The UnConvention

After a couple of days of running out of ink, having to buy new CD cases after the one I’d bought vanished in our move and other small assorted disaster, we’ve started to ship copies of Disc 1 of raw interviews from Unschooling : The Movie!

Jack helped me label, box and ship the discs.

Now that I can safely say my experiment with leaving my job worked, I’ wanted to do a practical little video about how I made the decision to leave my job.

What do you think?

People have asked about what the results of our recent  run-in with Child Protective Services and it’s a lot to explain, really. So rather than try to write a big long blog post, I fired up the microphone and did an audio recording about it.  It’s about 25 minutes long.

I don’t recommend things that I don’t use and like so it’s a no brainer to say that you should sign up for MailChimp – especially since it’s now free for lists of under 500 people.

If you’re serious about promoting yourself and your work you need a mailing list!

Why use MailChimp or other email marketing services? I made this video to explain some of the advantages.

I’ll

The signup link here gives you $30 in credit if you get a paid accouint, too.

If you’re one of the people who supported the creation of Unschooling : The Movie by pre-ordering the special edition, your first bonus disc is about ship – it’s got around two hours of material, including (obviously) many things that won’t make it into the final film for space reasons. Interviews with Sandra Dodd, Holly Dodd, Brenna McBroom and Broc Higgins.

I’ll post an announcement here as soon as we ship.

I came across this very craft-y idea – a craft room on a cart.

The author says…

When crafts were just a hobby, I often found myself in the midst of complete chaos. Wool and fabric and glitter and glue sticks were strewn everywhere. And I liked it that way! I have always found a tremendous amount of inspiration in the crazy mess of supplies. But now crafting is my career and I have deadlines to meet. I can no longer afford to spend an hour looking for my scissors.

Space is always at a premium for Lauren and me, so I love this idea. It made me wonder if there are home school or even home office applications for this concept – playroom on a cart? Exercise room on cart? Band room on cart?

Leave your ideas in comments!

I posted another great video from Sandra Dodd on YouTube – talking about Rules vs. Principles…

Learn and enjoy…

I asked everyone what in their educational past helped them to be an unschooling parent and here’s part of what E. Naomi Sandoval (Top Honcho, SoBeBabies.com, Inc) had to say.

When I was in my early 20s, I discovered I could audit courses at my university for very little money. I had so much noise in my head as an undergrad, it was difficult to enjoy much of the college experience. But a few years later, I found I was an excellent student because I wanted to be there. I participated fully and the professors graded my tests because they wanted to as they derived as much pleasure from my presence as I did (when auditing, it is not required to get any grades). I took up quite a few interests in my 20s and finally learned how to learn. I learned that I tended to immerse myself in a subject and gather as much information as possible. I studied gardening both through practice and reading books for years. I bought at least 30 books in that time period.

It is all of these experiences that gave me the confidence to unschool. My older daughter seems to learn like I do. She gets interested in one thing and focuses on it all day, for days, weeks, or months. She drops it out of the blue and I do not nag her to go back to it. It comes back at some random point and the cycle starts again.

I have a lot of trust that she will come out with the subjects she is "supposed to" have gotten by the time she is 17, but not at all on the same timeline that the school system arbitrarily has decided. My husband is getting it now. We do not live live in 45 minute chunks and then go home and do homework in 5 subjects, jumping one to the next. We immerse in what we are currently interested in doing and move on when it strikes our fancy or becomes necessary (like for me, learning faux painting techniques, for example, or what fruit trees grow in my climate).

What’s YOUR story?

As I mentioned in my ‘Emerging From The Desert’ piece, I’m getting back on track. In the process of updating the UnConvention.info site and I just posted a couple of clips from my upcoming DVD “UnSchooling: The Movie” featuring 19 year old Brenna McBroom. I’ll be sending out the first ‘raw interview’ DVD to people who ordered the $50 edition in the next few days.

In the meantime, enjoy these clips..