Copasetic Flow

“What do you think our writing group should look like?” I asked 8 y.o. No. Two as we headed into town on BART.  I’d heard, every unschooling parent has heard, that things will work best when the kids are put in charge of their own learning.  I knew Two wanted a writing group.  That’s why we were headed into the library presentation on writing groups, but I’d never though to ask her what she wanted in a writing group.  Not until now. “I’d like us to meet outside.” This should have come as no surprise to me.  The kid loves being outdoors.  She loves nature.  Her favorite superhero is Poison Ivy. “Cool, what if we met at different playgrounds or other places around town, what if we moved the meeting around?  That way members that live in different neighborhoods can attend meetings when they swing nearby.” “Sounds good.  We could have it at libraries too!”  She chimed in. “All right.” “When we have it at libraries, we could w...

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 ...

Socialization in the Real World I say we’re an unschooling family with no curriculum, and to an extent that’s true.  To an extent though, it’s not.  I do have goals for the kids.  I’d like them to move more fluidly through the world than I did as a kid.  I was shy.  Sometimes I couldn't’ think of the right things to say.  Sometimes, I didn’t want to speak at all.  To this day, new experiences jar me.  I’ve developed coping techniques, and yet.  If I get a chance to visit a place by myself and take it in, I’m fine.  If I get dropped into a place out of the blue with other people, I’m just a little bit disoriented.  Things are just a little bit harder to do.  I’d like for the gang here to not have these experiences.  I’d like for them to feel okay talking to whoever, wherever, and whenever.  To that end, the gang and I spend a lot of time in places where the kids can practice communicating, where they can see new thing...

A few days ago, 6 y.o. No. Two reminded me that to assume I knowhow someone listens, much less how they learn is rather superemrly arrogoant of me.  Two, of course, didn’t remind me by telling mei. He’d never do anything so crass—he’s far too decent of a person for that. He reminded me by showing me.  Two and I attended an AlienCon panel featuring Joel and Paul Hynek. If you’re not a huge AlienCon fan, the Hyneks’ dad, Dr. Allen Hynek , was the a scientific consultant for three the Air Force's UFO investigations, Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book.  A new TV series dramatizes their family’s life along with some of the UFO cases their dad investigated. Paul Hynek serves as a technical advisor for the show while his brother Joel, is actually portrayed on the show. Joel has other props in show business as well: he won an Academy Award for Visual Effects. The brothers held my rapt atention with their stories, accompanied by family photos displayed o...

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 can’t wait!  Our annual two week camping trip is coming up in a few weeks.  We’ll head out and away from town—the one time all year we actually drive a car—to explore the forests, rivers, deserts and rock formations around us in a roughly four or five state radius.  We plan travel a lot like we plan unschooling—in broad swaths of possibilities.  We know we want to camp.  We know we want to fish.  We know we’d like to see snow.  (Yup, there are totally places to see snow in June.  It even snowed on us a little last June.)  Finally, we know we’d like to see the dry, warm desert.  We’re making a north, then south loop that will get these things done, but we’re unclear on all the rest of the details so far.  I know we’ll stay off of interstates in favor of state highways.  The little towns and the countryside are better out there; there’s less traffic; and the people are really nice.  We might head towards a few places w...

Do kids need to learn math?  When do they need to learn to read?  Are history, art, and civics still important?  Do kids still need well-rounded educations (whatever that means)?  A recent conversation  on edu twitter  revolved around an article printed in the Atlantic  quoting the results of a research study: the vast majority of people use little math beyond fractions in their daily lives.  As a white collar worker in engineering who rarely uses math beyond fractions I’m inclined to believe it. Here’s the thing though, does any of this really matter?  What if instead of deciding what was important to learn, spending countless hours debating what we should force other people to learn; what if we just let those people learn what they were interested in?  And of course, the people of which I speak are kids because really, how many of us would deign to think it was OK to tell anyone that wasn’t a kid what they had to learn? Here’s ...