;)
I guess the above statement refers more to myself than to my kids, who are both just 7 years old, and, so by the general deschooling 'rule of thumb' should need about 2 to 3 months of deschooling (they are currently in 1st and 2nd grades). I, however, was in public school for 13.5 years, and I have attended enough part time semesters of university to equal at least 7 years (of my time, not credit time), so we're talking 2 years of deschooling for this gal! And still 3 more academic semesters (and 27 credits) left of my Bachelor of Social Work degree, plus becoming 'designated' as a government child protection officer, before I'm done with this bout of schooling... and I'm pretty certain I want to pursue a graduate degree.
Currently, I am on a two week semester break. I had grand plans for how I was going to spend that time. I was going to clean and organize all the spaces in my house, from the mountains of laundry in my bedroom (clean and dirty, no one likes to fold or hang up clothes in this house) to the spare bedroom downstairs that the kids have littered with tiny Lego pieces, Bakugan's, Pokemon cards and figurines, knights, police guys, etc, ad nauseum, infinitum... I was going to work like crazy in my garden and with my seed starts inside (set up grow lights on timer, transplant to bigger pots, thin out the tomatoes...). Heck, I was even going to do my taxes, and submit that A+ paper to the University's writing competition... yeah, still haven't done that. Heck, I haven't done much of anything, except sit on the computer, surfing the net. I've been immersed in unschooling yahoo lists, reading posts for hours, following links, googling ideas and people and blogs and conferences. I came across the following quote on one of those lists:
unschooling is about more than education. It's a radical shift in how one lives life, seeing value in all things and being joyful and not succumbing to societal expectations of what is valuable and necessary and cool and acceptable. It's about showing respect and love. It's about honoring others and their needs. And that's just the tip of the unschooling iceberg.Um, yeah, SO not me these days! I've been super tired and cranky and downright mean to my family. I am just plain ol' angry and resentful. I've probably been recovering from burnout, and I've recently realized I've definitely been deschooling. I'm also realizing it's a process, and I've got to trust the process.
A list of the things I've been doing in the last few weeks to support my journey to becoming an unschooling mama:
- joined AlwaysLearning, Unschooling_Canada, and unschoolingbasics lists on Yahoo
- contacted SelfDesign (an unschooling friendly Distributed Learning school) and put the kids on the list for next year
- contacted HLSF, a local group of homelearners who have monthly meetings and a weblist, who suggested I join HS-Van, a list with homeschooling resources, etc, in the Greater Vancouver area
- found all the unschooling related books at my local library, and requested a bunch, including a few by John Holt (just got an email that How Children Learn is available for pick up!)
- currently reading Deschooling our Lives and The Unschooling Handbook
- found the Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Education (JUAL), edited by Carlo Ricci, PhD, and instructor in the faculty of education's graduate program at Nipissing University
- joined the Radical Unschooling Info facebook group
- talked with the kids about homeschooling (they're excited. they hate school. they want to learn more about math when we homeschool. we started skip counting right then and there)
- talked with my mom about homeschooling the kids next year, and having her be with them on Fridays, one of her days off of work, while I take classes, study, have practicum, etc.
- talked with mom about her concerns with unschooling (she wants to be sure they learn math. they love math, no worries, I couldn't stop them if I wanted to)
- talked with hubby about him being the homeschooling parent one day per week
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