Monday, May 5, 2008

New Venture

So, I know that things have been quiet on this blog, but in other areas, I have been busy!

Since the children are in school and my life is moving in different directions, I started looking around for new work. As I looked at middle schools and the community college, I found some things that interested me, but I was lonely for the homeschooling and unschooling community that is so dear to me.

As I look around and see what kinds of options are available to me, I decided to begin to expand some of the private consultation and tutoring that I have been doing. My vision is to include more families and help families find the JOY in what educational path they are choosing.

Since I used to teach special education, I have some very good skills in assessment and modification of curriculum. As an unschooler, I love to think about how life learning can be explained to "educators." My joy is in working with older children, and there are so many who have different needs and transitions during this time that an outside person can help with in a gentle and positive way.

In many ways, I have not wanted to stray to far from the ideas of unschooling, as they are in my heart. At the same time, I would love to bring some of that respectful child centered thinking to all kinds of homeschoolers.

Once I decided to really pursue this, you guessed it, my students doubled! My heart really felt as if this was the right direction to go to have the kind of life that we as a family want (even more now that we have had a sample of school).

If you are interested in seeing my website, check it out!

2 comments:

mindy said...

Wow, Jessica! How cool that you are bringing your very unique talents and perspective to such a large audience, and to the benefit of so many children! Your website is great and I'm glad things are going so well. How very intersting that I was just recently drawn to write about my own experience in tutoring and then to see such a contrast in what it can be with your post. Very cool connections!!!

Jessica said...

I have been thinking about that connection, too. One of the things that I am lucky enough to be able to do is only work with families whose goals are in sync with mine. When I first started tutoring, I had a couple of experiences where the parents were so hyper focused on grades and school accomplishments that I had to stop working with that family. It is nice to have the opportunity to work with so many families that are really just concerned about having a postive learning experience for their children in whatever learning environments they have choosen.