Archive for the 'looking out' Category

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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 [...]

Australian Unschooling goes to the Next Level

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 [...]

Back to the Books

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 [...]

Australia’s First Unschooling Conference Retreat

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! [...]

If Schooling was reported in the Media

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 [...]

Unschooling Support and where are the mags going?

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 [...]

Books by People who Inspire…

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 [...]

June Pit Stop – Australian Unschooling Resources

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 [...]

Another Brick in the Wall?

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 [...]

Two Articles Question Mainstream Education

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 [...]