Can our children be in charge of their education? Should they make big decisions about their own lives? Do these things truly belong to them, and them alone? I don’t think there is a straightforward answer to that, but I would like to say that overwhelmingly, yes, they should. Realizing this was a slow process for me, rather than a sudden realization, and I will admit there are still moments when I think, Wait a minute, are we sure this is right? It’s easy to doubt and second-guess yourself when the overwhelming narrative is: Children are incapable of making big […]
Learning to read is made out to be such a huge thing. I suppose it is, in a way, because if your child attends school there comes a point when they literally won’t be able to keep up with the work if their reading is not at the right “level”. The whole idea of this is just ridiculous. It simply makes no sense to me because it takes the child out of the process entirely, and makes an arbitrary decision about what would serve an adult-led system better: that children should all be reading at the same level at the […]
In short, everything. Deschooling is what many home educators and unschoolers choose to do when they embark on home education, particularly if their children have been to school. My children were in school for 3 years before we started home education, so there was a lot of deschooling to do. But mostly, the one who needed deschooling was me. I went to school for 15 years, then university, then into the workforce so I’m pretty much as “schooled” as they get. Deschooling should really be called something else because it’s so much bigger than gradually shedding our schooled beliefs and […]
A few days ago, my daughter said, “Do you know what my motto is? No book, no way!” It reminded me of how I can’t help but feel warm inside when my child loves the things I love, and also how uncomfortable it can be when they don’t. I think it’s okay to acknowledge this – it’s probably a normal human emotion, right? We feel a bond with people who share our passions and interests. But I think what we do with it is in a way more crucial – do we praise them for it, in the hopes that […]
Today over dinner my daughter said: When I grow up I don’t want to be one thing, but many. Some I’ll get paid for, some I won’t. Things like a baker, an activist, a book illustrator and a babysitter. And other things. As someone who for a big chunk of my life believed I had to find the one thing I was meant to be doing, this was such an amazing moment. Some of us do find one, true passion in life. But I wish someone had told me, growing up, that many of us don’t. And that that’s okay. […]
