Pictures!

Schooling, Part 1

I’ve had a few requests for an entry about my education and my ideas about homeschooling. I think it’s going to take two entries to explain where I’m coming from and what I think about education for my children. Today, I’ll let you in on my personal path thus far. Here’s my schooling history in a nutshell:

-I went to public school kindergarten.

-After that year, my parents pulled me out and enrolled me in a private Montessori school.

-I attended that school from age six through ten, when I made the decision to go back to public school for fourth grade (I wanted to ride the school bus like other kids, and the Montessori community was beginning to seem a little too familiar, with the same small group of kids, year after year).

-I stayed in public school, earning excellent grades and a reputation as “the good student” until halfway through seventh grade, when I took my parents up on their standing offer to try homeschooling.

-During my first year of homeschooling, I just brought home the school textbooks and worked through all of them much faster than I could have at school.

-And then I read The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn and began unschooling in earnest. What’s unschooling? I’ll say more about that in a moment.

-When did I finish unschooling? I don’t know. I probably haven’t. I never earned a high school diploma or took the GED, yet I have been able to enroll in college and maintain a 4.0 GPA. Go figure.


Ah, unschooling. I can only paint a picture of my own unschooling education, but there are probably as many different brands of homeschooling and unschooling as there are homeschoolers and unschoolers. If you’re interested in sampling some of the myriad possibilities, The Teenage Liberation Handbook is a good place to start. In any case, here is what unschooling meant for me:

As an unschooler, my days were unregimented. There was no “classroom” in our house, and no school schedule. At the beginning of the traditional school year, I would submit a portfolio to the superintendent of the school district. The portfolio was created entirely by me (with my parents acting as editors and encouraging me toward well-roundedness) and consisted of my goals and plans for the year. At the end of the traditional school year, I would create another portfolio, trumpeting all of my accomplishments. Lest you get the wrong idea, my curriculum was not overseen by the superintendent. As far as I know, he/she never cracked the covers of all those portfolios, and I never received any feedback at all. I was pretty much off the grid.

Just a few of the things I talked about in those portfolios were…
…lengthy reading lists, and perhaps a few book reports.
…creating and running a cottage business with my sister, wholesaling homemade fairy crowns to children’s museums and toy stores.
…teaching music lessons to younger homeschoolers in the area, individually and in groups.
…apprenticing with a local artist (even tagging along when she was an artist-in-residence at local schools!)
…volunteering as a marine docent, teaching museum visitors about the marine ecosystem on the New Hampshire coast.
…touring the US and Europe with a world music ensemble.

I had a busy schedule of volunteer jobs, apprenticeships with experts in varying fields, music lessons, band rehearsals, field trips, and outdoor recreation. I was an avid correspondent, keeping in touch with over fifty pen-pals from around the world.

Most importantly, all of this was chosen and initiated by me. My parents and I believed that I already had the all of the foundation that I needed in order to continue my education on my own: excellent reading and writing skills, basic math, industriousness, and -- most importantly -- curiosity about the world. My parents had three basic rules about my education: 1) doing nothing was not an option; 2) that I keep an eye toward well-roundedness; and 3) that I create those portfolios to present to the school district twice a year. Other than that, I was free to do as I chose.

I wholeheartedly feel that unschooling saved my life and broadened my world. I have no regrets whatsoever about the unusual path that my education took. What are my thoughts and feelings about my kids’ education? Tune in next time!

Tummy Time Pictures

Newsbits

Last weekend was Orrin’s birth class reunion. We never graduated from this birth class, because Orrin came early. We like to say that we’re birth class dropouts. Anyway, it was neat to finally meet all of those babies who were in bellies last time we saw them! We ate brunch, took pictures of all of the babies together, heard everyone’s birth stories and shared our own. It was a lot of fun.

In other news…
…Orrin has reached 15 pounds! I’m quite proud, since I had something to do with that. Go breastmilk!

…We’ve started doing “Tummy Time” with Orrin every day. (For those not in the know, Tummy Time is important exercise for babies, as it helps them develop the muscles they need to use for rolling over, crawling, and walking.) Orrin is now able to prop himself up on his elbows and scan his head around. I think he looks rather surprised and pleased with himself whenever he finds himself on his tummy and able to survey the room, rather than stuck with his face planted on one side or the other, which was so recently the case.

…I am sewing curtains for the upstairs bedrooms. We really need them now that the clock has changed and the sun is staying up later in the evening! To Orrin, bedtime means darkness, and he hasn’t been buying it now that it’s light at his bedtime. I’m hoping that the curtains and some practice solve that, since I’ve gotten rather attached to having a couple hours to myself after he goes to bed at night!

…I’m already getting wistful because Solon and I just finished watching season four of The Wire (an HBO drama about the city of Baltimore, from the drug dealers on up to the politicians in city hall). Season five, which just ended on HBO, is the last one! I don’t think I’ll ever find another show as smart, complex, and realistic as The Wire. I highly recommend it!

…The longest-lived inhabitant of Solon’s saltwater fish tank, the blue damselfish, mysteriously disappeared a couple of weeks ago. As Solon says, he/she “went the way of the tank.” That left us with only one fish -- the clownfish who lives in the anenome. So, last week, Solon went and found Old Clown a friend -- New Clown. Apparently, clownfish either pair up or fight to the death, so we’re waiting to see what happens. After some initial scrapping, the two seem to have reached an accord, although thus far they are not sharing the anenome as Solon had hoped.

What We Do

Well, I’ve been trying really hard to think of something positive I can write, without resorting to endlessly gushing about Orrin, and I haven’t come up with much! The truth is, it’s the crap end of winter. I usually get a little seasonally depressed at this time of year, but it’s been especially rough this year, being postpartum, cooped up inside and with a new baby, and alone much of the time. So, I’m going to tell you about some of the things I’ve been doing to stay sane!

Sprout is a natural parenting store up in Brattleboro, Vermont. When the weather is good for walking, Orrin and I drive up there and use Sprout as our “home base” in Brattleboro. They have a fantastic, sparkling clean bathroom with kid-sized doubles of all of the grown-up fixtures (toilet, sink, garbage can, etc.), and a cushy changing table (complete with a wipes warmer and fresh diapers). They also have a really comfy rocking chair that they welcome moms to use for nursing. It’s a great setup, and the changing and nursing amenities are so crucial to a parenting store being baby-friendly (see below for a brief discussion about changing tables). It makes the whole town of Brattleboro four-season accessible to Orrin and I. Last week we went up there and met my sister, Taury*, and walked around town with her all afternoon. We found some pull-on ice grippers so that Taur could go running outside, we had a yummy lunch overlooking the Connecticut River at Amy’s Bakery Arts Café (which is also my sister’s new place of employment -- she bakes bread there), we perused the racks at Boomerang, a funky new- and used-clothing store, and Auntie Taury bought Orrin several new board books at Brattleboro Used Book Store. Orrin spent the whole time either sleeping in the Babyhawk or quietly taking everything in. It was really lovely, and such a balm for me to be able to get out and function in the world.

A Brief Discussion About Changing Tables:
When we go to our other nearby “walking town,” Northampton, Mass, we are up a creek! I haven’t found a decent changing table there yet. I must say that pre-baby, I never imagined how obsessed I would become with baby-changing facilities. Most of you, my friends, don’t yet have kids. Imagine, if you will, attempting to hold your diaper bag, winter coat, and baby carrier all between your knees as you change your baby in order to avoid putting your stuff on the grimy floor of a public bathroom, as people sneeze and cough and do their smelly business all around you…and then, trying to suit back up without having anything touch the floor…all I can say is ugh. It’s very unsavory. And good luck if you have to pee, too.

Orrin and I go to a couple of different parenting groups a couple of times a month. The attachment parenting group and the babywearing group both meet at the Forbes Library in Northampton one Wednesday morning each month. I learned about the groups from my midwife, Gillian, who is the leader of the attachment parenting group. Both groups are made up of basically the same collection of moms and kids/babies, and it’s usually a pretty casual discussion-based format, but it’s really nice to be able to compare notes and bounce questions off of one another. Hopefully these groups will be a source of friendships for both Orrin and I! Our longtime friend, Emily, also works at the Forbes Library in the children’s section, and we always take a few minutes to catch up with her before we go. It’s a long drive to Northampton, but it’s pretty worth it (of course, we use the carpeted floor of the meeting room for diaper changes!).

It’s been really great to have our neighbor and friend, Melissa, right around the corner from us here in the Patch. Melissa has two little boys: Atticus, who is three; and Enzo, who is seven months (I think). She and her husband, Chris (a.k.a. Monte), have similar parenting ideas to us, and are just fun, young (like us!) people. When she barely knew me and I was still pregnant, Melissa offered to organize people to make meals for us after the baby was born. She really came through and had meals coming to us from different friends three days a week for nearly a month! The morning after Orrin was born she dropped off homemade muffins and a nursing pillow, and she’s been helping me get connected with all of the different meetings and activities that are out there for moms and kids. It feels really nice to have someone like her just around the corner to visit back and forth with. Thank you, Melissa!!

Of course Orrin and I do a lot of stuff in and around the house, too. There’s always laundry or dishes or makeshift vacuuming (no, we haven’t bought a vacuum cleaner yet) or something to do. When the weather allows, we walk around our town, either on Migratory Way, which is the path along the canal, or into town to check out the goods at the Salvation Army, buy bread at the Second Street Bakery, or wander through the exhibits at the Discovery Center. Come visit us, we’ll show you around!


*Congratulations to my little sister, Taury, who just got engaged this past weekend! Dave is a wonderful guy, and I can tell that he loves my sister very much. I’m happy that they’re so happy!

New Pictures

At our friend Monte's birthday party.

The cute boys I live with!

Lizzy & Orrin working on their crosswords.