I recently heard from a mom whose husband is on the fence about unschooling because of math. He’s a math whiz whose introduction to the subject came from school, not home. He worries that unschooling won’t offer his kids what they need to develop strong interest and proficiency in mathematics, and they’ll lose the opportunity… Read More Unschooling for life
I first heard of homeschooling in a creative writing class. I was in my twenties and struck up a friendship with the other young mother in the group. When she said she didn’t send her kid to school, my reaction was full of the incredulity I regularly encountered later, once I jumped on the homeschooling… Read More I couldn’t wait to send my kids to school, but when I did…
Today, I spent my morning on Memory Lane. In the process of going through stuff, I gathered a pile of old Growing Without Schooling magazines dating from about 1991 to 2001. Oh, what a delight to skim through them and recognize the names of so many contributors, see pictures of dear friends and their children… Read More Revisiting ‘Growing Without Schooling’
Here in Boston, it’s Pride Day, a day to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. Pride events are fun and joyful, but they’re also serious. They happen in June to commemorate Stonewall, a significant event in LGBTQ+ history and a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to ensure acceptance and equality for all.… Read More Happy Pride Day
We’ve been getting some great feedback since Unschoolers came out on March 30. First, Patrick Farenga mentioned us in a nice review of fiction inspired by unschooling and John Holt specifically. Then we chatted with Kristen Tea for a piece in Mothering. Michelle Ristuccia wrote a great review for the summer issue of Learning Tangent. Sophia… Read More ‘Unschoolers’ in the news
Bob Dylan finally got around to delivering his Nobel Lecture. No surprise, it focused on literature. Why the wait? It took him some time, he said, to reflect on how his songs relate to literature. He ended by cautioning that songs are fundamentally different than literature, “meant to be sung, not read,” like the words in… Read More Dylan, literature, Moby-Dick, and homeschooling
I remember the afternoon my youngest child, Abby, told me she wanted to put on a production of Hamlet. We were in the kitchen on a beautiful spring day, and Abby, who was 13 at the time, said, “I think I’m going to do Hamlet in the backyard this summer.” The declaration seemed to come… Read More Kids and theater, as they like it
A headline caught my eye today. Even For Homeschoolers, There Is No Happily Ever After. The writer, Linda DeMers Hummel, had a job answering phones for a curriculum company whose clients were homeschoolers. Most of the questions were about math, but then she got a call from a mother who wouldn’t let her eighth grade… Read More Gimme shelter
Bathroom business. It’s pretty basic stuff, a part of every human being’s daily life. When my eldest daughter, after years of homeschooling, enrolled in public high school, she had to deal with the restrictions placed on all students about their bathroom use. By the time she was an upperclassman, I guess she was a little… Read More Bathrooms and trust
Dear Readers, My co-author Sophia Sayigh and I have been working on Unschoolers for a while and I’m delighted to announce that it’s available now. Visit our website for various ways you can purchase the book in e-book and paperback formats. I hope you’ll consider spreading the word among your friends in conversation, on e-lists,… Read More ‘Unschoolers’ launch day
A Potluck Life 