If you've got them, use them!

Legs. We take them for granted don't we? Until we can't--walk that is.
Here's a little musing from my daughter about walking.

A Winter's Walk: by Bronwyn Kay

I was walking with my mom and dad in the snow and I was running ahead and I thought, walking is so wonderful. You can skip, you can run, you can walk, you go go any which way you want. You can talk and run, you can talk and skip, you can go as far as you want to go. You can walk in the woods. You can walk by the road. You can walk anywhere you want. You don't know how important your legs are until you don't have them. So you should walk and run with joy.

You don't need to be going anywhere: just walk and think how lucky you are to have legs. So go out now with joy. Don't think, "Oh, it's cold" or "Oh, it's so hot out today."

 Just think how lucky you are to HAVE legs! I hope that made an impact on you to go out and walk RIGHT NOW. Thanks!

just like other learners?

Are un-schooling kids different than other kids? We asked some neighbourhood school kids for their opinions.

un-conundrum

Hannah Montana

This Christmas, my daughter wanted Hannah Montana. Everything to do with Miley Cyrus as she is otherwise known, was what B wanted for her presents. Poster, stickers, cd's, clothes. And she got her wish-quite a lot of said stuff.

I have had to listen to this singer/actor for over 4 months now-ever since our neighbour introduced her to my daughter. As much as I despise it all- the showing off, the fanfare, all the attention (not to mention wealth) this individual has still, I decided to look on the bright side and started listening to some of the messages. Everybody makes mistakes, nobody's perfect- I gotta work it again and again..Don't let anyone tell you that you're not good enough,Life's what you make it... and so on.
The songs are upbeat, encouraging, accepting of others and fun. The shows are squeaky clean, the father is responsible and she looks up to her daddy- so basically these are all good things. I can live with it.

I did wonder though if the spectacle is what sticks in the kid's mind over anything else so when we came to the documentary bits in a Miley Cyrus film we watched, we discussed how much work actually goes into a show- how many people are involved to make a concert work, how Miley doesn't actually dress the way she does all the time (wears baggy pants and sweat shirts not shiny glittery stuff when off stage etc).
My daughter realized that she should avoid playing girly music and stuff in front of her already girly almost 3 year old cousin. On her own she said, "it could spoil her childhood. She ought to be having fun playing in the snow wearing dungarees!"

My point precisely. So dialoguing, discussing pop culture with you child is really important and helpful in dsipelling the spell that it throws over our children's minds.

satirical santa

Life Learning

Home based education pioneer, Wendy Priesnitz , has just put out Life Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier.

It's a collection of essays from the leading edge of educational theory and practice. Priesnitz has collected essays from back issues of Life Learning magazine. that describe both the philosophy and the experience of life learning/radical unschooling

I have an essay in it too! Makes a good introduction to those not familiar with the ideas of un schooling-and is a handy companion to those unschoolers who are faltering.

More from Artemis

Angeline.

Coral pink

frail

yet filled with light.

With a stronger backdrop

of warm mahogany.

Porcelain doll.

Sheltered.

Placed out of harm

on a high shelf

Little china doll

What happens when you shatter?

Foaly.

Light blue,

Covered by tempered steel.

A light,

Longing to shine.

Shine!

Light up the darkness.

Before it can engulf you.

Opal.

A precious gem.

Once so bright a red.

Now darkened.

Distorted.

A broken glass.

Irreparable.

Were you always that way, Opal?

Stained so dark?

Blood red.

Bloodstains.

They never wash out.

Herald of death.

Dwindle.

Fade.

Seeing in Colours

My daughter tells me she thinks in colour. She wrote this piece based on the Artemis Fowl books (of which she is a huge fan). Even without having read the books, you get the sense of what the characters are like. Enjoy!

Artemis

The colour of clouds

After a sunset.

Purple.

Cool indigo.

Shot with silver arrows.

Metallic.

Edgy. Aware.

Tinged with coldest blue.

Holly

Red hazel.

Stripes of turquoise.

Swirling.

Always moving.

Shifting emotions.

Tears.

Laughter.

Confusion.

Unspoken pain.

A kaleidoscope.

Courage.

Trouble

Golden brown.

The colour of sunlight

Striking polished wood.

Safe.

Steadfast.

A shelter.

A tree in violent storm.

Kind.

Julius

Navy blue.

Bright red.

Lightest pink.

A pattern of octagons.

Moving in procession.

What lies under the mask

Of cutting words,

And ferocious anger?

A tear drop,

Lightest pink.

Meditation

Elder's Meditation of the Day - December 3, 2008

"Listen to the howl of our spiritual brother, the wolf, for how it goes with him, so it goes for the natural world."
--Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders


If we watch nature, we can tell a lot about what is going on in the world. The animals and the plants are great teachers. Some time ago, crops were sprayed with a poison to kill the insects. Other animals ate the insects. The small animals were eaten by the Eagles and the Wolves. We live in an interconnected system. What we do to one, we do to all. If our spiritual brothers are living in balance, chances are we humans are also living in balance.

Great Spirit, let me listen to my Earth teachers, the plants and the animals.

Kill to shop

Colleen Long
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (Nov 29, 2008)

A Wal-Mart worker died yesterday after a throng of "out-of-control" shoppers broke down the doors at a Long Island store in a scramble for bargains.

It occurred shortly after the store opened at 5 a.m. on so-called Black Friday, the start of the holiday sales rush in the United States.

At least four other people, including a woman eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries.

The store closed for several hours before reopening.

Nassau police said the impatient crowd knocked the man to the ground as he opened the doors.

"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau police spokesperson Lieutenant Michael Fleming.

Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers were stepping over him.

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they (officials) were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been in line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."

The man, 34, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., police said.

Inspiration from the past

While moving house, I came across a hand made book my sister had made years ago when she was a child of ten. She had written a wonderful story and illustrated it with beautiful, detailed and careful art. This little book had been lying around in a plastic bag for years- almost 30 years- and no one had looked at it.
But when my daughter B saw it she was electrified. She immediately studied it and then began a series or drawings copied from the book, based on the book, inspired by the book ("Aunty P did these at age 10? I'm 10 and I want to do stuff like this.").
What has followed is the beginning of her own hand made book. She is so engaged in book making that her vibes are catching and her sister is now also making a book. Together, they pore over the pages, getting ideas on perspective, design, facial expressions and so on.

Thank you, dear sister for this inspiration. I mentioned it to her and she said she might want to do illustrations if she has stories. So i tell my girls, let's give her stories!

More from "In Defence of Childhood"

I couldn't rest until I added this part about Technology and children's inner wildness.
Mercogliano dedicates an entire chapter to the topic and it doesn't look good (I suspected this all along).
According to M the internet, TV, video games, music videos and other forms of cyberspace are "all major sources of childhood domestication."
Drawing from many research sources he goes on to explain how they are harmful on many levels: emotionally they have a tendency to discourage children from being in genuine physical and emotional contact with one another.. fostering a sense of connectedness that is often illusory.

Electronic media is so enticing and "provides so much instant and effortless gratification that they are severely eroding kids' desire and ability to engage in real play. These technologies render the consumer passive, a state that is the antithesis of real play, removing the physicality, the imagination, and the interactivity upon which inner wildness feeds."

Mercogliano examines "the pervasive extent to which the entertainment and advertising industries influence children's thoughts, feelings, values, and the sometimes irreversible personal choices children make based on that influence."
What is even more chilling is the recent research he quotes that is beginning to determine the effects of new medium on children-from the standpoint of violence and aggression-how the violent content desensitizes children to real life aggression and violence- to neurological effect such as the out- right hypnotic effect on the brain.
Dangerously addictive, they are found to be taking over the life of some young people ( and he has seen this first hand in his own school,) slowing down thinking.
Neurologically electronic media, especially TV, video and computer games "suppresses the thinking and imagining centers in the brain so severely that it renders the medium absolutely useless as an educational tool." (Emery).

From a number of recent studies he quotes that television causes memory impairment. "The reason for tv's apparent suppression of left brain mental processes: the technology of the device itself. The images appearing on a TV screen (or computer monitor) are generated by a cathode -ray tube that emits radiant light, rather than the reflected or ambient light that brings us the rest of our visual experience. "Ambient light does not in and of itself have a particular effect on our nervous system, radiant light has a potent activating and deactivating influence on many neurological processes.

In conclusion "not only is the tidal wave of high tech games and entertainment negatively influencing the quality of children's thinking an feeling... but it is also potentially impairing the ability to have any thoughts at all."
Chew on that.

Daimon. Be present!

In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids' Inner Wildness-Review

The untamed. The creative. The chaotic. The exuberant and non- conforming in the self. The 'Daimon'- that Greek word that Plato asserted "regards the supreme form of soul in us, we must conceive that the god has conferred it upon each...as a guiding genius - that which...lifts us from earth toward our celestial affinity, like a plant whose roots are not in the earth, but in the heavens".
A guiding force and companion as Phillip Pullman illustrates his books His Dark Materials-an inner voice made manifest in an animal that is representative of the individual 'self'.

We all have one but unlike Pullman's we can't see it. It would be better for us if we could- at least we would be able to be in touch with it.

In his book In Defense of Childhood: protecting Kids' inner wildness (2007), Chris Mercogliano refers to this 'daimon' as inner wilderness.
The term makes me remember a book by Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild things Are (1964) and how the kid is sent to bed because of being wild. On his travels he meets and interacts with all these wild creatures who gnash there terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes. Wicked! And so the child's imagination is still going despite being 'grounded.'

Childhood (he traces the history of childhood) is a time when the daimon's presence is harder to ignore, indeed should not be ignored. It should be encouraged, heeded, nurtured so that the individual will find his or her true path in this life.
And yet, everything about today's world is bent on domesticating this wilderness. Childhood is under attack. How is this happening? Why are we letting this happen? How can we protect and nurture the undomesticated in our children (and ourselves)?
These are the themes that run through Mercogliano's book.

Mercogliano is certainly not the first person who has noticed that kids these days live lives that are over-regulated, over protected....cocooned and above all, safe. His book is a synthesis of other people's observations on the topic. (I was disappointed that the educator of all educators John Holt was not mentioned at all. Shocking!)

Basically, we have fixed it so that childhood today is micro managed, "social engineering of the transition from youth to adulthood." Terms such as 'helicopter parenting' imply parenting without trust nor faith in our kids ability to have their own adventures.
We are raising a generation of plugged- in, clued- out,digitalized, hearing impaired kids.
I notice on the bus that youth hold on to ipods and cellphones like babies hold on to their soothers and baby blankies. Even when they are in love they are still checking the text messaging on the cell while they smile up at their boyfriend or girlfriend!
When it comes to the daimon "most adolescents today are entirely other directed--which makes it very difficult to hear the voice of their daimon (156)
Nature deficient disorder, and not enough solitude are two factors that harm the development of the daimon at it's most vulnerable-a time when kids are trying to figure out who they are in this world.
Very disturbing since "the natural world does not judge," to borrow a borrowed quote from the book (116).

When we consider that in the past, great things like sailing ships, managing family businesses were being done by 13 and 14 year olds (Taylor Gatto has written about this in great length) and what we offer instead- squashing youth's natural urge, drive and daring be it with the "shelter of school" or with media and over consumption- it's ugly.
We deprive our kids without even knowing it by limiting their world- we don't even include them in the work of grown ups either.

While the book focuses on children and youth it applies to adults as well. We have to take risks, we have to explore, we have to taste, feel, immerse ours selves in the world, but also take time for solitude and reflection- pay attention.

We-young and old- have everything to lose by not heeding the call of the daimon.

Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/user/UnschoolingChannel

In an attempt to spread the unschooling message, Dr. Carlo Ricci (Nipissing University) has created an unschooling youtube channel. It's free and you do not need to sign up.

The parable of the leaves

I was walking home with my daughter one afternoon this week, admiring the falling leaves swirling down from the trees and making everything seem so exciting and mysterious. I suggested that we try catching a leaf for luck like we always do in the fall time. She thought about it for a moment and responded with,"you know mummy. When I was little I used to always chase leaves from one spot to another. But when I ran in one direction a leaf would fall right in the spot where I'd just taken off from. That kept on happening. So now I don't run anymore. I just stay in one spot and the leaves fall on me."
Profound metaphor for the way I'm living my life which seems to be dashing from one thing to another grasping desparately for any falling lucky leaf instead of staying in one spot, calm and collected knowing that the leaves will fall to me.
So that's my food for thought this week. Thanks daughter!

I am old. Very old.

it was my birthday the other day. I felt --older. But now I feel good about my age. I am 8 billion years old. So are you! That's not too bad if we are all about the same age right?
You might be thinking I'm losing it. Actually, I learned this from a lecture Ev and B and I attended yesterday night at McMaster University. As part of the Origins Institute Public lecture Series, they had astrophysicist Tom Abel (Stanford U) come and talk about the first star in the universe at the cosmic dawn.

It was desperately hot in the lecture hall and I had to fan B most of the time because she was melting into her cosmic particles. Still we learned that around 100 million massive stars have helped in making each person. And that about the amount of one of your little fingers used to be in the earliest stars. We used to be almost a million light years across!
So we were asked to take it personally, which I do!

Mind your own please

Since my two oldest girls started school, there is the expectation amongst family and friends and other well meaning folk that my youngest will be going soon too.
"So Brownyn, when do you start?"
"It will be your turn next sweetie."
Why? Why do people keep doing this?
It's not helpful because it puts us all in defensive mode- me feeling under attack about our homeschooling practices and the concerned person feeling like they have to convince me school is good.
Of course the worst off is the child- caught in between the two. How does it make her feel? Confused; ""Mum is homeschooling me. Other people are basically saying she is wrong. Schooling is right."
It's not a good place to be. I think people ought to mind their own business.

A winner!

E (age 12) won second place for her poem in Power of the Pen Creative Writing Awards- a competition for poetry and short fiction put our by the Hamilton Public library for youth ages 12 to 18yrs.

A Totally nameless Poem

Life is short and swift and brief

There and gone in the twinkling of an eye

It leaves us nothing but our grief

Twane as moonlight in a starfilled sky
Life is a maze, it twists and bends

A dream from which we must awake

Where death is but a quick dead end

An unknown road we all must take
Like the falling of a star

Like the setting of a shining sun

No matter who or what we are

Our death will take us when our day is done
Like the daylight of midwinter

Like a wave upon a sandy shore

Life is but the tiniest of shimmers

A flicker of a moment, nothing more

Elegant Science

The world is a weird and awesome place.

E and I went to the Perimeter Institute last week for a talk by world famous theoretical physicist and one of the best-known string theorists, Brian Greene. And some of the things he said about the way schools teach science resonated with me.

He told us that often when he is lecturing to 13 year olds they will come up after the talk and say, "Wow! Is this science?" Because the way science is usually taught is dry and boring. In fact, and I quote him here as he talks about what a student has learned by the time he or she finishes highschool physics for example,
"their studies will take them all the way up to the year................... 1688."

This means that all the new stuff that is being researched is not in the curriculum. He says the best way to deal with such an enormous failure to spark interest and curiosity in kids is to make sure that there be an ally track along with the regular physics (or math or chemistry) in school.

E was pleased with the talk which focused on his new book “Icarus at the Edge of Time”and even happier that he signed her copy of The Elegant Universe.

First Week in School- Ever

My two older girls (12 and 10) went to school this week for the first time ever.
Grade 8 and grade 6.

I still don't think of them as school kids though. To me they are unschooled kids going on an adventure into unknown territory. They are explorers, scientists, investigators and reporters-discovering what public school is all about first hand (the program they are in is supposed to be 'innovative':community and family centred, focused on scholastics, arts and global education.)

Already they are able to see how learning in school works- within a classroom context and the expectations therein- not necessarily the best or most interesting way to learn.
"My teacher is a bit boring." "Music lessons are completely pathetic. Really trivial." But also, they learn a bit of French and the math is interesting too. What is revealing to me is that although my kids have hardly ever done any structured 'sit down' math, they are following nicely
(although slower than the other kids). Again, the experiment is brand new.

They are learning a lot about school attitudes and behavior- for example, only one person can go to the washroom at a time since they don't want a mini party. And also since the school washroom was vandalized. Weird stuff.