cindy jusino

I love love love this idea!! My parents constantly get on me because I allow my
son to color the walls with crayon. What can I say I love his art work, it just
looks better! Also, the other day I gave my son a popsicle and let him smear
it all over himself head to toe outside the other Moms got so mad! They even
insisted I take babywipes from them when I keept insisting I didn't need them!!

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Robin Bentley

> I love love love this idea!! My parents constantly get on me
> because I allow my
> son to color the walls with crayon. What can I say I love his art
> work, it just
> looks better! Also, the other day I gave my son a popsicle and let
> him smear
> it all over himself head to toe outside the other Moms got so mad!
> They even
> insisted I take babywipes from them when I keept insisting I didn't
> need them!!

I think even amongst unschoolers, some things are okay and some are
less so.

If my daughter had wanted to color on the walls, I would have found
ways to facilitate it: putting up huge swaths of paper, painting the
walls myself with special paint just for writing on (like blackboard
or white board paint), designating a wall just for her artwork, asking
her to write on the fence before I painted it, giving her chalk for
the sidewalk or window crayons that can be wiped off. There are always
ways to support our kids' exploration without encouraging what could
become destruction. It often isn't a wall a child needs to color on
either! It's a big space they need. Finding options is how we help them.

I would be okay with my kid smearing a popsicle all over herself, but
there's a time and a place. In the backyard with a kiddie pool or
sprinkler, where *all* the kids can strip down or wear their swimsuits
is a good place. Maybe in the bathtub, for fun. Not in a mall, or at a
park day where there a plenty of people *not* okay with that.

Unschooling isn't "anything goes, anywhere, anytime." It's helping our
kids navigate the world they live in *and* providing opportunities to
explore in appropriate and meaningful ways.

Robin B.