To do lists

We still like to separate subjects, issues, topics, thinking that this way we have "everything under control", know more, are more mature and/or more competent in our everyday lives.

But our need for separation comes from a deeper fear that we seldom - if ever - truly recognize: we fear the vastness of our being, the grand visible and invisible reality. We need boundaries, just like our bodies reveal our psychical boundaries.

Even in unschooling/homeschooling circles, this separation is evident as it also reveals itself in conversations, habits, requirements, responses, actions. We are still learning, still exiting the old paradigm.

The following post probably wouldn't remind one of  schooling or education but as I have discovered through unschooling myself and educating my daughter, it is one of the fundamental "subjects" that took up most of our time and learning endeavors.

To do lists

One day, I will choose not to separate my blogs, pages, groups, subjects because they will be understood as one. 

A Mother’s Testimony

From a little seed…It needs time, it needs care, it needs intuition, it needs trust,

it needs attention, it needs guidance, it needs freedom,

it needs natural conditions.

All that we have underestimated but are necessary for it to bloom and flourish.

Unclassified

The only way you can help others is to inspire them. That’s what we truly give. That’s what we truly are!

I remember a teacher, back in my school years, making me so love geometry, that I seriously thought of becoming a mathematician, where my school marks barely scraped the fail base line. But then, when was school the best judge of my true self?

After graduation, I began learning about myself, life and everything that interested me. Which was a lot!

Back to grade one! 

Unprepared! 

Unwarned! 

It took a while to realize that I had dived in the deep end without a life-jacket and with no floor to stand on. There was nothing else to do but swim. 

When those who are meant to protect, abuse

 

We live for a limited time in life; most people tend to forget that. We are also brought up with the belief that the world is the way it is and that we need to accept and live with it. I haven't yet figured out why people accept that belief and then go on to marvel innovators, worship the rebels and the leaders of change. I have never managed to fit in with that model. I didn't want my child to believe it either.

Domestication vs Education

What you ARE, truly, really, is something that derives from deep within you, from the center of your being. It doesn’t have anything to with your accomplishments, education, wealth, status etc etc. In fact, all this may and most often are deceptive.

The world is your stage, to help you see and bring out who you really are. When you have seen who you really are, you fully become/express/reveal your Self, no matter what. Regardless of cost or reward; there is nothing else that you can do! 

In Absentia; legally!

To remove child custody in Absentia; without a fair trial, in absence.

Whatever the reason/crime, in absence cannot be justified. Or we have to accept the Dark Ages and the witch hunt as a modern day reality.

When human rights remain on paper, when the human being is absent, there cannot be a righteous case.

Convicted in absence!Yes, it CAN be done. It has been done!

Greek Stubbornness and exceptional children

Why aren’t free schools formed in Greece like the rest of the world?
Stubborn, conservative and as primitive-like as Greek people seem, they are not easily persuaded, lured into copied practices, habits, novices.

Deep inside their hearts, beneath their cultural and religious programming, they somehow realize that freedom is much more than a few “human rights”, a few laws past, a few changes in customs and habits.

They are seeking their deep ties with life, their past, for a grander individual and collective purpose. They are not easily tempted or as lost as they seem, on a spiritual level.

Our whole history is within us. The whole past makes sense; the deprivation, the humiliation, suppression, ignorance, everything. The collective history doesn’t differ from the individual history.

The words must be recognized individually on a different level: the images, emotions, connections, time travels, the soul’s journeys..

On the other end...

Kids don't have to hate Math

Why do most kids hate math so much and find it difficult?

I always thought that it was just me with numbers; a terrible combination that would never become a harmonic relationship. But then I started noticing the kids around me.

Even those that grew to love math eventually, were good at it after a while, had some difficulties initially; some more, some less. But it goes without saying, that math is a touchy subject for most kids. Why is that so?

Just when I think I'm teaching...

So, what is it REALLY like to raise a free human being? It’s highly inspiring, truly challenging and often uncomfortable. Overall it’s a blessing!

Nothing is ever truly known or straight-forward, there is nothing “usual” or fixed in our lives, although we do try to function – at least to some extent – according to this linear reality.

The habit of WANTING to MAKE children understand, rather than enter their world, almost always falls on its face, as I am reminded again and again that not only does it not work but also that it is a violent act of intrusion without the necessary understanding included in it.

Any time you sit on a pedestal with these children, you must also remain prepared to get thrown right off it, with the easiness of their innocent, internal wisdom. Most of the time, I am reminded - thankfully with willingness -  that I still have a lot to learn.

Naming it "dyslexia"...

Don't have a usual pattern of thought...

My mind has never been totally linear, although I understand the concept...I was born and raised in a linear society/educational system/world.

They call it "dyslexia", although they still don't understand what it means. It's perfectly a natural consequence, when you examine something from within another reality and not really detached from it. That "other" reality will alter/modify what you're looking at, what you want to examine. 

Hacking "normal"

I am "one of the lucky ones"?

NO! I have chosen to sacrifice false security for the love of learning, researching, teaching, waking up at my own biological clock, traveling, seeing the sunset, meeting new people, remaining passionate and in love with life, turning all "obligations" to desires/choices, waking up to a new life each day, breaking all habits when and because I want to, not compromising with "normal", meeting the unknown with child-like enthusiasm.

Sacred Space

Most people are afraid of retreating into themselves, of taking time to BE with themselves. Unless you're meditating, unless you're DOING something that they understand, that they can SEE, and suits there beliefs, it is rejected, feared. Perhaps meditation is something that we are adopted in the West, for this main, subconscious reason; to have a good excuse to escape our social relationships, to withdraw from our social lives.  This is not the case in our home.

There comes a time - many times - when kids tire most parents, as they realize that they need time for themselves that they just don't have, since parenting is a full-time job. But I haven't seen parenting as a job, although socially, legally, financially, it SHOULD be seen as such, as it takes much inner and outer work....continuously!

Why I don't "teach subjects"

In the beginning of our unschooling life, I used to worry about doing the "right thing", doing "enough", doing it at the "right time", since I was new to this. In addition to all this, choosing to unschool in a country where it is illegal plus NO ONE has ever even heard about it, was a risky and daring decision. I found that I was practically alone in my search, my thoughts, all my attempts, my trials and errors.
Gradually, and through the years, a lot has changed...in our lives, not the legal or social status.

Now I realize that teaching specific subjects to a child, the way it's done in text books and in schools is totally boring (for both of us) and is totally useless and unnecessary. Neither our minds nor our lives function that way!

Nothing is sequential and additional, piling carefully, one on top of another. This method of gradual adding/showing/ learning, might be useful for something that you decide to become devoted to and serve, something you want to specify and expertize in, but not to show you the world, its meaning, its complexity. It definitely doesn't work according to a child's mind and needs.

What I want to be (when I grow up)

Strange for the world and strange for my physical mind to accept too, that at 52 I still don't know "what I want to be when I grow up". What a question!

When do we "grow up"? People ask me, "what do you do?" and I still have a problem answering that question. Every time a specific description/name is brought to the table, I want to wipe it off because it disturbs my view. Every time I have tried to characterize or define myself, I feel the weight of words and closed realities caging my being.

Threats losing power...

Finding the  time to write these days/weeks seems totally beyond me, as so many new realities have opened up and I find myself trying to balance within them all.

After the irresponsible (in my opinion) reaction from the prosecutor's office, trying to frighten me, threaten me with removing custody of my daughter "unless I enroll her in a school", without any legal documents or trial, we are still on unknown ground, waiting for the next move.

Getting rid of "dyslexia" or....

...dyslexic connections!

One day, people will say, "they use to call it 'dyslexia' way back then, but they didn't know"... The greatest challenge of unschooling our children is to unschool ourselves in the process. It's a task we are faced with every single day, in little "details" that we normally wouldn't even think about. Preferably, if we want to avoid much stress and confusion, we would have been doing this long before we decide to have children. Very few of us do!

A large part of that unschooling process has to do with not being as willing as before to believe everything we read or hear, even if it’s from experts. Life has taught me that there are no authoritative experts that I must bow down to or take any discovery/opinion as a "closed Truth. Asking questions is something we are taught very early on, through experience, to stop making...

Right-brain thinking/writing

How do I lose myself so, that before I look at the calender I have no idea whatsoever what day/date it is? Even if, yesterday I had seen the date; I said it, wrote it, thought about it, used it. And yet, today it's vanished from my mind. Doesn't the multi-sensory method work? Being a teacher, a learner, a researcher, my mind makes up all sorts of questions that throw me into research, no matter what or how much I think I know.

Just realized that I don't write on this blog that I made anew a few weeks (I think) ago. But, I created all these blogs to have an expression pathway, so that THEY serve me, not I them! And this is what scares me in the school system too. That every day will become the same, that children are required to repeat the same program over and over again, that in the end they end up serving the subjects, the marks, the exams, the teachers, everyone and everything else, except their own self!

A different kind of party

We decided to have a party at the last moment. Not the usual kind...

There were no invitations, no preparations, no formalities and no expectations. But then, there were also no disappointments, no running around or stress, no after-work and no tiredness.

We bought a nice cake, one that she chose, candles, potato chips, paper plates, etc,  and went to our neighborhood's playground in the afternoon. She knows most of the kids there, they are her friends; younger, older, boys, girls. We don't have the "school", "class", "gender" categorizations.

Summertime

The only thing that changes for us in summer is that we have more outdoors activities due to the weather, than we do in Winter. We enjoy the sunshine, the longer days, nature and more that involve physical activity in "free style" mode.

Yet, we do much of what we normally do too. We read, we research subjects, we write, we watch documentaries, we visit places...we continue to learn. Oh, and we definitely discuss a lot on many subjects, which just seem to pop up so often, concerning everything.

I really sympathize with the schooled children who don't want to see a book in the three-month summer vacation period and loath learning because of schoolwork. For a non-schooled child, it's different...