A Departure

In March of 2007 the Lizard King and I made the decision to homeschool Princess. Having always wanted to be a teacher, I was as excited for me as I was for her. I learned about unschooling and was fascinated by it. It sounded so beautiful and natural. I wasn't sure it would work, but we started on that path and found that it does work and it was wonderful. Princess learned to read and is figuring out math as we live our lives.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I've been feeling so very conflicted. I trust and love the unschooling life and it works well for us. Still, I felt like something was missing.

A few days ago I pulled out some old workbooks that I had purchased in the very beginning. We started with a Strawberry Shortcake telling time workbook. We worked on this until we were half way through the book. When I wanted to stop, I got the same disappointed response that I get at the end of a playdate. "Awwwwww! Can we do more? Pleeeaaaase?"

The next morning at breakfast Princess told me she wanted to work in that book again. I told her that when we got home from ballet in the afternoon we could do it then. Her response was a big whine. She was begging me to work in this book. We ended up being 30 minutes late for a playdate because she wanted to do school work!

How can I deny her this when she loves it so much, simply because I want to live this unschooled life? Isn't part of unschooling following your child's passions?

We have been working on some things over the last few days. For science we have done Sid the Science Kid, watching the shows and then doing the explorations ourselves. We bought a sketch book from the craft store and decorated it to use as a science journal.

I bought some writing paper and Princess started writing and illustrating a well know rhyme.


We read to each other every day. I've ordered a Montessori style math program. I purchased Story of the World Volume I where we can learn history in a story format and do activities related to what we learn. I found a geography book at The Learning Palace.

Princess is having the best time! She absolutely loves it! I'm pretty relaxed about how we do it and when we do it and even if we do it. So what are we now?

I've decided we are eclectic homeschoolers for a couple of reasons. What we're doing is pretty eclectic. We are doing school work with an unschooly attitude. Unschoolers would say that we aren't unschoolers and traditional homeschoolers would call us unschoolers so I think eclectic works well. The other reason? I like the sound of the word. *eclectic* Say it! It's fun!

Dinner Time

This is how we dressed for dinner last night. The adornments on our heads were space helmets that were necessary for our trip to Mars. This is the second day in a row that we have had to take this trip. The reason we visit Mars is that it is a hot planet. Perhaps Princess is looking for a break from the cold?

And yes, this is evidently appropriate attire for washing dishes as well.

Later we had conversation about our day tomorrow. I reminded her that we have Math class with Rooster X. Her reply? Can we stay for the whole class this time? Yes, homeschooling rocks. My daughter was disappointed when we had to rush out last week for my chiropractor appointment. I assured her we could stay for the whole class this time.

I read the "Life Without School" blog. A variety of unschooling moms post there. The other day this video was posted by Jena. I find it hugely entertaining, wildly inspirational and it's something that reminds me why our decision to homeschool/unschool is right for us.

Our daughter needs to move. We provide her with ample opportunity to do so. She takes ballet, swimming, art, and soccer. She has asked to take piano and voice lessons. She participates in classes at VH that, for the most part, are active. Kids need to move.

At any rate, I wanted to share this video from ted.com featuring creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson. The website describes it this way: Ken Robinson "challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence."

To my knowledge he is not a homeschooler or a homeschool advocate. He is simply an academic, speaking to the establishment. I found him to be very entertaining. Enjoy!