beccasv12

Hello all!
My husband (Croatian) and I (Swedish) are currently living in Sweden,
renovating an old wooden sailboat, turning it in to our home. Our son,
2yrs in a week, is a happy, curious, smart and very loving little guy
with a passion for books, painting, anything with an engine and
household "work". He loves cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and
gardening. We, my husband and I, are NOT as passionate about those
things, but we try to live life in a more cheerful and positive way
than what was passed down to us from our upbringing, part of which is
a distaste of all things household related. We want to instill in our
son a sense of joy in doing all things related to living, not just
what is known as "hobbies" or "RR". One big inspiration has been
reading the Continuum Concept, but before that we were already on this
path. We are trying to make our life as independent as possible of
societal structures, but without isolating ourselves. Hence, we want
to live on our boat, unfettered by power companies, water pipes,
gasoline and mass produced schooling. But we also love the internet,
use whatever resources are available (libraries, paly centers for kids
etc) to enrich our lives. But it is at times hard. We do feel "weird"
in the eyes of others, and end up unfortunately a bit socially
isolated. And one of our big concerns is the rpessure from society to
put him in a school. I went to a Waldorf school for part of my
schooling and loved it. But we are looking in to home-based education
for our son, and are looking for information and inspiration...glad to
have found you all, look forward to soaking in widom and getting to
know you all!

Becca

elainegh8

Hi Becca
there is a Europe wide group for home educators where you
may find some other Swedish or Croatian unschoolers. It is here

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-unlimited

Hope that helps.


BWs Elaine (United Kingdom)

[email protected]

In a message dated 10/30/05 4:19:40 AM, rs@... writes:


> -=-He loves cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and
> gardening. We, my husband and I, are NOT as passionate about those
> things, but we try to live life in a more cheerful and positive way
> than what was passed down to us from our upbringing, part of which is
> a distaste of all things household related. We want to instill in our
> son a sense of joy in doing all things related to living, not just
> what is known as "hobbies" or "RR". One big inspiration has been
> reading the Continuum Concept-=-
>

I have a friend who loved to cook and clean as a kid, an by the time he was
twelve he was the sole kitchen crew at his house, made all the meals, people's
lunches and kept the grocery list. He was VERY happy to have done that and
has cooked professionally from time to time as an adult, but that wasn't his
"goal," it's just something that's fun and easy for him.

Your son's interest might have side benefits for you. <g>

As to Continuum Concept, I don't think you need to pretend to like something
you don't, but I have found (mostly from reading Joyce Fetteroll's take on it
which is calming and sweet) that if you see "housework" as an evil burden that
it will make your life unhappy, but if you see it as a thing you can do or
not do, it's better.

Even on a boat with all the many "Have to" conditions, you could STILL decide
not to do them, and risk the consequences. But thinking of it that way, you
will probably decide the risks aren't worth the temporary joy of not
[cleaning/stowing/repairing/maintaining/stocking], and then you'll be doing those
things because you really WANT to.

Your son doesn't so much need to see you doing the very things he likes to do
as he needs to see you doing things that are important to you, and doing them
joyfully. And think of how much he will learn about sailing and map reading
and geography and weather!

Joyce writes and chores and other good stuff here:
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Efetteroll/rejoycing/

I have stuff on chores too
http://sandradodd.com/chores

mostly written by other people, but Joyce's site is wonderfully well
organized and green. Mine's not quite so jazzy.

Sandra





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

beccasv12

Sandra wrote
> I have a friend who loved to cook and clean as a kid, an by the time
he was
> twelve he was the sole kitchen crew at his house, made all the
meals, people's
> lunches and kept the grocery list. He was VERY happy to have done
that and
> has cooked professionally from time to time as an adult, but that
wasn't his
> "goal," it's just something that's fun and easy for him.
>
> Your son's interest might have side benefits for you. <g>

LOL!! yeah, that sure would be cool...as long as he has fun, and finds
it interesting to go no, I have NO problem letting him cook and clean.
..<GG>


> As to Continuum Concept, I don't think you need to pretend to like
something
> you don't,

OOO I am sorry if it came across as us pretending to have fun hwile
doing something we dislike doing!!! NOT at all what I meant. Rather,
we are continuously trying to find ways to do things that we usually
find a drag in a way that's more fun and less stressful. And also,
talking about exactly why we hate certain things. For example, my
parents forced me to do dishes immediately after dinne, no matter
what. No delay and spankings if I didn't comply. As a result I truly
hate doing dishes. But dh has no particular feeligns about it. SO he
does them all the time, and I do things he dislikes for various
reasons. CC was inspirational in that it really brought home the fact
that it is our attitudes towards chores that make them a bummer, not
the chores themselves...and by analysing thoe attitudes we can
actually learn to truly enjoy many things!


> Even on a boat with all the many "Have to" conditions, you could
STILL decide
> not to do them, and risk the consequences. But thinking of it that
way, you
> will probably decide the risks aren't worth the temporary joy of not
> [cleaning/stowing/repairing/maintaining/stocking], and then you'll
be doing those
> things because you really WANT to.

Yassum!

> Your son doesn't so much need to see you doing the very things he
likes to do
> as he needs to see you doing things that are important to you, and
doing them
> joyfully.

That is what we are trying to do, we do not believe in raising him
dishonestly...lol

And think of how much he will learn about sailing and map reading
> and geography and weather!

That's right! We will have AMPLE opportunity to lezrn geography,
geometry, math, biology etc through hands on experience!! I can't
wait!!!


thanks fo the link!
Becca