Previous Unschooling "Words"

Photos previously published at The Military Homeschooler are archived at the Update List email list site.  To view the photos, subscribe to the list (you can set the email preferences to "No Mail" if you wish), and click on the Photos link in the navigation bar on the left side of the page.

March 2005

• History

February 2005

• Mentoring

January 2005

• Home Child

 

December 2004

• Bunschooler
   

November 2004

• Excursion

October 2004

• Imagination

September 2004

• Happy Birthday to the Website
• Cowgirls

August 2004

• This photo is a departure from the ones I usually upload as it certainly isn't an 'unschooling' picture.  And while I'm departing from the usual, the caption,  instead of being 'in a word,' will be in many.
  
  Young children are sometimes unhappy about going off to school.  We who survived the experience may chide them, directly or indirectly, about being 'big boys' or 'big girls.'  Or we may think their distress is cute.  It's not.    Our children may be hoping for a reprieve that doesn't come, sometimes not for 13 more years.  School personnel may shoo us away from our unhappy child with, "He'll be fine once you're gone."  The crying may stop, but the child probably isn't 'fine.'
  
  In today's way of thinking in American and other advanced countries (at least we all believe ourselves to be advanced), children must be compelled to be educated in an official way, and usually is places other than their homes.  Some parents haven't heard of homeschooling, some are not financially able to do without a second income and others don't want to, some do not have the personality or relationship with their children to sustain a homeschooling situation, and some just don't believe homeschooling is a good and proper thing to do.  The children of these families must leave their homes to 'go out into the real world.' For many, but not for all, it's a sad event.  I don't think we do the children, or the reality of what they are undergoing, any service by pretending this is 'the way it is supposed to be.'  It's a norm in many places, but it isn't a universal inevitability.
  
  Of course, my twins survived their first day of school.  But 'surviving school' isn't what I wanted for them and, once I became aware of the concept of continuing to raise my children at home, it wasn't long before these three returned home.  For their older brother, who graduated from high school the year I found out about homeschooling, it was never an option.
  
  I wish I had a different photo here -- one of children still playing in September of 1985.
  
  It looks like it was a nice day out.

July

• Touring
• Dance

June

• Coloring
• Spelling

April

• Kidphotos
• Flat Stanley
• Kansas City's Folly Theater
• Flat Stanley as Nanki Poo

March

• Culture
• Studying
• Photography
• Reading
• Coloring

February

• Camaraderie
• Caring
• Coloring
• Experimenting
• Puppeteers
• Breather

January

• Reading
• PE
• Home-ed
• Gingivere
• Music
• Preschool
• Cooking
• Traveling

2003

November

• Friends
• Reading
• Drawing
• Sewing
• PCSing
• Haircutting

October

• Baking
• Momentum
• Exploration
• PE
• Drawing
• PE again
• Reading
• Music
• Exploration_1

September

• Photography
• Spelling
• Horticulture
• History