Anyone who takes an interest in my essayist project gets instant cred with me. It was a quirky little project, and definitely not one to get a lot of traffic or comments. But it’s still one of my favorite things to have done on this blog.

I hope you’ve scrolled through the comments and realize that there are plenty of us who struggle with the taskmaster-meets-whimsy approach! There will always be a bit of a struggle in figuring out what our kids need, I think, because it changes from day to day and year to year. It’s worked better for me to stop looking for a label and a fixed philosophy, and just keep a habit of gathering together and asking, “What do you want to do?”

Thank you for subscribing. Always makes my day.

Your blog about a year of essayists fascinates me (BA in English, dodged a Masters just before signing over my entire savings for it), as does your experience being a schoolteacher and gradually evolving into a life-lead learner.

You seem the right balance of discipline and passion (one needs a habit to be creative). I sometimes feel bi-polar in my taskmaster-meets-whimsy approach, and reading of someone who has found a way to temper the two–and with grown kids to show for it–has me excited and relieved. I’ll be subscribing…

So you’re not homeschooling, but you’re tempted, eh? Keep playing with the idea. It’s full of potential!

This line of yours says so much:
“I guess we’re just…..us”

So simple, and so beautiful too. What could be better than helping our kids find who they are, and our families figure out who we are?

It seems silly to move away from one institution–school–only to let a term like unschooling confine us in different ways.

I also loved this line of yours from your Simple Homeschool post http://simplehomeschool.net/interest-driven-curricula-and-an-open-mind/ “If there is anything I’ve learned in life and parenting it’s to keep an open mind and heart. You never know what might be around corner, how life will unfold or how someone’s needs may change.”

Good for you for recognizing this while your kids are so young! I’m sure that thinking will serve your family well in your homeschooling life.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

It’s funny because we never started out to be unschoolers. We just believed that people learn and are passionate and felt that if we could give our kids the opportunity to stay out of institutionalized learning it would be a huge gift for them. It’s what we both wanted for our family.

Then came all the labels and to tell you the truth we don’t like “unschooling”–the word at all. We’re not un schooling; we are living. But when you’re navigating communities you don’t always want to explain everything and we sort of like to hang out there, although I find–just like you do–that we love some structure and rhythm and when we’re around radical unschoolers it doesn’t feel like the best match.

I guess we’re just…..us

Thanks again for the great insights.

It’s funny how worked up people can get about semantics, isn’t it? I also value self-directed learning over all else. It would be nice to have a label that people would understand–but I suppose labels tend to be limiting. What matters most to me is that people understand that the ways to homeschool are infinite, and that we don’t let labels confine us.

I just noticed via a link that you’ve listed me on the Life Learning Blog Directory. Thank you!