Homeschool Fiction

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DoLifeRight: Tell me a bit about yourself and your family (name, children’s ages, where you live, etc.):

Lisa: I am Lisa Russell, we have six girls age 15, 12, 8, 6, 3 and 17mos and we live in WA State.

DoLifeRight: How long have you homeschooled your children? Do you consider your family an unschooling family? What does this mean for your family?

Lisa: The only official time any of them has spent in a classroom was when my 15 yr old went to public school for 6 mos in middle school for 2 periods a day.

We consider ourselves eclectic unschoolers because we share a lot of classic literature, and discuss it, like the Thomas Jefferson method. I spend a fortune on curriculum all the time because i like having it in the house. We always start them and the kids will zip through it if they like it, or never touch it again.

DoLifeRight: Did you plan to homeschool your children before you actually had children? What is your own educational background?

Lisa: I have some college- Before I had my oldest, I planned to send her to school for socialization and then homeschool her when she came home, so she’d learn something.

DoLifeRight: Why did you decide to not send your children to school? What research did you do to make this decision? Were there any books, magazines, or websites you would recommend new parents (or parents who are new to homeschooling) read?

Lisa: I read absolutely everything I could get my hands on. Growing without Schooling, John Holt, Joseph Chilton Pearce

DoLifeRight: Did you consider yourself an “Attachment Parent” when your children were infants? How did this (or didn’t this) affect your choice to unschool/homeschool your children?

Lisa: Yes, we’re AP and I think it gave me unschooling confidence in the early years

DoLifeRight: What specific benefits to your children (or family as a whole) have you actually seen since you became unschoolers/homeschoolers?

Lisa: My kids can think for themselves, they can spot a phony. My husband keeps odd hours, they get to see him. We’re all very close.

DoLifeRight: Do you have a regular schedule in your life? How does this work with outside commitments and responsibilities?

Lisa: Absolutely no schedule right now. We have a flow, though- a pattern. The little kids crash around 10pm, the middle kids crash around 11pm and my husband and I go to bed around midnight. The older girls, i don’t really know what time they go to sleep. We tend to all wake up in the same order each day. I make a big breakfast when I wake up and by the time it’s done cooking everyone is there to eat. I work from home & when I get hungry, I make a big lunch for everyone. Then I hangout with the kids, we talk talk talk, the middle kids really love workbooks, so they do workbooks and draw pictures while the littler ones bring me a thousand stories to read. The older ones are usually reading at this time. They write a lot, too. My husband makes dinner while I work, then we all eat together. The little ones take baths & put their jammies on, I read them stories & they go to sleep. My older girls then bombard me with talk talk talk talk about their day, what they read, what they drew, what they wrote, funny conversations, their plans, etc while I do dinner dishes. Then, I go back to work while my husband works or watches TV until I can’t stay awake anymore.

DoLifeRight: How important have support groups been for you? Do you have online ones, in person ones, or a mixture? Please list any you want to share.

Lisa: In the past few years I have become very introverted. My support group used to be important to me, now not so much. I don’t feel like I need support anymore, no one IRL understands me.

DoLifeRight: What resources do you use for your children’s “educations”? Feel free to comment on the word “education”.

Lisa: Real life mostly. The internet, the library, community events, museums, magazines, and a ton of curriculum that they’re not forced to do. Sometimes they use it, sometimes they don’t. Usually they use it for reference or read through the lessons.

DoLifeRight: How did your friends and families react when you told them your children wouldn’t be going to school? Have their opinions changed over the years?

Lisa: They thought I’d change my mind when i got annoyed with my kid as she reached kindergarten age, then I’d be glad to see her go.

DoLifeRight: What have been the benefits (unexpected and expected) to homeschooling?

Lisa: Too many to name. Life is good. They grow so fast.

DoLifeRight: How does your family make money? Do you have a job? Full-time or part-time or something in between? Can you tell us about your choices and how you made these decisions?

Lisa: We both work from home. I write and he’s a cinematographer.

DoLifeRight: How have *you* personally grown since you started unschooling/homeschooling your children? How has your relationship with your spouse/partner grown?

Lisa: Our marriage is very good- I am still growing a lot. So is he.

DoLifeRight: Are you able to find time to have your own hobbies, interests, and friends? Beyond your children (of course), what are your interests?

Lisa: oh yes- we both passionately pursue our own hobbies. We have to be good examples, right? I’m learning web design, plus i paint and knit and love thrift-shopping. My husband is trying to build hydrogen fuel cells and learn more about alternative energy through expensive science projects. He wants to build us a completely off-the-grid commune somewhere. I’m building a chicken coop, we like to travel, we’re artsy-gardeny, so many more things. I wouldn’t say my children were my interests or hobbies either. They live with me. We love each other. I drive them places, I buy them food and I listen to their endless diatribes about all things. I plan to start back to college this summer, to get a degree in business law for nonprofits.

DoLifeRight: How do you respond to other people’s questions about the following: completeness of education, socialization, college plans, etc.? Do you give different answers to different people? Why?

Lisa: I do give different people different answers. Whatever their concern is, unschooling/homeschooling is my solution. Like socialization for example; peer dependence is a very bad thing. And education, schools fail by even their own standards; our nation’s founding fathers were self-led learners.

DoLifeRight: If you have more than one child, how do you handle their different interests and desires? If you have one child, how do you handle his/her desires to be with other children? How do you reconcile these interests with your own?

Lisa: I can’t possibly drive my kids to all the things they want to do. My kids have learned to coordinate carpools and keep a wall calendar to make sure everyone can do what they want. They have VERY different interests; it’s a constant effort for all of us.

DoLifeRight: What are the biggest issues you are currently having, or have ever had in regards to parenting and/or homeschooling/unschooling?

Lisa: parenting- maybe this is just a phase- my 3 yr old is bullying my 6 yr old. they’re almost the same size. I don’t know, I’m sure it will pass.

DoLifeRight: Any regrets? We want to hear the good and the bad! This is the best way to make informed decisions.

Lisa: I regret that we dabbled in forced homeschooling for a few years. I regret that my husband and I were working full time for a few years and the kids were left to their own devices for 3-4 hours every day. I went through depression for a while and they raised themselves for a while, like wolves. It’s made us who we are today, grateful for each day together, but there are years that I just don’t remember; I was a different person.

DoLifeRight: Do you have any websites, yahoo lists, etc. that you run or maintain? Please list them here with descriptions.

Lisa: I write for a lot of websites, my blog is http://www.lisarussell.org I’m also the featured homeschooling writer for Suite101 at http://homeschooling.suite101.com

DoLifeRight: Any last thoughts or advice for DoLifeRight’s readers?

Lisa: Unschooling really is the perfect life. Some unschoolers tend to be “strict about the unschooling rules” maybe from a sense of urgency or from their own traumatic super-structured childhood, but don’t let that turn you away from the natural beauty of a harmonious life spent growing together.

I stopped identifying myself as an unschooler because the “women on those unschooling lists were so mean.” They weren’t trying to be mean, they were trying to have deep discussions and revelations. Some of us need to figure things out for ourselves. Enjoy the journey. There’s no wrong way to unschool, there’s only you and your way, which may change every day.

http://www.lisarussell.org because .com and .net were taken

Related Articles:

• 20 Unschooling Questions: Sara from WA, USA
• 20 Unschooling Questions: Candy from Atlanta, GA, USA
• 20 Unschooling Questions: Sylvia from NM, USA
• 20 Unschooling Questions: Sandra Dodd from NM, USA
• 20 Unschooling Questions: Kara from Somers Point, NJ

By: Lisa