Life learning – Page 2 – a hippie with a minivan

On the sidelines…

Last night I went out for a supper with some of the ladies from the homeschooling group…

We were to go to a fine Italian restaurant (Restaurant Laöra in St-Hilaire to be exact) and have a supper and talk and share… it was awful…
not the company, not the food, though it wasn’t amazing… but the atmosphere…

The restaurant had booked another group that were having a x-mas party and were really partying… and it was so loud that we had to scream to be able to talk… it was just really unpleasant… I wish they would have at least told us that there was another group and that there would be live rock music we could have made the choice to go elsewhere…We asked them if they could put the volume down just a bit and they ignored us… awful… really awful…

but something else happened last night… and I really felt pushed to the sidelines because of our choices…

The local group have been getting together for the kids to do things and they assumed that I wasn’t interested… and maybe I would have been, maybe not, but I don’t think it was their decision to make… I have to admit that I am pretty hurt because one of them is a good friend.

They just really don’t get the way we do things… So I wrote an e-mail this morning saying that I was pretty hurt that they made the decision for me and my children and that unschooling isn’t about doing nothing, it is about having resources and activities available and letting children make their own choices about what they want to do with them. That even if we were invited, it wouldn’t guarantee our participation but at least the kids would have the option and they might very well be interested… and even if they didn’t do it they might like to hear the other kids do it and would love to get to play with them after… (they were doing oral presentations)

Though I truly believe in the way we are doing things I am getting tired of being in the sidelines all the time… having people misjudge what we are doing yet not wanting to learn more. Trying to explain and instead of being listened to having the person go into a defensive mode and see what I am saying as judgement instead of opinion…

The friend whom I am close to called me after she got the e-mail and said that she really felt bad about it and that I could of course come over… but I didn’t go… I would have felt too uncomfortable and I am feeling a bit too hurt by the whole situation…

quote…

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Cicero

today…

I know… awful title eh?

We had a long day today… Got up this morning with Simon at 6am… he actually got up an hour late this morning… I was debating on whether to go to the Montreal Homelearners group meeting today and finally decided that I should… Last night I salted some cabbage to wilt it a bit and this morning I made rice paper wraps with that and crumbled Thai peanut burger and spicy peanut sauce that was last night’s supper… omg they turned out amazing!!

We finally got out at 9:15 and headed to get some breakfast and then headed toward Montreal…
The group was small and we had fun but I am not sure if I am going to be going back that often… the parking in that area is horrendous and is just going to get worse with snow on the way… and the group is looking to get more structured whereas I would rather be more about the kids just getting together with other kids and the parents talking… If I am willing to drive to Montreal I think that I would rather use that driving time to visit other friends that will fulfill my need of just getting together…

After that was done, we ran to the car in the rain and then I drove around a bit and then met Simon near his work and then headed for the mall to pick up a few things that we needed and get some supper…

I feel funny that each time I go get Sushi at the mall I am met by our old landlady (where my mom and I lived until I moved out) who works there… and she gives me 50% discount… Sushi is expensive… but I did save 15$…

Anyway that was our day… It feels so good to be sitting down finally..

eta… a great thing that came out of today was to get a mama to try my wrap instead of her snugli…. she loved it! I always love to share the comfortable babywearing love…

a few things I love about life learning…

No schedules…

I love not having a schedule… I love that the boys can have their own rythms and be either early or late sleepers/risers depending on their own biological rhythms… I love not having to get up in the morning at a set time and having to get all the kids ready to bring one to school… I love eating when we are hungry instead of because it is just “time to eat” and doing whatever we want whenever we want…I also love that when we do activities we can do it in the week when things are often cheaper and a lot less busy…

Less stress…

Not having schedules and deadlines, homework or pressure to perform among many other things makes our lives a lot less stressful… there is no expectation to know things because they “have to know them” and then know failure if they are not ready… nor are they held back from learning things because “they are not at that level yet”…

we live… we learn… we play and we take everyday as it comes..

“Socialization”

Not having kids in school means that they are not coming home with bad habits picked up from other kids… they are not in eternal competition with other kids wanting to have more or better stuff… There is less peer pressure… and again less pressure to perform… also… age is not a seen as a barrier… friendships can be sparked with younger kids or older kids and even adults…

In the end they will know more…

I trully believe that in the end my children, and those able to learn at their own pace will know a lot more than most public school kids… and I am saying this because having gone through the public system myself and talking to others over the last years… and as recently as a few days ago, the trend is to get the best test scores and “get things over with” only to be able to forget it the next day because often you will never see the material again… I learned a lot more when I persued my own interests then when I was in class… and I believe that in the end my kids will do the same…

Great list…

Amanda shared this link on her blog…and I thought it would be great to share here also…

How to screw up Unschooling

I had seen it before but had forgotten about it… and like Amanda said she will do, it is going up on my wall also…

I condensed the list slightly because there are some things that come naturally, some things that don’t pertain to us at the moment and even a few things that I might not 100% agree with…

but overall it will be a good visual reminder at times that I might need it…