On pushing

There are times when we, and our children, need a little nudge. A push. A " I know you can do this" or a " Give it a try."

 There are times when it's better to wait for that nudge to come from within. If you police my weight loss efforts I am likely to get mad or to sabotage. If I wait for that click, it works. I want to. I make myself.

 I have seen the same click with reading and with times tables. No matter how a teacher may push, a child seems to get these when inner click goes, well, click!

 There are also fallow times. Times when we need to ostensibly do nothing or when we need to saturate ourselves in an activity....be it a book or every Godfather movie in a row a video game, for example.

 What do we homeschoolers do then? Go with it. Go with the passion, the craze, the visible doing nothing. Because it is really impossible to do nothing and learn nothing.

Sometimes if we push we miss out on a learning experience, one that can't be replaced, one that is owned by the child. Or ourselves. One that is requiring reflection.

 So do we push our children and ourselves? Sometimes. And sometimes we hold back and just be. And sometimes we wait for that inner click.

 Tiger Mother and Unschooling Mama.

What programme?

What programme do you use for ..(insert your topic or subject or curriculum area here)?

 We don't.

 And do you know why?

 It seems so easy to pick a book or a curriculum that allegedly solve the "troubles" of how to teach x.

 But it's not.

 There is no easy way, no perfect book.

 Nothing can replace the attention of a parent or adult, responding to a child and his interests, sharing the world and their life and interests, using books and movies and activities and experiences and most of all discussion to teach.

 No curriculum can replace these kind of learning opportunities.

 So use the curriculum if we wish, but use it as an adjunct to real life and real learning, to everything else we do, directed or undirected and natural.

 In my experience, what programme works is the programme of family and life and resources around us.

With lots and lots of time.

 And lots and lots of talking.

Living Books

Educator Charlotte Mason talked about living books - books that are written by a single author, with passion, books that make the topic come alive for the reader.

By living books, however, I mean living, everyday, in and out, as we breathe and talk and be, really living books. The books are so much a part of your life, they are who you are, they are who we are as people and as a family.

As we re-read Where the Wild Things Are, and I share the story with a new generation at work, everyone gnashing their terrible teeth and roaring their terrible roars, on the death of Maurice Sendak, then we share not only text but memory. Not only memory but rhythm and prose and poetry. Style. Which we take into our conversation, our writing, our reading, even,  of more advanced texts.

As we climb trees today and look for Sam Gribbley trees, honouring the late Jean Craighead George and her imagination inspiring book The Other Side of the Mountain, we experience the weave and the woof of our lives as family, of reading together in childhood, of spontaneously exploring our world when connecting with the story. We remember the important element of story, in our lives and in our work.

As we look for the novel The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey today, and discuss its relevance to a talk last night by Professor Finnis on Shakespeare, Religion and Identity, we recall investigative method, connections, that feeling  how-one-thing-leads-to-another, our knowledge of English history and Shakespeare. For, after all, it is connections that make learning. We connect, we think, we remember.

This is what is needed in education. Living books. A life intertwined with books and stories and texts and images and experiences.

One is never the same after having read, shared, experienced, followed up, a good book.

After a week of national Naplan tasting, a focus with parents at work and in the news on results and on tests, I look at our circle of readers. Young men who read, who live books, who are interested in learning, who do not fit the oft cited stereotype that boys do not like reading.

I realise that a life of books, of day to day happenings related to books, of living and breathing and cooking and climbing trees with books, has made their education. Not tests and bits of paper. But books shared and lived.

This is the legacy of life without school. Living books, living education, living memories.

Strewing their paths...February

I strew many different things in the paths of my sons.. Outings, cooking, museums, libraries, puzzles, music, blogs, links, masses, prayers, statues, candles, quotes, games..

The biggest thing that I strew, though, are books.

I strew books because I love books. I love reading. Books have enriched my mind, my experience, my life.

As we start February, I have been strewing books on our dining table, near the candles and liturgical year strewing.

What books?

Saints and Art... For St John Bosco

Catholic Bioethics by the Bishop of our Diocese, Bishop Anthony Fisher OP.

Kitchen by Nigella Lawson... A great read, attractive turn of phrase, clever use of imagery, a cookbook that is a example of good writing.

The Women's Weekly Retro Cookbook (yes, I have sons who like cooking and who get into retro).

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton .. I have raved about this so much that I might as well leave it around.. Who knows who will pick it up?

And that's what happens with books in our house. Someone leaves one lying around and someone else picks it up, peruses, gets into it.

Strewing paths with books.

Strewing their paths...

Its that time of the week again. When we share our strewing.

My strewing this week had been both intentional and unintentional. 

Intentional strewing...strewing with a purpose or with forethought . 

This week it is a novel by Madeleine L'engle. A Wrinkle in Time. 

I first read this at age twelve. I have read it aloud to classes I have taught. I have read it aloud to some of my kids and others  have read it themselves.

Except Anthony. Who is sporadically studying physics, with occasional use of a Saxon Physics text and occasional reading of Six Easy Pieces by Dr Richard Feynman. 

His interest is not high. Hence sporadic study. So I thought A Wrinkle in Time would be a good complement. Physics related literature and a darn good story. L'engle is a talented storyteller. And it just happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of A Wrinkle in Time this year!

Unintentional strewing? Strewing and sparks that happen in every day life, almost serendipitously. 

Watching episodes of series one of Fringe, a Christmas gift. The science of the weird, of cloning, of regeneration and a FBI story to boot.

Fits in well with A Wrinkle in Time, doesn't it?

Encouraging Readers

Encouraging readers.

I hear of many ways to encourage our children to become readers.

Books on CD, read alouds, share picture books, create reading nooks, watch book related movies, buy books, visit libraries.

We do all these.

But the single biggest helper has been my example.

I read myself. 

I strew books for myself.

I create reading lists for myself.

I talk about my reading,

I share excerpts.

The kids have grown up knowing that I value reading.

Even if they never read themselves (they do!), they know reading is important, a past time, a way of opening up other worlds and other ideas. 

So, what are you strewing for yourself, reading wise, as a homeschooling mother?

Here are some of my Christmas and post Christmas reads...

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton.....I love this book. I had to read it again. His description of the search within each of us for Truth  wrings my soul. It's me. It'smany others I know.  Talking with the kids today at lunch, about authors with whom we identify, about authors whom we wish to emulate ...for me it's Merton. I want to write like Merton. 

What's Eating You? by Katherine Alleume. Why do we eat what we eat? This question has puzzled the nutritionist author and she asks us to make conscious eating decisions, conscious rationalizations. A similar take to that Intuitive Eating book. But something I am still trying to tackle...I am a stress eater and there is a point where enough is enough.

Contemplative Prayer by Merton.  A deep interior life that reaches out and shares with others.

The YouCat. The "youth inspired version" of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I want to read it before recommending it to others. And the many side bar quotes have sparked discussion here....why include that? Great definition of religion (relationship with God).  Some good pre and post Vatican II stuff ( yes the Church existed pre Vatican II!). Some great quotes and some what the ? quotes.

Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire by Mireille  Giuliano. A Christmas gift. Bringing style and pleasure to life. Balancing life and work. My sort of book. "Quality of life is very important in France. I have many friends who turned down promotions and more money because it would affect their quality of life as a couple or a mother. I was pleased to hear this. This is not a sign of weakness." Very true. It is not.

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers by Meg Meeker. Subtitled Reclaiming our passion, purpose and sanity....I  have read about this on homeschooling blogs and even though I am on a buying less binge, er, lifestyle, I had to pick it up when I saw it, the very last copy, at Portico Books. Why? I need my passion. I need my sanity. And I have been inspired by the few quotes I have read on other blogs. "If every mother in the United States could wrap her mind around her true value as a woman and mother, her life would never be the same.”

Read. Strew. Share.

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas

"Everybody in the Austin family is excited on the first day of December because every day for twenty-four days they will do something special to prepare for the twenty-fifth day, Christmas Day, the most joyful day in the whole year."

And so begins The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'engle.

I read an old copy of this book as child ( it was published in 1964) and the memories of Mother and her Advent preparations, her Advent activities, stayed with me.

When I became a mother myself, I had a vision for Advent already in mind. Preparing as a family for Christmas. Making and pulling out an Advent calendar. Making cookies. Assembling a crèche or nativity scene. Crafts. Cooking. Carols. Books. Music.

And prayers and masses and movies,  in a modern Catholic family twist.

There is a danger, however, that Advent can become yet another time of busy-ness. Of being task oriented. Of endless to do lists.

"Advent, John could tell you, is the name for the four weeks of preparation and thought that lead up to Christmas day."

Preparation and thought. Not necessarily frantic activity and compulsion to do everything that Mrs Austin, Mother in the book, does.

"The kitchen is a big wandery room that turns corners and as kinds of unexpected nooks and crannies. In the dining room end a fire is crackling merrily, and the smell of applewood mingles with the smell of pancakes and maple syrup, and hot chocolate with marshmallows."

In our current house, our kitchen opens onto our dining area, it is light and symmetrical. The teens woke this morning to freshly made pikelets, tea in my variety of cute and fanciful teapots and our basket of Advent books. We lit the first candle in the Advent wreath.

So, yes, I do the Mrs Austin-ish Advent things. Well, some of them. Well, my own version.

But ultimately I know that Advent preparation and thought and prayer should be interior as well as exterior...Holy Mass, the Novena for the Immaculate Conception, the sacrament of penance, the rosary.

Being faithful.

Even if we don't do all the Advent activities, the crafts, the cooking, the books...

We prepare and think and pray.

We find that star, the Light of Christ, in our faithfulness . In His Love.

"One star is brighter and more sparkling than any of the others. 'The Christmas star,' Vicky whispers. Its light seems to shine right down into her heart."

Unschooling choice

People wonder what unschooled teens will choose to do, to read, if their time is not structured, if they are not required to "do school".
Will they choose unlimited video games and easy read books and TV?
They may do.
Or like Anthony this week, they may choose to read..and read widely...and talk about reading.
In Anthony's (self directed, self chosen) reading pile this week....

Dante's Divine Comedy (Hell) and Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

Scott O'Dell"s historical novel The King's  Fifth and a French Reader.

The education  of an autodidact.
With mum and brothers and friends around, for discussion.
That quantity time.

Duty and Love

"Falling in love while I was still a nun complicated things and helped me think about myself in a different way" Mary Johnson, in "An Unquenchable Thirst."


Mary Johnson describes her life as a nun...and her falling in love with someone other than God...and her surprise at this. And yes, this "falling in love" was one of the reasons she left her religious order.


Yet we shouldn't be surprised by falling in love. If we love God, when we feel His Love for us, then we love even more..we love Him more and our capacity for love of others is heightened.


This is not a romantic love but a selfless love. 

Fr James Martin, in his book of his priestly vocation,  In Good Company,  writes of celibacy and chastity...As a Jesuit, he discusses his vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and says " ...even chastity does not preclude one from falling into love..Falling in love and being in love are both gifts from God. Its a question of what you do....A chaste person tries, like Jesus did, to love as many people as possible."


I think the same could be said of those of us in the vocation of marriage...we love our spouses, we love our children and we also love others. First we are loved by God, then we love others. 


It has  taken that awhile to dawn on me...


Where am I going with this? 


A son and I discussed love and duty. How the two are intertwined. We love . Sometimes we act solely out of Love. Sometimes we act because we feel loved, and we feel His Love. And sometimes we act out of duty.


We act regardless of falling in or falling out of love. 


As Fr Martin says...it's a question of what we do. 

"Our Lord has created persons for all states in life, and in all of them we see people who who achieved sanctity by fulfilling their obligations well." St Anthony Mary Claret

There hasn't been a lot of talk lately about duty..we talk instead of love, of doing things out of love. 

I find the two go hand in hand..we live and act out of love and out of duty.

Duty need not be negative..it can be a result of love, it can lead to love or to enhancing love. 

Love and duty keep our lives in order..I love and I do what I ought. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us of this positive bent...the 'commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled.' (2198)


Positive duties. 

A Fitness Challenge

Fat and frumpy. Old and ugly.

You know those things we say to ourselves.

It's that self loathing. And for many women it began in their teen years.

For me, it began in my childhood. But that's a whole other story.

As Ajay Rochester says in her 5 Minute Diet Book, starting from a point of self disgust is not helpful.

Instead, we should begin a new fitness venture from a point of being positive... Affirmations if need be. Self control over negative thoughts. Choosing workouts that make us smile.

Lately I have been doing more walking and jogging workouts.Outside. Or inside... Leslie Sansone being some of these workouts.

Leslie is bubbly, chatty, positive. I can pray while walking or jogging, otherwise mindless workouts. ....Hail Mary... Contemplation instead of mindlessness...

And if I am walking, jogging, doing upper body strength training in my family room, I can ham it up. Act like a dork. Dance. Sing. Who is to see or care?

Leslie has an October walking and jogging challenge beginning on Monday. To overcome these I-hate-me feelings I am taking the challenge. Setting a plan for x number of kilometres.

And looking at my chaotic eating habits... Yes, my life means I tend to be chaotic in eating. As described in Intuitive Eating..." The Chaotic Unconscious Eater often lives an over scheduled life, too busy, too many things to do. The chaotic eating style is haphazard; whatever's available will be grabbed....nutrition and diet are often important to this person...just not at the critical point of the chaos. Chaotic eaters are so busy putting out fires ( in my case doing all that I need to do and working two jobs and homeschooling and trying to eat what's on hand to save money..) they have difficulty recognizing biological hunger until it's fiercely ravenous. Not surprisingly, the Chaotic Eater often goes long periods of time without eating."

Mmm. Me to a tee.

So my October fitness challenge is to hate myself a little bit less ( son Thomas always says to me, Mum you are worse than my friends, girls my age, about hating your looks and body! ...yep, that's me..), to walk and jog perhaps with Leslie, to structure eating and be more mindful.

I'll report back regularly!

And .....want to join me?

Homeschooling Resource Meme

I have been tagged by Leanne.

1.One homeschool book you have enjoyed.... From my earlier Homeschooling years...I used to re-read these regularly...Teach Your Own by John Holt ( one of the first Homeschool books I ever read), Better Than School by Nancy Wallace, For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macauley, The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (originally published as something like Avoiding Homeschool Burnout.)...I do know thats more than one...

2. One book/ resource I wouldn’t be without.....The Internet. Totally. How did I Homeschool before the Internet? And the library.

3. One resource you wish you never purchased....oh my gosh, probably so many! But one that stands out is the Apologia Science Chemistry book. Dry as dust and none of us, yes even me, could get into it. Not even as a reference or supplement.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year....the Think blog. Most weeks we tried the Science/Thinking skills activites and problems. For awhile anyway. Before life got too busy with other things. It was fun! And I took photos or blogged as documentation.

5. One resource you will be using next year. ...this year? Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling. I downloaded it onto iBooks and I think it will be good for me, down to my last unschool school aged son, to revisit some unschooling ideas and to talk about them with Anthony and with others. Mum's reading inevitably affects our Homeschooling...in this house, anyway!


6. One resource you would like to purchase.... I don't know if there is one! Let me think...probably a learn to speak Portuguese resource, for Anthony and Thomas, in preparation for WYD 2013 in Rio Di Janeiro.

7. One resource you wish existed.... Not much really, we live and learn and use whatever we find...but maybe, when the boys were younger, a crystal ball to let me know that our relaxed Homeschooling, our unschooling, Would Work! (It has!)

8. One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading... I used to love the Sonlight catalogue, for book suggestions, though I haven't read it for several years now. I have also loved the FUN books website.

9. One homeschool website you use regularly...none really (blushes). I read blogs on an ad hoc basis, I read our Unschooling Catholics email list, I sometimes read the Unschooling Basics email list, I used to love the old Unschooling dotcom forum and I used to read the 4 Real Learning forum more, when I had more time....

10. Tag other homeschoolers....Lisa, Faith, Cay

Strewing Mary in the month of May

Strewing Mary in the month of May.

I attempt to strew my life, my love, my devotion to Mary, by the way I live, who I am, how I pray

But May is also a good time to strew in practical ways. To enrich the unschooling life.

On our table we have the book Through The Year With Mary by fellow homeschooler Karen Edmisten. Quotes throughout the year, one for every day, quotes on Our Lady. We can read one every few days, we can pick up the book and peruse when sleepily chewing toast for breakfast...I can even share some quotes on Facebook!

At the computer table, we have the book Mondays With Mary by Meredith Henning, also a fellow homeschooler. Kept handy ( at a computer, that hub of life!) so that we can pick and choose activities for some of the Marian feasts this month.

Like tomorrow. May 13. Our Lady of Fatima. Anthony and his friend will be making a paper plate sun for a table decoration ( the day the sun danced) and baking Devil's Food Cupcakes ( representing the vision of hell) and covered with blue cream cheese frosting ( representing Mary's mantle of grace).

And more strewing ideas for other feasts this month.... Our Lady Help of Christians ( May 24) and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( May 31 and son Luke's confirmation anniversary ).

But I will share those ideas another day.

For we have the whole month of May for focused, Marian, unschooling strewing.

"My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God." Fatima, June 13, 1917

No classrooms. No homework.

Wandering around museums, reading, looking, talking. Who knows what rabbit trails you will find.

And there lies the beauty, the learning, the education, the atmosphere of relations , for unschoolers.

For we do not plan a museum trip with firm outcomes in mind.

We go. Out of interest. Out of something to do. We know we will learn... But exactly what it is that we will learn, well, that we are unsure of.

Meandering around a local museum yesterday, we knew we would learn about local Australian history. And geography. And culture.

But our Unschooling museum rabbit trail involved far more than that. It involved literature...

Imagine my bookworm heart being excited to find that Trollope, yes, the Anthony Trollope, he of Barchester Towers fame, had visited the early colony in the 1800s. Had even written in praise of the area. Has travelled on one of the first trains to the area . And that, subsequently, there was a landmark named after him. Trollope's Reach.

A search with google, with my phone and maps, with museum volunteers, showed that no one these days knows of Trollope's Reach.

But what an interesting trail! And on arrival home, I promptly set boys to look for our novels by Trollope, to tall about his books, to discuss married Anglican Bishops, to display and strew some novels on the dining table, to say to Anthony "Oh my goodness, you haven't read Trollope? You must!"

A literary museum rabbit trail, within the realm of the expected Australian history education, within discussions and research on female emancipation, convicts and free men, Mary Reiby, the Arndell family, Bligh and Macquaurie and currency and the novel/TV aeries Sara Dane...

And so, as today we, Anthony and I, sit in the airport, on our way interstate to another museum, this time for the King Tut exhibition, I can't help but wonder what rabbit trails we will find.

Egyptian history, yes.

But possibly there is another window there, a window to a new area, a new interest, to new ideas .

A window to a new Unschooling rabbit trail.

Or.. Perhaps not!

It's all an adventure anyway.

A homeschooling, Unschooling adventure.

No classrooms. No homework.

Museums and rabbit trails.

A Fifteen Year Old Unschooler's Reading List

In January, lounging around the sitting room on a very hot day, an idea was formed.

We all love books.

Could we make a list, specific for our interests and for Anthony, an avid reader , of books or authors he could read this year? Our last unschooler, while brothers are at university or away, to read and share? That ongoing family literary discussion.

Of course, the making of the list involved discussion, debate, quotes ... And friends on Facebook!

So here is Anthony's list... A beginning list...

Dickens, Charles - Martin Chuzzlewit

Goldsmith,Oliver – She Stoops to Conquer (play, 18th century comedy)

Shakespeare, William – King Lear

Shakespeare, William – A Midsummer Night's Dream

Trollope, Anthony – Barchester Towers

Eliot, T.S. - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Arnold, Matthew – Culture and Anarchy (Non-fiction, 19th century criticism)

James, Henry – The Europeans

Pope, Alexander – The Rape of the Lock (poem, 18th century)

Dryden, John – MacFlecknoe (poem, 17th century)

Plato – The Apology of Socrates

Aeschylus – Oresteian trilogy (plays)

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Jonson, Ben – Volpone (play, 17th century)

Shaw, Bernard – Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant

Johnson, Dr Samuel – Introductions to King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream (18th century criticism)

Swift, Jonathon – Gulliver's Travels

Contemporary Criticism (I can send through a selection of recent articles from American and English writers)

Hartnett, Cynthia – The Wool Pack

Orwell, George – Animal Farm

Tey, Josephine – The Daughter of Time

Epictetus – Sayings (Stoic philosopher)

The Little Princess

Seven Little Australians

The day I became an autodidact

John Wyndham

John Christopher

Cynthia Violet

Yes Minister

Sir Walter Scott

E. Nesbit

Noel Streetfield

Stories from Opera

Chesterton

Belloc

To Kill a Mockingbird

Chesterton’s saints (St. Francis, St Thomas)

Waugh’s Edmund Campion

The Andromeda Strain & Jurassic Park

Jane Austen

Little Women

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Terry Pratchet

Lepanto by Chesterton

A Fortunate Life

R. L. Stevenson

Joan of Arc  Belloc

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

Cheaper by the dozen

Belles on their toes

Collin Thiele

Biography of Pope John Paul II (Wiegel)

Tim Winton

 
No have-tos but hopefully some want-tos. With discussion. And maybe even blogging or email. Or Facebook.
 

 

 

Unschooling Resource # One

"What are the resources you use in your unschooling?" 

I get this question. People love to know the ins and the outs ( the hot and the cold)....So I thought I would write some posts, every now and then, about what we actually use in our unschool, our Homeschool, now, this very minute.

Let me tell you (again) about cookbooks.

Cookbooks  a resource in the Homeschool?

Yes, right now, these are what we use the most.

Saints At the Dinner Table, Jamie Oliver's Thirty Minute Meals and Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. 

We celebrate the liturgical year. We read about and research the saint of the day. We sometimes get into the history of that time, and the history of the Church. We might read some more. We might look at geography. We might talk about virtues and say some extra prayers. 

And we cook. I mean, we have to eat anyway, so why not cook something fitting for the feast.

Saint At the Dinner Table has whole menus planned, information about the saint and why the menu was chosen and also discussion questions or a prayer. Like the prayer of Pope Pius XIi to St Joseph.

I usually simply choose some foods to cook, not the whole menu. Forgiving Trifle for St Josephine Bakhita....the recipe is very forgiving, as was the saint. 

Or I look in Jamie's speedy recipe book for culturally related recipes..the speed suits my lifestyle. Fiery Noodles for the Korean martyrs.

Or I read Nigella's gloriously warming, homey baking book for recipes to suit the feast...or the "special day", as in pies for Pi Day ...and yummy bread for St Zita.

Wanting to unschool? You could start with the liturgical year and some good cookbooks. Cook, pray, learn. 

The Little Way of Homeschooling

"You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them." St Therese of the Child Jesus.

Unschooling, sharing our lives with our children, living our lives as an open book, is education with love.

We may not be doing great things but we are educating our children, in little ways, about the world, in skills, in the Faith...we are learning ourselves, as parents.

Catholic unschooling. The Little Way of Homeschooling.

And the title of a new book. Thirteen families share their discovery of St Therese's little way . Thirteen families share their discovery of Catholic unschooling.

My family included.

Yes, I am one of the contributors to this book.

Catholic unschooling has shaped and formed me, the kids, our family.

Like Nim's Island

I don't have to go to school, I'm home schooled.

That book, Nim's Island. A great adventure story. Totally believable yet unbelievable.

A bit like unschooling.

Your kids don't go to school?

To many, that is an unbelievable concept.

But the learning is believable. The reading. The discussions. The self discipline.

Self discipline?

Yes, because while we don't have school structure, we do have family and life and work structure.

So, I hear a son say " I will come to play Band Hero, in half an hour, another half hour of writing."

Or I see a son reading Mathematician's Delight during his university holidays.

Or practice the piano, several times a day, without a reminder.

That unbelievable concept of unschooliing, lived out, as Nim lived her life, learning in freedom, in that book and movie.

Back To School...Not!

This week, when Australian schools and homeschools are "heading back to school" for the 2011 school year...Anthony is not.

This fifteen year old, my last official unschooler, is reading and watching Noel Steatfeild's Ballet Shoes...not buying school shoes.

This unschooler is doing Kumon Maths and looking for his brother's Saxon Physics book, to work through this year...not buying textbooks.

This unschooler is lying on the sofa reading history books and Calvin and Hobbes...not in a classroom reading.

This unschooler is going to Borders, having frozen cokes at McDonald's, working at Kumon, serving at mass, talking to a friar, watering the garden, playing the piano, talking about the liturgical year, going to the movies with brothers and friends, having friends over for games...not travelling to and from school in the sweltering heat.

It's a hard life...but someone has to do it!
Unschool.
Where everything counts.

The "that's that" for mothers

Remembering St Angela Merici. And "Because of Winn Dixie."

St Angela, a Third Order Franciscan, founder of the Ursulines, a strong believer in the value of education. Especially in the education of girls.

The saint believed that problems in the family, disruption in the family unit, led to problems in society. And thus, St Angela wrote, the role of the Christian mother is of great importance. Educate young girls, possible future mothers, and you educate families and society.

St Angela went so far as to say that there was a lack of Christian mothers, dedicated to their vocation.

Sharing this information with my sons, on the feast day of St Angela Merici, I was inspired to look at my life, at my own vocation , my own mothering.

And the words of St John Bosco came to my mind. Love what they, the children love, and they will come to love what you love... Our Lord, the Church, the Faith.

With this is the realism of life with teens and young adults , a tumult of arranging appointments and work and mass and study and housework and friends and technology and family time and living the liturgical year and rituals and rhythms and plan B and O and Z.

The realism of failings and imperfections, especially my imperfections and failings.

But I come back to St John Bosco's emphasis on love. To love my vocation and to love my family. As much as I, with my logic, can love. That imperfect love.

And so I think of the movie and book Because of Winn Dixie, and of little Opal learning to love . And to let go.

Because that is part of mothering. Loving. And letting go.

Gloria: Listen... Opal... you cannot hold onto anything that wants to go. Do you understand what I'm sayin'? You just got to love it while you got it, and that's that.

Today's Unschooling Examen

Unschooling examen? See here.

I am grateful for …A quiet morning, after work ...and I and my youngest two sons are doing our own thing, peacefully,blissfully, before appointments and tackling the To Do List..one of the advantages of unschooling..just having time to be.

I am grateful for ...The Internet... reading about unschooling this morning :

(Cooking with what's in the bag...“It reminds me of cooking,” she said with a smile. “You can start out ahead of time with a recipe and go to the store to get the ingredients for what you’ve planned to make. Or there’s the CSA bag model, where you get your bag of vegetables from the farm, look in the bag, and go from there. Your kids are like the CSA bags, and you figure out what to make from what they give you.”)

..... and reading the treatise of St Peter of Alcantra :

( On prayer and meditation..."when a spiritually minded person rises from deep devout prayer, then straight away all his good resolutions are renewed, together with fervor and determination to do good; the desire then to please, and to love, a Lord so good and kind as He has then shown Himself to be, a willingness to endure fresh troubles, and chastenings,")

Today my kids have learned …via reading.

From me - reading and sharing a bit about St Peter of Alcantara

...and from their own reading.

Anthony - Gone With The Wind, Encyclopedia Brown, Of Mice and Men.

Thomas - About Chemistry, Spanish With Your Favourite Movies.

Today I saw God’s grace …In the life of the saints, in reading of the saints and in reading the writings of the saints. Models of how to live, of God's Love for us, of Faith.

"If you would suffer patiently the adversities and miseries of this life, be a man of prayer. If you would gain power and strength to overcome the temptations of the enemy, be a man of prayer. If you would mortify your will with all its affections and lusts, be a man of prayer. If you would understand the cunning devices of Satan, and defend yourself against his deceits, be a man of payer. If you would live joyfully, and with sweetness walk in the path of penitence and sorrow, be a man of prayer. If you would drive out the troublesome gnats of vain thoughts and cares from your soul, be a man of prayer. If you would sustain your soul with the richness of devotion, and kept it ever full of good thoughts and desires, be a man of prayer. If you would strengthen and confirm your heart in the pilgrimage with God, be a man of prayer. Lastly, if you would root out from your soul every vice and in their place plant the virtues, be a man of prayer, for in this is obtained the unction and grace of the Holy Spirit who teaches all things". ( St Bonaventure)