Reschooling Posts // March 27 - April 2
1.33 decentering school with Nikolai Pizarro
April 2, 2022 from The Unschool Files
In episode 33 of the podcast, Meghan is talking with Nikolai Pizarro of @raisingreaders on the concept of decentering school, to center connection and relationship. this discussion touches on educational trauma, the pressure to uphold the school system and the values it thrusts into families. Nikolai is very aware that many families do not have the ability to leave school, and wants to empower parents and young people to know their humanity is priority. she gives real examples of ways folks can walk their children thru their agency while remaining in school. not focusing on the metrics that sort and divide children, and not letting schoolishness dictate how we see ourselves and our humanity.
The First Festival of New Schools, Crimea, USSR, August, 1991
April 1, 2022 from AERO
The following is the previously unpublished story of when I went to the First New Schools Festival of the Soviet Union in August 1991, leaving the day before the coup that ended the Soviet Union. On my last day there I was in Yeltsin’s White House and stood exactly where he faced down the tanks while I was on the train back to England. It is remarkable how much things have changed and how much they have stayed the same.
A Love Letter To Community
April 1, 2022 from Swimming Upstream
I’m currently sitting in my car in Memorial Park in Meaford, Ontario watching the beautiful waves of Georgian Bay crash on the shore. I’ve been sitting here for about an hour and I’ve got two more to go. It’s just below freezing but I don’t mind. I promised my youngest that I would wait for him here while he participates in his first half day of forest school. I’m feeling quite blissful. Forest school is a significant step for my little guy. He was in Montessori preschool and then an amazing outdoor preschool when he was around 1-2 years old but had terrible separation anxiety (as many kids that age do).
How to talk about taboos
April 1, 2022 from Radical Learning Talks
Your kid asks to talk about sex, racism, religion, death, addiction, _______ (fill in the blank)… Do you clam up and freak out, or do see it as an opportunity to create a safe space and build relationship with them? As a follow up on our episode on how to raise conscious boys, we share more on what our experience has been in talking about taboos with our kids and how we see these moments as gateways for deepening connection and trust.
Radical Acts no. 6: The adult gaze & how will they learn to do the boring stuff.
March 31, 2022 from Radical Acts
Yesterday I was reminded about my writing on the adult gaze, and I thought I would write some more about it. I did a little search and actually, there isn’t that much out there about this. I write about it subjectively, because it is personal. But I’m also tempted to generalize based on my experience with my own children, my observations and the work I have done with children in early years settings, and messages I’ve received from others. None of this is “scientific” - it is very much qualitative and narrational and based on my personal thoughts and interpretations. I don’t believe this makes it any less valuable.
Ep 245. P for Pain Points: What’s hurting you? What’s hurting them?
March 31, 2022 from Fare of the Free Child
It’s storytime #fofcpod fam and we‘re so excited to continue with this 70-day PAUSE journey along with the amazing Domari Dickinson of Positive and Purposeful Parenting.
Spinning a Web: The Art of Learning, Episode 323
March 31, 2022 from Living Joyfully with Unschooling
Why Kids Are Suffering
March 30, 2022 from Freedom to Learn
A rapidly growing domain of psychological research and theory is that referred to as Self-Determination Theory (SDT), pioneered and named about 30 years ago by psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci. The fundamental premise of SDT is that we humans perform better and live happier, more satisfying lives, when we experience ourselves as living in accordance with our own, internal desires and decisions rather than being driven from outside sources by rewards, punishments, and demands from others. By now, hundreds of research studies support this basic premise and elaborate upon it in various ways (for reviews, see Ryan & Deci, 2017; Ryan, Huta & Deci, 2008).
What My Unschooled Kids Never Learned
March 28, 2022 from Unschooling Mom2Mom
I do a lot of interviews with people who are curious about how unschooling works. Lots of times, they want to know if I have regrets or if there are things my now grown kids wish they had learned. I guess they hear so much good stuff about unschooling that they want to find where the flaws are. They know there have to be some skeletons in there! It can’t be Utopia!
Homeschool Daily Habits: Read Aloud Time
March 27, 2022 from Happiness is Here
One of the things people constantly warn me about when they find out we’re unschooling is that our children won’t be exposed to enough of the world. How can they learn about anything outside of the four walls of their house? Firstly, we do venture outside, so take the worry down a notch. I haven’t locked the kids up inside the house! Unschooling is about experiencing more of life, not less.