I Should Have Just Put You in School!!

This was last week, when Logan, Trevor and my niece, Cailin, returned from a successful dumpster diving evening where they scored a security camera system, computer monitor and various other electronic devices. They were quite thrilled with their whole adventure.

And this was a couple of days, ago when Brenna and Blake were here. He flew in from California and spent a couple of days before they all left to go to the East Tennessee Unschoolers Summer Camp. Brenna is a counselor, Blake is the EMT guy and Logan is one of the campers. Brenna and Logan will be gone about 10 days and I am so thrilled as I imagine all the wonderful connections and adventures they are having.

I love having a houseful of kids and for the next week it is going to be WAY TOO QUIET!! :-)

Broc and I made a great effort this weekend.....went to the movies and to the beach and we really do like each other. But, we really do miss them when they're gone.

Our unschooling lives have helped us all to make friends with people all over the country and both Brenna and Logan could travel just about anywhere in the U.S. and have friends to stay with and feel at home. I wouldn't change a moment of it.

But recently, I did say this to Brenna..

.

"This unschooling nonsense is going to come around and bite me in the A**! I should have just put you in school and you guys wouldn't be galavanting all over the country all the time!" :-)

I was kidding, of course, but sometimes I do realize that it's not all that usual for kids to have boyfriends on another coast, to travel for a day or more to hang out with friends for a weekend,

and to plan for conferences a year in advance just to spend time with some of our favorite families.

Unschooling has helped us all to have big lives. For us, that has meant that our local connections are sometimes a bit sparse but that is really of our own choosing. There will be no 10 or 20 year class reunions........

But can you just imagine a Live and Learn Unschooling Reunion in 10 years or so???....and wouldn't that be fun!

Can you just see these kids........all grown up with crazy hair and hats :-)

I think it was at our very first unschooling conference when I attended a presentation by Sandra Dodd about Connections. It was one of those things that stuck with me and grew and grew. As I look at our lives seven or eight years later, this is what is still the basis of our unschooling lives. I have this picture on the refrigerator that I picked up at a conference many years later.....

I realize more and more that these connections are so much bigger than what I originally thought of as an educational and philosophical path. These connections are BIG! And Amazing....And Powerful.....and will most probably go on long after I am gone.

I was trying to think of an example that would tie this somewhat tangential post together....and I almost went crazy trying to write about all the connections that have brought people into our lives and who continue to inspire and support and provide the basis for this amazing network of unschoolers that we are so honored to know as our friends. I may attempt it in another post but for tonight I'm just feeling very grateful for friends mostly far away who know what this is all about. I miss you all, even those I don't get to see or talk to very often.

In spite of the title of this post, I am so very happy that I didn't put the kids in school and that we live this life that some may think of as crazy but that I think of as....

.just perfect for us.