Robyn Coburn

Today would have been Jayn�s first day in mandatory school (in CA) if we had
not been so fortunate as to have been led to Unschooling.



It is wonderful to me to feel that we are just going to continue living and
learning as we have been, with no stranger being handed the right to record
their judgment on my daughter�s abilities or development or temperament.
Just feeling very grateful this morning.



Robyn L. Coburn






--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.18/90 - Release Date: 9/5/2005



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.18/91 - Release Date: 9/6/2005



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.18/91 - Release Date: 9/6/2005



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

[email protected]

Thanks for the smile. I needed that today! <g>

I'm grateful too. But school started August 4th & 9th here!

~Kelly

Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
October 6-9, 2005
http://liveandlearnconference.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Robyn Coburn <dezigna@...>


Today would have been Jayn?s first day in mandatory school (in CA) if
we had
not been so fortunate as to have been led to Unschooling.

It is wonderful to me to feel that we are just going to continue living
and
learning as we have been, with no stranger being handed the right to
record
their judgment on my daughter?s abilities or development or temperament.
Just feeling very grateful this morning.

Vesna

Kelly,

Where?

Vesna

--- In [email protected], kbcdlovejo@a... wrote:
> Thanks for the smile. I needed that today! <g>
>
> I'm grateful too. But school started August 4th & 9th here!
>
> ~Kelly
>
> Kelly Lovejoy
> Conference Coordinator
> Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
> October 6-9, 2005
> http://liveandlearnconference.org
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robyn Coburn <dezigna@c...>
>
>
> Today would have been Jayn?s first day in mandatory school (in
CA) if
> we had
> not been so fortunate as to have been led to Unschooling.
>
> It is wonderful to me to feel that we are just going to continue living
> and
> learning as we have been, with no stranger being handed the right to
> record
> their judgment on my daughter?s abilities or development or temperament.
> Just feeling very grateful this morning.

Vesna

Robyn,

--- In [email protected], "Robyn Coburn"
<dezigna@c...> wrote:
> Today would have been Jayn's first day in mandatory school (in CA)
if we had
> not been so fortunate as to have been led to Unschooling.


That's great!

My son is not "school age" yet. Yesterday I was visiting a friend
whose son just started kindergarten last week. We walked to the bus
stop together to meet him coming home. She said, by way of calculating
when he would show up, "They release him at 2:32, and the bus takes 20
minutes to get here..." and then went on to complete the thought.

That phrase reverberated in my ear: "release him."

It sounds just awful!

When we first met about two months ago, I tried to turn her on to the
idea of unschooling instead of sending her kid off to school, but I
didn't get anywhere. She was too enthusiastic about "first day of
school" as a big exciting thing. Shopping for supplies, all that.

Later that afternoon, when her son was showing her the crafts project
he had made that day, she turned to me and said, warmly, "Oh, just
wait until that first day you see your son coming off that big yellow
school bus. It just touches my heart."

I smiled and nodded politely. I was thinking:

A: "Hello! Remember, we are planning to homeschool/unschool!"

and

B: "Yeah ... coming off that bus after he's BEEN RELEASED. From a
place where he can't just decide to go home if he feels like it, or do
a different activity from whatever some adult being given by some
bureaucracy decrees, where the crafts are carefully guided, where I
couldn't just decide, hey, let's go to the zoo instead and take him
with me ... I DON'T THINK SO!"

[email protected]

-----Original Message-----
From: Vesna <duonexus@...>

--- In [email protected], kbcdlovejo@a... wrote:
> Thanks for the smile. I needed that today! <g>
>
> I'm grateful too. But school started August 4th & 9th here!

Kelly,

Where?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-


South Carolina---specifically, Columbia. But I think most of the state
was in school the first or second week of August. The kids get out the
last week of May though. Many of the yankee states are in until the end
of June or beginning of July. (Can you imagine those poor kids who are
relocated at the end of the school year in the north to begin again in
the South???)

I'm sure it originally had something to do with heat and
snow---weather-related reasons that we do this. But for the life of me,
I can't understand why you would want to run the zillions of AC units
in SC in August!

My teacher friend (yes, I have one! <g>), says that it's so they have
more time to teach to the standardized tests that are taken in April.
Now, why they can administer those tests in June, I have NO idea!!!

~Kelly

Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
October 6-9, 2005
http://liveandlearnconference.org

Betsy Hill

** My teacher friend (yes, I have one! <g>), says that it's so they have
more time to teach to the standardized tests that are taken in April.
Now, why they can administer those tests in June, I have NO idea!!!**

My husband wishes they were given in September and scored promptly, so
that he could actually use the information that the tests are supposed
to provide about student performance and weak areas.

Betsy

mamaaj2000

I thought the first day of not going to school would be a big deal
for me, but it wasn't and I'm glad.

First off, most of the kids here (Maryland) were in all day pre-k
(public) or 3-5 day private pre-k. So last year Mikey was the only 4
yr old not in school most of the week.

Then this year he missed the cut-off date for kindergarten by one
day. (Yipee, no paperwork for me!) So he wouldn't be going this
year. Except that that is completely crazy and you can have kids
born Oct-Dec tested to be admitted which I'm sure I would have done
if I'd sent him to school.

The school buses started driving by before school started--dry runs,
I guess--and I actually didn't notice the day they started having
kids on them! Plus our friends are moving in a couple weeks and
didn't bother to send their kids to school here...

Anyway, it's been nice to have life and learning just continue on
with us only vaguely aware of some other way of doing things!