It's All About the Joy

We plan to unschool/homeschool Aiden and Keeley as long as they are interested and stimulated and they want to be here being homeschooled. I do offer them the option to attend classes and or school -- occasionally -- but so far the answer is, "No mommy. We LOVE homeschool." I'm not REALLY interested in sending them to school anyway because of what I've read about them. School was established during the industrial age. It was designed to churn out factory workers who could make it to work on time and sit quietly, eat on a schedule, and take directions without giving their supervisors any trouble.

I'm interested in letting my children develop their own place in the world. To allow them to be free thinkers, critical thinkers. To get up and run across the room 35 times because that's what their little bodies need--right this second! To narrate a story while climbing over chairs and hopping on one foot across the carpet because they think better when they are moving. To draw pictures when they are inspired, not when it's "art time" twice a week for 40 minutes. To take a nap when they feel tired, not because it's "bedtime". No, "do your homework before you go outside to play." No stomach ache because you didn't study "hard enough" for that test or missed the deadline for that paper and now you've got an "F" ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD!!

I know how LUCKY I am to have this opportunity to stay here with them and watch them grow and learn and thrive. I would feel totally cheated if I knew a teacher was getting the opportunity to watch them "learn that concept", see the light bulb turn on, etc. and I was missing it. I would hate it. I LOVE watching my children grow up. It's my honor to help them learn.

I mean, come on. Look at those faces. Time is fleeting. They are my joy. The least I can do is let them have theirs.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

HELLO~ So, last night Aiden and I had a discussion about his hair and the knots that had seemed to have taken over. His hair was down past the bottom of his back when it was wet except where it was so knotted that it looked similar to (but not as good as) dreads.

I think he had just finally had enough of it always being in his face and also not being able to run a comb or his fingers through it. So I asked him if I could cut his hair on Sunday and he said, "Well, I'm not sure." So I don't know exactly how it happened, but we negotiated our way down a long path and ended up agreeing on a haircut for a toy.

Now I know what my unschooling friends are thinking, that this goes against all the rules of respectful parenting and unschooling I know. And I know it doesn't make it better, but I've been very upset that I made that agreement with him ever since it came to be. I even discussed it with him late last night~that this somehow turned into a bribe and that I didn't want that to be why he was cutting his hair. He said he understood and said he would decide about the haircut in the morning. I told him I would buy him a toy regardless of his decision because I had already agreed to do so, but it would not be so he would or because he had cut his hair. I also already told him that we would NEVER be doing this again for a "profit" and he agreed this was a one time thing.

Anyway, he woke up this morning with a HUGE smile on his face because he was going to get a haircut AND a new toy. So now I will live with having tried to BRIBE my son into getting a haircut. Anyway, we got through the whole ordeal, and as you can see the results are pretty amazing if I must say so myself.

Grandmom is coming over for a visit tomorrow and she had offered to take Aiden to get his toy, but he just could not wait until tomorrow. So I took him to Toys R Us and he picked out some new "Fun•Keys" to add to his growing collection. I'm hoping that we can go to David's for a wonderful organic lunch tomorrow instead.