Unschooling NYC

I was reading a few of the entries in Sandra Dodd’s Big Book of Unschooling the other day.   I’ve read the book several times, but often go back and open to a random page just as a ‘refresher’.    The entry that caught my attention was one about expectations.   Sandra talked about how before she had kids, and then when her kids were infants, she just knew they would all be great readers and love literature and would all be musically inclined and play an instrument.   Cut to almost 20 years later and although her kids read well, they are not … Read more

Tonight I am handing over blog duties to Pat Farenga.  Pat is the President of Holt Associates, Inc., having worked closely with John Holt until his death in 1985.   Pat is the father of three homeschooled children.  He has written several books on homeschooling, has appeared on several national TV shows including The Today Show and Good Morning America as a homeschooling expert, and travels and speaks to audiences across the globe about homeschooling, unschooling and the work of John Holt.   The link I’m posting here is to his blog.  (For some reason it doesn’t link directly and you’ll need … Read more

If you are not from New York, you might not know that we are somewhat obsessed with red tailed hawks.   Our red tailed hawks, that is.   This obsession began some years ago when two birds, Pale Male and Lola, famously set up house on the ledge of a posh 5th Avenue building just across the street from Central Park.   Apparently they enjoyed the views.  The human residents of the building, however, decided they didn’t enjoy bits of the hawks’ nest dropping onto the entryway and at one point had the nest removed.    This act was the equivalent of throwing down … Read more

Lately I love Saturdays because it means that the ritual of dropping tools on the floor in the apartment above us does not happen.    The apartment directly above us is currently in the midst of a gut renovation which began in early December (2010).   Contractors are not allowed to work in the building before 9am, but for the last few months, Monday – Friday, precisely at 9am  the workers arrive.    I imagine that they come in carrying their tool belts or boxes, and when they reach the location in the apartment where they will begin working for the day, they … Read more

I spent some time in Barnes & Noble this afternoon, picking up a book for Ben and looking for another for Maya.    Both my kids love to read and so we spend an inordinate amount of time in bookstores and the library.   It’s hard for me to say no to books, because, well, they’re books.   And although reading any book is better than reading none at all, in my opinion, looking through the Young Readers section at the bookstore was almost depressing.

Why was it depressing?   Well, with a few exceptions, it seems many, many of the books are … Read more

The longer we are life-learners, the more we get in to the rhythm of what works for us all as a family.   This becomes especially apparent on those days when a wonky schedule throws us out of sync – out of rhythm, and we all come home grumpy and exhausted.    Like today, when I wound up arguing with Maya at one point about the location of a Levi’s store, and at another about whether or not she likes having her hair done.    But rather than talk about what throws us out of sync, I’d rather talk about the rhythm and … Read more

Remember Trivial Pursuit?   I used to love that game and so recently bought a Junior Edition from eBay, which must date from the mid-90’s, based on the pop culture questions.

Maya, Ben and I sat down today to play.  I had the advantage, but they held their own in most subjects.  (Let it be known that we all avoided the Science category like the plague.)   I won and then went to make dinner, and they continued to play for 2nd place.   In the kitchen, I listened to the questions and it was interesting because they know some things that I … Read more

Maya was not quite 18 months old on September 11, 2001, and as such has no real memory of that day.   Ben of course has only heard stories.    They both know about the World Trade Center and that some people who don’t like the United States for complicated reasons involving religion, politics and power were behind the attacks.   Before today they’d heard of Osama Bin Laden, but could not have gone into any detail about who he was.

This was a conscious decision Joshua and I made, due in part to the fact that we live in New York and … Read more

We spent our afternoon and much of the evening today at our friends the Spositos.   They hosted a May Day party, and thanks to the good weather, we were able to spend the bulk of the time on their roof deck.    The kids made mini bouquets of flowers and attempted tissue paper flowers as well, but the wind wasn’t playing along and they soon abandoned that plan and played an hour or two of “Capture the Flag” instead.

Maybe it was spending all day in the fresh air, but I’m beat, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking … Read more

Cosmo went on a walk today.    I put him in his harness and me, Maya, Ben and Greta took him out to a grassy area behind our building.   He is such a funny cat.    He hasn’t spent time outside in over 7 years, and then it was apparently unpleasant, as the folks at the shelter who rescued him told us he’d been pretty beat up in fights with savvy alley cats.   But today, in his bright blue harness which is attached to a bungee leash, he walked around cautiously, but not fearfully, with 4 of his people in tow.   The … Read more