Sarah Dickinson

Hi,

I just wanted to introduce myself - I've just joined this list and have been
reading some of your posts with interest so I thought I'd be polite and not
just lurk!

My name is Sarah and I live in Northern Ireland - on the North Coast, with
my husband Conchúr (pronounced Connor) and son Jack. Jack is only nine
months old but I've been reading alot since he was born (mostly walking
around the room!). We both work from home, running our own business - IT,
databases and so on...

Having spent far too much time in formal eduation myself I'm a compulsive
researcher so I've consumed a ludicrous number of articles, books, messages
and websites. Reading on Attachment Parenting led me on to thinking about
home-schooling and from there I found John Holt's "Instead of Education",
which completely blew me away. What an amazing and inspiring book! I
honestly don't know how you could read it and then send your child to
school, if you had any other option at all! That book led me to look for,
and find you lot!

Anyway, I look forward to getting to know you all - if you have any books to
reccomend I'd love to keep right on reading...

Sarah


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[email protected]

Welcome Sarah. I have a son named Conor. :o)

>>if you have any books to reccomend I'd love to keep right on reading...>>

Here's Pam Sorooshian's reading list.

Moving a Puddle, and other essays by Sandra Dodd
www. Sandradodd.com/puddlebook
Essays on learning in a home without school, on living respectfully
with children and of creating a nest in which learning flourishes.

Parenting a Free Child by Rue Kream <http://www.freechild.info/>

The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's
Classroom by Mary Griffith

Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves by Alison McKee

The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School by Valerie Fitzenreiter

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real
Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go to School Tell Their Own
Stories by Grace Llewellyn

Deschooling Our Lives by Matt Hern

Child's Work: Taking Children's Choices Seriously by Nancy Wallace

Better Than School: One Family's Declaration of Independence by Nancy
Wallace

I Learn Better by Teaching Myself and Still Teaching Ourselves by Agnes Leistico

The Homeschooling Book of Answers : The 101 Most Important Questions
Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voices (Prima Home
Learning Library) by Linda Dobson

The Art of Education by Linda Dobson


Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days: Share a Day With 30 Homeschooling
Families by Nancy Lande

Fundamentals of Homeschooling: Notes on Successful Family Living by
Ann Lahrson-Fisher

Trust the Children: A Manual and Activity Guide for Homeschooling and
Alternative Learning by Anna Kealoha

Homeschooling for Excellence by David Colfax, Micki Colfax

Hard Times in Paradise: An American Family's Struggle to Carve Out a
Homestead in California's Redwood Mountains by David Colfax, Micki
Colfax

Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. : Homeschooling and the Curriculum of
Love by David H. Albert

And the Skylark Sings with Me - Adventures in Homeschooling and
Community-Based Education by David H. Albert

Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery by David H. Albert


PLUS the following books are by John Holt. I'd start with the most
recent ones - he changed his mind through the years as he gave up on
school reform and began to increasingly understand what children
living in freedom were truly capable of.

How Children Fail, 1964
How Children Learn, 1967
The Underachieving School, 1969
What Do I Do Monday? 1970
Freedom and Beyond, 1972
Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children, 1975
Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better, 1976
Never Too late: My Musical Life Story, 1978
Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education, 1981
Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling, 2003 (This is
John Holt's 1981 book as revised and updated by Patrick Farenga.)

--
~Mary

"The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the
green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly
alive."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Sarah Dickinson" <yahoo@...>





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[email protected]

In a message dated 3/5/2006 10:22:16 P.M. Central Standard Time,
zenmomma@... writes:

(This is
John Holt's 1981 book as revised and updated by Patrick Farenga


I just had to share we have a conference coming up this weekend and Im
attending one of his workshops I cant WAIT!!!!

Chrissy


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Vanessa

Hello,
I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Vanessa and I have 3 children 9 yr old daughter, 23 month old son, and 6 month old daughter. We just started unschooling Halloween 2007. Before that we were a part of the public school system. Homeschool let alone unschooling was something that I stumbled upon last year and I'm very greatful that I did.

I love my children and I'm so glad I get an opportunity to see them as the learners they are.

Vanessa

dscme98

Hi everyone,
I am Diana, my husband and I have 2 children Sarah (15) and Brian (14) we also have 1 dog (Buster), 1 cat (baby) and 2 shetland ponies (Bonnie and Delight)
When Daughter was 3 I decided that rather than put her in a preschool we would do preschool at home, by the time she turned 5 I let the world and my inner critic convince me that I was not capable of schooling my children and that the best place for them to learn was in a public school... my children and I have been banging out heads against a brick wall ever sence! I did pull my kids out for 1 year of homeschool, but ended up putting them back in the next year.
Five weeks ago I finally found the courage to begin to listen to and trust what my kids were saying, I pulled them out of school and started traditional homeschooling... a week ago we let go of that as well and started on our unschooling journey...

24 hours I can not believe how excited my son is!!
We talked today and set a plan in motion to start this new adventure, the goal is to make and sell glass marbles, tomorrow we will go get the supplies needed to start making clay marbles, set up a website to keep track of progress, set up an ebay sales account to sell things to earn money for a shed that he is going to build in our back yard to use as a workshop, purchase all the supplies needed to make glass marbles and then move on to making a glass yo-yo! For a kid with aspergers syndrome who walks around the house eating his dinner because he can't focus on eating or sitting that long, he totally blew me away today when he announced that he figured it would take a good 2 years after he got the equipment to make the marbles, before he would be experianced enough to make the one he wanted. (he saw a picture of it today, totally awesome with a dragon in the middle) he has even arranged to sell one to one of his friends.
He has been thinking, planning and talking about his plan all day long, being released from the constraints of learning from a book has given me my child back and given my child his life back!!
I even saw his smile today :-)
My daughter is excited as well, she wants to be a horse trainer and now she can focus on that full time, rather than "on learning what she needs to know to pass a state test so that she can graduate and recieve a diploma that in the long run means nothing anyway" her words, I agree:-)

Wow, I did not intend for this introduction to be so long, anyway I am so glad to be here and to get to know you all.

Diana C

Meredith

Welcome, Diana! I'm Meredith, mom to Mo 7, who's been "always" unschooled, and also stepmom to Ray who is 15 and has only been living and unschooling with us for two and a half years.

>> He has been thinking, planning and talking about his plan all day long, being released from the constraints of learning from a book has given me my child back and given my child his life back!!
> I even saw his smile today :-)

That's wonderful. Ray's whole first week "free" he was head over heels with giddy delight. That's tempered a good bit, naturally, but he's still a much much happier person than he ever was in school. In fact, just last weekend we went on a campout with a whole pack of unschooling families, many with teens, and I was really struck by how joyful they all were. I don't mean they were giggling like four year olds or something, but they weren't the sullen, angry people that so many teens are. It really makes a Huge difference.

Its exciting that both your kids are diving into plans whole-hog (as they say in my neck of the woods). Don't worry if that tapers off, or even disappears for awhile - and don't let *them* worry if their enthusiasm dwindles, either. Its normal for people of all ages to have cycles of greater and lesser intensity. Its also normal for teens, especially, to go through periods of introspection and quiet. In fact, given the kinds of pressures school can exert, it would be a good idea to actively create some opportunities for them to do some serious relaxation.

Take some time to do fun things together - go hiking or fishing or visit a museum just for the sake of hanging out together. Rent a bunch of movies and spend a day curled up on the couch. Buy some jigsaw puzzles. Whatever sort of "relaxation" works well for your kids and family.

Let your kids know that they don't have to have it all "figured out" by the time they're 18 - that's one of the insidious messages school sends. Its stressful. They don't have to figure out what they're going to do with "the rest of their lives" - not at 18, or 28, or 58.

---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)

dscme98

Hi Meredith,
Thank you for the welcome, and the ideas, my son has already settled down a bit, he is still wanting to do the marbles plan, but has calmed about it a bit and has begun to show a bit of interest in other things as well, mostly though he is spending a lot of time doing nothing...
One thing that is a bit of concern is his defiant attitude, it is almost as if he is on some power trip, he continually tells us "no", "I don't have to" "you can't make me" he has a total disreguard for the basic family rules... speak nice, no hitting, ect... is this normal... should I be concerned or will this fade with time?

Thanks again,
Diana