arun on Jan 18 2011 | Filed under: looking out, others wisdom
Thanks to Kaya who forwarded this link to me of a thought provoking & inspiring video about psychiatric labels and kids… This video particularly takes aim at ‘psychiatric conditions’ but i feel similar criticism could be made of all sorts of labels, even self imposed ones. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an absolute label [...]
arun on Sep 17 2010 | Filed under: family diary, homeschooling, inspiration, others wisdom, unschooling
The first ever Australian Unschooling Retreat/ Conference wound up a couple of weeks ago and it was a huge success! With over 100 families attending it far exceeded expectations (i admit it… especially mine!) and involved 4 days of discussion, swimming, clay play, inspiration and more. Our family enjoyed making new friends, connecting with old [...]
arun on Aug 30 2010 | Filed under: conflict & communication, looking out, nvc & pet, others wisdom, parenting
Anne is leading the way out of our funk by hitting the parenting books once more. After our recent lows it feels like we are re-learning so much. Anne is also being greatly assisted by the work of Elaine Aron on The Highly Senitive series of books — Anne, M and Z all share many [...]
arun on May 10 2010 | Filed under: links, looking out, other, others wisdom, unschooling
YAY to Maree & Erica, the crazy unschooling mums who have managed (in all their spare time) to initiate the first ever… AUSTRALIAN UNSCHOOLING CONFERENCE RETREAT September 3 – 7. 2010. @ The beautiful Tallebudgera Tourist Park, Gold Coast, Qld. Come together with other natural learning families for the first ever Unschooling Conference in Australia! [...]
arun on Sep 02 2008 | Filed under: education, laugh, looking out
A very funny, albeit very sad article from the satirical online mag, the Onion: 6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss Of Formal Schooling CARPENTERSVILLE, IL—Local first-grader Connor Bolduc, 6, experienced the first inkling of a coming lifetime of existential dread Monday upon recognizing his cruel destiny to participate in compulsory education for the better part of [...]
arun on Aug 12 2008 | Filed under: links, looking out, others wisdom, unschooling
Why have the unschooling magazines gone? First Live Free Learn Free went electronic and now seems to be no more. Then more recently Life Learning Magazine got absorbed into its bigger cousing Natural Parenting Magazine. Meanwhile Connections online magazine seems to be the last one standing but is very infrequent. So if unschooling is growing [...]
arun on Jul 20 2008 | Filed under: links, looking out, reviews & interviews, wellness
Ive been writing less for the Pit lately… but Ive got a good excuse. In between hanging out with my family and doing our home biz with my partner, I have started to write a book! Don’t worry, its nothing to do with parenting… Ill leave that to people with much more of a clue [...]
arun on Jun 27 2008 | Filed under: homeschooling, links, pit stops
Pit Stops are posts where i choose a theme and profile some sites. According to my web stats only about 30% of the people who visit the Pit are from Australia, so sorry to all you others for whom this is less interest. This month, homeschooling & unschooling online resources for Australians… LIBERATED LEARNING This [...]
arun on Jun 01 2008 | Filed under: empowerment & trust, looking out, others wisdom, unschooling
The following quote is from one of my favourite unschool writers, Joyce Fetteroll. Along with Rue Kream’s book, Joyce’s web site has been a key resources for my own unschooling journey. Joyce wrote this in a discussion on the Unschooling Basics egroup and Ive reproduced it here with her permission: Teachers face this huge pile [...]
arun on Feb 15 2008 | Filed under: 4 to 8 year old, education, homeschooling, looking out, mainstream media, unschooling
Two interesting articles doing the rounds recently caught my eye. The first was published by the BBC and asks in its headline, “Is five too soon to start school?”. (btw – thanks to Scott Stantis for the cartoon). The article compares England’s experience with countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Finland where school begins at seven years [...]
