LFLF Editor's Blog

Choosing Paths over Pavement

During the past week or two, temperatures in the afternoons have reached over 100 degrees (yesterday, it was 106).  Because our air conditioner is meant for a much smaller house (ugh - landlords), I've taken to sleeping for an hour or so in the back bedroom - the coolest room in the house - during the hottest part of the day.  This afternoon, I awoke with an interesting metaphor spilling out of what must have been a rather good dream: the difference between a path and a paved road.

A path is shaped by the people who use it.  Someone discovered the best way to get somewhere - maybe the quickest, maybe the most scenic and enjoyable - and over the months or years, as that person walked those same steps again and again, the grass was worn down and a path was formed.  Perhaps others walked that way, as well, helping to create the path more quickly, and as new people come upon the trail of crushed grasses, whether at the path's beginning or somewhere along the way, they might follow to find out where it leads - maybe it leads to their destination.  The more people who use the path, the larger and easier to follow the path becomes.  Those who come to the path later find it well-worn and quite easy to follow.  When the path is no longer needed - when it no longer serves a purpose - people abandon it to forge new paths. 

A paved road is shaped by committee.  A group of experts decides what is best for the people and deliberates over the length and width of the road, the direction, the speed at which one may travel, the places where one may enter or exit, etc.  They spend lots of money and manpower acquiring permits, turning gravel into asphalt, cutting through hills and digging up earth, mixing and laying the asphalt....  The more people who use the road, the more often it breaks and requires repairs, eventually needing to be completely repaved - a costly undertaking and a huge inconvenience for those who have come to depend on it.  Because so many people travel the road, houses and shops spring up around it; it's simply easier to be near the road than away from it.  Soon, there is a town crowded with people, all driving the now-congested road, unaware of any other way to get from one place to another.  Throats thick with smog, they arrive, coughing. They've forgotten how to forge their own paths. 

Paths versus paved roads. 

Unschooling versus schooling.

My family prefers the paths.

Nighttime Spelling

Kenzie has been reading voraciously for over three years now, but he's never felt confident spelling.  Instead, he's become adept at finding what he wants to spell so he can copy it, and several times a day, he asks me to spell words for him - for lists he makes, for computer searches, for captions to his ever-growing number of drawings.... 

Tonight, while filling in a new Pokemon book, he came up to me several times asking how to spell various things.  He wanted to know the abbreviation for September, and I told him, "S-E-P-T."  He disappeared for a moment, only to rush almost immediately back.  "I know how to spell the whole September!  S-E-P-T-E-M-B-E-R!" he proudly announced.  "I spelled a really big word!"  He then asked me to give him words to spell, and over the next half hour he spelled: baker, game, master, globe, clock, sing, bookcase, puppy, floor, flower, dinosaur, hands, giver, child, children, shrub, tree, mushroom, popcorn, water, pepper, wooden, belly, plate, platter, glass, power, bowl, pole, frame, soup, handle, magazine, hair, fear, table, noise, have and company.

He needed very little help from me, and it was almost breathtaking to see him spelling out words with double letters, silent letters, diphthongs and exceptions-to-the-rule without missing a beat.  Amazing.  He's disappeared again into the bedroom to work on his Pokemon guide.  It's about 12:30 in the morning. God, how I love middle-of-the-night unschooling adventures!

Old Photograhs

Yes, I've changed the blog, again.  I'm a tweaker - what can I say?  For years, I've collected old photographs, but I've never quite figured out what to do with them.  Still, every time I pass by a bin of photos in an antique store or junk shop, I am compelled to stop and sort for an hour or more.  I don't know what's collectable, much less valuable, but I know when a picture grabs me and won't let go.  Those are the photos that travel home with me.  I keep them wrapped in a small, brown paper bag in my grandmother's dresser. 

I've never been much of a scrapbooker (I think I made it up to Kenzie's first Christmas) or a journaler (evidenced by the many blank books lying around the house, only a few of their pages filled), but I do enjoy blogging, for some reason (and tweaking the blog, obviously).  Luckily, Kenzie loves to see himself on the web.  Tonight, he spent over an hour looking through the blog archives, grinning wildly and yelling, "I remember that!"

The wind has picked up a bit here, but because the storm shifted to the east, we may not even see rain.  I've been watching CNN intermittently, but mostly I've kept it on mute, listening to Gillian Welch, instead.  "Gotta be a song left to sing, 'cause everbody can't have thought of everything."  Ah, Gillian Welch and a glass of wine.... 

A Sick Day

As I posted earlier, Kenzie's taking it easy today....  While he played on the computer a bit, I turned on the last twenty minutes of an old West Wing rerun.  I adore this show.  I can watch an episode over and over and never tire of it.  Anyway, today, Kenzie decided he felt like watching with me.  I didn't realize he had picked up so much about the show over the past few months.  He understood the job of the press secretary, the speech writers and the president's personal aid.  (Not surprisingly, he had a little trouble putting into words exactly what Josh and Leo did.)  We talked about their jobs and about how the president needs lots of knowledgeable people around for three reasons: one, it's impossible for a single person to keep up with everything on her/his own; two, the person making the decisions needs to hear lots of different perspectives in order to understand all sides of an issue; and three, there's quite a lot of work that needs to be done by the president's office - way too much for one person - so the president gathers people she/he trusts to do that work.

Later, we watched a bit of Wolf Blitzer's The Situation Room on CNN.  I'll admit, at first I was turned off by the program - too many images, too many people waiting in the wings.  There was just too much going on at once, and it brought about a feeling of panic.  I half-wanted Walter Cronkite to come in, sit down, and let the American public know that everything would be okay.  However, after watching the Katrina disaster unfold, I gained a bit of respect for the program.  It was nice to have so many different perspectives in one show.  Blitzer was good about pulling the various strands together.

Today, Kenzie and I watched footage of the millions of people trying to flee the Texas coast.  We looked at a map to see how close Houston is to Cedar Park (about 180 miles) and talked about how long it should take to get from one city to the other, comparing that to how long it was actually taking people to drive here.  One woman who started off yesterday around noon said it took her 19 hours to drive from Houston to Austin (our neighboring city).  We talked about the gas shortage and how this will affect us.  We talked about whether we would see the remnants of Hurricane Rita Saturday and what that might be like. 

In addition to watching television, Kenzie's been looking up Gameboys on eBay, finding each seller is charging for shipping and adding it to the total, and then calculating how long it will take to save for each one (assuming no one else bids).  He's been rearranging his Pokemon cards and reading Pokemon manuals.  He's drawn a bit and read some.  And, he's been jumping around on the stair stepper (until he tires himself out and flops down in front of the television).  We've also been asking each other questions from our History Flip Quiz books.  Often, if he doesn't know the answer, he knows where to find it, so he rushes off for this book or that (usually Horrible Histories), or the placemat with the presidents on it, or the globe or....  And, I'd better not tell him the answer before he figures it out himself!  I learned that lesson quickly: "Mo-om!  I was almost to the right page!  Jeeze!"

"Budget" Living

Kenzie's getting over a cold, and when that happens, he often loses his voice - even if the cold wasn't a terrible one.  He hates losing his voice because he can't sing; usually he sings all day long, so this is really getting him down.  He's mostly been watching television and snacking on dry cereal.

Because the magazine and website are both caught up, and since Kenzie isn't up to playing or going out, I've been reading a bit and browsing through magazines - like the new one that came in the mail today: Budget Living.  I'm getting it for free, so it's certainly not breaking my budget, but I can't imagine paying for this.  How can a magazine called Budget anything feature $450 coats, $400 purses, and ads for new cars and digital cameras?  Am I missing something? 

Like most homeschooling families, we live frugally.  We haunt thrift shops, used book stores and garage sales.  We find things on eBay and half.com.  Kenzie's clothing is usually bought a few sizes too big so he can wear it for more than one season.  Our furniture is high quality, but bought very cheaply - from the $5 chair to the $30 stereo/television stand (a beautiful wooden cabinet) to the $125 upright piano built in 1888 (still in beautiful working condition and with no cosmetic blemishes - it's gorgeous).  We keep track of every penny spent - on bills, groceries, you name it.  We've all gotten very good at searching for bargains.  I'm fairly sure that "Budget Living" for many homeschooling families looks more like our life than what this strange magazine proposes.

A Short Tour

I looked around my house earlier today with a critical eye.  Not negatively, but objectively.  What does our home look like to those who visit, to those who aren't familiar with unschooling?

Today, the floors were strewn with discarded books like Mega Powers by Jack Weyland ("Can science fact defeat science fiction?"), Bart Simpson's Guide to Life by Matt Groening (of course), the Flip Quiz History book, Cut and Make North American Indian Masks by A.G. Smith and Josie Hazen, the second Harry Potter book (again), and several others I've already put away.  Five or six half-finished unschooling, parenting, Dreamweaver, and Oprah-type books (shh - don't tell anyone) sat on arms of chairs and beside the bed.  My desk overflowed with papers, books, magazines, software, stamps, labels and goodness-knows what else.  Book-pressed leaves and flowers fluttered delicately on the couch underneath the ceiling fan.  The Stellarscope was left beside its case on the dresser, trading cards of all sorts were scattered here and there, a board game about Ancient Egypt lay open, gel pens, construction paper and scissors covered most available side tables and dresser surfaces, action figures were crumpled in strange angles in the bathtub, Lego structures sat half-complete, a crystal-growing experiment and magnifying glass graced the kitchen table along with a few dozen Mancala stones grouped by color, and a commercial-free satellite station played folk music on the television.

There are three large bookcases in the living room - two for my books and one for some of Kenzie's books and board games.  There's a piano, a mandolin, a banjo and a guitar, as well as several strange percussion instruments and a small, beautiful child's piano.  There's a huge stair climber Kenzie loves to play around on, the five bettas, a globe, and a place value board.  Kenzie's framed art graces the walls, along with framed posters of Woody Guthrie, John Gorka, Klimt's Mother and Child painting and several of Arthur Rackham's pieces.  The main stereo and cds are also in the living room.

In the "dining room" sits my desk, the main computer, the laser printer, and all the rest that comes with publishing Live Free Learn Free, four smaller bookcases packed tight with Kenzie's books, and another large bookcase filled with Kenzie's art supplies, more board games and his magazines. 

The kitchen houses the refrigerator, covered with Kenzie's artwork and lists.  The kitchen table is home to a small boombox and an array of ever-changing projects. 

In addition to my great-grandmother's old iron bedstead topped with a huge velvet patchwork spread, the bedroom houses the toys - a black metal shelving unit holds tubs of blocks, action figures, trading cards, Bionicle, Imaginex, Beanie Babies and more.  There are other tubs for Legos and Construx, for larger stuffed animals, for pattern blocks, for small musical instruments.  There are soccer and kickballs, as well as a scooter - all both indoor and outdoor toys.  There is another small bookcase for Kenzie, as well as a desk/bookcase I've had since I was a child that now houses many of my sentimental books and papers. The dressers and the desktop are left bare, waiting for projects to be spread out upon them.   

In the bathroom are books here and there and a Nerf basketball net hung on the closet door. 

Yes, I looked around and thought, people must be amazed at all the stuff! Terry's books are in his dark little "office," along with his desks, his computers and his art supplies, and I'm very selective about my books, keeping only those that I love and will read again and again, but Kenzie likes to have tons of books ready and waiting for whenever he becomes interested in this or that.  Toy-wise, he's not overloaded; they fit neatly on one wall of the bedroom.  But, books and boardgames threaten to do us in. 

When I walk into others' homes, I'm usually jarred to find the children's things all tucked neatly into bedrooms and playrooms.  Perhaps there's a toy or two on the coffee table, but that's about it.  Kenzie and I both spread out (though Terry likes to keep his things all together) using whatever space is available - kitchen, living room, even bathroom.  We take over the whole house.  We're both good about keeping it clean, for the most part - Kenzie usually picking up before he heads off to bed  each night and me picking up in spurts throughout the day (though my desk is a notable exception).  At our house, exploring and learning isn't a tidy activity - for either of us.  Our home could never look like those in the pages of magazines: beautiful but unlived-in, everything perfectly placed.

Anyway, I was just musing on these things today, thinking about how comfortable our home feels.  I do wonder, however, exactly what goes through people's minds when they first step in....

Oh, and in case you were curious, here's a picture of the Stellarscope (picked up for a few dollars at the Rethinking Education conference "Recycled Resource Sale") - very cool.

Pokemon Collage

Kenzie's been drawing Pokemon like crazy these past few days, spending hours with paper and glittery gel pens.  His latest creation (click to enlarge):

Updating

My desk is piled high with unschooling books, homeschooling magazines and Dreamweaver manuals.  I've been scanning and typing all night, but I've finally got the webpage updated with photos of the books and magazines in the general unschooling resources section.  Now, I'll start working on the other pages - history, math, etc.  It will probably take a while (an understatement, if ever I heard one), but I just love the way the pages look when they're brimming pictures of resources. 

Three Characteristics

I picked up Mary Griffith's The Unschooling Handbook again today after many years.  I always considered it a great starter book, and after spending some time on Ms. Griffith's website earlier, I wanted to give it another read-through. 

Over the last several years, there have been countless attempts to define (or un-define) unschooling.  Some say it must look like this or that; others say that each unschooling experience will look different.  Almost everyone, however, has focused on the details rather than the broader picture.  While reading through The Unschooling Handbook, I was struck by the section titled "Traits of an Unschooling Household." She listed three:

1. An environment conducive to exploration and experimentation

2. Adults as models and facilitators

3. Trust that the child will learn

That's it.  Simple.  Succinct.  By characterizing unschooling so broadly, Mary Griffith gets it exactly right.  She understands that each unschooling family will look different from the next, but recognizes the common threads they all share.  You can read more about these characteristics here.

These three characteristics invite readers to interpret unschooling in their own ways - ways that work well for their families - fostering much-needed confidence about following such a (seemingly) revolutionary lifestyle. If these parents are then interested in learning about specific areas of unschooling - television, taking classes, textbook use, chores, etc. - their confidence in their own ability to unschool will allow them to explore different ideas (perhaps ideas that may seem radical at first) with the self-assurance necessary to adequately evaluate whether they are a good fit for their families.

Does unschooling require a definition beyond these three characteristics?  Should we search for something more exhaustive and meticulous?  No.

Rather than working to put together a one-size-fits-all definition, unschoolers might better focus their energies on painting pictures of their days.  Those who need inspiration and those who are new to the ideas of unschooling will find more support and encouragement in these accounts than in any itemized definition, no matter how thorough and well-researched.

Young Mr. Lincoln

The book sale was much more leisurely than I had anticipated.  For the first hour, there were no more than 50 people there (though after that, I couldn't even begin to count), and because the sale was so large and spread-out, there was no problem getting to interesting books - and there were tons of interesting books.  Kenzie ended up with several graphic novels, a few Pokemon books, a book about New Orleans, some cool history books and assorted other goodies.  Terry found some fantasy/sci-fi novels and a couple graphic design/art books.  I discovered an interesting little book of New York Times headlines and stories spanning over a century (published by Merit cigarettes, strangely enough - "The breakthrough low tar cigarette with 'Enriched Flavor'" - eek) as well as the American version of A.S. Neill's Summerhill book. 

A family grocery store (two parents and their three children) had set up a stand in front of the sale giving away free pink lemonade and saltwater taffy.  Kenzie made friends with one of the boys, and they wandered around a bit playing with Kenzie's Pokemon cards. 

Kenzie's become interested in Abraham Lincoln after reading through the Abraham Lincoln Joke Book by Beatrice Schenck de Regniers.  This morning, we watched a movie from 1939 called Young Mr. Lincoln starring Henry Fonda as Lincoln (an amazing resemblance) and directed by John Ford.  This fictionalized account of Lincoln's early life was beautifully done - slow, sad and sweet while still  being, at times, quite funny.  Also, it made me want to go in search of my father's old mouth harp (also called a Jew's harp).  I never quite mastered that as a child, but I'd like to try again.

Head Colds, Books and Famous People

For the past few weeks, I've been waking up with what feels like a terrible head cold each morning.  It lasts for a few hours then fades away.  I'm guessing allergies - perhaps dust.  Anyway, today, I awoke with the same symptoms, only throughout the day, they worsened.  I kept waiting for it to fade away, but it never did.  Yup, I've actually come down with a cold - complete with chills and sweats.  Ugh.  And the huge Austin public library book sale is tomorrow morning....  It's going to be one of those sales where you have to wait in line for an hour before it actually opens, dive for the books you want, and fight off other shoppers.  I need to be at my best! 

Terry is a limo driver, and today he carried a man who played a Munchkin soldier in The Wizard of Oz.  He talked to him a bit about the movie and got his business card, which he gave to Kenzie.  He also carried Jeff Corwin who told him to tell Kenzie, "Hi."  Kenzie's been dancing around the bedroom and jumping on the bed singing, "I'm the luckiest boy in the world!" for quite a while, now.

Blogging

The more I play around with Typepad, the happier I am about leaving Blogger behind.  Typepad is simple, easily customizable, and offers so many more features than Blogger.com.  I've uploaded a few dozen photos (easily), created lists of mine and Kenzie's recently read books and my musical obsessions, and been able to play around with the colors and banner and such without working myself into an html frenzy.  I couldn't be happier. 

After surfing through blogs today, I created a list of other homeschooling (mostly unschooling) blogs.  There's nothing more inspiring than reading about other people's lives.  I spent a good deal of time this afternoon reading through some of my favorites and, as usual, came away with tons of creative ideas and a renewed excitement for this adventure we call unschooling.

Cool Books on the Shelves

Wandering around Half Price Books last night, I caught a glimpse of why it may be difficult for many parents to allow their children to direct their own learning. There were so many wonderful books on the shelves -- books that just didn't pique Kenzie's interest.  How easy it would be to say, "Let's just do this twenty minutes a day.  You'll end up enjoying it.  Really." 

But there's an underlying message in those statements: "You can't be trusted to direct your own learning.  The things that interest you aren't important.  I know better than you." 

Instead, I looked to my child, learning joyfully, exploring his world without restraint.  He's learned to read, learned to work with numbers, learned to write.  He draws, he sings, he plays a mean game of Battleship.  He's interested in Ancient Greek myths, chemistry, medieval Europe, constellations, religions, paleontology, Egyptology.  He loves to kick his soccer ball, climb the neighbor's tree, make pb&j sandwiches, help me with the magazine, listen to folk music, ride his bicycle, help our neighbor carry in groceries or water her yard, plant seeds, play with the dogs and cats, watch The Magic School Bus, dress in costumes, discuss Pokemon....  The list goes on and on and on.  He's kind, interesting, helpful, open-minded, and fun to be around.  He inspires me daily. 

He is well-rounded and knows how to learn what interests him -- more than I can say of most adults I meet.  He certainly doesn't need me to take control of his learning, no matter how cool those books on the store shelves might seem to me.

We're Back

We've made it back from the RE conference.  What a time!  Kenzie and Terry spent the weekend visiting dinosaur museums and generally having a ball.  At the Dallas Museum of Natural History, they marveled at the skeletal casts of tyrannosaurus Rex and other dinosaurs, and they watched paleontologists at work.  There were even dinosaurs made from car bumpers!  Then, they visited the Dallas Aquarium where they saw a huge swimming snapping turtle covered in moss, several kinds of shark, piranhas, and more.  The next day, they drove to Ft. Worth to visit the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History: giant dino dig, Imax film about t. Rex, planetarium show on the death of the dinosaurs, hands-on paleontology exhibit, as well as lots of cool science museum stuff.  They spent all day there digging dinosaur "bones," spinning elaborate tops, making huge soap bubbles....  Unfortunately, our digital camera is gasping its last breath, and we were only able to get a few photos of the weekend.  Here's Kenzie playing with bubbles and tops (click to enlarge).

The conference, itself, was nice.  Since I went to the workshops and such alone, I used it as a time to relax and catch my breath a bit.  I met several interesting people and was consistently impressed with all the kind and well-mannered kids around me.  All in all, it was a good weekend. 

Kenzie's watched much of the coverage of Katrina as it came through and of its aftermath.  Seeing stranded children was difficult for him, and he wanted to do something. We spent yesterday gathering things from around the house to donate to victims of the hurricane.  There are several thousand staying in Austin, and there's a drop-off place not too far from here.  Kenzie filled bags with some of his books and toys, as well as a good-sized deck of Pokemon cards.  We'll finish going through closets and take the bags to the donation center today or tomorrow.