Monday, January 14, 2008

How to Be an Unschooler

How to be an Unschooler in 400 Words or Less

Wake up to the wide world and your sweet home. Stretch. Cuddle. Eat something. Smell the smells. Touch hair and remember the baby threads hidden in memory. Snuggle while pajamas are all still warm from comforters or sleeping bags or couch cushions or animals that lay in their beds while they slept until they were ready to awaken.

Read something. Discuss something else. Get a hug. Smell that wet, strawberry shampooed hair and brush it until it is all silky again. Play with the other child’s dreadlocks. Wear a pair of fairy wings. Treasure hunt. Write to a unicorn. Breathe. Be grateful. Love.

Record something. Download something. Check out classic movies. Check out B-movies. Read a magazine about a foreign country. Count the ants that are crawling around in the sidewalk. Take a walk in the mall, the beach, the park, the field, the museum, the city, the farm, the yard. Get a library card from as many libraries as you can. Use them often.

Make friends with interesting people, and meet everyone. Talk to the mailman, the baker, the librarian, the thrift store church lady. Bring them all cookies next time you make a big batch. Show them you are interested and they will become interesting. Find your community.

Go online. Blog. Write poetry. Sing a song and make up the words you don’t know. Laugh a lot. Make up jokes, stories, and limericks. Try to play an instrument, or lip sync. Show the kids you know every single word to Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit I Will Survive. Learn a new game. Revive an old one. Make up new rules. Cuddle again. Channel surf while the tv is on mute and make up the dialog. Watch a movie with subtitles. Watch a movie in your native language with foreign subtitles.

Breathe deeper. Do a yoga pose. Laugh when it makes you fart because this week you are all eating only Mexican food and that has involved a lot of beans. Catch your breath. Let your breath be taken away again. Love more. Be.

You are an unschooler.

7 comments:

marcia said...

AWESOME post! I coud just feel the JOY!
Life IS so grand unschooling, isn't it :)

~marcia
www.xanga.com/livefreeinharmony

Stephanie said...

A great post!
Did you do it in less than 400?
Did you count???
:)
This is really a great list.
Thanks for writing it up for the carnival!
Stephanie

Jessica said...

I did count, 'cause I can't get it out of my own head when given an assignment LOL.
~Jessica

theorivas said...

How about Carole King's Tapestry album? Can you sing all of that? I think I could still sing it all. Plus, probably most of Helen Reddy's album that has "I Am Woman."

Jessica said...

Yes, I probably could :). Oh, that Helen Reddy album was my all time favorite. I thought she looked JUST like my mom.

I have been remembering Carole King on our Gilmore Girls phase as she sings the theme song (which she said she always hated for it's stand by your man quality, but now loves as a mother daughter song).

mandaroo63 said...

This post put a big smile on my face! I love that we get to do all those things. Unschooling is awesome!

Christa said...

Lovely post. Experiencing the richness of everyday things is a big part of our unschooling.