It’s strange to think of myself as being unschooled, but it seems to be true. It was part of an interesting dual existence – part-time schooling and part-time unschooling. I didn’t even think of it as unschooling until an astute parent pointed it out at our local unschooler’s support group. I think it accounts (on some level) for my general disregard for authority and groupthink.

M spontaneously wrote the letters “W” and “N” yesterday. I suppose this should further convince me of the efficacy of unschooling. I don’t know why I’m so amazed. I guess part of me just didn’t believe that it would be possible for a child to learn to write and/or read without a lot of formal lessons on the subject. Now, we have done some work on letter awareness. Lots of signing of the alphabet song, letter puzzles, and discussions every so often on the sound …

It’s been almost a month (I think) since we ditched the TV signal. The point of no return was last week, when we returned the receiver, remote and some doohickey on the satellite dish (which freaked me out since I had to climb onto our roof). So far so good – really good, I’d say. Since mindless TV watching is no longer an option, I tend to read or research stuff on the internet instead. Since I’m getting in the habit of reading, I find myself …

I loved The Swiss Family Robinson as a kid. It was one of my favorite stories, along with Robinson Crusoe and the Little House books. I remember going to Disney World long before I read the book and wondering what the treehouse was all about, but I understood once I was old enough for the book. After reading this abridged edition, I realize that the cornucopia of flora and fauna on the island is utterly outlandish, but as a kid it seemed perfectly normal for an exotic …