multimomma

Most of my kids are over at a friends house having fun, so I'm just clicking on link after
link reading online (following the train of thought, right?) Sandra, your website is really a
treasure chest, I feel excited to explore.

Anyway, just wanted to say that I did enjoy the disposable checklists page, very helpful for
a new unschooler like me :-) It actually sounds a lot like what we started doing. I do write
down at the end of each week what we've been doing, in case the state ever decides to
investigate. I doubt it will happen, because we live in a very liberal homeschooling state
anyway, but because we have such 'radical' parenting styles as well as a child with a
disability, I'm not taking anything for granted. The page about terminology affecting
thought was right on the money there, it reminds me of the 'people first' language. The
goal is for us to see people before the disability, and here the goal is to learn, not teach,
right?

and I was reading the story of a day in the life of unschooling by Julie, and wanted to say
how much I enjoyed reading it. It sounds so much like me...we started last July with a very
regimented schedule, lots of expectations for what would be learned each day, down to
the minute. We had written schedules a la supernanny (seriously, on a huge poster), as
well as a chore chart that could astound any master of organization. Now I just laugh. My
husband is confused because he doesn't know what's going on anymore (I just told him
"welcome to my life! And don't expect anything") Instead of having assigned chores, I
recycled that page and made a list of "jobs that help our family". The kids, when bored,
will look at it and see if any thing sounds like fun (their words!) Granted there will be days
in a row where they don't do anything, but if I ask for help, they cheerfully join in. I didn't
really think it would ever work, considering how much I resented doing housework as a kid
(and TBH, sometimes now)

Well, this has been another train of thought (choo-choo) by a mom who is giddy from lack
of sleep, and doubly giddy by the lack of children right now. I even typed diggy instead of
giddy the first few times I typed this sentence. Hopefully someday Avari will sleep longer
than two hours at a time. But I'm not thinking it'll happen in the next few months :-) I'm
the kind of person to believe that every thing happens for a reason. I couldn't see it with
the terrible pregnancy at first. I lost two pregnancies back to back, and moved straight
into the worst pregnancy I've ever seen, morning sickness from conception straight
through labor, early contractions followed by going two weeks overdue. I thought surely I
was being punished for a previous life choice! But without it I never would have been able
to relax the homeschooling enough to even consider unschooling.

And now I'm lost again on yet a different train. Hope everyone is enjoying the day, it's
beautiful here in Oklahoma, nearly 60 degrees, sunny and dry outside. Josh is camping
with daddy at Greenleaf state park with a few other of his scout friends, and we're heading
to our local lake for a hike. Wish me luck!

melissa