Unschooling Ain’t The Boogie Man

Unschooling Ain't The Boogie Man, yellowreadis.com Image: Kids lying on pier playing in water

Every now and then, usually when news is a little slow, prominent papers like to do little fluff pieces on the edges of the educational world. One week might be about lambasting ‘pushy parents,’. Another week an angry remonstrance on the horrors of alternative education.

Personally, I find it deeply amusing that, depending on the flavour of the month, our little family can be both academically pushing and overly restrictive tiger-parents, and laissez-faire, academically neglectful parents at the same time.

In July, it was Mamamia’s turn to have-a-go at the punch-the-alternative-education bandwagon.

The topic this time around? Unschooling.

So what is unschooling? And why does it raise so many hackles?
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Scheduling the Chaos

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to write a post. This has less to do with actually being over-the-top busy (which is almost always the case), and more to do with being completely disorganized!

So last week I decided ( after we showed up over half and hour late to a gymnastics class) that I needed to put a bit of scheduling into our free-form natural-learning journey.

This week is our trial week. And so far it has been a success. So far.
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I Got My Lunchbox …

I was 13 when I decided school was a prison. As I read my way through the classics of sci-fi – from Asimov’s ‘Foundation‘, through to Phillip K Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?‘, wending my way through Heinlein, Herbert and Clarke, – I learned about social structures. And I learned more by finding and reading works like Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince‘, Bernard Shaw’s ‘Man and Superman‘, and even the mad absurdity of ‘Waiting for Godot’. And in my 13-year-old mind, I started to put together a theory of social conditioning.

Warning: Occasional foul language when appropriate.

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Musings on Tertiary Options

Musings on Tertiary Options, yellowreadis.com Image: Duplo and wooden blocks

I wasn’t sure what to write for the blog-hop on ‘homeschooling gifted/2e kids into their teens’. I mean, C is almost 7, J is 2.5. They’re not exactly galloping towards teenager-hood at this time. But then I asked for some advice, and had a good think, and realised – I do have something to say. Because I have thought about some of the problems we’re sure to encounter. Continue reading “Musings on Tertiary Options”

Homeschooling My Gifted Kid, Part 3: The Twice Exceptional Wrinkle

Homeschooling My Gifted Kid Part 3: The Twice Exceptional Wrinkle, yellowreadis.com Image: Old Map

In this third part on our convoluted journey to homeschooling, I’d like to talk about what twice exceptional means – and a bit about what it feels like to parent such kids!

This is not meant to be a definitive guide for people trying to discover more about twice exceptional kids. This is just our personal journey, and a few of the curious signposts along the way.

Continue reading “Homeschooling My Gifted Kid, Part 3: The Twice Exceptional Wrinkle”