Copasetic Flow

The book is  well organized, well researched, and a quick read... if you already believe in the argument: At least 30% of the value of school (if not far more) is in signalling that you are intelligent, can work hard, and can conform. If you too have already arrived at that conclusion as many unschooling parents have, this book holds two values.  One, to act as a balm for your battered alternative education soul.  Two, to provide statistical research to argue your alternative education views. Sadly, the chances of the book spurring real change in our world, which I strongly believe it should are small.  We would all benefit greatly from changing education to be less about signalling.  However, trusting our fellow citizens to go along rather than take the chance to signal louder is a hard risk to take.  I'll point out one of my own college classes as an anecdotal example.  One professor offered a linear curve which when extended to a highest gr...

We've been reading Man-Eaters by    Chelsea Cain ,  Kate Niemczyk , and  Lia Miternique  since it came out in September of last year.  At first, 'we' was my partner and I.  The eight year-old unschooling kid here who reads just about everything that passes through the house self-selected out.  It wasn't because the book is about menstruation, we talk about that frequently .  It turns out she didn't feel the story was moving along fast enough at first.  One of her key care-abouts for a book is adventure.  So, issue number 1 didn't quite meet her bar. When she picked up  issue 7 though, after watching her 6 year-old brother  peruse it, she was sold!  Consequently, she and I have been re-reading the series for the last couple of weeks.  And I'm here to tell you, it rocks! Not only is there adventure in the later issues, there's also mystery!  No one might be who they initially seem to be.  There are...

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’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...

CS First studies started up at the house again this week!  If you’re not familiar with Google’s CS First program , if you have homeschooling, or unschooling kids who would like to learn programming for free, you should check it out.  The gang here is returning to it after a two month break.  Their break wasn’t inspired by any faults of the program, far from it.  They’ve loved every single class.  Working on their most recent lesson a few months back they spent hours figuring out different graphics schemes for their dancing program. A few days later, they simply became busy with other things.  That happens a lot here, and is one of the many outcomes of our unschooling practice.  Other things come up.  Some classes end, others start.  In the meantime the things the kids are learning fade in and out of their immediate focus. And that’s OK, because their focus returns to the things they really enjoy, every single time.  Earlier thi...

Four year-old No. Three had a blast at her cooking class today!  That’s right.  I said it.  Unschooling kids take classes.  There’s a common misconception that unschooling kids sit quietly in their homes, learning everything through mere osmosis.  It’s no wonder—given this misconception—that many people think unschooling, ‘Just couldn’t work!’   The difference between kids that are unschooled and those who aren’t, well at least one of the differences, is that unschooling kids only attend the classes they want to. That single small difference in personal control makes for an amazingly large difference in how they interact with the class.  Three is delighted to be in her cooking class.  It’s all grins and giggle from the time she enters class until the time she leaves.  Don’t get the wrong idea though!  Grinning and giggling does not mean she’s goofing off.  Her attention is locked on the instructor’s every word.  She ...