#unschool

What does a homeschool kid do all day?

We spend some time doing one-on-one work on paper and workbooks, but most of the time he’s living life by playing, exploring, and helping us. It turns out these are great ways to learn.

July 14, 2017

Back to school shopping, homeschool edition! Judas Jr. has an eye for colour. Apparently they still make Lisa Frank and he locked eyes on the most amazing dolphin notebook, but it was 3x as much for ½ the paper so we went frugal. I let him get the “fancy” pencils though. I’m thinking of using the snazzy notebooks as an incentive to fill up these ones.

The pencils have happy pink poops and general weirdo iconography. What a time to be alive.

July 13, 2017

Back to Hartley! We left even earlier after noticing a class on break outside everyday. So this time we did our kid ride with time for Jr. to get in on a game of catch befor his class started.

Lieblings had to work so I hit the trails solo. In just a few days I’ve gotten a lot faster and better at them and I’ve been adding up the miles from the map and doing just over four on challenging terrain. It’s not that much, I used to ride 7 miles through the city when we lived in town, but that was also on streets and flat paved bike trails. I was carrying my satchel across my body and getting tired of it banging around and creating a hot patch of sweat on my side/back so I took an old Duluth Pack shell bag that had the strap removed and cliped it to my waist carabiners. It makes a sweet chaos bag and is big enough to hold my sketchbook, writing tools, and various odds and ends. I keep my metal waterbottle on my key clip on the other side. It was hilarious to take a break and watch the spandex-wearing bro dudes go by on expensive bikes and giving me weird looks, but I’m managing the same trails as them in Doc Martens and cut-off workpants on my old Rock Hopper. :P

I’m REALLY liking mountain biking, it’s a ton of fun and feels like a full-body workout. My favourite part of the trails is the Root Canal (lots of turns and rocks) and then it opens into a beautiful swampy meadow with a boardwalk through. It’s absolutely elating to glide out into this beautful sunny open area and catch your breath as you gaze around after bombing down the shaded trails.

July 27, 2017

Hitting the trails again at Hartley! Small Friend likes going over the damn bridge.

We kept going while he was in day camp. Liebling’s fat bike is really sweet, I can see why they’ve gotten so popular around here. I’m riding his old mountain bike he gave me years ago (I love it and switched back to it after trying a fancy new one) and it’s pretty capable, but I find myself worried about bending rims on the jutting rocks and other obstacles if I beat too hard on the trails.

The Hartley trails are a BLAST. I used to ride in this park when I was a kid (either here or Lester, depending on whih relative I was with) but I think they’ve done a lot more with them since then and now everything is mapped and rated for diffuclty like the ski trails. The whole Nature Center and related school and acitvities is very new. It’s a pretty sweet place. I brought Jr. here for a parent/child reading group for a while before we took the plunge with day camp.

July 26, 2017

Judas Jr. started a week of summer day camp at Hartley Nature Center yesterday. He had a blast and that night we grilled venison and hotdogs and had a fire in the yard with smores. Since we homeschool this was a good way for him to have time with oher kids but without the drawbacks (including massive time sink) of traditional school. Everything is nature-based and interactive with a lot of outside time.

He’s never been away from both of us before and I felt extremely anxious about leaving him with what is essentially a stranger. He’s never even had a babysitter, instead we’ve coordinated work schedules so he always had one of us and I stayed home with him for the first several years. So rather than drop him and go, we busied ourselves on the bike trails for the duration of his class. That way we were on the grounds if he needed us. It was really nice and fun for all of us and we even crossing paths a few times while his group did outdoor activities.

We brought his little balance bike/kickbike along and arrived early so he could ride with us beforehand. I can’t praise this style of bike enough. The whole training wheels method is rediculous because kids just learn how to ride a bike with extra wheels. Once those go off they then have to learn balancing from scratch and it makes no sense. On a kickbike it’s a regular two-wheeled bike but without peddles. Kids use their feet to run and push the bike, they glide with their feet up and put them down instinctively when they need to and end up learning how to ride intutively. The also seem a lot more agile and capable racing around dirt, grass, and mud.

July 25, 2017

Ed Zed Omega is a collaborative thought experiment about education. What if six teens drop out of high school, very open about their reasons? Can people help this turn out well? The Zed Omega characters seemed real because the young actors playing them were channeling aspects of their real-life experience – and were unscripted: they reacted authentically to the advice they got and the school stories they heard.

What’s in a diploma? Are there other ways to learn? If you go your own way, what happens? Instead of being in school, the Zed Omega teens spent their fall semester looking at school from the outside.

“Agree with them or not, the Zed Omegas asked the questions that got people talking about how and what young people should learn. Their presence brought vital questions about purposes and methods of school out of the abstract into the immediate and real.”

A true transmedia project, Ed Zed Omega happened organically on social media, on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and in live events. The Zed Omegas gathered hundreds of likes, touched thousands of people and registered hundreds of thousands of impressions. If education is to keep pace with changes to our economy, society and culture, it needs new, more inclusive ways to frame its discussions about what it must become. Is it preparing students for successful jobs and lives in the hyperconnected 21st century?

Ed Zed Omega gathered 800 “signals” about education on the edzedomega.org site. You can take one of the Zed Omega “Top Ten” tours, or browse the archiveorsearch by tag, but now that you know the story, why not just free-explore the grand array?

Ed Zed Omega is a template for a new framework of interaction.

Students: you can go “zed omega” with your own inquiry into what education is for and how people like you learn best. All the Zed Omegas will tell you the experience opened their eyes wide as to what traditional education does and does not do. They felt inspired by the powerful stories they heard about alternate ways of learning, and empowered to take charge of their futures by shaping their educations to fit. Knowledge is power!

Teachers, schools, and others concerned about education: use the Ed Zed Omega idea to create a dialog about school and how best to improve it. The Zed Omegas illustrate how to frame the discussion in a way that engages the student voice. Using the existing stories, you can create a narrative space in which all stakeholders can have their say.

We will be continuing to develop the Ed Zed Omega idea. Watch for our web video series to come online this summer. To inquire about having the Zed Omegas teleconference with your fellow students or with your school this fall, contact us.

ZED OMEGA REPORT – Final, Part One 
ZED OMEGA REPORT – Final, Part Two

Well, it’s my last video. It’s been such a crazy ride! Thanks so much to everybody to helped us out. Can’t believe it’s over!

I’m gonna miss you guys…

~Nora