removing the ''just''

[Aurora]

I received some great advice the other day. I was sharing how much I love that our family is ''just living'' instead of doing the whole school thang. Someone said ''Have a think about the just. Maybe, don't just live, but live openly, purposefully, and richly!''

It stuck in my mind. I think some people have the misconception that unschooling is homeschooling for lazy people. But I don't see it that way at all. I see it as showing my kids *more* of the world than they would be exposed to via school!

I want my kids to have colourful lives, and on the other end of the spectrum, this doesn't mean lots of contrived experiences that only represent a limited idea of what learning is.

Unschooling means living passionately. It means thoughtfully strewing, keeping my eyes and ears open for things that might interest them, being proactive and getting out there in the big wide world, ensuring they have acess to a variety of activities, opportunities, and people who can make their lives richer too, and also being my kids exploremate sometimes.

I've realised from that sage advice that unschooling to me isn't ''just living'' after all! There's no ''just'' attached to living with heart :)

[Ayla]

Yeah but sometimes it is "just" living, on the cbf days kids will still be living and ergo learning from it. Living passionately every day sounds tiring! :lol I dunno I guess it still sounds like you can't learn from life unless you're doing this, doing that, living *this* way and not *that* way, yk? I look at Ry and our lifestyle which is just normal living for us and he still learns everything he needs to at his pace. I haven't done anything special :shrug

[MoonJo]

Homeschooling is for lazy people? Seriously? Is that the perception by those who don't? B'cos as a person just on the precipice of learning more about this journey, it's actually the EFFORT of 'schooling my child' or in the very least, facilitating her learning that freaks me out the most! I see schooling at home to be the most time and energy intensive of all the schooling options. Just think of the daytime soaps I could catch up with if I sent her off to the big brick building for 6 hours a day!

Sorry, a little off tangent to the OP... that sentence just shocked the pants off me.

[Aurora]

I don't think feeling passionate about life requires any great energy. To me it means caring about what I'm doing and being really present with my kids. I'm not talking about bouncing around the house, full of beans, clapping hands together and in a life-coach voice saying ''Okay team, what's on for today!'' I'm talking about the fire in the belly. I have felt waves of bliss drifting into a siesta with my kids, after a lazy day at home... ahh this is the life! I love this.

As parents who have committed to unschooling, have reverence for the amazing connections being made in our kids minds every moment, I personally don't think I could possibly just live. We know that just living isn't just living.... there's a whole lot more than ''just'' watering the garden going on within the learner. I agree with you that we are learning all the time, and I don't place more worth on any activity or outing than another. I think that daydreaming or playing a game are just as valid as anything typically classed as ''educational.'' But I also genuinely desire to have alot on offer to my kids, too. (Not from an educational stance, from a parenting one... I want their lives to be fun and colourful.)

There are plenty of days we don't leave the house but at home I still make sure there are options for them and fun stuff to do. It doesn't take much for me to pop some coloured paper in the craft box or fill the clamshell with water and tupperware. I'm just inspired to actually take more time to enjoy them enjoying it, re-connecting, sharing some moments together.

Moonjo yes, this odd belief is explored in some unschooling books!

[shaestar]

That's a good point!
I know I'm guilty of saying things like I'm "still" breastfeeding or co-sleeping too:oops

[Sarasvati]

I generally say we're living life, rather than just living. I suspect a just sneaks in somewhere though. "Just normal"? perhaps? It's a point to take though!

[anaturallearner]

Nothing lazy about natural learning, that's for sure. For our family it means a very busy, productive lifestyle full of exploration, investigation, experimentation - full on being and doing.

An example of why I love how we home educated our kids:

Robin and I were installing a wardrobe at my parent's house yesterday and had left our two sons (age 22 and 26, both unschool grads) at home to install our new and rather complex pull-out pantry. We arrived home to find little progress. No problems there, but Roger was excited about what they'd been doing instead...

He'd hunted down a blow fly and dropped it into our inside fish pond. The fish were interested and started nibbling it, but a spider dropped down from a web above the pond and started 'fishing'. They watched and took photos as she reinforced her web, attached lines to the fly, poisoned it, and began the process of hauling it up out of the water. They had questions like 'would she be able to break the surface tension of the water?' They described to us in the detail how the spider had made the web stronger, how she drew out the web and wrapped it around the fly. The spider was a fraction the size of the fly. We think she is some kind of widow spider, related to the redback. I reckon she could be a juvenile redback...

This kind of observation and learning about what is happening around us goes on all the time at our place. I'm rapt that natural learning and unschooling didn't stop when my kids turned 18. My kids are appreciative that they could do this kind of thing all day instead of book work. They make time to learn about the world, are observant and reflective. They know that they are always learning. They want to learn. How cool is that?

A lot of people would have simply seen two fellas shirking work, larking about instead of completing the job they were supposed to do, being lazy...

[Beatrice]

What a great story :D

I'm finding that once you take the red pill in one area of life (that might be home birth, home education, AP, anti-consumerism etc) it becomes easier and easier to see how interconnected these things are. An ethos that measures things by how they look or can be measured by outsiders vs. one which prioritises the internal process and thus centralises the individual. It's not surprising that the second one is seen as such a threat to society, because how can you [society] control something you can't see or measure? Whereas once you start to rely on your internal cues (and start trusting the same process in those around you) you realise how meaningless all the trappings of complying with our consumer culture and work ethic actually are.

[Janet]

I'd like to post but it would be utterly redundant since Beatrice posted what I think. So :ty

[anaturallearner]

ditto.
I love the internet and am glad we're connected because it has meant I don't feel isolated. For years I felt like the only person who felt this way about life. A large part of the time I feel anti-social because when I'm around people who don't think like this (as in, treat kids like people, like kids, like the environment, animals, critters, etc). It is hard to be tolerant, to not say something controversial.
A lot of people can't get past the fact that we have a composting toilet, don't have a fridge and homeschool our kids - in their eyes we're 'hippies' or 'feral'. Not that I mind those labels, I just don't like being labelled, stuck in a box, rigidly defined. Life isn't like that. Or, when it is, the options narrow considerably and the opportunities to learn seem to slip away...

It's raining, with a huge thunderstorm rattling around overhead. Another perfect day in paradise!

[Aurora]

Beverley, what an awesome story... I remember being fascinated with spiders as a child. I used to actually catch flies and toss them into webs just to watch the process. That sounds morbid I know lol.

Beatrice, YES!

[Beatrice]

I wouldn't be on this path without the internet - I needed lots of reassurance that this works and people with older kids have done it and they turned out fine!

In fact Beverley, I have to credit your newsletter for pointing me in the direction of the e-list Unschooling Basics when I was a very new home educator, and the list had just started up. That was my "red pill" :lol So, thanks :)