Deborah Lewis

On Sat, 04 Jan 2003 14:28:29 -0500 bluelotus <bluelotus@...> writes:

***I thought a piece of a post I got on another list may be appropriate
here. It's from Benjamin Franklin's Biography:***

I like reading Ben Franklin, but what I think I'm reading from you is
getting on my nerves.
Let's just talk about unschooling and IDEAS and let it be.
If you don't like a post, delete. If you don't like a style, delete.

Now, on to unschooling.
We were at the video store today. We're always at the video store.
Recently they've been remodeling and they've done a nice job. The
owners are neighbors of ours across the ally and creek. I used to pull
their little kid out of the water when he'd escape from the yard.
Anyway, they put in a nice new front door, looks great, and while I was
talking with the lady there, Dylan was looking around, just looking
around at the ceiling and the door. Finally he says, "you know, if
there was a fire and part of the ceiling fell right here you couldn't get
the door open to get out." Silence. The door opens inward.
Her husband walks through and notices the blank look on his wife's face,
"What?" Dylan, ten year old annoying person, repeats what he just told
Mrs. Video. Mrs. Video says something about isn't there a fire code
and did he check it and, and, and... I'm trying to sneak out but he's
standing in front of the door (that opens inward.) We finally did get
out of there and I asked Dylan where he learned about fire codes and he
says "What's a fire code?" <g> We came home and looked up Montana
fire codes.
All that learning and on a Saturday, too!

Deb L

bluelotus

<<***I thought a piece of a post I got on another list may be appropriate
here. It's from Benjamin Franklin's Biography:***

I like reading Ben Franklin, but what I think I'm reading from you is
getting on my nerves.
Let's just talk about unschooling and IDEAS and let it be.
If you don't like a post, delete. If you don't like a style, delete. >>


I can say exactly the same thing to you here...If you don't like a post, delete. If you don't like a style, delete.

Yol

--

Blue Lotus Therapeutics -
Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga & Therapeutic Massage
http://www.bluelotustherapeutics.com

Dhyanyoga Center of NC -
Meditation - Kundalini Maha Yoga
http://www.dyc-nc.org

**********************************
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by
letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering.
-- Tao Te Ching
**********************************

Tia Leschke

>
> I like reading Ben Franklin, but what I think I'm reading from you is
> getting on my nerves.
> Let's just talk about unschooling and IDEAS and let it be.
> If you don't like a post, delete. If you don't like a style, delete. >>
>
>
> I can say exactly the same thing to you here...If you don't like a post,
delete. If you don't like a style, delete.

That post was from the moderator.
Tia

Deborah Lewis

On Sat, 04 Jan 2003 16:34:31 -0800 Tia Leschke <leschke@...> writes:

> That post was from the moderator.

No, it was from me, Tia. Not a moderator, just obnoxious. <g>

Deb L

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/4/03 4:40:19 PM Eastern Standard Time, ddzimlew@...
writes:

> like reading Ben Franklin, but what I think I'm reading from you is
> getting on my nerves.
> Let's just talk about unschooling and IDEAS and let it be.
> If you don't like a post, delete. If you don't like a style, delete.
>
>

Why dont you take your own advice. So many folks on here say,, If you dont
like it delete it. as they respond to something they dont agree with..Talk
about the pot calling the kettle black

Teresa


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

Betsy

** Talk about the pot calling the kettle black**

It would be nice if the pot and the kettle would talk about unschooling
instead of each other.

Betsy

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/4/03 6:29:58 PM, grlynbl@... writes:

<< Why dont you take your own advice. So many folks on here say,, If you
dont
like it delete it. as they respond to something they dont agree with..Talk
about the pot calling the kettle black >>

No, let's DON'T talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Let's talk about unschooling.

Tia Leschke

>
> No, it was from me, Tia. Not a moderator, just obnoxious. <g>

Oops.
Tia

Tia Leschke

>
> ** Talk about the pot calling the kettle black**
>
> It would be nice if the pot and the kettle would talk about unschooling
> instead of each other.

Hey pot!
What interesting things have your kids been up to lately? Mine is really
into film, and he's going to be working full time for a couple of weeks
starting this week.
Sincerely,
Kettle

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/4/03 8:54:58 PM, leschke@... writes:

<< What interesting things have your kids been up to lately? Mine is really
into film, and he's going to be working full time for a couple of weeks
starting this week. >>

Into film meaning film making? Is the fulltime work film related?

Kirby has been working extra much, because of inventory and another employee
leaving. His armor is nearly finished. I need to make a pair of pants to
go over his leg armor, which is articulated kydex (black plastic stuff), and
he needs gauntlets.

Marty and I have had a lot of interaction lately over online sharings (games,
sites), watching Kevin Smith question and answer stuff (a two-DVD set we
rented of Kevin Smith speaking at various universities, all edited up so it
kinda flows--very interesting), and he's been extra talkative lately.

Holly got a camcorder for Christmas and has made two little plays-on-video
with some friends of hers. They have a list of proposed other scenarios, and
they've voted and rated them in order. Monday I think they're doing one with
stuffed animals moved puppet-like, and they're doing something like Family
Feud. They write their little scripts (not on paper, they just plan them in
the air, but they rehearse and have some specific dialog, and some ad lib).

For a year they've done these as plays, and once they did some as a radio
talk show on audio tape.

Thursday night Keith, Marty and Kirby had a manly outing to "Smackdown," the
local live visitation of the WWE gladiatorial soap opera.

Friday night, Keith, Kirby, Holly and I went to a folksinging party. They're
monthly, but we hadn't been since last Spring for various reasons. I had a
GREAT time. When we left I thought it was about midnight and Kirby thought
it was about 11:00. It was 1:00. That means I had a good time and Kirby had
an even better time. There was a teenaged girl there he's known since they
were both little. She's leaving for college in fall, and Kirby's usually
busy on Friday nights. She lives in Los Alamos, and so is only in town for
singing parties. They were in the room for some of the singing, but part of
the time they were taking dogs for walks and other outside activities. The
house we go to was a farm, long ago, and the outbuildings are all still
there. There are big stables (a cow barn) and chicken coops and Kirby said
they talked about past years when they played here and there, and hid from
the younger kids, and they went and peeked through the places they had used
for hiding places with lookouts. I asked if they had to squat down to peek
through, and he said yes. She's still pretty short, but Kirby's 5'10" or
-11".

Marty hadn't wanted to go to that. He stayed here with his friend Joey.

At the moment, Holly is in the kitchen setting up for a snack for me and her,
Keith is in the back watching football, and Kirby and Marty are at a D&D
game.

I spent an hour and a half talking to an old friend (who's a former boyfriend
from early days, Jr. High) about another old friend (former college
boyfriend) who is listed in the footnotes of a book the former is working on,
and he's needing to call him and talk to him after not having seen him for 27
years or so. So I was briefing him on some things he might say and might
want not say in that conversation, and I ended up crying. It was cathartic
but I hadn't scheduled any catharsis this evening. It's wonderful to have a
friend who knows me so well that when I tell a story that stretches from 1973
to 1981, he knows all the other characters, can picture each of the four
houses involved in the sequence, and can remind me of things I'm forgetting,
because he was there too.

Earlier today I was helping another homeschooling mom take notes and do some
research for a trip to a lawyer Monday. She might be leaving her husband.
That was stress and might have been the seed for the later emotion.

I notice that discussing unschooling doesn't limit itself to kids. They're
learning by example from what we do. Kirby's seeing that his friendship with
Rowan could be for life, as mine with Frank's is. Holly's seeing Keith
resting after working on armor and tents today, and me not bugging him to do
something with me instead of watching football; that's useful! (Last night
he drove us the 25 miles to that party, and sang, and waited patiently until
we were all ready to come home.) Holly's seeing the stages people can go
through coming to marital and family decisions, in knowing the family in
crisis.

Pretty busy day, all in all.

About that humility lecture "someone" got (I think it was me, but I'd hate to
be accused of arrogance again)...

http://SandraDodd.com/humility/formality7.html

Sandra

Tia Leschke

>
> << What interesting things have your kids been up to lately? Mine is
really
> into film, and he's going to be working full time for a couple of weeks
> starting this week. >>
>
> Into film meaning film making?

Yeah, he's really interested in camera work and editing. He just finished
taking a class, and the teacher said he's a natural.

Is the fulltime work film related?

No, he's working for his dad putting cones on baby trees. Those are the
flexible plastic protectors they put on newly planted conifers to keep the
deer from eating them. It's good money - piecework - so the harder he
works, the more he makes.
>
>
> Holly got a camcorder for Christmas and has made two little plays-on-video
> with some friends of hers. They have a list of proposed other scenarios,
and
> they've voted and rated them in order. Monday I think they're doing one
with
> stuffed animals moved puppet-like, and they're doing something like Family
> Feud. They write their little scripts (not on paper, they just plan them
in
> the air, but they rehearse and have some specific dialog, and some ad
lib).

Interesting. That was the part of the class that Lars did *not* like. In
fact, he spoke to the teacher and told her his interests. She brought in
another teacher to work with him on editing while the rest of the group
worked on story.
Tia

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/4/03 8:58:17 PM Pacific Standard Time, leschke@...
writes:


> She brought in
> another teacher to work with him on editing

What type of computers and programing were they using to do the editing. My
daughter also does this. I am hoping to find an advanced class for her next
year she is teaching other people right now and doing a promo video for a
gymnastic center.

Heidi


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

Betsy

**I spent an hour and a half talking to an old friend (who's a former
boyfriend
from early days, Jr. High) about another old friend (former college
boyfriend) who is listed in the footnotes of a book the former is
working on,
and he's needing to call him and talk to him after not having seen him
for 27
years or so. So I was briefing him on some things he might say and
might
want not say in that conversation, and I ended up crying. It was
cathartic
but I hadn't scheduled any catharsis this evening. It's wonderful to
have a
friend who knows me so well that when I tell a story that stretches from
1973
to 1981, he knows all the other characters, can picture each of the four
houses involved in the sequence, and can remind me of things I'm
forgetting,
because he was there too. **


I've been doing the nostalgia thing, too. Yesterday I helped my brother
move. It was chaotic, because he is a total pack rat, but it was great
because he has things that were my grandmother's and things from our
childhood that I haven't seen in ages. He also has a huge and eclectic
collection of books. So on some future day that's less hectic, I'm
gonna rent my own moving van <g> and drive over and visit him and borrow
a HUGE pile of books. (Something to look forward to during the wet months.)

My other upcoming project is terracing the steep slope in the corner of
our new backyard. Anyone have any expertise in building retaining walls
that they'd care to pass on?

Betsy

kayb85 <[email protected]>

--- In [email protected], SandraDodd@a... wrote:
>
> In a message dated 1/4/03 8:54:58 PM, leschke@s... writes:
>
> << What interesting things have your kids been up to lately

Here was our day. I'm leaving the kids' names out since I'm not sure
if it's safe to post them on the web or not. ds-5 means my 5 year
old son and ds-3 means my 3 year old son. Dd is 9.

Dd went to a friend's house today to go sleigh riding. While getting
ready to leave the house, ds-5 was putting his socks on and he
mentioned the "M's" on his socks. I told him that they aren't M's,
they're W's. I explained the difference.

Before I took dd to her friend's house, I stopped at the library to
pick up some interlibrary loan books I had requested. On the way to
the library, dd was asking me questions about snow, so I picked her
up a book about Snowflake Bentley. I also picked up a silly book
about a sheep who was having a hard time falling asleep, since she's
been having some problems falling asleep on her own. She read the
books on the way to her friend's house and liked them.

On the way home from dropping dd off, ds-3 was hungry for nuggets, so
I went through McDonald's drive through and got him a kids' meal.
Then we went to Wal-mart to pick up a few groceries.

Yesterday, ds-5 had me write things on signs for a "club" the kids
were having in the livingroom. One of them said "You can do anything
in this room at 7:00." I have NO idea why he had me write that!
Today he was looking at that sign and was asking me how he would know
when it was 7:00. I showed him the microwave numbers and showed him
that instead of a 2 being there for the hour, a 7 would be there.
Then I changed the time on the microwave clock for 7:00 to show him
what it would look like. He and ds-3 had a blast changing the clock
time on the microwave. When he couldn't put a time on the clock
(something like 9:87), he asked why and I explained that there are
only 60 minutes in an hour, and that once you hit :59, it changes
over to the next hour. Therefore, you can't have a number higher
than a 5 in the second spot. I don't know if he got that completely,
but I'm sure that what he needed to know at the moment was able to
sink in. A child's mind is beautiful. :)

While I went to pick dd up, dh and ds-5 started playing the Rush Hour
game. We were pleasantly surprised at how well he did on the game!
He spent 15 minutes concentrating and studying one of the puzzles
before he figured it out. Who says little boys don't have big
attention spans! They just need to be concentrating on something
that they care about!

Dd spent some time working on Cluefinder's Toy Store computer game.
It involved a lot of math problems, and she struggled a lot with
them. I was in the middle of a project and couldn't really help her
much, except for little suggestions here and there. She worked
through a lot of the problems on her own with minimal help, even
though she was frustrated. When she had challenged herself just
enough, she quit the game.

I played "Reindeer" with ds-3. This game usually involves him
putting a Santa hat on himself and a reindeer antler headband on me.
He holds on to the back of my pants and tells me to fly. When he
wants me to stop, he gives me a wedgie. I can't complain though,
because "Reindeer don't talk". He goes into the foyer, climbs down
the chimney (climbs over the couch into the livingroom), and puts a
present under the tree. Then he climbs back over the couch and tells
me to fly to the playroom for more toys. The game didn't last very
long today without the Christmas tree. He says that he misses it.

Ds-5 and I spent some time on his bunk bed writing tickets for his
club. He had me write, "***'s Club" on a piece of paper. He wrote
MOM above it. That is my ticket. Then he asked me how to
spell, "****(the name of his sister) is not allowed" and he wrote it
on a piece of paper. I am amazed at how well he writes letters
considering how little time we've spent on it! When he asked what a
W looked like, I reminded him about the W's on his socks this
morning. Dd got very upset that she wasn't allowed in his club and
she tore up the paper. ds-5 started crying about it. I think what
he was really upset about is that he had spent so much time writing
it for it to get ripped up so soon. But let's face it--his
motivation in writing that was to antagonize his sister, and he can't
expect to write something like that and not get it ripped up. Dd
asked me why I spelled allowed the way I did. She thought it was
spelled aloud. I explained the difference to her. What an
interesting spelling lesson! While this was going on in the top
bunk, ds-3 was having his own little Santa Clause Club in the lower
bed. When ds-5 kicked her out of his club, ds-3 invited dd to his
Santa club. I wonder how long this Santa obsession will last!

Ds-3 helped me make peanut butter cookies this evening. His big job
was pressing the buttons on the microwave. He loves it and that is
how he is learning his numbers! Ds-5 also warmed up his supper by
asking me which buttons to press on the microwave.

The kids just watched a movie together. Ds-5 colored a paper plate
for me with a heart on one side and on the other side "Mom". He says
it is a frisbee. He is asking me to help him find his new Thomas
computer game that he got for Christmas. After I search for that for
a few minutes, we're off to bed!

Betsy

**Yesterday, ds-5 had me write things on signs for a "club" the kids
were having in the livingroom. One of them said "You can do anything
in this room at 7:00." I have NO idea why he had me write that! **

Well, so many signs forbid things (Keep OFF the Grass) that it's nice to
have a sign that does the reverse and gives permission.

I read a cute library book called The Signmaker's Apprentice. A kid who
works with a signmaker gets a chance to enjoy the power of making and
posting his own signs. Of course the first sign he makes says "No
School Today". (Yay! That makes it an un-schooling book.)

Betsy

Tia Leschke

> > She brought in
> > another teacher to work with him on editing
>
> What type of computers and programing were they using to do the editing.
My
> daughter also does this. I am hoping to find an advanced class for her
next
> year she is teaching other people right now and doing a promo video for a
> gymnastic center.

Sounds like she's ahead of Lars in her film work. I know they use a Mac in
the class. Does I Movie sound right? (He's asleep, so I can't ask him.)
We've got Adobe Premiere, but he hasn't learned how to use it yet.

On the same topic . . . The local hs teen group did 2 or 3 years of learning
to make videos with a hs dad who was a camera man. One of the boys went on
and took a short course at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School,
after which he was hired on by a brand new TV station here in Victoria. He
later got downsized, which I found out is common with new stations. The
experienced people don't want to do the grunt work of working out the kinks
at a new station, so they hire inexperienced people to start, then let them
go and hire the experienced people. At any rate, Sam got some good
experience out of it and then took another more advanced class at GIFTS.
He's off any day now for England on some kind of work exchange program.
He's hoping to find something in film there.
Tia