Homeschool Fiction

This post was inspired by the “I’m THAT Mom” blog carnival started on July 26, 2010 by Flo and Ronnie and many other wonderful bloggers–I know of over 40 posts in the carnival and they are all wonderful and inspiring.

I’m the mother who, after being told by her three year old daughter that she only [...]

On Friday, July 16th, Jennifer Waddell and her cameraman Jimmy came to my family’s house to interview us about our Radical Unschooling lifestyle. Since it’s been asked: Opening our home to the interview was a big decision that my family made together. If even one of us had decided not to, the answer would have [...]

My family was recently interviewed about our unschooling lifestyle. While I didn’t answer all the questions exactly like I do below, nor were the same questions asked, I thought you might enjoy reading some answers to questions that have been asked of me and my family lately.

Q: What is Unschooling?
A: Unschooling is a type [...]

The great thing about living an unschooling lifestyle is that we come to truly appreciate our children’s (and our own) passions. My daughters have never been required by myself, my husband, or anyone else, to learn things on a particular timeline or schedule. We’ve never given them tests, quizzed them on their knowledge, or [...]

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them. If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. — Robert Heinlein
In a conversation about rules and principles in a family life, I [...]

I was recently asked in a round about way what items I felt were essential for homeschooling success.
This is the IN ORDER list of tangible purchases my family couldn’t live without in 2010 and still be a successful homeschooling family:

High speed internet and at least one household computer that all members of the family are [...]

When people find out that my family considers ourselves to be Radical Unschoolers, they almost always become confused and then angry–in that order.
The confusion comes when they hear the definition of “radical unschooling”. I state, calmly and succinctly, that it means living without school, artificial rules, or others’ definitions of what we should or should [...]

Since every unschooling family I’ve ever met has been seemingly completely different than all the others, it made me wonder: just what do these people all have in common? How is it that they all call themselves unschoolers? Just what is this unschooling philosophy about if it can draw so many people from such diverse [...]

My older daughter, Zoë, is enamored with words and their literal meanings.  We’ll sit and watch a movie together and she starts laughing at the most mundance sentences.  Awhile ago, as we watched a Star Trek: Enterprise episode, she could barely contain her glee at the phrase “tractor emissions” — she was visualizing actual John [...]

The biggest part of unschooling that those who don’t know unschoolers seem to not grasp right away is the intensity of kids to have a passion.
When researching my children’s educational choices over ten years ago (they are currently 13.5 and 9.5), I kept reading about these amazing people who were doing amazing things. 9 times [...]