The Unschooling Haircut

While this may sound silly to some, brave to others and completely and outright ridiculous to most, I allowed my 17 year old daughter, at her request, to give me  a hair cut. After all we are unschoolers, we believe in learning freely, experiencing one’s quest and desires openly, in the comfort and love of one’s kitchen. Her vision was supported by mine, her history of the task limited to dolls, but I agreed and told her...

50 Ways To Bring Out Your Child’s Best

There’s a lot of good tips in this list, such as #8 (especially the part about involving them), #26 and my favorite #50. 50 Ways to Bring Out Your Child’s Best Written by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. 1. Let your child discover her own interests. Pay attention the activities she chooses. This free-time play can say a lot about where her gifts lie. 2. Expose your child to a broad spectrum of experiences. They may...

The Artist In All Of Us

Is an artist someone who makes money from their art? Someone who has their sculptures in a museum or takes formal classes? What about a child drawing a picture of their house? Or someone painting their first self portrait for the fun of it? They’re all those things…and more. In “What is an artist anyway?”, Tera Leigh has this to say; “Being an artist is about more than just creating...

My Daughter, The Writer

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that child is someone today.” - Stacia Tauscher **originally posted in 2006 ** We were hanging out with our homeschooling friends one afternoon and my daughter Jacqueline was sitting on one of the picnic tables, finishing a story (Princess Barbie) she had started a few days before. I was having a conversation with another homeschooling mom and she asked...

Origami

** originally posted in 2007 ** We picked this origami book up at the library, dug out a pack of paper that we bought on clearance and Billy sat down with the girls to try it out. None of them had ever done it before so they chose an easy one to start with, which happened to be a frog. Billy’s in the black one, Jacqueline’s is green and Shawna’s is blue. They’re trying to see whose frog can hop the...