Unschooling NYC

I am no education expert.  I’m not sure there really is such a thing.  More and more I am convinced that most schools and institutions of so-called ‘higher education’  are reactionary instead of visionary.  They focus on teaching based on what is – which is tantamount to teaching to the past because of the speed at which technology and therefore the needs in society, change.    Somewhere I read that if you go through a four year program on, say, computer science or computer programming, the information you are given as a Freshman will be obsolete by your Senior year.

In … Read more

Since Maya and Ben have never been to school, and my own school experiences are a shocking number of years ago, my knowledge of the current school culture comes mostly from reading about it, hearing the parents of schooled children talk, or the bits and pieces I get from Maya’s schooled friends.   Until yesterday when I had the chance to sit down and talk with Lucy Albert.   She had been homeschooled, along with her three siblings, her entire life.   She is an accomplished singer and musician, having spent years singing with the New York City Opera and the Met Children’s … Read more

The Craft Fair is one of our favorite monthly meetings.  It is also one of the best attended.  Today over 40 kids showed up with stuff they’d made – the ‘sellers’ – and many more came to shop and socialize and take part in the free craft projects set up by the organizers.    Megan Thompson was there as well.  She is the woman from our local PBS affiliate who interviewed us in September for a show she is putting together on homeschoolers in NYC which will air sometime in January.   She asked me as part of the interview why I … Read more

Maya loves to sell things, organize things, think of ways to make money…  She is a lot like Joshua in that way (in many ways, but it would take too long to detail them all here).   Last week, she decided that she and her friend Greta should advertise in our building as ‘Mother’s Helpers’.   Not yet independent babysitters, but capable girls who could go and help out while the mom takes time to clean, or cook, or just have a break and know that her child is occupied in the next room.  On Saturday they designed fliers on my computer, … Read more

Listened to John’s music all day, both Beatles and his solo stuff.  30 years ago today tragedy was about to strike.  It was a Monday, and many people heard that John Lennon had been shot from Howard Cosell, who was announcing Monday Night Football at the time.  I didn’t hear about it until the next morning, when my Mom came in my room and told me.  I was in the eighth grade.

Thought about going over to Strawberry Fields in Central Park today, but knew it would be mobbed.  When John was killed, New York City was only a place … Read more

London.  Hands down. No doubt about it.

I can say this because we visited the Liberty Science Center today, which is located sort of east-ish of Jersey City.  We went with our friends Rob, Marcella and Genevieve and spent the better part of three hours there.   Liberty Science is lauded as a great science museum for kids.  (But come to think of it, isn’t that the case for all science museums?)   I’d never been there, and it seemed like a good outing for a cold day.   Current featured exhibits were on Mammoths and Mastodons, as well as one on Skyscrapers.… Read more

Maya is away tonight, on her second overnight in three days.  Needless to say all is right in her world.   For Ben this has meant hours of uninterrupted time in his world, which over the past few days has been closely intertwined with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia.   We read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe a few months ago, but had been reading other non-Narnia books since.  Last week Ben saw a preview for the upcoming movie version of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and decided we needed to catch up with the Narnia books so that we can … Read more

HUGE 3 page article in the Times today about the dangers of cyberbullying among teens.   Clueless parents who don’t know how to text are baffled at their children either bullying or being bullied by other kids (usually kids they know and with whom they attend school) on line.   Facebook is singled out (hey NY Times, stop ‘promoting’ Facebook, would you?) as a leading culprit, which might not surprise anyone who has seen the film The Social Network.    I could go on and on here about many issues brought up in the article.  Bullying is almost solely a domain of schooled … Read more

This was the scene tonight at Starbucks, as Ben and I waited in line.    A woman in front of us was talking to her daughter, who looked to be about Ben’s age:

The two cookies … Read more

I was reading out of Holt’s Teach Your Own today, and decided that I would let his words make up the body of today’s post.   Some of these quotes may be familiar to you, others are slightly more obscure.  In any case they are always worth reading again.   Enjoy.