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<<Not every unschooling house has to be filled with nonstop
activity and visitors and travel and so on. People can live great unschooling
lives that aren't as wild or exciting as some others. >>

We have phases and waves. The kids all noticed that the February calendar
(wall calendar in the kitchen) had two or three things written on every
single day, and March was totally, clear, white blank. Even when we turned
the page, not one single mark.

Putting Kirby's work schedule (which varies) on there, and karate and Holly's
drama class helped. And now that the month's nearly over there's quite a bit
more, but still there are five days blank. I'm sure we did or will do
things on those days.

Next Tuesday there's a homeschool skating session (for socialization and
discount <g>). Thursday the community center is closed for the school's
spring break, and so the homeschoolers are meeting at the aquarium instead.
A dollar a head for what is usually $3.50 to $5.50.

Those are cheap and easy ways for me to offer something I didn't have to
bother to organize. Marty loves to ice skate and will help younger kids
generously. I usually figure that part of it is the most valuable for him.
I've never mentioned it; it's secret to me. But I see him learning how to
deal with younger beginning skaters, and figure out what they need to know
and how best to show them or tell them, and learning it's different for
different people.

The same skating rink has a roller blade side. Holly would rather roller
blade. The Cordova family, or original unschooling buddy-family, will be
there too. I'm pretty excited. So we'll all be getting different things out
of the day. It's a 40 minute drive (unusual for Albuquerque) and that will
deliver unguessed-at opportunities for music or conversation or to see
something unexpected. So it's "just skating," but I know it's not that. It's
a day of unmined potential, with old friends and new friends. It's a chance
for newer homeschooling families to spy on Marty and Holly (both "lifers" in
that group) to see how they are. Behind my back, my kids have made a lot of
tentative homeschoolers feel a lot more relaxed about the possibilities. If
my kids can be that "civilized" without any school at all, maybe these newer
people's angst about units or curriculum just isn't worth it.

What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that after years of unschooling the days
look different. What might look very educational might just be a leisurely
day in an airconditioned museum with not much longterm effect. What might
look like yardwork might be the highlight of the learning- and life-changing
week.

Sandra