Musing of the Month

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Musing of the Month:
"Everything is beginning to look like cotton candy."
~Caleb, age 11
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Kuddos via email:
We can't wait for the 2008 Great Wolf Lodge Trip!! Thanks for setting this up and doing the site!!! We love both!
~Claudia

Thanks, Claudia.

Details about GWL will be out in a couple of months. I've enjoyed organizing it and getting to know families from across the state.
~ Tracy
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Show and Tell ~ Triplets & Quadruplets!!

Holden and Mackenzie learned a bit about Photoshop from their aunt this summer. Boy was mom surprised when she ended up with quadruplets and triplets!

More choose to educate children at home

An article in the Kansas City Star. September 9, 2007

Food for Thought

Trashing Teens, Psychology Today, Mar/Apr 2007

Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, "The Case Against Adolescence," that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them.

The factory system doesn't work in the modern world, because two years after graduation, whatever you learned is out of date. We need education spread over a lifetime, not jammed into the early years—except for such basics as reading, writing, and perhaps citizenship. Past puberty, education needs to be combined in interesting and creative ways with work. The factory school system no longer makes sense.

The Unschooling Unmanual

From The Natural Child Project:

School is out. Unschool is in!

Our newest booklet, The Unschooling Unmanual, by Nanda Van Gestel, Rue Kream, Mary Van Doren and Jan Hunt, will be published this fall. Through engaging personal stories, examples, and essays, the writers offer inspiration and encouragement for seasoned and prospective unschoolers alike.

The booklet can be pre-ordered at a discounted price of $12.

Read Chapter One of "An Unschooling Adventure"

The Kansas Homeschool Network is planning the
Fourth Annual Area Homeschoolers
Great Wolf Lodge Get-Away

Mark your calendars for February 2008.
Details will be posted here as they become available.

Great Wolf - Kansas City

Quick KS Area Blog Tour:

From Life Is Learning, Learning Is Life, Year-round: Reasons We Homeschool:

The academic individualization is our most publicly known reason. However, my DH and I love to travel around the US on vacation. We were married 10 years before kids and really enjoy vacationing in Sept/Oct and April, when all of the families with school kids AREN'T on vacation, too. So the family flexibility is
a biggie for us. DH likes the idea that every vacation can be "educational". I try to remind him that we don't have to make it like "lessons" when we go somewhere, just going and experiencing the new places and things is educational
in and of itself.And my other reason seems selfish, but I suppose it isn't really: I like my kids and I want to spend time with them. I don't want to miss out on their joy of learning.

Here's a cool resource from Jill at Praiseworthy Things.

I've just returned from a trip to another state for my brother's wedding. On coming home I saw this fun tool on Visited States. This would be fun to do with your kids and a nice lesson on geography as well.

Some comforting words from heymom at Thoze Amazing Crazy Dayz

I want to begin by saying that the fact that she is dreaming and thinking of her life as "her" life, is, in itself, a huge step forward. Only a few short months ago, she was so easily swayed by the opinions and actions of others. She had so little dreams of her own.While she talked to me, she seemed to be so at peace with the life around her and the way that it is going. This again, in
stark contrast to the way she felt...always swimming upstream, always fighting the world and herself...not that long ago.