“…recent studies show that online learning, distance learning, and self-learning in general, are not only more convenient, but, in fact, more effective than the classroom, for high school, college and adult learners”.

“The walls of academia, and the costs of learning, are crumbling before our eyes and ears”.

“For those who are conditioned to think that learning only happens in a classroom, the world of self-learning can be a little daunting. How do we best take advantage these new opportunities.”

Great post today at Pick The Brain about self-learning on how it benefits teen and adult learners. Of course we know it benefits all ages but it’s still a good post.

The article ends with “Never has it been easier nor more exciting to be a learner. Let constant learning be a major part of your life-style. The rewards will be constant, personally, socially, and professionally.”

Nice!

Click the link to read the whole article.

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“I would love to hear and perhaps share your stories, which can be about your children, others you know, or you. Your stories may be a great source of inspiration for other readers”.

Here are some of the topics he’s interested in hearing more about:
Learning to read without schooling
Learning math without schooling
From play to careers
Becoming an expert through one’s own initiative
Age-mixed play and friendships: Contributions to children’s and adolescents’ learning
Roles of adults in children’s and adolescents’ self-directed learning.
Fantasy play: Listening to little actors and directors.
Making and enforcing rules at home

Here’s the link for more information on sending in your stories of self directed learning

Here’s my page:
facebook.com/joannegreco

I still have a little unpacking to do around here (adding tags, updating links setting up the feed ,etc) but i will be back to regular posting and I want to come and visit all of my unschooling pals at your blogs and catch up with what’s happening in your lives.

To celebrate our new home, I’m going to hold our very first contest! The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to amazon.com (it will be delivered right to your email address). To enter, just tell your readers that we’ve moved and post the link to our new blog. (http://anunschoolinglife.com). Then come back here and leave the link to where you posted about it, in a comment. The contest will end on the last day of the month, January 31. I’ll write everyone’s name on a piece of paper, put them in a bowl and my daughter Jacqueline will pick the winner.

It’s great to be back – I have so much to share!

PS: Unschooling Voices, the blog carnival, will be back. It’ll take me some time to update the links and get back into the swing of things here, but I am planning on getting the carnival up and running again.

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Shannon at Phat Mommy blogged about something called The Wheel of Life, which sounds like a good tool for establishing goals in the coming year. I’ll think about mine and post it later.

This post from Karen, author of Mamma Zen hit home with me, particularly at this point in my life. As I go through my mothers house, I’m sad to find beautifully wrapped candles and nice dishes waiting for “just the right time” to be used. That time will never come. I made a promise to myself (and a silent one to mom) to use all those candles and dishes NOW, while I’m alive to enjoy them.

A good reminder for a new year from Lisa at Do Life Right in this post titled Choosing Zen.

A great post from Holly at Unschool Days and one that I can relate to. I love the last paragraph.

***** Enjoy! *****

**Edited To Add**

Edition #11 of Unschooling Voices will be out today (or the latest tomorrow morning) but I wanted to let you know that #12 will be hosted by Kim at Relaxed Homeskool!! As soon as I get #11 posted, I’ll update the unschooling-voices-main-page.html”>Unschooling Voices Main Page with her question of the month but you check her blog to see if she posted it yet. Submissions go to the same e-mail address as usual. I think we have a host for lucky #13 so if somebody wants to host #14, please let me know! I’d like it to be someone who has at least participated a couple of times. Check back later on for Unschooling Voices #11. As usual, we had some really terrific blog posts submitted.

I’ve blogged before about Jacqueline’s passion for space & astronomy and we’ll be re-doing her room with a space theme for her birthday in August. I want to be able to buy her a telescope for Christmas this year and I’ve been checking out a few sites lately. As I find interesting things, I’ll blog about them for anybody else with a space cadet in their family. lol If anybody has any suggestions, I’ve love to hear them.

One of the sites I checked out has something called meade my sky. It’s a hand held, point and shoot guide that instantly identifies over 30K celestial objects in the night sky. It sounds like something Jacqueline would really get into. It says you just turn it on, point it at a celestial object, and pull the trigger to identify planets, stars, nebula, galaxies and more. The price is not bad either and it came with free shipping.

They also have a full line of telescopes. I don’t know much about telescopes yet- it’s something I’m going to have to read up on before I buy one. If anybody has any tips, I’d be appreciative.

Please take a few minutes to visit the following blogs (and websites). I bet you find some new ones that you didn’t know about.

1. Kelly Lovejoy, coordinator of the Live and Learn Conference who mentioned Unschooing Voices in her article in Connections.
2. Mary Nix, editor of Home Education Magazine’s blog.
3. Why Homeschool
4. Robins Blue Skies
5. Mandaroo
6. Relaxed Homeschool
7. Apple Stars
8. A Typical Homeschool
9. Mom is Teaching
10. KS Homeschool
11. Dare to Know
12. The Lilting House
13. The Varela Family
14. Doc’s Sunrise Rants
15. Life Without School
16. Sea, Sand and School
17. Sandra Dodd
18. Life With my Sweeties

Here’s the link with details for participating in Unschooling Voices #9. Submissions are due on or before April 30th.

Don’t forget you can share the link to your blog on the Unschooling Squidoo Lens. At last check, we were #84 in the education category.

Related Tags: unschooling, unschool, unschoolers, unschooling voices, unschooling carnival, unschooling blogs

It looks like they haven’t made their official lauch yet but if you pre-register you have a chance to win music magazine subscriptions. From what I read, you’ll have the ability to create your own playlists and library. When you get there, click on “browse artists” and choose your favorite genre from the pull down box.

I like being able to give lesser known bands a listen and this site seems like it might be able to open doors for a lot of new bands.
Check it out-I hope you like it.

If you like rock, here’s some bands I listened to; Core, Eldest and Faith and Fire.