Copasetic Flow

 Part of our unschooling plan has always been for the gang, 10 year-old Daize, 9 year-old Mota, and 6 year-old Tawnse to get themselves from place to place. The fact that we live in San Franicsco where a major metropolitan transit system exists that doubles as a school bus system has made this easier. Still, practie makes perfect, so we entered into a new phase of our tranist-readiness program today: preparing to ride BART trains solo. The kids have gone a few cars ahead of me before with no issues, so it seemed like a good idea today for the gang to try heading out one whole train ahead of me. On top of that we found ourselves in the perfect scenario with two trains leaving to the same destination, one just a minute behind the other. And so we tried, but I gotta warn you, our results were interesting but mixed in my opinion, and yes, it was my fault. Finding ourselves with the perfect temporal spacing, I decided we could just 'go for it' even though we were headed to a station...

 This morning, while practicing my fronted adverbials, I came across this from Idaho Bill allowing free-range parenting, the "Reasonable Childhood Independence Act", introduced to Idaho House - would mean kids allowed to engage in independent activities, like walk to the park, won't be considered "neglected" https://t.co/oRTBsSsCyE — Dr. Jacqueline Kory-Westlund (@jacquelinekory) January 15, 2021 Which—as often as the kids here are out and about—sounds great to me. But, having read the bill’s text, I’m both excited, and concerned.  First, the details. The bill was proposed by Rep. Ron Nate. It is H0003, and it’s full text can be found on the Idaho Legislature web site at  https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2021/legislation/H0003.pdf The purpose of the bill is to redefine the definition of negligence so that it does not include activities that kids typically perform independently of parents, (or at least activities that kids typical...

Rae Pica posted regarding the tying of shoes yesterday .  Rae pointed out that if we help kids too much, we might, in turn, make them helpless.  The point being, without the opportunity to try and to fail, will they be able to learn how to do things? The gang, (8 y.o. No. One, 6 y.o. No. Two, and 4 y.o. No. Three), have seen other takes on the old shoe saw.  First, there’s the ever-present, your shoes are on the wrong feet.  I’ve talked about me having to deal with that one before .  These days though, we’re also starting to get ‘your shoes aren’t tied’.  Now that the kids’re getting bigger, I’m not the one dealing with these things anymore.  That’s what I wanted to talk about, by not setting some limits on the kids, the kids are learning how to set limits with others.  It’s kinda cool, and pretty handy for the kids.  Let me illustrate with a story. A year or two ago, the kids and I were riding BART headed downtown for one thing or an...

A thing happened to us in an LA transit station that never-ever happens in San Francisco: a safety officer tried to shepherd the kids... sort of.  I can't say exactly why this has never happened to us in San Francisco, but I've got ideas: frankly, I think San Francisco is just used to us.  We live there.  We're in and out of the stations several times a day every day. Consequently, I'm guessing the same folks who are in the station day after day have noticed the gang plenty of times, perhaps so many times they've completely discounted them at this point. LA on the other hand, seems not to be used to us yet. Our tale starts a few days back.  The kids had spent most of the day doing a seven mile hike up to Griffith Observatory.  We met downtown shortly afterwards to head out on a Metro train.  The journey was pleasant enough—Metro trains are kinda odd for denizens of BART because you can't move from car to car.  The kids ride subways every day, s...

I’m running into this again and again.  I suspect most homeschoolers do.  The four year-old kid’s not allowed to do something because, “What if other parents found out your four year-old was doing it?  Then they’d all want their four year-olds to do it too.” If they don’t know the four year-old I hang out with, the adults first tack is to tell me that four year-olds aren’t capable of whatever the given activity might be, (today it was focusing while learning to swim.)  Once they determine, or believe the kid can, or if they know the kid and therefore know for a fact she can, then they inevitably fall back on, “What if everyone wanted to do it?” First, I have a question.  Is this some sort of public school thing I’ve simply forgotten?  Asking “What if everybody?”  I have vague memories of this sort of argument, but it’s so sweeping and obviously false that it seems comical?  The lie is in the argument.  What if all four year-olds could...

I'm working on a book about unschooling and free-range parenting with the working title: Cootermaroos: A Dad's Guide to raising Happy, Adventurous, Well-Rounded Urchins The following is an excerpt from the book.  To provide a little background, the kids who are now 8, 6, and 4 years old have all been camping since before they could walk.  We apply the same free-range principles to camping and hiking that we use in our every day lives.  On our hikes, the kids range from a quarter to a half mile ahead of us with the single rule that if they come to a fork in the trial they can't range out any further until my partner or I catch up.  With that intro, here's an excerpt on how each of them learned to hike free range! Since we’ve been camping since before the kids could walk, and since we love hiking, we’ve discovered a few misconceptions about what kids can actually do out on the trail.  Just like in town, as each kid begins to take their first steps, I take the...

Today is No. 3’s second birthday!  All of our kids were homebirths.  No. 3 though, was our only solo delivery.  We called the midwives at the same time we always had, as contraction began, but No. 3 was ready to go.  She arrived five minutes before the midwives.  As I scooped her up, she was fascinated with chewing on her foot.  What I really needed her to do though was breathe.  She couldn’t have been less interested.  Consequently, I took her foot away from her mouth.  She very calmly, put it back in, and got back to work.  We did this two more times before she became frustrated enough that she let out a yell at the offending foot and dad.  Hence, No. 3 took her first breaths in the world! Since then, she’s been a little cuddle monkey.  Of our kids, No. 3 seems to emit the most endorphins/pheromones.  She nuzzled everyone she met when she was little.  They’d gasp, and then they’d start to cry; without fail. ...

We were headed to the comic book convention in downtown San Francisco.  We’d emerged onto Market Street after successfully navigating the bus, and subway with our pack: my wife, and I, our 3 year-old, dressed as Kaptain Kapow, our 5 year-old dressed as Princess Areia, and our 1 year-old, wearing the cape of SuperKid.  The hubbub of city life swirled around us.  Shoppers, workers, and the occasional derelict bustled to and fro, creating a fog of people.  The kids spread out, and propagated through it with ease and aplomb. Young Kaptain Kappow forged ahead about 20 yards as SuperKid and I happily trundled down the sidewalk taking in the new fall storefronts.  Princess Areia, and Mom Lady were our rovers for the day, periodically moving from the front to the rear of our pack checking in on everyone.   Looking up I noticed Kappow, confronted by one of the derelicts.  Sound wafted on the wind back down the street.  I could hear, “... fin...