Copasetic Flow

 In unschooling, we run across a lot of literature and opinions about how to teach someone to read. Did you know, (I didn't), in 1897, there were studies about how to learn Morse code? I did not: https://grants.hhp.uh.edu/clayne/HistoryofMC/Bryan&Harter-1897.pdf The gang and I are starting in learning Morse this week (again). Watch here for more updates on how it's going. Our Morse practice site of the moment: https://www.aa9pw.com/morsecode/test/ Picture of a https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2008/11/casing-up-rockmite.html:

 So, fellow unschooling folks, help me with a thing here, if you would, please? To me, one of the tenets of unschooling is that the people who are learning choose their method of learning. We’ve held to this over the years. For example, when the oldest kid, Daize—as always, an alias—who is now 9, thought that kindergarten in public school, might be her best way to learn, off she went. When she decided, four weeks later, that she had changed her mind, I spent the better part of a day taking public transit around San Francisco getting her unenrolled. So, like I say, we take this roll-your-own  aspect of unschooling seriously, but last week, the middle kid, aka Towser, aged 8, asked me a thing… He asked me to force him to read and write. And, what am I supposed to do with that? (This is where I need your help by the way.) Can Towser be forced when he doesn’t want to be forced? In a word, No! I know this because I learned it as part of my unschooling journey. Frankly, it would hav...

It’s unanimous, everyone that reads here is a huge fan of ‘ Truly Devious ’ by Maureen Johnson .  I found out about the book somewhere on author twitter last year a month or so before Christmas.  I thought it would appeal to my partner because she’s into mysteries, but I also thought it might appeal to the 8 y.o. reader here since it’s in the young adult book category.  When Christmas rolled around, I still hadn’t figured out who the book was for, so it kinda became a present for all of us.  My partner read it first, then No. One, the 8 y.o., and finally me. The book has a twisted time stream, and takes place in two eras.  The official crime of the book, the one the protagonist originally sets out to solve is a kidnapping/murder that took place at the start of the 20th century.  As the story carries on though, the bodies start to pile up in the present time as well.  Are the new deaths murders or accidents?  Are they related to the original mu...

I often see the question, what do people do on long road trips to avoid too much screen time for kids?  First, a disclaimer.  I have no personal druthers about screentime one way or the other.  I think whatever works best for each family works best.  We, missed the screentime issue by simple circumstance.  When the kids came, we were poor grad students; too poor to afford screens.  Consequently, we’ve just never had them. So, what do we do on road trips without screens?  One of the answers is libraries!  (Actually an article in the New York Times a few days back, commenting on the rising popularity of libraries is what made me think of all this.)  On our latest cross-country road trip, our yearly two-week camping trip, we stopped at about a library a day.  They were delightful!  We go to read a little.  We used their free WiFi to keep up with communications as we went.    The kids read, they played with toys, they m...

Today, an interesting thing happened today in the reading career of six year-old No. Two.  First, I should point out that Two doesn’t read yet.  He’s not really interested in it.  At least, he’s not passionate about it, (to say the least).  While he did express a desire to learn to read several months ago, since then, he’s worked at it only haltingly.  He’ll memorize a letter or two here and there, but really?  It’s just not his thing yet. So, getting back to today’s surprise.  I’m working on a programming project with the kids using the REST API to Google mail.  There’s been a call in our homeschooling group for parents to submit lists of playgrounds they’d like the group to attend for park days in the coming year.  The kids and I have frankly enjoyed almost every playground we’ve visited in the city, (there are dozens of them), so we didn't feel the need to be original, but we do need a list of all the playgrounds we have visit.  We ...

A bit of a conflagration took place in the unschooling portion of twitter this week.  The discussion revolved around whether or not children have power and whether or not we as parents ‘have to’ coerce them. As an unschooling dad, I like to believe kids do have power.  I like to back off as much as I can, and I’ve discovered the more I back off, the better things go.  And, therein lies the rub, I think.  Yes, I do have power, both based on my size, my ‘status’ in society, and money.  Choosing not to use that power however is what improves my life and the kids’.  As an unschooling parent, I think the kids should be learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it.  I also think that the thought that I could coerce the kids into learning things by applying my power is wrong-headed.  Let’s take, for example six year-old No. Two’s efforts to read, or perhaps I’d be more accurate in phrasing it as his lack of effort to read.  Fo...

I hear it a lot on the internets, “Unschooling parents are a bunch of people who don’t do anything for their kids.”  Only occasionally is that statement true.  I’m here to point out though, that even when it is true it’s slightly inaccurate in it’s wording; it’s not that us unschooling parents don’t do anything, it’s that occasionally we won’t do anything, and when we won’t, it’s one of the best teaching techniques out there. Five year-old No. 2 has been quite clear with us, he’s not interested in being taught much of anything.  Counting?  Not really interested.  Reading?  Yeah, he’ll stand there, and listen to what you tell him the words are, but you can’t make him look at the letters.  He’s going to learn when he wants to learn. He does, however, love books  He flips through them page after page checking out the pictures, sometimes making up the stories for himself.  He also loves being able to do most things his older sib, 7 year-old...

The creators of Bug! Adventures of Forager are coming to our local comic book shop today!  Seven year-old No. 1 and I read Bug! starting about a year ago.  I picked up a copy when we went to the same funny book shop to meet the creators of another of our favorites, Doom Patrol.  Both comic books are produced by the DC Comics imprint, Young Animal. The book written by Lee Allred, drawn by Michael Allred, and colored by Laura Allred picks up where DC's 1988, Cosmic Odyssey left off.  Turns out Bug wasn't dead at the end of the '88 book he was, "...merely dormant. Science, blah blah blah." #LinerNotes My stick figure for the Metronsplaing panel vs. Mike's actual art. Dear DC: #IcanHazArtJobNow ? pic.twitter.com/IEkFKfaqeK — Lee Allred (@lee_allred) May 12, 2017 Bug, aka Forager, almost immediately encounters a talking teddy bear, and a ghost girl.  The three become fast travelling buddies, after an accident triggers a Mother Box made of Dominoes to...

The gang, (7 y.o. No. 1, 5 y.o. No. 2 and 3 y.o. No. 3), are reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray" this week.  I hear that the story will become more variated as we go on, but for the moment, it's been easy-going and pleasant.  Two somewhat attractive men, one an artist putting the finishing touches on what may be his greatest painting, the other a Lord lounging on a divan made Persian saddle bags are discussing a beautiful man, the subject of said artist's, said painting.  This, like The Island of Dr. Moreau before it has sprung from 2's interest in ghosts and zombies, and our library's book group studying Mystery and Horror in Victorian England.  So far, it's a blast.  We're learning new words, new turns of phrase, and new, albeit fictional and archaic, surroundings. The gang have also been studying movement.  They're working on balance, strength, and falling.  Their work has changed our public transit system from a living room surrogate to a...

I've been catching up on my old X-Files episodes this week after bedtime.  It may be more proof of our hive-mind theory that the kids picked up two urban-legend themed books on their latest trip to the library: Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman and Nick Maland; and Vampire Baby by Kelly Bennett and Paul Meisel. Five year-old No. 2 took the time to snuggle in so we could read Snip Snap! What's That? as I was recovering from whatever kind of sinus/allergy/snot sort of croop has hit this month.  I loved the book, and it's clearly one of 2's favorites!  To be honest I liked that 2 is picking up more and more letters and their sounds all the time.  He's pointing at letters, making the sounds, and sounding things out!  Now that he's started in on this learning to read thing , it seems he's unstoppable.  I also enjoyed it because it brought up two tropes I'd forgotten about long ago. The first is a big-city trope I had as a child.  From watch...

We unschool.  This blog talks all about what our unschooling family does on a day to day basis, but rarely, (at least recently), mentions unschooling.  But, a really cool thing happened last week, so here goes.  Five year-old No. 2 said he wanted to learn to read! Before I get into 2 and his desire to learn to read, I should perhaps point out what unschooling is, as well as what it is to us.  Unschooling is a schooling methodology wherein the curriculum is based on what the learner wants to learn.  The general idea is that kid’s live life, and as they express an interest in a subject, they’re assisted, (if they need assistance), in finding material with which to learn, and perhaps encouraged, (it depends on the particular interpretation of unschooling), and perhaps taught when and if they ask for help. While it might sound as if unschooling kids are dropped into an educational void, and told to swim, that’s not the case.  Parents ‘strew’ educational m...