Freedom from Homework
Mars Kelsey is the fifteen year old daughter of friends of our family . She attends the alternative school Indigo Sudbury Campus in Alberta. Check out her beautiful music on her My Space Page. Her Biography states that it is “freedom fom homework” that has allowed her the time to develope her talents.
“Her participation in an alternative schooling program meant she was left to pursue her own interests at school and at home. More than anything, the freedom from homework allowed her to spend hours and hours alone in her basement bedroom listening to everything from the Beatles to Janis Joplin, Feist, The Rolling Stones and Radiohead, some of which were on scratchy old vinyl records culled from garage sales and thrift stores. These were her “History” lessons. A lover of almost all forms of music and a self-admitted “ham”, Mars enjoys each part of the creative process and is utterly involved in all aspects of her music, from writing and arranging to performing and even marketing. Her demo CD with 10 of her own songs was completed in January 2009. With her beautiful melodies and introspective lyrics, Mars provides an insightful look into the human experience that is seemingly well beyond” her 15 years.
Homelearning Community House Update
I haven’t made any posts lately about our Homelearning Community House. It is not because we haven’t been doing anything, but because we have been doing so much, I haven’t had time to write about it.
One thing we have all noticed is that we are having so much fun focusing on our community that other things are falling to the wayside – like laundry, grocery shopping, & cooking dinner. We also haven’t been driving much. Why bother with the trip to Science World, packing lunch and paying for parking, when we are busy dying wool with Kool-ade in the kitchen. In fact I have hardly gotten into a car all season and I love it.
WOOL DYING
THEATRE
One of the biggest thing we did this fall was Romeo & Juliet with our group, the Burrardview Homelearner’s Cooperative. It was a lot of work and there were many times we wanted to quit. It was frustrating when we had to stop something wonderful that was spontaneously happening and make the kids work on the play. It is difficult to balance structured and free activity. If you have too much structured activity it can really start to make things difficult. I realized that I really value having the freedom to follow things as they come as apposed to having to do something.
At the same time I feel that the kids really got a lot out all the hard work they put into Romeo and Juliet. It was very ambitious and we asked a lot of all of them. The youngest kids were six, and performing Shakespeare in front of over 100 people, remembering their lines, projecting and remembering when to exit and enter was a great accomplishment. I think they all had a lot of fun performing. Cassius needed stitches in his lip a few days before and could just talk by the time of the show. Despite it, he tried his best and had a great time.
Romeo and Juliet was a bit too real for Cassius & Anja, who both managed to play the title roles without looking into each other eyes. They adore each other but saying it in front of an audience was a challenge.
Cassius and Anja as Romeo and Juliet
All the kids also except for Paris and Thomas went over to the Northshore on Wednesdays for musical theatre, led by another homeschool parent. Our group performed our show and the musicals at the the Northshore Homelearner’s Winter showcase. 
FRIENDS
CYCLING
We have missed a few wonderful activities at Rosalind’s house because my house doesn’t wake up as early as the other houses. Rosalind has managed to get us up out of our cosy beds for a morning of bike riding, so I ‘m willing to make the effort to change my ways for the right event.
Rosalind, helping Paris remove his training wheels
Speaking of physical activity. I think this is the number one thing the kids are getting out of being together.They swim, climb, wrestle, bike and hike together. They RUN constantly, inside, outside – everywhere! They can play hide and seek anywhere, and they play it running. I think it must be a very important thing for them to do or else they wouldn’t want to do it so much. The older kids are as involved as the younger ones, and they play together effortlessly.
BAKING
Anja loves cooking and she is always interested in what I am making and gives me much needed tips. She likes to go over to Rosalind’s to help her bake. She is a wonderful help!
Making Cookies
GARDEN CO-OP
Rosalind is very good at getting involved with the community and is extremely inspiring. We bought a share in a local organic farm she is very active in, for 2009. I’m going to have to learn how to cook turnip,celeriac, and parsnips. I’m looking forward to visiting the farm in the Spring.
MUSIC
My Quintet of homelearning moms meets on Fridays. We often have nine kids playing peacefully in the living room while we play. Anja often listens at the door. Anja and I worked on jingle bells together (cello/piano) which was really fun, even if I did do the worst performance of my life at the Seniors Centre – Anja was great.
Rosalind had rented a child’s cello and would bring it along to rehearsals. Paris loved it!
DISHES
The most wonderful thing that happened this fall is that I bought a dishwasher – Rosalind and Tamara must be very relieved after all the dishes they have washed! At one point the downstairs toilet wash plugged {playmobile}, there was no dishwasher of course, no facet on the kitchen sink , and when there was, there was no hot water. You had to get buckets of hot water from the bathtub, which doesn’t really turn off. Tamara and Dallas installed a new hot water facet in my kitchen as a birthday surprise!
THE NEW YEAR
Our plans for the New Year so far include an art class in the garage, crystal making, light experiments & playing games and the Noble knights of knowledge, and drinking lots of tea.
The beginnings of a sugar crystal
Our Homelearning Community House
It is becoming clear to me that community (not what kids are learning or doing or how many wonderful classes they are going to) is one of the most important things for homeschooling and life in general.
This summer, my friend, neighbour and fellow homeschooling mom, Tamara, got very excited about Sudbury Valley School & The Little New School. She loved the idea of renting a house together with ten other families and having our own House School.
I wondered what we could do on a smaller scale with the few families that live near and the houses we had – since running a program would be expensive and time consuming. Then Tamara exclaimed,“Your house is Sudbury Valley School!” She was kinda joking but I really liked the idea. We talked about it with our other homeschooling friend and neighbour, Rosalind, and she was thrilled! It turns out she came to homeschooling through reading about Sudbury Valley School.
We talked about it and decided to give it try, using my house and Rosalind’s down the street.
I have a huge heated garage that we would like to set up as a workshop, pottery and painting room. We have a great yard and tree house that needs some improvements. Rosalind has a great big room in her basement and a wonderful backyard and garden. Rosalind was trained as a scientist and Tamara as an artist, and they both have a lot of wonderful knowledge and passion to share with the kids.
We moved our weekly drop-in from Strathcona to a room in hospice in a beautiful park a few blocks from our house and renamed our group Burrardview Co-op. We also have this space for three hours on Tuesdays. I have a background in theatre and am really enjoying working on Romeo and Juliet with the kids.
At first we thought it would take a lot of planning and that we would have to have a lot of rules and guidelines – but so far things have fallen into space spontaneously and effortlessly. It is becoming impossible to separate Cassius’ and Paris’ learning from that of Tamara and Rosalind’s kids. They come over to our house most days Monday to Friday and seem to be in a constant creative state. Rosalind, Tamara & I are all amazed about how much easier our days are and how happy our kids are. We are doing hardly any structured activities and we’ve never been so busy.
For example, Last Monday we went over to Rosalind’s house and washed a whole bunch of fleece and lay it out to dry in the sun in her back yard. (I had a meeting and I was able to leave my kids there for a few hours knowing they were happy and safe, and not a burden on Tamara and Rosalind, since all the kids are so busy entertaining each other.) The kids would help us and ask questions when they felt like it and then run off and play.
talking to strangers
After our viking voyage Cassius commented that he had expected the crew to tell us more about vikings, because he had heard the crew were a wealth of information. I had been feeling the same, when I noticed the father of the other HS family we went with (who is very good at talking to people) sit beside the Captain and start asking all sorts of questions. I sat next to him so I could eavesdrop the answers. I’ve never been talented at talking to people I don’t know and extracting information from them. (Most parties are my idea of a nightmare). I don’t know if it’s possible to acquire the skill of talking to strangers when it goes against your general nature, but Cassius and I both agreed that it is a very valuable skill to have and that it can allow you to get more out your experiences.
little new school
Very amazing film on a off beat School near Copenhagen. John Holt the great pedagogue called it his dream school. You will love seeing the passion of the teachers and the children.
Cycling Motivation!
We now officially have a bike riding kid! I knew he could do it once he found his own motivation. I wrote this last January:
The main thing stopping him is that HE DOESN’T WANT TO. Why he doesn’t want to is in a way besides the point, because until he decides he does, it’s going to be a uphill battle to teach him. When he decides he wants to do it, he’ll be able to learn quickly, as it is obvious he has the ability.
It is us, his parents, that want him to learn to ride a bike. Why? Because a seven year old should know how to ride a bike! What if he never learns?!
After I wrote this Cassius kept trying, for us, to ride his bike, with many tears and cries of “this isn’t any fun!” We are carless again and are trying to find ways besides the bus to get around. So we got a trail-a-bike so we could take Cassius along on bike rides.
I was hoping that the feel of the wind in his face would give Cassius the motivation he needed. The first time he was terrified and miserable but had no choice but to hold on for dear life! Surprisingly he went with his dad again the next day, and this time he loved it! “I felt the wind in my face! It was so much fun!” It didn’t matter how many times we told him he would love it, he actually had to experience it for himself.
Right after his second ride he asked to try his own bike – and did it! He’s gone out everyday since then, and has had a few falls, but is now officially a cyclist!
Cassius’ Annual Review 2008
Mandala Area & Position in Learning Cycle (Spiral): Seed > Root > Plant > Flower >
LANGUAGING (LANGUAGE ARTS) Flower / Accomplished
Learning Successes:
Cassius joyfully and successfully surpassed all of the Learning Plan goals and completed many of the recommended Languaging skills and concepts for his age and beyond. He possesses strong communication skills. When speaking to Cassius over the phone and in person, it was a pleasure, he is very communicative and quite funny and friendly, he presented himself confidently, comfortably, and articulately. Cassius’ reading abilities have blossomed this year and have become integrated into his daily life. In September he was nervous reading out loud and now he reads books and passages out loud regularly with confidence. Cassius has blossomed this year with regards to his speaking and listening, reading and viewing, he has enjoyed a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books, games and presentations at levels that exceed all expectations. He has been growing his roots for many more age-advanced skills. Cassius has a great capacity to understand complex stories as well as to create his own characters and plots that are elaborate and imaginative yet incorporate a strongly defined structure and storyline. Although writing was much less of a focus this year, Cassius did express himself through poetry and comics. He also created stories to express personal responses and opinions about some frustrating experiences. Cassius worked on handwriting and calligraphy as well as typing. He enjoyed reading books about grammar and helped write and edit his weekly O4Ls (observation for learning). Most recently Cassius has recorded some ideas for a film. (more…)
Interview with a Veteran Unschooler
My sister recently interviewed my friend Sandy, who is the mother of two grown unschooled boys. (She also plays a wicked violin!)
Q: How did you first become interested in homeschooling?
Sandy: That goes back a long way. I was working in Toronto in the 70’s and I read this book called “And the children played” by Patricia Loudry, she’s from England, she’s a comic and a playwright. She was living in England and she was raising her kids and she decided she would make a little school in their house in the country anyway the kids just played. It was an inspiring book. And I thought well it’s a great idea, but? … they had this manor in the country with theatre and interesting people visiting, all very rich, cultural, stuff going on. And um a young woman who was student at a college in London…came to this daycare that I was working at the was a bit alternative and she was doing something about alternative education and she looked very familiar but I couldn’t place her and it turns out, this about two weeks after I just finished reading the book and it was still in the kitchen of the daycare, and so it turned out she was the second to youngest daughter of Patricia Loudry and I had seen her picture when she was 12 or 13 in the book. She was just so articulate and self-posed and aware and I thought okay the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So I actually met someone back in the late 70’s who had actually grown-up without school and seemed to be doing very fine thank-you very much. …. So that is sortive where it started. Way back when, even before I met Michael.
Cassius’ Bionicle Education
Cassius’ Self Design Learning Consultant ask me to write down everything Cassius learnt in one week by playing with Bionicle. This is what I came up with. I’m sure I missed something!
The Drive to Learn
Paris’s drive to learn is such an integral part of his personality, I can’t imagine it fading as he gets older or ever having to force him to learn anything. He has a strong desire to be big and capable.
Paris brings the phrase “I DO IT!” to a whole new level. It’s not enough for him to dress himself & feed himself. He wants to cook dinner, wash the dishes, do the laundry and take the garbage out too. Of course he wants to open and shut all gates and car doors and press all the elevator buttons. He not only wants to do things himself he want to do everything I’m doing. If I’m writing, he wants my pen and he wants my paper, and he will try to wrestle it out of my hand. I try to include him but that’s not really what he’s after.
I had to ask Tyler how it felt to have a another man in the house after Paris demanded the “REMOTE!” after we had turned on the TV. All the way to Grandma’s house last night he cried and screamed, “Stop!Stop! I drive car!” This kid isn’t satisfied with being in the passenger seat and I don’t imagine he ever will be.
Gameboy Fear
One of the things that led us to trying to force Cassius to ride a bike is what I will call Gameboy Fear. This fear is that your child will become horribly addicted, loose all interest in life, and grow up to be a bum. I have this fear. When Cassius, after getting a Gameboy for Christmas, suddenly seemed to loose interest in everything else, it gave me a scare. I decided that Cassius had to become active!
Bike riding takes much more effort than playing Gameboy. You actually feel it when you fall. It is much easier to turn on a screen than go out into the cold. So when we had such a miserable experience riding bikes – I blamed the Gameboy. Perhaps it was a little to blame, but really he just didn’t want to do it.
I see that he is actually gaining skills by playing on his Gameboy. He loves it. He is so excited when he wins, and tells me all about it. He really works at it and tries again and again until he succeeds. When his dad was having trouble with one of his games, Cassius said, “You just have to keep trying and it’ll get easier”. I’ve been saying that to him for years! Also it really feeds his love of fantasy and story. It is making him feel that he can do it and that he is good at something. I’m hoping he will take these feelings of confidence into the rest of his learning.
Everyone around Cassius spends a lot of time on computers; why would he behave any differently. Computers are very addictive. Almost everyone I know says the computer takes up way too much of their time. So while I can see that Cassius is actually getting more out of his Gameboy than I know, I feel I have an obligation to help him limit its use. One the best ways of doing this is to get off the computer myself! Which I’m going to do really. Just one more minute.
What if he never learns?
We have been having a frustrating time over the last two years trying to help Cassius learn to ride a bike. I wrote about the experience under learning challenges in his recent seasonal review:
Cassius’ biggest challenge is attempting to learn things he expects to fail at. For example, riding a bike. After much effort (not to mention moaning, crying, and bellyaching) he finally managed to ride it for a few seconds. He has the ability, and when he actually tries he succeeds. From the outside it is obvious that it is only his fear of failure stopping him, but of course that is hard for him to see.
When I reread what I had written it suddenly occurred to me that fear is not the only thing stopping Cassius from learning how to ride a bike. The main thing stopping him is that HE DOESN’T WANT TO. Why he doesn’t want to is in a way besides the point, because until he decides he does, it’s going to be a uphill battle to teach him. When he decides he wants to do it, he’ll be able to learn quickly, as it is obvious he has the ability.
It is us, his parents, that want him to learn to ride a bike. Why? Because a seven year old should know how to ride a bike! What if he never learns?! Well what if he doesn’t ? Does everyone really need to know how to ride a bike? Riding a bike isn’t actually necessary to survival or even having a fulfilling life.
To be honest I have to have a really good reason to try to learn things when I think I’m going to fail. I believe, most likely a really good reason to ride a bike will one day present itself to Cassius. The most we can can do is present him with the opportunity.
Unschooling to me is trusting that your child will learn what they need to learn, as long as they have a supportive environment. We may have failed at making Cassius ride a bike – but isn’t it more important that he feel respected and has trust in his own learning process.
I rephrased my first statement in Cassius report to:
Our biggest challenge is trying to make Cassius learn things we think he should learn.
The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List
Here’s a hilarious list someone posted on HS-Van. I’m afraid to admit I related to it.
What Really Matters: The Curriculum of Beauty
Thinking about the beauty of math reminded me of an inspiring article I read in the September/October issue of Life Learning magazine: What Really Matters: The Curriculum of Beauty by David H. Albert. It did remind me of what really matters. It is always interesting to think of what we are really teaching our kids
You can download PDF versions of past and present issues on their website
Cassius Bounces for Funny Learning
Cassius bounces and walks around in circles when he’s happy. He bounces especially high when he finds something funny. He’s done it since he was born. I remember watching a Buster Keaton movie at the Art Gallery with him when he was three. When it got to a chase scene he started jumping like crazy and laughing his head off. Everyone was laughing at him – especially at the end when he looked at me and said “I think I pooped my pants!” Now that’s a funny film.
The reason I mention this, is that Cassius is VERY interested in things that he finds funny, and what he’s interested in, is what he learns. Funny motivates him to learn when nothing else will. He’s read his kids joke book out loud to me three times! He copies jokes out of the book by hand to give to people. He’s really enjoying his the Spongebob typing CDROM, because he thinks it’s funny. He loves BrainPop, a kids website that has educational animations on any subject imaginable- because he finds it hilarious. He thinks the characters Tim & Moby and funny, but not Rita & Casey – so he won’t watch any of their films.
Cassius begged his Dad the other night to do some Madlibs with him. Madlibs is a word game where you’re asked to come up with words that are nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. to fill in the blanks of a paragraph. You don’t know what the paragraph says before hand so of course it ends up sounding very silly. Cassius thinks it’s the funniest game in the world.
His Dad sat on the couch filling in the blanks while Cassius literally bounced in a circle coming up with words. This is where I admit that it was really driving me nuts and I told him to stay still several times. He continued to bounce (I don’t think he could stop if he wanted), and it occurred to me, “He’s learning grammer and he’s so happy about it he’s leaping with joy!” Then I had a vision of him in a classroom being forced to sit quietly and still in a desk all day and I thought, “If bouncing helps you learn, bounce away!”
Learning Plan for Cassius 2007
Biographical Sketch
Cassius is seven years old. He has lived in Vancouver all his life with his mom and dad. His dad, Tyler, works as a Props Master in film. His mom, Jasmine (that’s me), is a full time mom, and part time Doula. Cassius has a two year old brother named Paris.
Cassius is very close to his Grandparents. He is also very close to his Aunt Tara and Uncle Mat. He was present at his cousin Kaia’s birth two years ago, as well as his brother’s. Cassius still misses Orlando, our Jack Russell, who sadly died when Cassius was four.
Cassius has never attended school. For kindergarten he was registered as a homeschooler with Wondertree. For grade one he was enrolled with Mission Homelearners (now Summit Learning).
Interests & Strengths
Many of Cassius’ interests focus around stories, imagination & nature. He is fascinated with and wants to understand everything about the world around him. Communication and relating to people are two of his strong points. Cassius is sensitive, loving, empathic and artistic. He loves beautiful things. He is also very imaginative and loves listening to stories and thinking up his own. He is introspective and thinks about things deeply. He wonders about why we are alive and what happens when we die.
Cassius is an oral learner. He could spell words out loud long before he could recognize them in print. He learns a lot from talking out loud about what he’s thinking and asking questions. He learned to talk very early and when he was two years old he would memorize and recite nursery rhymes. He has loved books and stories since he was a baby. He is always imitating accents and he has a great ear for music.
Learning Challenges
Cassius has very high expectations of himself. He expects to be perfect at what he does and does not like to make mistakes or be wrong. For example, violin lessons were a disaster. He really enjoyed them at first, but after a month he refused to play a single note for the teacher. He couldn’t stand not sounding perfect. He knew what good music sounded like and that’s what he wanted to sound like right away.
I try to encourage him to keep trying when he finds something difficult. We talk about how when you work at something you get better at it. I try to show him concrete examples of this in the things he does. For example, I’ll show him some printing or drawing he did a year ago, so he can see how much he’s improved.
Philosophy or Structure of the Learning Environment
We follow an Unschooling approach to learning. To me unschooling is trusting that children know best what they need to learn and how to best learn it. I see myself as more of a facilitator than a teacher. I make as much information about the world as I can available to Cassius, and then follow his lead. I answer his questions and help him find answers when I don’t know them. I let him follow his interests and encourage his talents. I also sometimes push him to do things he finds difficult – but often I find he does this himself.
LEARNING FOCUS
After doing a mind map, Cassius decided he would like to focus on the following areas:
Reading Out Loud together
Cassius thinks he is bad at reading because he can’t read everything. (I think he is actually is making huge leaps in his reading all the time). I told him a good way to get better at reading is to read out loud, because it is harder than reading to yourself. So we are going to try to spend a little time every day reading together.
Penmanship & Typing
Cassius would like to get better at writing things down so he can write some of his ideas and stories down himself. He wants to learn how to type, because he likes how it feels.
Mathematics (Our Main Focus is going to be on Money and Games.)
Understanding Money
Cassius is baffled as to why we use money; He thinks if we had no money we would have no poverty. He would like to explore this question more. We are also going to work on reading and counting money.
Playing Games
We are going to try to play more games. This is a challenge I’m afraid because of Cassius’ little brother. Card games might be something we can focus on, that Paris can’t disrupt too much. Whenever I ask Cassius if he wants to work on math he says he wants to play games, so I think this would be a good way for us to approach math. I’m going to check out some math sites on the web, because often these feel like games to Cassius.
I have mentioned to Cassius that if he wants to get better at games, a good thing to do is get better at reading and math. He agrees that this is true, so I think he would be responsive to working on some math basics. The reason I would like him to do this is that I see him getting frustrated when he has to read numbers and add them etc. The Noble Knights of Knowledge math curriculum is great, but an ordeal to set up. Also we can only do it when Paris is asleep, so I am looking for something simpler that we can work through. I’m not going to push this and don’t really think it’s necessary too. I found last year, when we worked only a couple of hours a month on math, Cassius would talk and think about it all the time.
Animals & Nature
Animals are a big passion for Cassius. He really loves them and they mean a lot to him. He told me his pet geckos are the number one important things to him. It is wonderful to see how caring and sensitive he is towards animals. One thing he wants to be when he grows up is an animal protector.I try to write down questions he has that I can’t answer. Looking them over I realized they all have to do with animals or nature. He wants to know more than what his books tell him. I think we need to do more than just read about animals, but I’m not sure what. We are going to continue to take care of the chickens every week.
Also we would like to use our microscopes more, which help satisfy some of his curiosity. We would like to get a digital Microscope.
Classes & Social Activities
I have signed Cassius up for a cartooning class, theater class, and swordplay class, since he has identified these things as important to him. Cassius’ dad is going to take him swimming & skateboarding. We will make trips to the library so he has plenty of books and tape books.
I run the weekly Vancouver Homelearners Drop-in at Strathcona Community Centre. Many weeks we have organized learning activities; sometimes the kids just play. Also we go on fieldtrips and other get togethers with The Vancouver Homelearners Group. One of the things Cassius mentioned was important him is playing with his friends.
Second language
Cassius enjoys learning French. He attended French camp last summer for two weeks and then wanted to do it for another two weeks! He really loved his teacher and helped sparked an interest in him.We used Rosetta Stone through Mission Homelearners last year and really enjoyed it. Fortunately I have just found out we can do it free through Richmond Library, so we are going to try that.
Cassius’ Step Grandmother is From Hong Kong and teaches Cassius a little Mandarin every time we see her.
Expectations for Learning Consultant
I look at Cassius’ learning consultant as someone who can suggest good resources or activities that might interest Cassius or help him reach his goals. I also see her as someone who could suggest possible solutions if he runs into difficulty with anything he is learning. The fresh ideas and point of view from someone as interested in learning as I am is very inspiring!
Assessment / Evaluation
I evaluate and assess Cassius’ learning achievements and difficulties everyday, automatically and subconsciously. I spend so much time with him, it is easy for me to see what he is good at, what he knows, and what he needs to work at. I just have to listen to Cassius and often he will tell me himself straight out – “I really enjoy this” or “I wish I was better at this”. I think a lot of learning is actually unobservable. Sometimes when it appears that Cassius is doing nothing, he is learning the most. Out of nowhere he will suddenly have a new skill.
Cassius enjoyed doing the mind map and it defiantly helped us set some goals. I think I would like to keep assessment more on these terms of helping Cassius assess and set goals for himself. Although, I think it is useful on some levels for Cassius to investigate and evaluate his learning, I don’t want him to become self-conscious of his process. I think this will evolve naturally the older he gets.
Cassius & Paris 
