the Whole Mother Show, Houston, November 23

Audio

Stacy & Michelle Conaway speak to Patricia Jones on the Whole Mother Show about Unschooling.

Originally aired November 23, 2014 at KPFT 90.1 public radio in Houston, Texas

http://www.texasunschoolers.com/resources/audio

Violence in video games creates more peace

"The first long-term study has been completed on the link between the consumption of violent media and real-life violent acts, and has found... there is none. In fact, the only possible trend that cropped up over the last century was that an increased consumption of violent video games correlated to a decrease in youth violence."

Yvonne Laborda sent the link to this article: Long-term study finds zero link between violence in video games and real life


Same for "violent movies":

...No link could be made, he found, except perhaps in the mid-20th century.

At this point in history, homicide rates and instances of violent movies both increased briefly, but then the trend reversed after 1990, to the point where movie violence became correlated with fewer homicides. This was also the case during the two decades between the 1920s and ’40s.

Blaming a school shooting on homeschooling?

Eye on the News
MATTHEW HENNESSEY
Connecticut Targets Homeschoolers
In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, a state panel tries to restrict parental rights.
5 October 2014

The article begins…

In Connecticut, Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has returned a curious and controversial draft recommendation: the state should increase its oversight of homeschooled children with emotional or behavioral challenges. The proposal has outraged the state’s homeschoolers, who, like homeschoolers everywhere, are keenly aware of their sometimes conditional freedoms. In Connecticut, as elsewhere, the law allows parents to homeschool if they choose. But the practice has always been viewed as threatening by left-wing academics, social architects, and teachers’ unions—all well represented on Malloy’s 16-member panel. Sadly, this is only the most recent assault on the rights of Connecticut homeschoolers.

Read More

"Too much, too young: Should schooling start at age 7?"

Article in The New Scientist, 18 November 2013 by David Whitebread and Sue Bingham
Magazine issue 2943.

If we consider the contribution of play to children's development as learners, and the harm caused by starting formal learning at 4 to 5 years old, the evidence for a later start is very persuasive.

This evidence comes from anthropological, psychological, neuroscientific and educational studies. For example, research on children's play in extant hunter-gatherer societies, and evolutionary psychology studies of other mammalian young, have identified play as an adaptation that enabled early humans to become powerful learners and problem-solvers.

Third interview in Spanish, Sandra Dodd

Most of the exchange this time was between Yvonne Laborda and myself.

Yvonne wrote on her blog:

He vuelto a tener el gran placer de estar con Sandra Dodd. Esta vez ha hablado de cosas muy intimas y personales. El tema de esta semana da para mucho más. No obstante, se han dicho y preguntado cosas muy interesantes y útiles. Me he quedado con ganas de decir más cositas con referencia a la conexión o perdida de conexión con nuestros hijos... Precisamente el modulo 2 del Mastermind de continuación que estoy haciendo junto con María José habla sobre este tema en profundidad. Ya tengo tema para otro artículo. Es que la influencia de nuestra infancia en cómo nos relacionamos con los demás es mi "especialidad". Espero disfrutéis con este hangout.

There are two others, of this same hangout/program, one from December 2013 and one from April 2014:

On making better choices
Being with your children

Hijos con diferentes edades

Commentary below by Yvonne Laborda, from her blog here: http://welivelearning.blogspot.com/2014/06/homeschooling-hijos-con-diferentes.html

En este interesante vídeo, Irlanda, una madre de 6 hijos educados en casa nos explica cómo se las arregla para poder satisfacer las necesidades de todos.

También aprovecho para compartir el taller de ALTERNATIVAS A LOS CASTIGOS, PREMIOS Y AMENAZAS que voy a hacer junto con María José Cifuentes. Clicando en el vídeo podéis verlo. Será el viernes 20 y 27 de junio de 7pm a 8.30pm hora de España. Ya he hecho varios de estos talleres y charlas vivenciales pero esta vez al ver la necesidad de varias familias he pensado en hacer este por Hangout para poder llegar a más personas. El coste es de 37 dolares y constara de dos sesiones vivenciales vía hangout y unos vídeos que daremos entre las dos semanas. Al final habrá un PDF.

Espero sea de vuestro interés. Nos vemos el día 20, un saludo.

Apoyo a las familias homeschoolers / Support for homeschooling families

Learn Nothing Day

As I'm posting this, Learn Nothing Day is 75 days away.

Guess how many years it has been?
Lots.

More info
and the 2014 Countdown

with this art and the last one
(and eventually, other art—exciting art)

Second Interview in Spanish, on making better choices

Homeschooling: Cómo ayudar a nuestros hijos a tomar decisiones




The interviewer is María José Cifuentes.
Translator: Yvonne Laborda
Interviewee: Sandra Dodd

April 22, 2014

Home-schooling numbers and opportunities grow

Home-schooling numbers and opportunities grow

Howard Ho, 18, works on his calculus while his mother Sandy Ho prepares dinner in their New Milford, Conn, home. Ho is home schooled and has been applying to colleges for the fall. He has already started taking classes at Western Connecticut State University.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014. Photo: H John Voorhees III

Islamic students, U.S., Maryland

Outgrowing Schools: Journeys In Islamic Homeschooling

It's homeschooling more than unschooling—co-op classes—but interesting!

March 4, 2014

Galway, March 25, Ireland Times

Unschooling in Galway – one family on its experience of teaching at home

Education People: Home schooling without a curriculum

Toowoomba, QLD, March 26, 2014

TOOWOOMBA parents Rachael and George Clark are advocates of "unschooling" and say it's not about no school, but letting the children run with their passions. (full article)

The couple's eldest daughter Jemima, who has Asperger's, struggled with school from an early age and for two years they tried every parenting strategy in the book.

Winnipeg Free Press, print edition

LOCAL
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
'Unschooling' is in
More and more families are pulling their kids out of conventional schools — and it's not necessarily because of Bill 18
By: Nick Martin
Posted: 03/29/2014 1:00 AM | Comments:

Home-schooled students Daniel McIntyre-Ridd and Maggie Gehman rehearse for the production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The cast includes 24 home-schooled students from 10 families. Photo Store

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/unschooling-is-in-253010921.html

Brief interview, "Mornings" show

I didn't hear it on the day, but in the recording I can hear that the interviewer was about to suggest that my children sounded gifted. Their biggest gift was time to develop in their own way, in an enriched environment, with lots of parental attention. 

One of the interviewer's comments was interesting, but not really fair or true: "Your point was that you were an educator, you were taught how to educate your kids at home…" I was taught about classrooms and groups of kids, about record keeping and assessment. Those things aren't useful for unschoolers.

It's true that the open classroom method is what unschooling is, only without the limitation of a classroom or a schedule, but it's NOT about teaching. It's about providing resources, answering questions, facilitating their learning. For some people, having been a teacher is detrimental to their ability to be good unschooling parents.

Some of the very best of unschooling parents have zero "teacher training" or classroom experience. It's not at all required, nor helpful. But it IS true that there are many unschoolers who were once teachers. More than anything else, their common knowledge is that learning all happens inside the learner.

Unschooling in India

From classroom to living room

Joeanna Rebello Fernandes,TNN | Jan 19, 2014, 05.33 AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/From-classroom-to-living-room/articleshow/29032760.cms