I’ve been noticing how M, now 7, has become more and more social as time has gone on.  Socialization is, of course, one of the hot button issues when it comes to learning outside of school.  Why people think learning to be social with 30 other kids who are also learning to be social makes sense – especially when the main lessons are to sit down, be quiet and do what you’re told – is beyond me.  (If recess were 6 hours long, I could see school as a place …

And they call Arp by his first name too.  M at age 6, and J at age almost-4 have been calling us by our first names for years now.
It not a big deal in our house, but I’m sometimes caught off guard when other people question it.

1.  School Recess Improves Behavior
No big shock here.  You can pick & choose the basic reasons why – all work & no play makes Jose a dull boy?  Or perhaps that punishment doesn’t work?  (see Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards)  Or, as many critics of homeschooling say, that kids need school to be ‘socialized’ – then perhaps they should be allowed to be social instead of cooped up in a classroom being trained for a cubefarm.
2. Too Many Online Friends? Time to Delete
I’ve never quite gotten the whole concept …

We started gymnastics classes for five-year-old M about a month ago. Overall it is going really well, at least from M’s perspective. I suppose his perspective is the one that counts, as the whole reason we decided to do gymnastics is because he really wanted the opportunity to bounce on a trampoline (and we wanted it to be somewhere safe, with professional supervision). He likes the class a lot and I can see him smiling and talking to the other two friendly boys that attend the class …

I got an email from a friend recently asking about unschooling. Her concern was whether it was really possible that her 2-3 year old would ever become interested in all the amazing things there are in the world (besides the current interest: animals). For parents of two-year olds, it may indeed be hard to imagine how a child can move on to naturally becoming curious about the all the wonderfully complex things in the world, especially when we are used to the idea that most children go to …