Unschooling isn’t all about the kids – it’s about us too.  Our attitudes and perceptions and, what’s become very apparent to me, our own desire and capacity for learning.  One of my main supporting points for being an unschooler was that I taught myself everything I know for my work.  I realized that I wanted to learn something and followed my desire. I also have memories of enjoying learning in school until it became drudgery.  I like learning, and it seemingly was dulled out of me for years.  Now I …

I broke out an old sketch book today to do some duck drawings and came across a list that Trish & I made several years back. It’s called Things to do differently with our children and was probably written some evening when the dream of being parents devolved into a round robin on stuff our parents did that we didn’t like. What’s interesting is that we’ve followed it almost 100%:

Non-stressful, non-regimented buffet bbqs: Some of our family have bbqs that are pretty much outdoor equivalents of proper, full-course …

Reading to M has always been one of most enjoyable aspects of parenting, and now that he’s getting a little older, I’m getting the joy of revisiting some of my all-time favorites books. This past week involved the welcome return of Beverly Cleary with The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I had forgotten how wonderful her characters are, but it didn’t take long for me to get sucked into the tale. I’m honestly not sure who’s enjoying the story more! Now I’m curious to see how long before …

Happy New Year, everyone! Getting rid of our satellite tv was made easier by the documentaries and stuff that we tend to prefer watching. Here are 3 dinosaur dvds for the paleontologist in all of us.

Dinosaur Planet – Real Big Stories: A thoroughly enjoyable set of 4 stories with a twist – the dinosaurs are given names like White Tip, Pod and Firefly, and each episode explains facts about the dinosaurs within the framework of a story. In one, the velociraptor White Tip’s pack is killed and …