I recently G-chatted with my younger son who is now in his senior year in college. I know many of you – parents to younger children – would love to know what grown unschoolers have to say about their experiences. I thought I will just copy/paste our chat with minor editing so that you can get a taste … Continue reading
Author Archives: Rachel Mendelson
Being the audience
From the book: “My daughter loves to dance, which naturally leads to some beautifully choreographed dances she will often share with me. She seems to create dances out of thin air. I have seen her dance to songs she likes giving her interpretation to the words and music of the song through her dance moves. But the other day … Continue reading
The Video-games/Computers/TV issue… (Part two)
“Video and computer games were now an integral part of our lives. My boys spent many hours playing these games, as they did with many other games. Being unschooled means your time as a child will be spent playing games many, many hours a day, almost all the time, especially when young. Children, in general, … Continue reading
The Video-games/Computers/TV issue… (Part one)
I’d like to share this translated article with you. It was published in November 2006 but talks about the time between 1993 to 2006, and it addresses my personal journey as a homeschooling Mom grappling with the issue of video-games/computers/tv in our life, going from total resistance through reluctant acceptance, to total surrender and finally to understanding: “I recently read Steven … Continue reading
Out of chaos (or creation as a new order…)
(Translated from an article published in January 1996 when my boys were 5 and 8 years old) The Genesis creation story is strongly tied to the initial chaos or formlessness which is the state of the earth as described in the bible story. Creation grew out of that initial chaos. Children creative ability is also strongly tied … Continue reading
Teen years: the conversation continues…
When it comes to living with teens, the first thing a parent needs to do is reflect upon his or hers own teen years. That is a great advice regarding any age your kids are, but it is essential when they are teens. You are going to need all the compassion and understanding you posses … Continue reading
How it all began…
From the book: “Growing up on the Kibbutz (communal village-like place, unique to Israel), we had a ritual in the children’s house: once a week we would go with one of our care-takers to the library. We were then allowed to check out three books each. I’m not sure at exactly what age I realized … Continue reading
How did you learn?
One of the more useful ways to get in touch with how learning really happens is to ask yourself the question: how did you learn x, y or z? Most of the things we do as adults we learned “on the job” or through trial and error. Rarely did we learn any of what we … Continue reading
Children’s time
From the book: “When my younger son was eight we lived in a one bedroom apartment in a co-op building in Brooklyn, NY. Our apartment was a small and bright place situated by a big and friendly lobby. There my son befriended a girl his age who also lived in the building, and I became friends with her mother. … Continue reading
Unschooling to College
(This is an excerpt from the introduction to the book I am now in the process of writing: “Unschooling to College; Adventures in homeschooling”) “The name of this book is intentionally misleading. After all, in this day and age who will pick up a book about an educational system that does not lead to college? So far, in … Continue reading
Unschooling to College 