Kate Green

Hi,
I'm Kate and I currently live in Abu Dhabi which is in the United Arab
Emirates (everyone used to have to look this place up until recently!) It
is next to Saudi but actually very liberal and life is not that much
different from the west. I'm originally from England and my husband is from
Louisiana.

We have 3 boys aged 14, 12, and 7. My husband is currently a SAHD and I am
a developmental child pscyhologist. I am a professor at an Arab women's
university here and involved in setting up the child development program
and doing lots of research on Bedouin families.

We have homeschooled/unschooled/learnt at home/played since we decided
formal schooling wasn't for us after our oldest son tried kindergarten 9
years ago. I usually tell people we unschool as that title seems to define
us as well as any. We have been thru various levels of our own development
within this process and so at times have been more "schooly" than others.
Currently we have journals in which I help the boys to define their weekly
goals and then they work independantly to accomplish those.

Dh, Mark, has been more nervous about our lack of formal sit-down work than
I have been but since he has been home fulltime for the last 2 years has
really come around. Our youngest wanted to read last year so they worked
thru "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons" and now Ben is reading very
well. His dad is really feeling great about the whole thing which is nice.

Other things about us: We attachment parent (also another research area of
mine:) I'm vegetarian, we like to travel, love animals, the boys are into
skateboarding, playing guitars, soccer, and karate and dh is into rocks
(he's a geologist).

Anything else anyone wants to know just ask:)

Kate

nctreehugr

Hi all,

I don't know if you all would consider me an old hat at this, but
have been unschooling my 3-yr-old since birth. I'm a SAHM in
Asheville, NC and decided to join your group a month ago, but we have
been vacationing in Colorado. What a learning adventure! Driving
cross-country with a toddler. Jacob had a great time (driving time
included). I also heard about your group from my friend, Pam Tiger.
I don't know why she thinks she doesn't know anyone home/unschooling.
We were both part of a homeschool playgroup for all ages. I have
given her LOTS of info on unschooling (I have always known I was
going homeschool, unschool ray of light came while I was pregnant).
I am also part of a HOME group here and a Waldorf-insipred handwork
group. Thanks to you Sandra for your advocating unschooling. My family
have heard info from some of your articles and Unschooling Hdbk
to "explain" unschooling. Waiting for my unschooling bumpersticker
from Home-Ed discussion board (Anne Ohman). Let me know if you would
like one; she is asking $3. Hope to be able to go to conference.

Blessings on your journey,
Jennifer Miller

Jane Van Benthusen

Hi! I'm new to this list. My name is Jane Van Benthusen. We live close to Kansas City, MO and are members of www.kclearn.org. We have two sons ages 12 and almost 15. We have been unschooling for 8 years. I lead the unschooling group within LEARN. (we call ourselves the Free Range Learners) My husband and I do remodeling and work as puppeteers. I just wanted to say a quick hi! :) Jane


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Karen & William Gibson

Since I have decloaked, I guess I should introduce myself. :-) I'm Karen
Gibson and live in north Alabama. We began homeschooling August 1996 and
within a few short months discovered unschooling. Since then, there's been
no turning back! You can't put the genie back in the bottle. <g>

Hubby and I have three children. The eldest graduated (Kat, 19) last year
and recently married. The younger two (David, 16, and Charles, 14) still
live at home (thank god!) and busy pursuing their various interests,
including karate, legos, computer programming, computer games, and various
other stuff. I write, crochet, and maintain my own
website: http://www.leapingfromthebox.com . And hubby is a network
administrator, so you can imagine the assortment of networked computers we
have here!

I've been lurking a couple of weeks and so far enjoyed the tone of this
list. Glad to be here!




Karen M. Gibson
mailto:wdkmg@..., ICQ# 2152628, AIM - KadachMom
http://www.LeapingFromTheBox.com Alabama Homeschool info, Homeschool
Articles, Homeschool Chats!
E-bay Store - Hand Crocheted Afghans, books,
more! http://stores.ebay.com/leapingfromthebox

"A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education." ~ Smiley
Blanton

Barb Eaton

Karen,
Welcome! Best wishes to Kat.:-) Has it really been that long? I've
missed your voice too. :-)


Barb E
"The function of the child is to live his own life - not the life that his
anxious parents think he should live, nor the life according to the purpose
of the educator who thinks he knows what is best. All of this interference
and guidance on the part of adults only produces a generation of robots."
A S Neill


>
> I've been lurking a couple of weeks and so far enjoyed the tone of this
> list. Glad to be here!
>
>
>
>
> Karen M. Gibson

Karen & William Gibson

At 4/2/04 09:07 AM -0500, you wrote:
>Karen,
> Welcome! Best wishes to Kat.:-) Has it really been that long? I've
>missed your voice too. :-)
>
>
>Barb E

Hey Barb!! Another familiar face here!

Yup, Kat's life has changed so drastically in the last year. She got her
license Jan of 2003, first job April 2003, engaged in May 2003, moved out
and in with her fiance July 2003, and then tied the knot at a civil
ceremony two weeks ago. <sigh> She was ready, but her dad and I were
not. What is it with these kids? You raise them to think for themselves,
make their own decisions, and then they really go out into the world and do
just that!!! Scary!! LOL!


Karen M. Gibson
mailto:wdkmg@..., ICQ# 2152628, AIM - KadachMom
http://www.LeapingFromTheBox.com Alabama Homeschool info, Homeschool
Articles, Homeschool Chats!
E-bay Store - Hand Crocheted Afghans, books,
more! http://stores.ebay.com/leapingfromthebox

"A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education." ~ Smiley
Blanton

jwhale127

Hi all,
My name is Tracy. I just joined this group because I am trying to get
a grasp on the unschooling idea. I have been homeschooling for 3
years. My 7 year old is extremely bright but "school" has been
torture for us both. This isn't want I wanted for him, or his two
younger brothers. I want learning to be exciting and natural. Not
forced and frustrating. I need to make a change and someone suggested
unschooling. I guess I just need some guidance. I wouldn't know
where to begin. I've read a number of posts and many people's
definition of unschooling. But I don't even know what kinds of
resources I should have available or anything like that. I would
really appreciate some advice. I'm sure you've all answered these
kinds of questions over and over but I hope you don't mind one more
time.
Thanks,
Tracy

[email protected]

In a message dated 11/19/05 9:18:10 PM, jwhale127@... writes:


> -=-I guess I just need some guidance.  I wouldn't know
> where to begin. -=-
>
You're welcome to stay on this, but there's another list specifically for
newer unschoolers called Unschooling Basics. It's listed at
http://sandradodd.com/lists/other

I doubt these links will be useable directly if you get this by e-mail, but
if you go to the yahoogroups site and click on messages, they might be. Or
just go to the main page and branch out from there, but...

http://sandradodd.com/checklists
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling

Those might be your best starting places, and both link to other pages.

Joyce has a good site too,
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Efetteroll/rejoycing/

Sandra




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[email protected]

Hi! I've been lurking for the past couple of weeks. We are all
recovering from the flu here, so I haven't had the energy to jump in and
participate, but have certainly enjoyed reading everyone's posts!
My name is Jennifer. I live in NC with dh and our 3 children Webb(18)
Rebecca(14) and Joe(8) We've unschooled all along.
2 of my sisters 4 kids are unschooled as well (the other 2 go to
school). Since my sis is a single mom, my niece and nephew spend most of
their days with us (they are 16 and 8)
My oldest is thinking in terms of going to college next year, so we have
been navigating the ins and outs of that!
anyway, I just wanted to say hi!

~jennifer

J.E. Powers

Why even go to the zoo with your kids, if your just going to be
mean and miserable? Some of those parents should've swatted themselves
on the behind!---
++++++++

This conversation reminds me of a book the children and I just started called THE WILLOUGHBYS (by Lois Lowry.) The parents are awful and don't "like" their children.

Hi all! I'm Jill, mother to Benjamin (age 11 yrs.) and Margaret (age 8 yrs.) We live in Augusta, Maine. We have always homeschooled and were introduced to the concept of unschooling by Angela about 5 or 6 years ago. (Hi Angela!) It's a concept I believe in entirely.

-Jill





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Verna

> Why even go to the zoo with your kids, if your just going to be
> mean and miserable? Some of those parents should've swatted themselves
> on the behind!---
> ++++++++

It kind of one of those,"we are going to have fun Damn it, or die
trying" It is all about whose agenda you are following. When we used to
live in a city with a nice zoo, we had a membership and I would take
the kids and we would sometimes see no animals at all. But the kids
loved the zoo. They had a great play area, and lots of icecream
stands. When you go someplace like that and descide you have absolutely
no goal in mind except to have fun.. then so many more possibilities
open up.

carnationsgalore

> It kind of one of those,"we are going to have fun Damn it, or die
> trying" It is all about whose agenda you are following.

Yep. That traditional parenting is all around. My family goes to Game
Stop quite frequently because Jeffrey (12) is really into video games.
I can hardly think of a visit that didn't have me standing there
dumbfounded at a parent who was telling their child they couldn't buy a
video game. I hear 'we're just looking' the most. Why do adults
really expect kids to have that kind of self-control and willpower? It
just seems cruel. I suppose they think they are teaching their
children those important lessons in life. Ugh.

Beth M.

lyndaquincunx

--- In [email protected], "carnationsgalore"
<addled.homemaker@...> wrote:
My family goes to Game
> Stop quite frequently because Jeffrey (12) is really into video games.
> I can hardly think of a visit that didn't have me standing there
> dumbfounded at a parent who was telling their child they couldn't buy a
> video game. I hear 'we're just looking' the most. Why do adults
> really expect kids to have that kind of self-control and willpower? It
> just seems cruel. I suppose they think they are teaching their
> children those important lessons in life. Ugh.
>
> Beth M.
>


We do that sometimes - go to the shops to look. If anyone overheard us
talking it might sound like that. The bit you're not hearing is the
discussion about ordering something online & using the money we save
to buy something else, or go for pizza or whatever.

Sometimes its because they've wanted to go to get an idea of what they
want to save up for, or for Xmas or birthday requests. Sometimes we've
been in the neighbourhood & called in just to 'windowshop'

Lynda

carnationsgalore

> We do that sometimes - go to the shops to look. If anyone overheard us
> talking it might sound like that. The bit you're not hearing is the
> discussion about ordering something online & using the money we save
> to buy something else, or go for pizza or whatever.

If I hear a child truly upset at wanting something he/she cannot have
right in front of them, I think it's too much for the child to handle.
If you have to drag the child out of the store or yell at the child to
leave the store, that child is being put in a position too challenging
to handle. I'm not talking about a parent who is holding a rational
conversation with the child. I'm talking about a parent using an angry
or mocking voice.

If I can't buy a video game and my children still want to visit the
game shop, we go in with the knowledge that we aren't buying today but
just looking at options for when we are ready to buy. I've had my son
specifically decline visits to the game store when he knew he wouldn't
be able to handle browsing only.

Beth M.