man, who is busy finishing up his Master's Degree in Operations Managment while also buying stuff for the Air Force as a Contracting Officer, did find the time to paint a cat is not surprising. Anyone who's read my book knows that, especially if you read Chapter 18, Life In The Third Dimension. He loves art and drawing and will always make time for that I guess.

No, the artwork itself is not surprising. What is suprising is how he interpreted the assignment. Look at his Cat painting:



This is exactly the sort of thing that always happened to me when we were homeschooling. The assignments and projects never quite went like I planned. He always had his own ideas. I'm used to that now and I have to say that this is not too bad in the painting department, I mean just look at that nice artistic swish in the lettering.

But where did he get the idea to use a bulldozer?

I guess it's just in his genes, in two ways.

One, his grandfather, my dad, worked for years for a company that sold Caterpillar Earthmoving Equipment. So I'm sure that's part of how he came up with this.

Second, this kid was raised by me, so of course he would think something like this would fit the silliness of the project.

But the question is, did he learn this twisted thinking from me, or did I learn it from him?

Roller Derby Is Back

The last time I saw Roller Derby was on television in the mid-1970s and I remember thinking those women were crazy. Well the new generation of crazy is here. There is a team in Louisville, Kentucky called the Derby City Roller Girls and I went to an event a couple of weeks ago with my husband, my daughter and my future son-in-law. They were playing the Rollergirls of Southern Indiana who were from Evansville I think.

We had a great time. Besides watching the girls battle it out on wheels, they played rockin' music the entire time which I loved of course.

My daughter and I sat in the bleachers and shot the video posted below. Husband and future son-in-law, however chose the "suicide seats," which means they sat on the floor right next to the edge of the rink. They said they wanted to be, umm, close to the action. They were terribly concerned for the girls' safety and wanted to be able to protect them from the hard concrete floor if they were knocked down in their direction. Chivalry is not dead.

When our family was homeschooling, we enjoyed many roller skating field trips with other homeschoolers and I often came home a bit bruised and banged up. Unfortunately it wasn't because of a good, hard-fought, competitive Roller Derby game. It was more due to something my doctor likes to refer to medically as NUTS Syndrome ( Noticeably Unable To Skate). What does he know? Listen, if I was ever on my butt in the middle of the skating rink, it was always because I meant to do it and simply wanted to take a break.

Isaac Newton Is Wrong

As you homeschool your children, eventually you'll get into various science topics and will come across the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. He put forth the theory that there are three laws of motion.

I am here to report that Sir Isaac was wrong. There is a fourth law of motion.

The oversight occurred because Newton never mothered any children. Mothers are the only beings subject to the effects of the fourth law. The fourth law of motion says a woman who becomes a mother tends to go into motion and stay in motion until acted upon by the only known opposing force, the child's adulthood.

Once started, this fourth law of motion cannot be stopped any more than a bruised Isaac could stop gravity and falling apples. Each stage of motherhood has its own peculiar way of proving this hypothesis and now that I have personally finished this experiment, I can now confidently proclaim the Fourth Law truly does exist.

I now await my Nobel Prize.

The following is my official report on what I discovered about the fourth law of motion through real-life experimentation of raising children.

1. During pregnancy, the first proof that the fourth law of motion exists occurs when a force pulls the mother repeatedly to the bathroom, either to throw up or to urinate. Her mass gets bigger and bigger as her waist extends outward into the vast universe. Later in her pregnancy, her abdomen begins involuntary motion as the baby kicks, making it difficult for her to remain at rest. Friction does not decrease this motion, it only creates indigestion.

2. Birthing time arrives and the fourth law continues as the uterus contracts in a sometimes rhythmic and often painful motion. The woman regulates her breathing in an attempt to control this force. Friction is observed again as the mother screams at the doctor for more drugs and yells at the baby's father for causing her current situation. Despite her attempts to control the fourth law, eventually the baby accelerates down the birth canal and into the world.

3. After a day or so, mother and baby arrive at home and the original hypothesis stated that the mother can settle down and remain at rest. This proved to be incorrect because now the baby, assisted by inertia, won't stop crying unless walked, swayed or rocked. Mother walks an elliptical path, orbiting the new living room carpet to keep baby quiet. At parties and family gatherings, when others take the baby for a short time, mother notices continuing motion when she spots herself in a mirror and realizes she is swaying. She starts to believe that perpetual motion is indeed possible.

4. Several months of various movements (including bowel) later, baby learns about the first three laws of motion and begins to crawl and walk. However, this does not stop the effects of the fourth law on the mother. Her motion continues and now the velocity increases. Acceleration is critical when chasing after her little one to protect him from toilet water, lamp cords and eating all her favorite cookies. The child experiments with the laws of motion as he hops out of his crib at 6:00 a.m. and jumps on sleeping mother's stomach. Mother's head and legs shoot toward the planets at a rate inversely equal to the decibel level of her groans squared. (Sir Isaac never came close to discovering this mathematical relationship.)

5. A few more years pass and the little tyke begins various activities. Mother’s motion now consists of driving a car for eighty percent of her waking hours. Gaining momentum, she transports the child from homeschool support group activities to scouts to swimming lessons. Mother has little memory of life without the fourth law of motion. (Isaac could lounge under his fruit tree and invent mathematical concepts like calculus, which is the foundation to analysis. But Analysis is what mother needs to help her understand the motivating forces which produced the motherhood desire.)

6. Mother’s excitement, a function of the square root of her relief, is visible on the day when her child gets a driver’s license. She believes her years of enduring the fourth law are over and she can finally be at rest. She soon realizes she's wrong when she finds herself in orbit around the same worn carpet, pacing the floor until the child gets home safely. Her worries, divided by her freedom, equals the distance traveled over the carpet in one evening.

7. When the child grows to adulthood and ventures out on his own, mother experiences the last effect of the fourth law of motion. She, in a burst of insight greater than Mr. Newton’s, suddenly realizes the gravity of the situation and is moved to tears.

If you have an 'in' with the Nobel Prize Committee, please feel free to nominate me.

Non-Edible Hams in the Dining Room

I received a blast from the past in the mail the other day. It was a renewal for my Amateur Radio License. I totally forgot I even had a Radio License. I've had it for 10 years and talked on air 5 to 10 times I guess.

So why do I have one? Well this is just another example of the experiences I had as a homeschooling mom. Both of my kids were in Civil Air Patrol and radio communications play a big part in that organization. Keith was the Communications Officer of his squadron and even did communications work at the state level.

At one point we had an eight-foot table in our dining room filled with radio communications equipment. You might think that's a bit strange, but it really went well with the existing decor, which was another eight-foot table full of computer equipment. Yeah, YOU might eat in your dining room but not a family of electronic gadget geeks. But hey, it is called Ham radio so maybe it makes some sense.

Anyway, I went along with their idea and decided I would get my license too even though I knew nothing about electronic doohickeys of any sort. I worried I might not be able to learn all the technical information but my kids were great mentors. They were very patient, positive and persistent when they prodded me out from under the bed on the day we were scheduled to take the test. The poke up my nose with the j-pole antenna was particularly motivating.

Even though I ended up not talking on the radio much, I do have some fun memories of learning with my kids. And you know, I kind of miss having those tables in our dining room, especially when I trip over all the exercise equipment that fills up the room now.

The Folks That Created Guitar Hero

were obviously thinking of me when the idea for this game hit them. It is the perfect video game for me. I always wanted to be able to play the classic rock songs I listened to while growing up and I tried learning guitar several times. I always gave up though, because I didn't have the patience to practice as much as I would need to in order to be able to play my favorite songs.

But with Guitar Hero, I can just pick up the guitar and feel like I'm playing those songs immediately. I love it. Our whole family, from grandma on down, has played with this game. Players can improve quickly, people of different abilities can play together, with each player playing at his individual level.

You won't get a blister on your little finger; you won't get a blister on your thumb.

However, I do have one word of WARNING: If you are unable to do the splits before playing this game, you will not be able to do them while playing.

Now, please excuse me, I need to go find my ice pack.