Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/user/UnschoolingChannel

In an attempt to spread the unschooling message, Dr. Carlo Ricci (Nipissing University) has created an unschooling youtube channel. It's free and you do not need to sign up.

The parable of the leaves

I was walking home with my daughter one afternoon this week, admiring the falling leaves swirling down from the trees and making everything seem so exciting and mysterious. I suggested that we try catching a leaf for luck like we always do in the fall time. She thought about it for a moment and responded with,"you know mummy. When I was little I used to always chase leaves from one spot to another. But when I ran in one direction a leaf would fall right in the spot where I'd just taken off from. That kept on happening. So now I don't run anymore. I just stay in one spot and the leaves fall on me."
Profound metaphor for the way I'm living my life which seems to be dashing from one thing to another grasping desparately for any falling lucky leaf instead of staying in one spot, calm and collected knowing that the leaves will fall to me.
So that's my food for thought this week. Thanks daughter!

I am old. Very old.

it was my birthday the other day. I felt --older. But now I feel good about my age. I am 8 billion years old. So are you! That's not too bad if we are all about the same age right?
You might be thinking I'm losing it. Actually, I learned this from a lecture Ev and B and I attended yesterday night at McMaster University. As part of the Origins Institute Public lecture Series, they had astrophysicist Tom Abel (Stanford U) come and talk about the first star in the universe at the cosmic dawn.

It was desperately hot in the lecture hall and I had to fan B most of the time because she was melting into her cosmic particles. Still we learned that around 100 million massive stars have helped in making each person. And that about the amount of one of your little fingers used to be in the earliest stars. We used to be almost a million light years across!
So we were asked to take it personally, which I do!

Mind your own please

Since my two oldest girls started school, there is the expectation amongst family and friends and other well meaning folk that my youngest will be going soon too.
"So Brownyn, when do you start?"
"It will be your turn next sweetie."
Why? Why do people keep doing this?
It's not helpful because it puts us all in defensive mode- me feeling under attack about our homeschooling practices and the concerned person feeling like they have to convince me school is good.
Of course the worst off is the child- caught in between the two. How does it make her feel? Confused; ""Mum is homeschooling me. Other people are basically saying she is wrong. Schooling is right."
It's not a good place to be. I think people ought to mind their own business.