We go a fair ways back with unschooling, with our children never attending school. We came to unschooling by practicing attachment parenting. Unschooling was a natural extension of that for us once our children reached school age, and especially once we quickly realized, in turn with each of them, that neither of them would fit the expected mold at all in a traditional structured school-ey setting.
I found a few of my past words about unschooling immortalized here at Sandra’s site, down along the side of her “getting it” page, http://sandradodd.com/gettingit. This was written when my children were 8 and 5…I am TinaB/canuckgal on this page. Funny to read these words as my children are now older. I would vouch my feelings are still as true as what I wrote then. Even so, as my children reach new stages, James and I (especially ME more so…I so love my husband for “getting it” in the areas that I find more difficult and vice-versa, and for helping me to straighten out my head over the years) still have some things that creep up that we see we need to examine and change and deschool on.
Over the years I have seen how valuable it is to “read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch…” as Sandra says. When I see my posts from message boards years ago with the same type of questions….a few months later….(!)…..I can see that it is sage advice Sandra gives, to let stuff “digest”, then DO IT, and evaluate and repeat…not just keep reading. I continue to strive to get better at that!
As far as a little bit about us individually, I am a registered nurse at our local hospital, who works an average of 5-8 shifts or so a month. We have always been fortunate be able to arrange and tweak my schedule over the years, so that the vast majority of the time, one of us has been able to be at home with the kids. I love to cook and bake, exercise, read, and flex my novice green thumb by (attempting!) gardening.
James has had a varied life, having been everything from a health care aide/orderly, to a security guard in a gold mine, to now working in a pharmaceutical plant, and loves things like camping, survival skills and outdoor lore, and an eclectic mix of Netflix documentaries ranging from war movies to tattooing, LOL.
Stephanie has a wicked sense of humor that we love to share and leads to all sorts of interesting discussions (think of things like the Oatmeal, Sanitaryum, and Cyanide and Happiness), loves animation/anime/cartooning both on paper and by computer, online games of all sorts (the more logic and strategy games the better), storytelling in all forms and ways, and reading a mix of all sorts of things. She also LOVES interacting with babies and young children, so if you have some, she will probably not be too far behind!
Jonathan is currently into things like playing Mario, Roblox, and other computer games and board games, loves going to his Scout troop, is a deep thinker delving into all sorts of world issues, and has a sweet tender heart that is uncannily intuitive towards any sort of anyone with hurts or troubles around him and he freely gives the hugs and helps out! Both are looking forward to meeting other kids and sharing their interests and learning from each other.
That is us in a nutshell….we are looking forward to meeting everyone!
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