Rickshaw Unschooling

Unschooling Math

2011-12-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

This is a topic that gives our family a good deal of stress. Simply because it's so obvious to us (parents) that, if our kids would just get interested in math, they'd understand their other interests so much more deeply! Very frustrating.

And here I make my terrible unschooler's confession: I coerce them to do math workbooks.

*gasp!*

Coercion never works. My daughter does the work because she wants to (she ADORES worksheets of any variety!) and my son simply refuses, while submitting to the odd worksheet, here and there, from which he gains precious little -- because it's coerced. BUT... as it turned out, he did manage to learn long division with the help of one of those pages, and, after months of constant prodding from his school-going friend ("did you know math is my best subject?", "I'm really really good at math, you know.", and "Do you even know what long division is??") he was so proud of himself that he went on to finish the section and is now working on measurement. Still. The spark of inspiration is definitely not there.

We've had some great conversations in our daily life, and there's enough interest in those (eg. exponential theory, physics, measurement, negatives and decimal theory), but the simple practice that seems to bring facility with those theories is definitely lacking.

Until...
We talked about alien technologies. You just never know where the light will come from!
Thanks to my brother, we ended up watching this movie about crop circles, busted out the compasses and graph paper, the rulers, and pencil sharpeners, and...

Voila: math is now unschooled. Er. I mean. Inspired.

You don't have to care about aliens or crop circles to find this movie fascinating. The forms and math involved, and the way they're laid out in the movie (with alien theory!) are pretty enticing.
Enjoy!

Raw Milk Rage or What's Wrong With Milk?

2011-11-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

We are involved in the raw milk issue. Because we want to drink it.

Our raw milk provider (we have been participating in a local herd-share) has been targeted and attacked by health Canada. They are prosecuting and trying to put it and other raw milk dairies out of business. A month or two ago I sent a letter to Leona Aglukkaq, Canada's Minister of Health, regarding my desire to see raw milk legalized, and for them to stop harassing those who make the food we want possible for us. Her response, below, shows the sort of blindness that our public officials have for our health and for science. They work for the people who fund their campaigns and paycheques. And, despite all those taxes we pay, that's not us.

Read her letter, here (click to enlarge if it's too small to read, here). And then read my response, below.

My response:

A Public Letter to Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health Canada,
in response to her letter, visible at http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_fKVvl_7uc/TtaBAWMArrI/AAAAAAAACU0/IMW55lVVKbY/s1600/health-canada-response-about-raw-milk.png

Well thank you for your predictable, closed-minded, and short-sighted response.
I expect you will immediately be outlawing honey, tunafish, all poultry, all processed meats, and all other foodstuffs that have been shown to carry the risk of contamination by those same common pathogens. In short order we should be allowed a diet of pure chlorine bleach, since it is one of the only things currently found in our diets that does not, in fact, risk harbouring these bacteria (yes -- chlorine bleach is used to sterilize the chickens you allow us to consume, and, despite claims that it dissipates before consumption, it does leave traces on the food and in the packaging).

I will take your letter public, now, and, instead of depending upon you to protect my food sources, out you as a supporter of the dairy corporations, who find it reasonable to squash small farmers and endanger the public health with false claims that their milk (sic) is healthy.

It is now becoming common knowledge that most of the beneficial nutrients found in milk are destroyed through the pasteurization process. The milk which you allow us to consume is sourced from various farms in various countries, to maximize the profits of the large dairies that produce it. It is not fresh, it is not very well regulated, and sometimes it is not even pure milk. The mixing of milk and cream from various sources requires the dairies to homogenize the milk, which makes the fat molecules so small that they pass through our veins and cause blood-clots and other life-threatening damage. So you tell us to consume low-fat milk, to minimize our ingestion of these smaller fat molecules, but still promote the consumption of cream, butter, and cheese. But I assume this does not concern you. It is, after all, more important that you support those people who pay for your position of authority; not the public.

I have been drinking raw milk for 6 months, and was happy to find my health returning, as I, who have a compromised immune system and small children, was not sick during that time, following many years where I contracted a virus every month or so.

Thank you for your response. It will allow me to show publicly how little you do for us.
Emily van Lidth de Jeude

Kids, Included

2011-11-27T23:54:00.000-08:00

This is perhaps a little bit obvious to most unschoolers, but I just have to put this out there: The absolute best way to educate a child is to allow that child to experience life - to be included.

That means:
Take them with you. Welcome them at town-hall meetings, in social settings, in business settings, at fancy restaurants and at late-night neighbourhood parties. Welcome them at mealtimes, working times, playtimes, in your bed at night, and while you are taking a bath. Allow them to experience the security of being always welcome. Show them your humanity and allow them to feel human, too. They look to you to show them what it is they will grow up to be like, so be everything as beautiful as you dream of, and welcome them in to share it with you.

SEX AND VIOLENCE
Obviously there are some things that may be inappropriate for young children. But for the most part, we need to welcome children into our adult world. And really -- if things are so violent or overtly sexual that they may harm a child's psyche, what are they doing to our own? Is it healthy for us to be witnessing or participating in those activities? Experiencing violence has been shown to cause permanent changes to the brain, which may in fact influence a culture for centuries to come (1). So can we extrapolate that an increasing percentage of our population, while having grown up in a relatively violence-free physical community, is in fact suffering from various forms of violence-induced stress, physical and mental illness? I think so.

For my part, I avoid violent media regardless, because I am aware of the effects it has on my own psyche. It's not difficult, in that case, to ensure my children's psychological safety, when they're in my company.

On the rare occasion that we do witness or hear about violent or other upsetting acts (usually on the news), we take time to discuss with our children the act itself, the context and ramifications, and every other issue that might arise, at any length they desire, as often as needed. I feel that being open to discussion - to educate them - is the best way to keep them emotionally safe from the reality of violence in their world.

Finding intimacy with partners can seem challenging when we want our children to be always welcome in our presence. But I think that a moderate level of intimacy is perfectly acceptable for children to witness; it lets them know that this is normal. Parents kiss. They love each other and they comfort, caress, and care for each other. We explain to our children that it makes us feel shy if they see us making love, so for that reason we do it in private, but we are willing to talk to them about anything they are curious about, and encourage them to ask questions. It's not always easy for us to be so open, but I know that the physical, emotional and sexual behaviours we model will be the foundation of their own future relationships (2), so it's vital that we allow them to learn from us rather than from whatever they might find in the media. It therefore also behoves us to ensure that our relationship is as healthy as possible, not only for our sake, but for theirs, as well.

KIDS WOULD BE BORED
I think there's a misconception that children will be uncomfortable or bored by our activities. To some extent that may be true, but often it is not. Often children are not given the chance to discover for themselves whether they're interested, and often they're shamed into not participating by adults who are intolerant of their sometimes noisy presence. This isn't the children's fault; it's ours.

I think it's up to us, as their role models, to welcome them into our circles; to help them engage in and enjoy the experiences. It is up to us to ensure that they have plentiful opportunities for participatory learning. For example, it is one thing to do online and library research on astronomy; it is quite another to go out at 11PM with the local astronomy club and look at Jupiter's moons through the telescope of a neighbour. The feeling of engagement and inspiration that comes from that community-based learning experience is the spark needed to make that astronomy knowledge valuable.

Yes, kids may indeed be bored when we bring them to board meetings for societies whose goals or activities they do not understand. But my experience tells me that if they are involved in the societies, and if we take time to explain to them the meaning and necessity of the conversation, they may actually become interested. During one of the Occupy meetings at the Vancouver Art Gallery, my daughter was getting bored, so my husband offered to take the kids off for a walk. 9-year-old Taliesin didn't want to go. "No. Sh." He muttered, and returned his attention to the conversation being held. It was a rather dry group discussion about consensus decision-making and meeting protocol -- but it interested him! Neither of us expected him to care; we just took our kids along with us because we take them pretty much everywhere with us. But it turned out to be one of the most inspirational experiences of this season, for him. At other times he hasn't been so interested in the conversations at Occupy, but his involvement there this autumn has given him the chance, at least, to have felt his presence was valued, and I think that's vitally important.

WHERE THE LEARNING GROWS
My Mum has just begun a 4-week Canadian Folksong workshop -- for all ages. This past week as I sat (coincidentally, at her knee) with my daughter, singing the songs with her and generally enjoying the workshop, one of the participating parents asked how I had learned all of those songs from her, and I was rather at a loss to explain. She did come in and teach some at my school when I was a child, but by then I already knew them. I just learned them by living with her. We sang for entertainment while cooking, while walking, and on car-trips. And, since folk music is her interest, we accompanied her to traditional folk events, and sat around while she sang and performed with friends. That was just simply our life! I became interested in traditional folksong, too, and my brother did, to a lesser extent. But I blame his keen interest in human history on the traditional stories she passes on to us. And of course, now I bring my kids to everything I do, including music gatherings. There isn't a method to it; it's just life.

Learning does not come from an orchestrated input of information into our children's brains; it comes from their own navigation of the things that interest them. I think most of us know that, but do we understand it? Do we realize that learning does not necessarily involve a core of expected knowledge, or even any outcome at all, but that learning is actually a very un-orchestrated opening-of-the-mind? Learning is what happens when we feel. That feeling can involve any or all of our senses, and emotions, but that feeling is essential for the learning to happen. We talk about tactile learners, visual learners, auditory learners, etc. Those are ways of feeling! So when a child feels safe, accepted, and welcome to feel and express whatever s/he experiences, then the opportunity to feel is full, and s/he can learn. Dr. Candy Lawson states that "Emotions are the relay stations between sensory input and thinking. (3)"

SELF ESTEEM
If we make our children welcome in the most austere intellectual conversations, we give them the feeling of being valued for their intellect. If we make our children welcome when we socialize, then they know they are a part of our community; they know they are our friends. If we make our children welcome when we play, we let them know that they are a part of our life's happiness. If we make our children welcome in the cooking, cleaning, and repairing of our home, then they will know that the home is also of them (4). If we make our children welcome when we eat, sleep, and bathe, they will know that they are integral to our very existence.

Self esteem goes much deeper than knowing that we are good, beautiful, and comparatively smart. In fact, comparison of any kind is probably detrimental to self esteem (5). Self esteem comes from the feeling of acceptance in our communities; of knowing that we are valued simply for our presence. And our children's involvement in our communities is obviously vital for that value to be perceived.

References:
(1) The Lingering Effects of Violence; William Harm. University of Chicago Tribune, December 1996. http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/961205/violence.shtml

(2) Unpacking Authoritative Parenting: Reassessing a Multidimensional Construct; Marjory Roberts Gray; Laurence Steinberg. Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 61, No. 3. (Aug., 1999). Download PDF: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdigilib.bc.edu%2Freserves%2Fpy447%2Faver%2Fpy44718.pdf&ei=STrTTomHLqmLiAKH0_3kCw&usg=AFQjCNEC_eoDhV6JXVVwG-6G0pJP6NG2CA&sig2=3Cptn5Xopvrm4MPt1Q7msg

(3) The Connections Between Emotions and Learning; Dr. Candy Lawson, Ph.D. Center for Development and Learning, LA. http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/connect_emotions.php

(4) Tony's Hard Work Day; Alan Arkin. Illustrated by James Stevenson. Harper & Row, 1972. This is really just a shout out for one of my all-time favourite books. My Pappa gave it to me when I was very young, and it always made me feel like I was valued for my small contributions to our home. http://openlibrary.org/books/OL21380633M/Tony%27s_hard_work_day

(5) The Case Against Competition; Alfie Kohn. 1987. http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/tcac.htm

Other Resources:
Repeated Exposure to Media Violence Is Associated with Diminished Response in an Inhibitory Frontolimbic Network; Christopher R. Kelly, Jack Grinband, Joy Hirsch. PLoS One, December 2007. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001268

Children Exposed to Violence; Linh Vuong, Fabiana Silva, Susan Marchionna. Views from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, August 2009. Download PDF: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CHMQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nccd-crc.org%2Fnccd%2Fdnld%2FHome%2Ffocus0809.pdf&ei=nr3STufgJ8WLiAKezpCIDA&usg=AFQjCNGjxIB3eXTiOsXev-zZuq6nnilkvg&sig2=e2xW0fV--6JxfB2lbAUjgA

Violence, Media (Position Paper); American Academy of Family Physicians. 2010. http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/policy/policies/v/violencemedia.html

Consumerism, Children, and Mothers Against Television

2011-11-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

Many of the people who arrive at this blog from Google searches are coming for the articles I once wrote, calling for Mothers Against TV: (read here)

The call was so controversial that I actually lost a good friend because of it, and I left it behind. However, I still meet people quite often who are either alarmed or thrilled that my kids don't watch TV; that they aren't aware of current trends and popular brands. So... just for those of you who came here for this information, watch the important documentary below (full-screen it, sit back, and make some non-GMO popcorn... ha).

And yes, my kids are happy, busy, and educated. When given the option to watch TV, one of them wanders off, and the other stares intently until the thing is turned off. However neither of them misses TV, advertising, malls, brands, or processed food in their daily lives. How have we achieved this? Simply by living it; by rejecting all forms of advertising in our children's lives: cartoons, Scholastic, TV, processed food, Fast Food Chains, popular (cheap plastic) toys like Barbie and Nintendo, video games, candy, and pop music. We just don't do it.

Of course we can't cut out everything, but we cut out most. And what we can't avoid, we can use as a teaching tool. Our kids have been made very aware of marketing in their world, and, especially for my 9-year-old, I don't think much gets by unnoticed.

Here's the movie:
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THIS WITH YOUR KIDS

This documentary contains a segment about screen violence that is EXTREMELY gory and upsetting. It is too much for me to watch, myself. I would NEVER show it to my children.

The Shocking Truth about the Crackdown on Occupy

2011-11-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

In her article published in the Guardian, Naomi Wolf writes, "In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens."

I am grateful for this article (and hundreds more like it) because, like all of us, I am affected deeply by the implications of the throttling of our media, and brave writers like Naomi Wolf are guiding us out of this stranglehold. The photo associated with this article is of Brandon (Romania) Watts -- I watched him being brutally beated, crushed, undressed and hauled away by the cops on livestream, as I was watching the OWS event where it happened. This incident, as well as the rest described in the article, as well as the article itself, is why social media and brave reporters are now more important than ever. Because we're realizing that we need to know the truth, and we (the people) need to depend upon each other to find it.

Read the article.
The Shocking Truth about the Crackdown on Occupy

Occupy Christmas: Buy Nothing Day and our Gift-Free Christmas

2011-11-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas tree, a few years ago.

As many are already aware, today is Buy Nothing Day -- Adbusters Magazine's call to action against Black Friday -- purportedly the busiest shopping day of the Christmas season.

Since my family rarely buys anything anyway, this day doesn't mean a whole lot to us, but I thought I'd post here about our Christmas plans for the year. We are going gift-free, this year. In past years we've elected to go on a family outing instead of exchanging gifts among those of our household, but we still exchanged gifts with others in the family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, close friends, etc.) Although I personally love giving and receiving gifts, and cherish many of the thoughtful gifts given to us by those we love, we are literally inundated with these beautiful things each year, so that we now spend days going through our belongings every year, choosing things to give away to make way for the new -- and often that's very hard to do! So we end up packing things away into the attic, under the beds, into the office and the studio, etc. The outcome of this, of course, is that we are now suffocating in our belongings.

We love the gestures of those who love us. And the objects they give us are usually very meaningful and/or useful. We love spending time giving gifts and watching those we care about (hopefully) enjoy their gifts. We love this time so much that I've spent the last few years creating cloth wrapping bags (as needed) so that we could have a beautiful assortment of wrapped gifts sitting under the tree, without having wasted paper, in the end.

But the time has come for us to receive no more. This year we want to cherish the time with those people, talking, singing, sharing and feeling each other's presence. My family has always done this, so it won't be much of a change, but we'll have to find some activity to take the place of the usual Christmas morning exchange with our family. We have some ideas about this, such as sharing stories, songs, or poems, watching a slideshow of old family photos, etc. but none of these has been received with much enthusiasm, so far. We'll have to see what transpires as December unfurls.

I look forward to doing a little more baking, this year, and making a few more fir-bough-garlands to decorate the house. I hope that the time not spent shopping and wrapping will be as valuable as I imagine it will.

What is Occupy About?

2011-11-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

I thought this very short clip put it quite simply:

The Next Stage of the Occupy Movement

2011-11-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

Michael Stone speaks in Vancouver about where the Occupy Movement is headed. What is our aim, as a movement? How will we work through our anger at the systems, at the evictions, at each other, and find our strength in peace?

"We won't give them demands because we're articulating a much bigger dream, and we won't give them violence because we're taking care of our anger."

"Don't be afraid to talk about love. Don't be afraid to talk about kindness."

Occupy Vancouver Photos

2011-11-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

For those interested, here are some recent photos from the grounds of Occupy Vancouver:

Come down to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Look at those tents! I've met many people on the streets downtown who say they're "ugly", "slovenly", and "pointless". Then there are those who tell me the Occupants are "a bunch of bums", and "should get jobs and stop living off everybody else's tax money". You know what I say to those people? I tell them that I am an occupant. And I encourage them to go meet some of the rest of us, and to see what beautiful things are happening beyond those tents. It just requires a bit of open-mindedness, a willingness to meet others and to hear their ideas, and a willingness to enjoy. So here you go: A partial tour of Occupy Vancouver.

Curious what's happening? Stop in at the info tent! If they can't answer your questions they can at least direct you to the person who can.

Near the info tent is the art tent. Donate materials or just use the paints already there. Make some art! Make some signs if you'll be participating in a march!

Near the art and info tent is this wonderful climbing tree, and the intriguing announcement about the "Occupy Choir". We wish we'd been there at the right time to see the Occupy Choir!

Check out what's happening on the mainstage. Throughout the day various speakers and musicians take the stage, and between those main acts is music and open mic.

Last time we were there, Rhiannon stood around singing Imagine to herself. So I suggested she go sing it at the microphone. "No!" She said. "I don't know what order all the words go in!" So off we went to her Pappa's office, where she looked up the lyrics on his computer, printed them, and brought them back to the Occupy site. She bravely walked up to the people on the stage and asked if she could sing, then, just as she began to walk onstage, turned back and asked: "Is this song called Imagine?"
"Yes", I said.
And off she went.

If you can stay past 7PM, you can participate in the General Assembly. And if you do, you may find these hand symbols helpful! On the stairs next to the stage is this instruction-manual for participation in the GA.

Should you injure yourself, forget to keep warm and suffer from hypothermia (apparently this has been an issue for some), or suffer from any other ills that humans do, you can make your way to the medical tent, where professional medics volunteer their time in shifts to help those in need. There is somebody available 24/7. And should you just need supplies, the infrastructure people can help with that.

Or maybe you just want to relax for a bit. Come into the People's Lovely Library, read some books, newspapers, or printed articles; have a game of chess, or have a chat with some of the other interesting Occupants. This latter is actually all I've ever managed to do, there. There's always much too much meeting people to be done to actually retreat into typed words...

Rhiannon, though, found the children's section on her first visit, and returned there many times, even making use of the check-out system to check out and return a book she liked.

As I said, there are many people to talk to. It's really a very welcoming scene, down at Occupy, with many engaged people, willing to speak and listen; share ideas; inspire and BE the new reality.

Peace Keepers (Occupy Vancouver's Security Committee) are here to ... (how could you guess) keep the peace! Thankfully there isn't often a lot for them to do, but when friction does arise, especially with Vancouver's not-so-peaceful tactics against the occupation, the Peace Keepers are there to help diffuse. They've also held workshops on peaceful de-escalation tactics, etc.

And should you want serious, inner peace... go meditate. This is for everyone, of every belief-system. Enjoy.

Or maybe you need just some renewal; some good conversation with some elders. Go ahead. Ask them about that fire, too. (See it, below.)

Why We're Not Saving for Our Children's Education

2011-11-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

I always say that, as our children are unschooled, they make their own educational choices, and may choose at any time to go to school. They may very well decide to go to University, as most of their family has, for generations. But we're not outrightly encouraging it. That will be their own choice, and we'll support them in however they make it.

Taliesin exploring Fort Worden, in Port Townsend, May 2011

RESP's: The Value of Learning Then or Now
The Government of Canada (or is that the Harper Government?) will match a certain amount of any money which we put into RESP's for our children. BUT, should our children decide not to attend one of the specifically accepted institutes for higher education, they will be required to return that money to the government. So, yes, we could take a gamble that indeed has very little risk, for the potential benefit of having many thousands of dollars returned for our children's university education, should they decide to go that route.

But what is the cost of that gamble? The cost is that we must sacrifice the opportunities that the money we might invest could otherwise provide for their education NOW. We have very little to invest, to begin with. And we feel that it is of greater value to their lives to save that money and spend it on a family trip that will allow them to get to know their family in Europe, as well as to spend time there, broadening their understanding of different languages, cultures, and technologies. The month-long road-trip that we made this past June was probably the greatest educational experience we've ever provided for our children. In addition to the expected learning that we gained from visiting different communities, cultures, museums, etc. we also gained an intrinsic basic understanding of the geology, humanity, and ecology of the US West Coast. We gained an intrinsic understanding of the meaning (and non-meaning) of borders, of politics and pop-culture, of distance and quantity of space, time, and resources, that we never could have achieved by studying in a classroom. The month-long trip cost us about $3000.00, and we'll be paying it off for at least a year to come. But was it worth it? Absolutely!

Mama has a University Degree
My own parents spent about $25,000.00 -- a great deal of their own investments -- putting me through two years of art school, in the Netherlands. I learned very little at that school, and ended up leaving with an Incomplete. But I don't think my parents really understand the return I got on their investment. What I learned from living in the Netherlands on my own, from getting to know my family, there, from speaking another language, and from having to make ends meet (I created jobs for myself to supplement the money they gave me) was probably the second greatest single learning experience of my life. I came home to Canada, but that experience, and my knowledge and understanding of that other part of the world informs every day of my life here, and expands the value of the experiences I have, here. My parents' investment in my education really was of enormous benefit to my life, but not in the way I expected, when I first registered for the school.

I did return to college in Canada to study biology and English, and then to University to attain my degree. And luckily, because I worked during that time, and was also supported by my husband, do not have any student loans. But that degree has done nothing for my career. I chose to have children, and that, after all, has been the single greatest learning experience of my life. Now all my work (artistic, community, etc.) is about mothering. My mother, my children, and my community have been my teachers, as well as the many authors and speakers I've chosen to inform myself with, over the internet and through books. And finally, I feel as though I have value. I am aware that my art finally has value, too, since it's about mothering, and therefore I'm finally creating from a place of deep understanding. And I can absolutely say that I learned none of this in school, but that the money my parents put into my education -- living overseas -- made a great difference, indeed.

Global Depression and the Future of Education -- A Film Review
I just watched a video (unfortunately named College Conspiracy - watch it here), put out by the (US) National Investment Association, which explains some of the (global economic) reasons we've decided not to keep RESP's for our children. Generally, the current system of high tuition, crippling student loans, and standardized learning (as opposed to individualized community-based learning, where students learn within the community they wish to serve) is unsustainable. In addition to this, I believe that the predictions of a coming global depression are well-founded, and that such a depression would not only radically change the structure of higher education, but that anything we may save, or the value of that money in general, is at extreme risk, if stored as RESP's. In fact, even if there is no depression, I would like to see radical change in our education systems, and that kind of change does not happen by first fitting into the existing system. That kind of change is happening already, as so many of us are rising up with new movements such as unschooling, and creating the world we want to live in.

So the College Conspiracy film is interesting, and worth watching despite a few sweeping generalizations, but I want to point out some specific ideas I really disagree with:

1. That we should invest in physical gold and silver because it will be the only thing of value in the coming depression.
Well, since when are gold and silver valuable? Value is created by need and desire. I believe that there will be need and desire for food, shelter, and compassion. But better than investing dollars in agriculture, construction, and humanitarian services, we can give up entirely on the notion of financial investment (if there's a global depression, our money will be value-less, anyway), and invest in our own personal education. We can LEARN, and we can build community. After all, in the absence of money, knowledge and skills are the new currencies, and community is our school.

2. That online degrees are the answer to the inflationary college degree scenario.
In the film, Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute suggests that online education can and should take the place of classroom education, for its cost-saving benefits, and the ability to reach more people, more easily. I hate to say it but I think this is shallow. It assumes first of all that a degree will be useful, and secondly that mass, standardized education is valuable. Above I say that knowledge and skills are the new currencies, but if we all learn the same facts, while staring at our Skype interfaces, how are we adapting that knowledge to the specific applications where its needed in our communities? We have to get out there and apply it before it has any value. Sure, there's a certain amount of information that will be usefully learned, this way, but much more understanding will come from our interaction in community. And if we go out into our communities to learn, instead of sitting at home with our laptops, then I think we'll be learning much more of what is really important for us to know.

So the College Conspiracy film just doesn't go far enough for me. And then the whole thing disintegrates into an ad for the National Inflation Association. Or perhaps it was that all along... this is one hell of a long advertisement. NIA does claim that its goal "is to help as many Americans as possible become aware of the disaster we are rapidly approaching", and also that they "are not investment or financial advisors". And yet, they are giving plentiful investment advice.

Sadly, NIA falls short of its stated goal by failing to actually escape the money trap. Although they interview a farmer in this film, and he discusses the value of real employment, with an anecdote about his grandson chopping firewood, the film never really explores that aspect of the economy. Neither a cheap online college degree nor gold and silver investments will help a society that has lost touch with the provenance of the fundamentals of human life: food, shelter, and compassion.

This Is Why We Are Unschooling
The pillars of our children's education are their involvement in the world around them: they have a deep understanding of their natural surroundings, ecosystems, and the provenance and value of their food. They are involved in the maintenance of our home and community. They are involved in their community's politics, festivities and conversations. I believe that the education we're giving our children, which is rich in understanding the physical world they live in, how it works, and how they work within it, will be the cornerstone of their ability to lead a life of value. With that upbringing as their strength, we trust them to make their own decisions on how they will seek and learn the skills they desire to participate in their world. This may include University, trade-school, apprenticing, travel, or any number of other participatory activities from which they wish to learn.

Death at Occupy Vancouver, today.

2011-11-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

It is a very significant and reportable phenomenon that so many homeless, mentally ill, and addicted people are making the occupy movement their home.

Why are they there?
1. They find support, food, and shelter, there, which is in short supply elsewhere.
2. They find acceptance, because acceptance of EVERYONE is a cornerstone of the movement.
3. Many of them feel like the 'system' has failed them. And it has! Who more than they needs this movement to heal our very broken system. They are unrepresented, but at occupy they have a voice.

Is it a problem for the movement?
Well, the presence of drugs and the risk of overdose-related injury and death, and/or drug-induced behaviour issues does deter many others from joining. I've been uncomfortable there a few times, myself, but never threatened, as I participate and have camped there with my children. And really why should we be so alarmed to have this reminder of our failed system brought out onto Georgia? If you look closely it was there already. Just a few blocks down the street we can blissfully turn a blind eye on the most destitute community in Canada, walk past them with our shopping bags, give them a few coins, and go home. Yes, it's uncomfortable that they're occupying the VAG, too, but THEY are part of US. And it behoves us to find not only place for them in our hearts and in our aspirations, but also in our communities; solutions that include them as part of the whole that we are working towards.

Two Amazing Talks

2011-10-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

These two talks, especially when seen together, speak so well about communication and the value of real education. In these are the foundation of my belief in unschooling, as well as in my support of the Occupy movement.

Bunker Roy speaks about his barefoot colleges; the wisdom of valuing experience and knowledge over college certificates.

Anupam Mishra talks about centuries-old water-harvesting technologies in India, and how these, as well as the widsom, sharing, and community they engender in the communities who built, use, and maintain them.

Camping at Occupy Vancouver

2011-10-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

I've often felt guilty for being a daytime-occupier -- just dropping in for visits, getting reports from Markus (my husband) who works nearby, and stops in to listen to discussion groups, etc. sometimes during the days he's there. I felt like I should be there overnight, too, if I wanted to really support the thing -- and I do! So off we went, for one night only (my parents generously look after our animals, but we do have a wood-heated home, here, and there is no way I'm going to allow it to mold away in my absence by spending too much time off-island). It wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped, but I'm still glad we went.

Our Experience
The kids and I arrived when it was dark, and Markus had already spoken to people from the tent committee about where to put our tent. They even brought in pallets for us to set up on (to keep drier). Then we set our camping gear aside, and were given a tour of the current grounds by Selena (I think!). Somebody from the fire department told us that they've prohibited more tents from being set up, but there was no way were going back home at that time in the evening (too late for the last ferry), so we set up anyway. They never complained.

Our set-up: the 3-man tent we got for our wedding, with our flag draped over it, both for identification and for style! It also helped keep some of the street-light out. Inside we had a thermorest, a double-sleeping-bag for 3 of us, and a separate bag for Rhiannon, who monopolizes too much of the bed to be able to share with us. We had a plastic tarp waiting for rain, but didn't end up needing it, and donated it to the infrastructure tent in the morning.

I don't know what came over me, but I was extra shy, and basically avoided the two interviews Markus had told people I'd do. I also managed to forget to take photos of all the wonderful infrastructure that's cropped up in the past week. I'll blame in on dark-moon introversion.

*Note to non-lunatics: The dark moon (just before a new moon) is a time of low energy, letting go, and introversion. Many women's cycles naturally settle into a pattern of dark-moon menstruation; children are often noticeably quiet or irritable at a dark moon, and sometimes situations that might otherwise have an obvious solution can seem insurmountable.

Anyway, either I or Markus will hopefully get some better photos up here in the next few days. Among the great new presence we didn't photograph were a library, including a children's section (Rhiannon was thrilled!), a tea house, a dishwashing tent for the free food provided (by donations to) Food Not Bombs, a spiritual/creativity dome (in progress), an art-tent for sign-making but also for other inspired work, and a tent over the main stage on the steps.

There wasn't much going on. The protest march which we'd hoped to participate in (Occupy Kevin O'Leary) never happened, at least in part because the VPD had over-prepared and sent out rather offensive-looking troops. None of us wanted violence or trouble, so we just didn't go. Others didn't go because there seemed to be nothing happening! The place had that slightly irritible, forboding dark-moon energy, and just wasn't all that exciting. Maybe Tuesday night was not the night to have chosen!

We had some veggie soup and rice from the food tent, and eventually just went to bed. As luck would have it, no sooner had all four of us taken off our boots and coats, and snuggled into our very cozy little tent, than a lovely music gathering began, outside. We were too tired to join, so just lay there listening to the drums, guitar, klezmer accordion, and random conversations of passers-by until finally exhaustion won out over city noise and lights.

I must say we had a hard time sleeping, though. We are used to a home where the only night light comes from the moon, and our far-off neighbours are also quiet. Sleeping between the well-lit Vancouver Art Gallery and one of downtown Vancouver's main thoroughfares -- never mind that it's also currently an Occupation -- is rather a different story! The noise of people passing by on foot, and in vehicles was constant, and the general rumbling of the large city was felt as much by our bodies as by our eardrums. But the light was something else! Markus and I probably checked the clock about 10 times in the 8 hours we lay in the tent, each time thinking that it was light outside, and then realizing that, no, it was still just the streetlights.... Ah we are so spoiled, here.

So in the morning we got up, managed to pack up our tent before it got too wet in the rain, Markus went to work, and the kids and I headed back for some breakfast. On offer Wednesday morning was porridge, chili, rice (leftover from the night before), fruit, and various breads, peanut butter, and juice. The fact that there were two meals my gluten/soy/egg/bean free kids could eat was pretty exciting! But Tal was feeling a bit out of sorts and declined the hot porridge in favour of the raisin-bread we'd brought along, ourselves.

Food Not Bombs receives donations of food and equipment, and volunteers serve the food using standard health and safety procedures. Occupiers are asked to help out by donating, and by helping with dish-washing, etc. You can see the dishwashing tent in the background of this photo. There is a sequence of bins that the dishes are washed in: dump waste-food into compost, then rinse off remaining food. Next scrub in hot dish-soapy water. Finally, rinse in bleach-water, and two successive rinsing buckets to remove bleach. The kids seemed pleased to help out, and Tal even managed to talk to somebody about the molecular structure of ozone (you just never know!)

Thoughts on the Value of Tent City
This experience gave me a lot to think about, in terms of the value of occupation in the global movement and the evolution of the revolution, so to speak.

The Occupation has of course attracted a large number of homeless and other marginalized people because of the availability of free food, free shelter, and (I think importantly) social support and acceptance. Inclusiveness being a large part of what the movement is about, it`s perfectly reasonable, and a good thing. Especially because these people need a voice. too. But it also means that many of 'the 99%' seems to distance themselves from the movement, when they look and see what appears to be a "squatters'" encampment.

There's also the issue of money. Vancouver spends a lot of money sending police, fire crew, and civic officers down to patrol the site, while these are not necessarily needed (Occupy has its own security committee, under the heading 'peacekeeping', at that webpage), and certainly not in the numbers they're present. This unnecessary expenditure angers taxpayers, who not only resent the money spent, but also seem to often assume that the occupiers are not tax-payers, themselves.

On City Caucus I read that CKNW's Bill Good stated: "Occupy Vancouver has been reduced to a handful of young people clearly out of step with mainstream society." While Mr. Good may be clearly out of step with the movement, I can see why he came to that conclusion. While we were there we witnessed a couple of outspoken people so passionate about their causes that all common sense seemed to have left them. (Guess who was being filmed by the news crews?) There were also a few people with various developmental or social problems, using the stage to voice their thoughts. And I wondered if it was just a mistake or a calculated effort that CBC was there looking for interviews at 8AM Wednesday morning, while most of the service tents (infrastructure, library, media, etc.) had not yet opened for the day, and only about 15 people milled around, in various states of sleepiness. Perhaps Mr. Good came out at the same time.

So how did Mr. Good get that idea? The movement is young -- most of us probably are in our 20's, 30's, and 40's, and with today's life-expectancy, that really is young. But we (and our children) have a future that I feel is worth protecting, and that's why there are millions of us around the world are working together to make the changes we feel are necessary. On top of that, many of those who are physically or circumstantially able to camp downtown are students, single people, unemployed, or homeless. Those whose particulars are more "mainstream" likely are not able to camp downtown, and come during the day, only. (I admit that this Mama felt rather hypocritical, getting up in the morning, packing up our tent, and sending Pappa back off to work at his corporation, while I took the kids for their weekly swimming practice. Welcome to upper-middle-class-white-inferiority.)

The question is: do we need to camp, to support the revolution? Obviously, the camping makes a clear presence, and keeps the movement front-and-centre on the main streets of our cities, and it's also ensuring that some of the social infrastructures and systems that will be a part of the change we're making have a space to blossom, right in the hearts of our cities. But I would argue that that blossoming has been happening in various small ways, already, and that perhaps we can keep a presence without requiring so many of us to camp out on the grounds of the revolution. We need a central place from which to feed and catalyze the revolution that's already happening; we don't need to centralize everything to the occupation grounds at the cost of our own wider communities.

I know that's a very controversial statement, and I'd be glad to have comments, here, on this. At the moment I feel that the benefit of the tent-cities is threatened by the image they're creating. The infrastructure is good and productive, and obviously a certain number of people need to be there to maintain and protect it during the nights, but I think it would be more productive for the rest of us to save our energy and time, and put more energy into the daytime occupation.

When I participate in the marches, the meetings, and discussion groups; when I talk to people about life and art and science and humanity; when I drop off a donation or wash some dishes at the food tent, or when I browse the interesting information in the library, I know I am making a difference. I meet many intelligent people who have many interesting things to say and inspirations to help build our new reality. It feels right. But in the early morning, listening to a handful of people with really nothing constructive to say, embarrassed for knowing that the TV cameras were filming this as the face of what many perceive to be a failed revolution, I couldn't say that my sleeping there had made any difference at all.

Our family (and quite a few others from this island) will head over to Vancouver this weekend again, and I know it will be meaningful and good. But when the day is done, I think we make more difference by taking the revolution home into our own communities than we do by sleeping on it in the loudness and the brightness of downtown.

After all, we're having an election here, too, and I can't vote for Vancouver councillors, whether they call us squatters or not, but I can vote for people in my own community, and that matters.

Information on Occupy Vancouver's Security Committee, from the Occupy Vancouver website:
PeaceKeeping
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
The security committee is seeking volunteers for 3-hour shifts (9pm-midnight; mid-3am; 3-6am) and there will be a sign-up board on Saturday. More information about responsibilities will be available on-site.

CONTACT:
occvansafe@gmail.com

PROPOSED SECURITY POLICY STATEMENT:
Occupy Vancouver (O.V.) is a non-violent movement for Social, Economic and Political Change, officially starting from October 15th, 2011, and will adopt the following policy with regard to Safety, Security and Civility Issues.

In the case of:
1: Politically Motivated Violence (eg. property damage).

O.V. does not endorse any form of political violence. In the case of any politically motivated violence O.V. participants will, to the best of their ability, attempt to physically distance themselves from the incident and keep themselves safe.

2: Personal Verbal Abuse, Personal Physical Abuse (actual or threatened).

O.V. as a community and movement will not tolerate personal physical or verbal abuse, actual or threatened. It is the policy of the O.V. to advocate calm and peaceful methods to resolving disagreements. Additionally it is the responsibility of all O.V. participants to help maintain and/or restore a peaceful environment if need be.

Everyone needs to feel safe and secure, in order that we "hear all the ideas, to make better ideas." “To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to
be different is maybe even greater.”

David Suzuki Speaks

2011-10-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

I think this is the most important speech of my lifetime.
It's long (20 minutes), but very much worth watching.
And it's inspiring.
Let's make this viral.

Singing for Joy

2011-10-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

THIS is why I teach. For joy!

Thank you, Mr. B.!!!

Rhiannon sticks up for herself.

2011-10-17T23:52:00.001-07:00

Read the comment below this photo of my girl with her protest sign. Proud Mama moment. :--)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96367212@N00/6255076368

Occupy Vancouver Report

2011-10-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

We spent most of Oct. 15th at Occupy Vancouver. Because of commitments on our island (a wood-heated home, pets, and the children's various activities), we won't be camping in Vancouver, but we do intend to spend a day there every week or so. We had a few reservations about the event, because we'd had so many warnings from people re: police violence, black bloc violence, angry protesters, etc. But there was none.

ON TAKING CHILDREN:
A few people commented supportively on the fact that we had our kids with us, and they were far from the only children there (although the children's area wasn't very well-used). It was, I think a fabulous learning experience for the kids, and their level of engagement even surprised me.

Taliesin said on the way into Vancouver that he didn't really want to go, but then seemed to be fully participating, throughout (this is a boy who NEVER does things he doesn't want to do, especially if it might lead people to believe things about him that he doesn't really feel). He held up his "let us eat real food" sign to the cops' faces, waved and smiled at them. He sat and listened to speakers and meetings. This boy who sometimes hides in corners in a class of children came right out of his shell, spoke to strangers, crawled around people to get a better seat at the meetings, and afterwards told me that he "felt comfortable, there, like with those people who were loving and friendly. Like at Uncle and Ginger's wedding." It was kind of amazing to me to see this transformation. This is a boy who is utterly unconfused about who he is, in the moment. Sometimes it just takes us parents some time to get with his program.

Rhiannon has no comment other than to say "it was nice", but did make herself a lovely sign. No input from us, of course... That red printing says: "What if the world was one big mounten." I'm not 100% sure what she meant by that, but somehow I think I get the gist of it.

ON TAKING HUSBANDS:
Well, you know... when you have such a picturesque husband, you have to expect him to become the focus of others' cameras... On the Occupy Vancouver website (Flickr page that updates with new photos on a regular basis) I found two great portraits of him, neither of which he remembers being taken! Thanks to Mark Kortum for this one:

POLICE PRESENCE:
We were so worried about the post-riot VPD and their new MRAD (Medium Range Acoustic Device, which can be used as a sound-weapon to disperse protesters), that we brought along ear-muffs and plugs for the kids, but there was no need, this Saturday. There was one arrest, which may have been much more harsh than necessary, of a woman who had driven her car up onto the sidewalk. I'm not sure what happened, there, so I'm not going to speculate. What I did see were dozens of police men and women lining the perimeter of the gathering, smiling, talking with each other and with occupiers, nodding at and thumbs-upping various signs, and waving happily at anybody who was nice to them. This reenforced my thoughts that the police, like bankers, lawyers, salesmen, etc. are also members of the 99%. I used to think they might not know it yet. I'm now reminded that many of them actually do.

EVERYBODY, TOGETHER:
The group was so diverse. A friend mentioned to me that "the vague people they have on CBC are really discrediting the movement", but that is obviously not for lack of intellect at the gatherings. This crowd of an estimated 5000 seemed to have a high percentage of intellectually inclined people, and there was progressive, productive discourse going on everywhere, between people of all ages, genders, political leanings, and walks of life. Click on the photo above for a closer look.

Cooperative games abounded!

So did less cooperative, but equally thought-provoking games.

People had many important things to say, both on and off mic. The mic was open to everyone, and the crowd was interested, engaged, and kind. Conversations around the occupation ranged from all the many various political and societal issues that brought people here, to the future of the Occupy movement, to how to maintain peace with cops and other protesters, to where to find a toilet, etc. etc. etc.

And we got to spend a little time with our friends, too! We saw at least 15 Bowenites there, though I didn't count. (Yes -- sign-sharing was all part of the process...)

Leaving the site? Drop off your sign! Need a new inspiration? Pick one up or make a new one at the sign-making station!!

LOVE AND INFRASTRUCTURE:
The signs were diverse, and some bordered on threatening; but among the human interactions the message of love and respect was pervasive. Among the efforts to create harmony and happiness were the many committees formed (see a current list, here), and the infrastructure set up, staffed, and maintained by volunteers. There was food donated and distributed, a children's area, various sound-equipment areas, donated port-a-potties (which were sadly already overfull by Saturday evening, awaiting pump-out on Monday), a medical tent, a media tent, etc. etc. Here are some photos:

We went to donate some earplugs to the medical tent and found a small lineup of people, a woman being treated for an injured knee, a growing collection of supplies, and a couple of very good people putting their skills and compassion to good use as they ran the operation. We will not be without doctors in the new reality!

And our spiritual needs will of course also be looked after. Click the photo to enlarge and read the signs.

This is (a terrible shot of) the media tent. There are people diligently documenting the occupation, and they continue to put in a LOT of work, as is evident just from looking at all the resources at http://occupyvancouver.com

PROCESS AND PARTICIPATION:

General Assemblies: GA's. 3 per day, at noon, 4PM and 7PM. There is an agreed-upon set of hand-signals for the Vancouver Occupation, and even if you think you are an unknown bystander standing out in a crowd of 5000, your opinion matters. Your fingers wiggling in the air means you agree. Your rolling fists mean you have a related point you'd like to add to the conversation. Your thumbs down means you disagree but will not stand in the way. Your crossed fists means full block; you'll leave the movement if the proposal goes ahead. We work on consensus, and YOUR VOICE MATTERS.

We participated in the pre-GA meeting, on the other side of the Art Gallery. There were a few friends in the group, as well, and we felt good to be in good company. This is where the hand-signals were discussed, refined, and agreed upon. There was no policy discussed, here. Just how to make the GA and occupation successful, inclusive, and peaceful. I was worried that the kids would be bored by this meeting, but Tal, at least, was captivated, and sat totally enthralled, soaking in everything that was discussed.

This man (ashamedly, I've forgotten his name) brought his "decentralized sound system" to use. It involved transmitting sound via radio to many different tuned-in ghetto-blasters, which were carried into the crowd by participants. I liked the idea in general, but as he spoke, I realized that it is not at all decentralized sound. It is, in fact, particularly centralized, as the voice of the one person with the mic booms out across the crowd, and no other voices are heard at all. I far prefer the human microphone system, where the speaker shouts 2-5 words at a time to the group, and those who can hear shout them back, thus amplifying the sound for everyone else. It's a very organic method, and when we participated in it we were much more aware of what was being said (because we repeated it ourselves, word-for-word), and we were much more engaged in the discussion. Also, unlike electric-amplification, where a person can speak as long as s/he wants, the forced brevity of the human microphone encourages a great clarity of thought and purpose. I can see that, for speeches such as those presented between the GA's, the sound system can be a benefit. However, for GA's and other group-participation purposes, the human microphone is still it!


As the evening got cold we had to head out for the last ferry home to our (cold) wood-heated house and hungry animals. We will not be camping in Vancouver.

In fact, after having been actively engaging in the city for 13 hours, we were REALLY grateful to have a warm and soft bed to get home to. But we're also very glad we went, and I think we're all looking forward to our next day, there.

Thank you, everyone, for this wonderful first day of a beautiful new way of living! We'll be back again in a few days!

Unschooling and the Occupy Movement

2011-10-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

In a few days I will bring my children to Occupy Vancouver.

The Occupy movement is about decentralization, and Unschooling is a huge part of that, so I want to discuss my thoughts about the whole thing, here on this blog.

WHAT'S THE POINT OF THESE PROTESTS?
We've been widely criticized for not naming a particular gripe or issue, and some are very reluctant to put a name on the movement. But I will attempt one:

*togetherness*

We live in a highly centralized culture, and we are finally feeling the sting of that culture as it eats away at the core values and resources we need for life. We can debate and protest all we want within those diverse smaller issues, but any progress we make will be stifled by the centralized power we exist under. The only solution is to decentralize – which requires a great, massive 'coming together'.

I see it in these 2 terms:
1. We (together) develop a compassionate, conscious society. (So as we 'occupy' the central districts of our cities we put our minds together in peace and begin this journey.)
2. Being together in this way, we show everybody else that it IS possible, and that we CAN make change, and that they ARE welcome (Empower the rest of the world to join us in 1.)

There is already widespread unhappiness with 'the system'. People talk about the 99% taking back the power from the 1%, but I don't see it as being that adversary. The benefit of the occupations is to coalesce, and to reach the 98% who don't realize they're a part of the 99%. If 99% truly stepped away from the trap we live in, the 1% would probably join us, too. It's all about togetherness, as I said. Things like democracy, equality, and understanding cannot be reached without togetherness.

DECENTRALIZATION:
I think we're already making great strides in decentralization. If we can tackle the issues of openness, then other movements will just pick up speed, such as these, for example:

Education:
Unschooling, and other methods of decentralized learning and living are increasingly popular, with communities growing all over the world where progressive thought and action can flourish. My kids are completely unschooled, and have been for 3 years, now. The number of unschooling families joining us seems to grow exponentially, and the large conferences of like-minded unschoolers seem to be growing, too.
And for this reason I think it's essential that we allow our children to occupy our cities, too. It's their future, and they should be a part of it.

"Free children are not easily influenced; the absence of fear accounts for this phenomenon. Indeed, the absence of fear is the finest thing that can happen to a child."
~A. S. Neill Summerhill School

Healthcare & Food:
There is a growing movement of decentralized food (local food, homegrown food, raw food, unmedicated food, small farms, raw milk, etc. etc.) This is the beginning of what will hopefully be a complete overhaul of 'the system', and reach its arms out to encompass and encourage the healthcare system, as we all head for the care we need, as opposed to the care that the government pays for. Much of that happens outside the hospitals, and I think we're a much more educated society than we were a few decades ago; more of us know how to look after ourselves, and healthcare gets decentralized as we become less dependent upon the hospitals to care for us.
Although I don't support privatizing healthcare, the freedom to choose our care (or not) will give new ideas and technologies space to grow.

Finances:
The Occupy movement, among others, is working towards educating the masses about the effects of consumerism, capitalism, and living beyond our means, allowing us to take responsibility for the way we live, and to live in a way that our finances (and health and environment) can sustain. If we take out loans to buy houses we cannot afford, then we have nobody to blame but ourselves. The banks do, indeed, capitalize on this, but it is our choice whether or not we give them our money in the first place. I hope that the predicted real estate and financial crash will quickly encourage new forms of investment (like maybe social?!)

Media:
Who writes the history books? Who shapes the past and the future? Occupy movements are also a perfect example of how the centralized media are not working for us, and how we can make our own, decentralized news-sources. We've made them already: Social Media.
As we render useless the current systems (mainstream media, etc.), copyright issues and other such problems will sink away in an open-source social system where we all have voices, and the right to know anything we choose.

My friend published this very informative interview on her blog. It almost says more about the current state of traditional and social media than it does about Occupy movement. (And she transcribed it! Thanks, Alison!): Chris Hedges and Keven O'Leary on CBC

VIOLENCE?
Not so impressed, really.
There is, to me, little point in marching through districts where the super-rich live, or in using combative language/behaviour against those who seem not to support us. We are in this together, and in the end we want those who are now against us to feel welcome in our new reality. Further, we can't forget that each individual police officer, polititian, and CEO is also a part of the 99%. It will be a beautiful day when they begin crossing the line they draw.

WHAT ABOUT MY ISSUE?
Most of us have one or a handful of big issues that we've been concerned about for a long time: salmon, indigenous rights, education, food freedom, financial integrity, etc. etc. And all of these things are important. So bring them! But remember that this is about decentralization, so we don't want to centre our attention on one issue. We need to forge this change from the top down. We must co-create a new human policy, and then we will all bring our issues to the fore, and talk about them as humans with a common interest of finding peace and equality.

Iceland recently had a revolution (if you didn't know, don't be alarmed; neither did most of us! It wasn't covered by most mainstream media.) The people reclaimed their power, and wrote their own constitution, collaboratively, transparently, online. When Canadians reach that point, that will be the time to hammer out the details that concern our many separate issues.

IS THIS DEMOCRATIC? ANARCHIST?
Yes!!! This is where we break free of our definitions and find a new reality.
I think that the ideas of those people who don't believe in democracy will be instrumental in our communal development of a new definition of open-source, communal governance. Maybe it won't even be called democracy. The whole notion of democracy implies that there are other ways. I think when there is true agreement, we won't be pitting our various viewpoints against each other but will instead have a new way of conversing.
Surely there will be plentiful disagreement, but our progress depends upon our finding harmony.

US vs. THEM:
There's no point. We are gathering not to accuse or to blame, but to find better avenues for conscious living. What this does is give us the chance to be together, to share, to support, and to make change. Ultimately we make the changes in our own individual ways, but in doing so, and in community, we encourage and empower others to do the same.

WHY THIS MOVEMENT IS STRONGER IN THE US THAN IN CANADA:
Quite simply, because we're not in such dire straits – yet. But I think the sense that we could be is growing urgently, especially as we watch our federal government wheel us closer and closer to US policy, culture, and affiliation. We need to reclaim our voice and power, before they take us too far over that threshold.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS:
So my family is making changes. Arguably, we've been making them slowly, for a long time, as we've chosen to eat organic and local food, drink raw milk, unschool our children, participate as a whole family in community changes and events, not give Christmas gifts, and garden. But feeling the support of the Occupy movement, we've now extended the no-gift-giving to the rest of our family members, telling them that we will not be giving gifts this year, and will refuse to accept any. We're assessing our options for going fully off-grid (not wanting to be dependent upon a hydro company that has no interest in its' customers' wishes), and we're cashing in our savings, paying off our debts, and going credit-free. We're also considering changing banking institutions, to support our tiny local credit union. We've stopped attending classes that require us to drive across the island every week, and now that our children can ride bikes, we can do more outings by bike, making our gas-powered vehicle less and less necessary. And we intend to raise chickens, sustainably.

Getting out of the system is REALLY scary to some of us. (No hydro? No schools? No Superstore?) But if we work together we can find ways to develop the new communal/open-source infrastructure we need.

"The solution's here! The solution is public understanding! The solution is explaining the difference of the 99% and the 1%. The solution is to explain practically what can be done!

What we need right now is a massive social understanding. It's starting here; it's spreading around the country."
~Jeffrey Sachs

So the actual gathering -- the Occupation -- works by bringing people together. It's a place where we can share ideas, support each other, and also be a beacon for those who need a light to follow. Hopefully it will continue to spread online, to reach those who don't live in the large metropoli. And most importantly, it makes the issue visible, so that people can see the potential for change, and can realize that they, too, are part of the 99%.

Join as you are; know that we all have our own causes, and let us be one voice for humanity.

Unschooling Movie

2011-10-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

Vitus

I watched it many years ago, before I knew what unschooling was, and then I thought it was a beautiful story of a brilliant boy who had to circumvent his parents' efforts at steering his life, because they just didn't understand. Tonight I watched it with my son. I was wracked with guilt at seeing the parents trying as I have to shape and direct their son, when really all he needed was to be left alone. At a bathroom break, my husband confirmed that it was a good thing we were watching this again. And throughout the movie, my son continually wiped tears from his eyes. At one point I wiped one off for him. He said it wasn't a tear; it must have been water from my finger. And I said "it's OK to be sad."
"I'm not sad!"
"Or happy..."
"I'm not happy!"
"OK then", I said, "but for whatever reason we sometimes feel emotional or just randomly find tears falling out, and it's OK. It's normal. You don't have to hide it".
I said then, "Do you just wish I'd shut up right now?"
He smiled. "Yes but not so rudely."

During the credits, I asked what everybody thought about the movie. Rhiannon said "nice!" and Tal said "it's so real."

This is one of those movies that we all need to watch. It says so much about acceptance and individuality, but mostly about parenting: our need to let our children be who they are in every moment.

Inspired!

2011-10-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling so inspired, today! I still have lots of work to do sifting through the summer's activities and posting here, sending stuff I promised to people, etc etc. but...

Somebody I only faintly know announced yesterday that she'd pulled her son from school and will be unschooling. This sent me on a brain-journey, back through the choices we've made, I re-watched Ken Robinson's second talk, talked to my husband about it, and started to feel the joy of our existence a little more, again. We are SO blessed. We live in a community of many varied people, most of whom are kind, compassionate, and forward-thinking. We have the ability to stretch out into the forests, oceans, and cities, and to allow our children the freedom of their imaginations. It's just so lovely to sit in this dream and revel it, once in a while!!

"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, enwrought with gold and silver light, of blue and the dim and the dark cloths, of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet. But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams."
~WB Yeats

"And every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams under our feet. And we should tread softly."
~Sir Ken Robinson

Singing to Learn

2011-09-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

My Mum is a music therapist, and (I think!) an auditory learner -- but, being mostly visual, myself, I sometimes forget how important learning style is. Workbooks are pretty well designed for those of us who are mostly visual learners, but I have a son who is not. He can look at something, then go draw a pretty accurate picture of it, but somehow that doesn't translate to learning facts and... completing tasks. He DESPISES worksheets, and sometimes, in an effort to help him achieve some educational goal, I sit with him for hours, slowly coaxing him on to each ... part ... of each ... question. Needless to say, it's exhausting for both of us, and I know it's not the right thing for us to be doing.

But sometimes he breaks into song! It's the loveliest thing to listen to: high-pitched traditional folk-tunes, or something reminiscent of Gregorian chanting or Christmas hymns, but with lyrics describing the work he's doing.

Case in point:
"Oh! 3 take away 7 is really 13, so that makes that 8 over there, and now we say that 13 take away 7 is la la la la la!!! 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, oh yes it's 6! 6 and 6 and 6 it is it is, it truly is... So now 8 take away 4 is 4!!! So that means ninety-three minus forty-seven is really really forty-six!"

So sometimes I actually gather my brains about me, remember this, and separate him from his sister, which gives him free reign to sing his heart out. He gets some work done, he feels accomplished, and the house is filled with -- Gregorian math chanting. :--)

(And his sister, in the office, gets some peace and quiet to do her own work...)

Fascinating
I expect the singing helps him keep his mind on things, and keep apace.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/archinternmed.2010.446

Is Unschooling For You?

2011-09-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love this post by Radio Free School -- so much I added it to the sidebar!

http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/2011/09/is-unschooling-for-you.html

If you've ever asked yourself this question, or are now wondering if you should.... go read it!!!

Mum

2011-07-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

Remember that amazing pre-school-teaching mother I have? I've posted about her a few times, here. She's just retired, and the reason for the silence on this blog is that I'm about to host the biggest party of my life, in her honour (well -- except for weddings, of course... but this does rival a wedding). There will be over 70 people coming, many from far-off places. And there will be people who've been a part of her life from various points (and some all the way along) the past few decades. It's going to be beautiful. Like a reunion of caring, passionate people. And I'll post photos at some point.

But for now -- keep waiting! I'm nowhere near the end of my party-planning checklist!!!

But happy. :--)

PS: If you're reading this thinking "I know Lyn! Why didn't she invite me!?" It's not because you're not welcome - it's because I'm a scatterbrained sloppy party planner, and I either think I did invite you, or I just missed you! So yes -- please come. It's July 23. Email me and I'll give you the when and where, etc. :--)

Flying

2011-06-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Home!

When we got on the ferry the cool ocean air wrapped us in comfort and pulled us home. It was an amazing trip -- so amazing that we're all quite overwhelmed, when we try to tell people about it. We visited volcanoes, deserts, ocean, rainforests, cold and warm climates, friends, family, historic and natural sites of huge interest and value; we saw different cultures and places and ways of existing. We existed with and for each other, and became different, in ourselves. We traveled so far in our good and trusty vehicle that the days were noticeably shorter and the world seemed like a different place. But that same trusty vehicle brought us home again, and when we got here, we fell right back into the manic existence we'd left behind.

But we're changed. We have a memory that time cannot remove. We have experiences shared just with the four of us, and for us that's very unique. This trip is like a large crystal, scratched and hauled from the dirt, peered into and appreciated for all its cracks, surprises, and inclusions. It looks different every time we try to remember. But the constant is togetherness, and joy in that togetherness. And joy in coming home, together.

When we got home, the kids hurried, without a word, to gather and create gifts for Fathers' Day. Within an hour, we'd begun to reclaim our house from emptiness (and from the smell of the long-dead rat in the office), and the kids had prepared this for Markus:

Pretending to Fly

2011-06-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

The last day of our trip was a quick drive from Fife, Washington, home to our island. And it was Fathers' Day! So we stopped at the Museum of Flight.

Airplane wings apparently have great acoustics for drumming.

Wow.

Even more wow.

(build build build)

Shoulder check!

Finally!! A plane trip!! Pappa wishes planes really had this much room for feet...

Never mind that. Tal blasts off undercover.

Shasta

2011-06-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Another day of driving -- 12 hours, in fact. But we started early with the intention of hiking around somewhere near Mt. Shasta, and what a good thing we did!!

Pit Bridge over Lake Shasta

We'd been driving for many hours the day before, watching Mt. Shasta in the distance. Finally we got close enough to see the ridges.

And Castle Crags.

And Black Butte! We'd seen it on Google Satellite, and this was one of our goals.

So we pulled into a garbage dump at the foot of it to have a look around.

Not quite pumice, but Tal was so excited about the tossable rocks that he collected a rather large one.

We grownups collected some enormous and rather lethal-seeming (should they fall on one's head) cones from a sugar pine.

Then we came to Weed. If you judged them by their most prominent tourist shop, Weed is all about pot-humour. But we found the real gem, a little further along: The Community Centre.

It's an open-plan building, with various shops and community facilities, with an assortment of people hanging out, doing what they do. This is Josh Kaufman. He asked about our car, and whether we'd like to see his art: it's a digital-kinetic fractal sculpture. Then he interviewed me for his project about personal religion, and we stood around talking for quite a while.

We wanted to collect some nice pumice, so Josh and a couple of others at the Community Centre directed us to a spot along the road, just a few miles out of town. Upon exiting the car, we were greeted by this enormous double sundog, shining over Mt. Shasta.

... and also by this tiny lizard, who seemed rather curious about us.

Heading out, we passed Table Rock, though this photo doesn't do it any justice.

Travel-Weary

2011-06-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

Today we had an 11-hour drive, but stopped for gas an a popsicle somewhere under a lone palm.

Goodbye land of palm-trees!

Animals in Cages

2011-06-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

That's all I'm going to say about it. Rhiannon was home sick with a fever; I was busy interviewing and spending much-needed time with my family, and so Tal and Markus went alone to the San Diego Zoo. It was very educational, in many ways, and they enjoyed themselves, too.

San Diego!

2011-06-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

We spent two days with Aunt Mimi, Uncle John, and my cousins Starry and Pan. It was wonderful just to get to know them a tiny bit (and really with only 1.5 days together, it was a TINY bit). We weren't with them nearly long enough, but it was a start. Hopefully we planted seeds for more visits in future. They live on a mesa in San Diego overlooking a steep gorge, and a highway. We camped in their backyard, and Aunt Mimi made us wonderful meals, including a taco feast. In the end, just to be nice and modern, we all friended each other on Facebook. (My Craziness that is a weird thing to type!)

Pan introduced us to the cat, known to her as Rufus, and to Mimi as Mr. Scruff Puff. He likes belly-rubs a LOT.

Rhiannon spent most of the time there with a reasonably high fever, wrapped in one of great Grandma's afghans, and listening to Aunt Mimi's collection of children's records.

La Brea Pits

2011-06-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

On Suki's excellent advice we went to see the tar pits, and happened right into a tour of the various locations of the actual tar, where it seeps up from underground. Apparently people from the surrounding area call the museum once in a while, asking them to "get your tar out of my yard", etc. It's an oil-deposit -- a site where thick black oil has been naturally bubbling up for many many millenia. It's not going to stop any time soon, I expect. And we got to see the results of about a hundred years of digs: fossils, bones, history. Very very interesting.

It just looks like a soft spot on the soil; maybe an old campfire. But when you step on it it squishes under your shoe. It's oil. It's the beginning of a new oil seed.

Eventually it may look something like this one, a little further into the park, and fenced off quite thoroughly.

Some floating statues illustrate the miserable deaths of the many many animals who perished, here.

And now their bodies are exhumed, bit by bit,

...and cleaned, studied, classified, preserved,

...and sorted.

For our learning pleasure.

The displays are really amazing.

This is the skeleton of a ground sloth.

And they put on a great bit of sabre-tooth drama for us, as well.

We got right in the belly of the thing, as it were...

We all agreed that, for the money spent (less than half the cost of the San Diego Zoo or the Monterey Bay Aquarium), the La Brea Tar Pits was definitely the best paid-for attraction we saw on this trip.

Venice Beach

2011-06-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

On an overcast morning we cycled out to Santa Monica Pier for lunch (wonderful Tacos!), and got really thoroughly sunburned when the sun slowly crept out. It was a beautiful day!

My friend. you are really amazing.

Pura Vida

2011-06-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

No, we didn't go to Costa Rica. Pura Vida is the name of Jon and Suki's home, currently sitting in Marina Del Rey. We spent a few days at a hotel nearby, and now we can say we've finally been aboard!! Yay! She was under strict instructions to stay in berth, with a bad flu in her engine, and some skin repair happening, but at least we got a good look around, and to enjoy a lovely meal, cooked by Suki, in her galley. The kids spent a night aboard, with their dear friends, who definitely have the coolest sleepover-digs we've seen.

That flag looked so big in their hands. I guess it's a big boat!

Welcome!!

Left.

Right!

The main area (does this qualify as a 'mess'?)

Certainly it does!!

Kai and Hunter's most excellent clubhouse.

Good for all sorts of games...

And games in the dark.

Really. The dark.Who needs more than a 2-inch screen for light, anyway?!

Miracle Springs Resort and Spa

2011-06-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

With great thanks to Miracle Springs Resort and Spa, we spent two days relaxing in the desert.

I don't deal with heat very well, to say the least. I'm usually toast after about 25C. I've also never had even the slightest desire to visit tropical resorts, blue-water pools and palm trees. It feels so fake. I must admit I was unimpressed when Suki suggested hanging out not only in the desert but in hot springs in the desert... but I know Suki's more genuine than the classless stereotype I harbour, and I thought I'd better not complain about such an experience being handed to me on a platter. Thank goodness I didn't. It was fabulous!! It wasn't intolerably hot, most of the time, and in the evening the pools full of mineral-thick hot water were totally delightful. Time spent with our dear friends would have been wonderful, anywhere, but this really was a lovely place.

(Yes -- that's Suki and Kai photosynthesizing on the right.)

The rooms are definitely not five-star accommodation, but they're large, clean, simple, and enjoyable. They include a microwave, fridge, large couch, and coffee-table, as well as a balcony and air-conditioners. The bathrooms have a laundry-line which strings out across the tub, for the inevitable wet swimsuits, etc. Wi-Fi is free, and none of them are very far from the courtyard and pools.

In the too-hot afternoon, Suki and I worked on setting up her blog.

The largest and coolest of the pools, used by many (and many kids) gets rather yucky during the day, with bandaids, sunscreen, and plant-litter, but the surrounding hot pools have a higher concentration of healing minerals, anyway, so that was where we spent most of our time.

The cafe at the hotel has totally affordable meals. We ate an ample and tasty breakfast for 2 for $15, while watching the kids play in the pool, right beside us.

And TV. Of course, all the hotels we've been in had TV, but at Miracle Springs the kids all tumbled exhausted into bed after a long day of hiking, playing, and swimming, and watched some kind of reality-chef-show... while Suki continued her agonizing quest for a blog name.

Midnight. Good night!

Em! Hurry! Owl!

2011-06-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Just a few meters into our hike, Suki called in a whisper: "Em! Hurry! Owl! Right there! A burrowing owl!"

And there was her burrow. She guarded it fiercely, until we came too close, at which point she fled down the hill in a flutter of brown and dust.

Just a little hill.

But the little hill led to another, and another, and soon we were looking down at Desert Hot Springs from ravenously windy perch in the sun.

We watched L.A.'s haze sitting still on the horizon; I was glad to be above the thick of it.

Just a few nice little cacti. Tal found the skeleton of a much larger one.

OK -- we can do this!

Actually not. NOT. GOING. ANY. FURTHER.

"Come on, Annie! You can do it!"

And aaaaalllll the way back down again! It was really incredibly steep!

The Meaning of Vast

2011-06-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

Many.

Unending.

Too far to see.

Too much to imagine.

Today we drove from Monterey to Desert Hot Springs, up over the plateau (avoiding L.A.), and into the desert. The heat was huge. The wind unrelenting. The sky forever. The hills were slow and creeping so that we almost didn't notice we were suddenly many many miles above sea-level. California is vast.

Vast: The number of almond orchards we passed. The number of trees of one species, in rows stretching further than our eyes could see. Endless: Propagation, irrigation, devastation.

Vast: The number of bees imported into California's almond orchards with one purpose; one use; one reason to live. Endless: our using them.

Vast: The sunny yellow dry dirt. The orchards. The hills. Endless: The sky. How many almonds are in the back of that truck? How many do we need to sustain our appetite?

Vast: Promise of money in the ground. Endless: Our thirst for it.

Vast: White blur of windmills. Quantity needed to rival oil. Endless: Proliferation.

Vast: Land covered with Joshua Trees. Endless: Going. Highway and humans speeding past them, our goal more important than stopping to look at those trees propped by Dali-esque crutches. The Antelope Highway runs through a vast land of wildlife sanctuary, preserving the finite for now. But the future and greed is endless.

The Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa

2011-06-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. This was possibly the most amazingly high-class place we've ever been.

When I looked for accommodation donations, I asked everybody. And of course I had a range of responses. One of the most friendly I had was from Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa. When I told them I wasn't interviewing in Monterey, but that it was a bit of a break between interviews for us, they were even more enthusiastic, and encouraged us to relax, to visit the aquarium, down the road, and the local shops and restaurants, and to enjoy our stay.

We arrived exhausted, after a long interview in the San Francisco area, and then the afternoon drive to Monterey. After the long road trip, so far, our car is filled to the brim: The back is packed solid with our luggage, camping gear, etc, the ceiling hung with collected leaves and flowers, the floor paved with our rock-collections, the seats hung with drying clothes from beach-excursions, and the seats and every nook and cranny littered with the remnants of our dinner-on-the-road, various snacks, vehicle-entertainments, and other bits that came unpacked. We drove up to the hotel, passed the valet parking, and assumed there must be some better-for-us way of checking in. Nope! Valet was the only way. So we parked the car around the corner, feeling rather unfit for such obviously high-class accommodations, pulled out the bags we'd need for our time in Monterey, tidied up what we could of the mess, and then the kids and I followed Markus on foot, as he drove up to the Hotel Entrance. I checked us in as our car was swarmed by valets and attendants of various descriptions, and our luggage whisked up to our room. The woman at the front desk said "I am very pleased to assist you", and we wandered a little bewildered up to our room.

There was a vanity outside the spacious bathroom, there were 3 telephones (desk, bed, and toilet?!) the beds were clad in down, the balcony doors opened to a cool night view of Monterey Bay, kelp beds, and sealions grunting their evening conversations. Email was free. (Rhiannon emailed her friends.)

Before we'd even finished looking around our luggage arrived, and then a basket of fruit, water, cookies, milk in wine-glasses for the kids, and a totally unexpected card from the manager, saying he was delighted to host us.

Needless to say, we fell into a swoon of happy exhaustion, sitting on the balcony enjoying our gifts, with the distinct feeling that there had been some mistake. We are not the Queen. But we lived it anyway, and joyously spent two nights in this fabulous hotel.

The kids have 2 beloved animals and a baby with them, so we have a little housekeeping-test going: If we leave them in the room when housekeeping comes to make the beds, how will they be treated? They've never been treated badly, although once Fwog (above) appeared to have had a rather vigorous massage. But the Monterey Hotel housekeeping passed our test, too:

Meme seemed to be enjoying her view of the water. :--)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

2011-06-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Between two nights of sealion choruses grunting us to sleep, we went to the aquarium. The main exhibit (the window into Monterey Bay was closed, and although most of the other exhibits were great, we all agreed that Vancouver Aquarium is just as great, though a little different, and sad that the mammals have such small enclosures. It was nice to watch the wild otters, seals, sealions and humans from the deck of the aquarium Monterey.

On our way!

The first section we explored was the "cannery". The aquarium is on Cannery Row, and it was nice to have the opportunity to learn about not only the history, but also the practical workings and ecological considerations of fisheries.

The aquarium has a beautiful seahorse exhibit.

(Including these miniscule baby seahorses, pictured here much larger than life!)

The albatross talk (with friendly captive assistant) was quite interesting.

Predatory hand-barnacles!

Wild sea otter having a crab for lunch.

A lot of lovely birds in a pretty small enclosure. Spoonbills, flamingos, ibis, herons, etc.

Yes I know it looks like I'm grabbing him, and Rhiannon chided me for it, but I wasn't - honestly. The sociable bat rays are really rather unbelievable. They swim right out of the water to look us in the eyes, and seem really to enjoy being petted. As I reached out to stroke this passerby, it lifted its fin right up into my hand and swooshed through like, well... like a fish.

One of the penguins was also rather sociable. Most of its family and compatriots sat up on the rock having meetings; this one kept coming back for visits with the gawking humans.

Bridges

2011-06-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

We thought Seattle was the City of Bridges. Well it rather is. Seems to be a futuristic snarl of multi-level twisting ribbonous concrete, buildings poking up here and there as if they're fighting the freeways for space.

Well if Seattle is the city of Bridges, then the San Francisco Bay is the land of driving over water. Never mind the Golden Gate. It's nice, OK. But today I had a MAMA interview in Oakland, before we drove south, which necessitated traveling on 2 other bridges: the San Rafael and the San Mateo. Wow. We spent a lot of time driving over water. Miles and miles of driving over water.


Toward Richmond-San Rafael bridge.

IN Richmond-San Rafael bridge.

On the road that might as well be a bridge of it's own, on the way to the San Mateo Bridge. Yes that's right: you can't SEE the other side!

Finally reaching the San Mateo Bridge, which is nothing compared to the miles of water-skimming road we'd just traveled.

San Francisco!!

2011-06-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Drove into San Francisco on a foggy morning, just to be sure we had the full experience!!

So many people seem to bring up the Golden Gate Bridge in conversation. At least now we can nod knowingly instead of blankly!

First stop: Maritime Museum. The main gallery upstairs was under renovation, though.

As usual, Markus found something to study to help him make boat-building decisions.

Then we went out to the real boats, where we put the kids to work.

Hard work, but futile work, too.

...meanwhile back at the museum, some rather diminutive plastic sailors worked in perfect unison at their own job...

Then we walked down Haight Street,

filled Mama's shopping quota at Love of Ganesha,

had a snack at a lovely little cafe that was full of interesting books, and packed it in for the day.

Day 2: back to the Haight: visited some mural-creatures,

... ... ...

and eventually found ourselves in Golden Gate Park, having an up-close communion with our first palm tree.

Markus seems to find oaks wherever we go!

We hung around on Hippie Hill for a while, visited the playground, and eventually wound our way back out of the park, again.

We had lunch in the dunes while watching surfers and sand-movers coaxing the dunes off the Great Highway and back onto the beach. What makes the highway Great in San Francisco? We weren't sure. But obviously it must be.

So we took it back to Mill Valley again.

The Mill Valley Inn

2011-06-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to stay in Mill Valley because this is where my mother lived, as a child. Thankfully, we were offered accommodation by the Mill Valley Inn, and glad to be there. Mill Valley has changed quite a bit since the mid-to-late 50's, when my mother lived there. It's an upscale town, now, and the Mill Valley Inn pretty much lives up to that standard.

It's a concrete building that spirals up around what could be a courtyard, but is instead the inn's parking garage. This is maybe not the most elegant view upon exiting a room, but open and interesting, and preferable to the small hallways of most hotels we've seen. The room we have is small, but beautifully decorated with old and/or distressed wooden furniture, amazingly high ceilings, and with gorgeous French doors opening to the town. MVI is the first place we've visited that does not have a Bible in the room. We like this.

Breakfast is all self-serve, but definitely better than the 3-star accommodations we've stayed at, with more and varied fruit options, average sweet/white breads, reasonably healthy cereals, and make-your-own waffles. Self-serve coffee and tea (a nice assortment!) are available, but so are various espresso and steamed-milk beverages, from the kitchen. An open wine-and-cheese reception is held every afternoon in the breakfast room, and I assume that the doors are opened to the patio in better weather (it's raining while we're there).

Although the inn as a whole is clean and quite comfortable, when we asked for a mattress or cot for the children, who were sleeping on the floor, we were given a very old, stained mattress with a sheet over it. This is by far not the worst thing we've seen in hotels on this trip, but not really up to the standard the Mill Valley Inn has set for itself. I am going to assume it was just a glitch.

On the whole, MVI is a lovely, calm, quiet place to stay, close enough to San Francisco without needing to be in the urban madness, and a good place to relax, if you can afford it. It's a great place for an afternoon bit of Asterix-reading:

Bad plants, good plants, and a healing crescent moon.

2011-06-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today was our trip from Mendocino to Mill Valley. We harvested some eucalyptus before leaving the Mendocino area, and hung it around the ceiling of our car to decorate our ride! Although it smells great, eucalyptus is an invasive weed, wreaking havoc on various US wildernesses. Eucalyptus depletes groundwater needed for indigenous plants, takes over and changes habitats, thus vastly reducing habitat for many plants and animals, and can carry deadly spores. It seems to be everywhere in california, in the towns, in the parks, and in conservation areas, but thankfully it is not able to withstand our winters, and has not taken over up here, yet. But wait! ArborGen has now received federal permission to introduce vast quantities of its genetically modified eucalypti (designed to withstand cold climate) across the US south, in an "experiment". It seems taking over one latitude with invasive, destructive weeds isn't enough. There have been a few petitions out in an attempt to stop this insanity. Sign if you care: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/petition.php

And here is one wilderness that is now threatened by the Eucalyptus:

Look up. Under, behind, around, and sometimes even above those Sequoias are Eucalyptus. Everywhere.

We drove south to Mill Valley, arriving just in time to see the moon reach its full-sickle brightness, and to take a post-car-sickness walk under its light. It's hard to see ecological devastation anywhere, especially in treasures like the redwood forests, but somehow the timlessness of the moon is reassuring. When humans are gone, and redwoods, and even ArborGen, the moon will look down on this place, crawling with some unfathomable assortment of super-hardy plants and animals, and keep on shining. We try to let the sadness we witness be a lesson but not a downer. Tomorrow we're going to try to find human love in San Francisco.

(I like my camera.)

The Inn at Schoolhouse Creek

2011-06-05T08:49:00.000-07:00


Lilies by the koi pond.

One of the MAMA Project sponsors was the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek, run by Maureen and Steve. They put us up in a fully wheelchair-equipped cabin (ramp, accessible bathroom with shower seat, etc), that had one king-sized bed with a sumptuous mattress, and a day-bed with an extra trundle bed to pull out. We were a bit in heaven! A gas fireplace kept us warm despite the unfortunate chilly weather, and for extra heat we all got in the giant jacuzzi tub in the cabin and had a soak. The Inn, a collection of cottages, is nestled among quite a few large cypress trees, just a short distance from the ocean.

Note the disappointment on the left. She returned the deed on her next turn.

Outdoor amenities include a hot tub, hammocks, a giant chess set, and pooch-parking for guests whose companions would like to be close-by during meals. They feed the birds every morning during breakfast, for guests' entertainment. And breakfast was really great. It consisted of self-serve baked goods, toast, cereals, etc. and options for various delicious hot meals (omelets, french toast, pancakes, fritatta, etc.) from the kitchen. They also made an effort to cater to our children's allergies. Options to bring breakfast back to the cabin or for dinner, later, are also available.

We didn't have our dear Hazel with us to make use of the pooch parking, but we saw another dog waiting patiently there during one of our breakfasts.

The Creekside Restaurant!

Birds and a chipmunk having their breakfast.

Breakfast time!

Mendocino

2011-06-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

A bit tired from the grueling drive into Mendocino, yesterday and a MAMA interview today, we took a break to explore the sandstone and seashore of Mendocino.

We stood on the giant rock formations, watching some seals playing below...

...in the beds of multiple seaweeds, some of which were the first giant kelp we've seen yet.

We explored the life on the rocks and in the tide-pools.

Turquoise limpets,

goose-neck barnacles,

etc.

Some other beachgoers had their cats with them. Some of the cats explored the beach; this one stayed home!

Cold and tired, we went back to our cabin at the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek where we made ourselves some hot pasta on our excellent little induction cooker. Phewf. Family jacuzzi in the cabin, and early to bed.

Elk Meadows, Klamath

2011-06-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Somebody let their dogs out on the wild elk.

The elk prevailed.

And they went back to their grazing.

The Other Side of the Klamath: The Spit and Brush Dance Site

2011-06-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

We went to see the Yurok Brush Dance Site on the way out to the spit. The Brush Dances normally happen in July, so the area is still quite overgrown with grass.

Geneva told me about her experience with her daughter in the pit. The roofs come off of the pit-houses, and the mother with child (who is the focus of the brush-dance) live inside for 4 days - the duration of the ceremony. She talked about sitting in the pit with her baby, and listening to all the dancing around her, then looking up to see the many many people looking down, all in honour of her and her baby, and how whole she felt; how home, and how special. Her mother Jan talked about the feeling of participating in the Brush Dance, knowing that her feet are walking the same patterns in the same regalia, on the same ground that her mother's and grandmother's did, and how whole it made her feel, and how home. This is the site of continuity; of the passing down of family, tradition, knowledge, healing, and potential.

And of course this spit: the place for fishing, gathering, and community, is right next to the Brush Dance site.

Oregos looks over at the spit from Woge's beach, across the river.

Tal made a Mt. Rushmore-ish sculpture on the sand-bank.

People were fishing for red-tailed perch, which swim in the trough just offshore.

The spit is so vast and expansive that, when mostly deserted as it was this morning, it feels nearly hollow. There is a sort of sucking wind that takes voices out to sea, and people just barely shrouded by mist are inaudible and seem to be miles away.

At other times, the spit is populated by birds and mammals. Today there was only a skeleton.

Everything seems to be big and wide. Even beach-writing. Rhiannon cut her fingers on a stick and wrote a message in the sand to encourage us back to the band-aid-box in the car. This message was nearly 100 feet long.

ReQua, Klamath, Oregos, & Wogé

2011-06-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

We spent two nights at the ReQua Inn on the Yurok Reservation at Klamath, just south of Crescent City.

The mouth of the Klamath River, with the sand-spit visible on the left. (Click to see full-size.)

Wogé, in Yurok, means 'guardian spirit' (and is also the local tongue-in-cheek name for white person). This Wogé lives up to his name. As we parked our car by Sweet Grandma Lavina's gate, there were no other humans anywhere in sight. Wogé met us at his front gate, which also happens to be the top of the trail down to the beach. There was no hesitation, and also no social fussiness. He had a mission, and that was to be our guide.

Wogé took us down to the beach.

See that rock at the end of the beach? We walked past her on the way down.

She looks like a woman carrying a burden-basket.

Her name is Oregos. People pray to her and she takes their burdens away. When our host Geneva came home to live at Requa, she despaired that she might not find a partner on the reservation. So she went down to pray with Oregos. She made a list of the things she wanted in a man. 3 surfers came in from the beach, and she and her mother joked that they were the answer to her prayer. Before too long, she traveled to New Zealand, where she met Reweti, a Maori man who became the answer to her dreams.

The spit across the water was populated by various fishers.

Most were catching salmon, and thankfully we ate some of that fresh-caught salmon, beautifully prepared for our dinner by the artistic chef at the ReQua Inn. Thomas, Geneva's brother, serves a beautiful assortment of local, homegrown and wild foods. They're not cheap, but they're utterly worth the money. Some favourites of ours were the homemade yogurt, lemon-poppyseed hotcakes, the rich red salmon, the home-made mountain-tea icecream, and the acorn tart. The acorns were harvested further away and bartered for seaweed from Klamath. The Mountain Tea was locally harvested, as were the salmon, and some of the herbs and veggies. And the chicken was smoked that day as "a bit of an experiment" behind the Inn. All were delicious.

The fishers were catching the fish along the edges, laying nets in the eddies. The fish swim up in the eddies, because it's easier to get up the stream and to escape the sea lions who wait in the centre of the river to catch their meals. This particular sea lion was using the fishers' strategy, and was only about 15 feet from the shore.

We also saw our first up-close pelicans!

They seemed to be the most personable birds we'd ever met! We didn't get much closer than this, but the way they stood around just looking at us was fascinating!

Wogé used to be Reweti and Geneva's dog, but their first daughter TeMaia was allergic to him, so he went to live with Sweet Grandma, who lives in the house her grandfather built, near the water. After Wogé showed us around, introduced us to all his special games (chewing sticks, jumping on waves, barking at waves, etc.) he waited for us. When it was time for us to go, he led us back up the path. The neighbours' dogs barked at us, so he went and got them, somehow convinced them to stop barking, and brought them over to introduce to us. He sat patiently while they interrogated us. Then, as we were leaving, he stood by to watch, before heading back to his house.

The Oregon Coast

2011-06-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

Today was my brother's birthday, and a loooong drive for us! But it was rewarding. We drove a few hours to from Portland to the Oregon Dunes, and spent the new moon time under the warm sun (and some clouds), running in the surf and warm sand. We saw 3 pelicans fly by (very exciting!!), scooped handfuls of the billions of tiny shrimp that were surfing in the waves, rolled, built, kicked and ran in the sand, and became thoroughly drenched in time for our trip down to the Yurok Reservation for the next part of our trip.

We drove out to the Oregon Dunes, paid our park fees...

...climbed up on top of the dunes, past the snowy plover sanctuary, and looked back at the dunes and park.

Then we turned around and looked at the Pacific Ocean! (Click these panoramas to see a larger version.)

For some of us, the obvious thing to do was to run straight down into it.

Some of us were more inclined to collect souvenirs.

Some finds were rather less savoury.

And put to rest.

Honourably.

Natural & Human History Walk

2011-05-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today we walked over the highway and towards Fort Vancouver and the airfield... and we read about what we saw as we went! What could have been a mundane pedestrian overpass was instead linked to the National Historic Site of Fort Vancouver, and made into a natural and human history walk. Plants that are often stepped upon, or weeded out of private and public gardens are instead encouraged and labeled with informative signs, so that we can all learn the names, history, and uses of the flora we know so well. At viewpoints along the walk are names of the local First Nations groups, as well as historical paintings and descriptions of the history and use of the land and water below.

I was in favour of a National Park on Bowen Island, before, but this has given me a vision. If the park can include (say, along the dump-road, perhaps), some well-built, durable, and accurate signage (like the great sign at the causeway, currently) then it can be even more of a treasure for both islanders and visitors to learn about our own home in a way that I think most don't ever have the chance.

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference: Day 4: Goodbye

2011-05-31T00:08:00.000-07:00

The end of the conference was today - there was a hang-out at the nearby park, time spent reaffirming connections with all of our new friends, sun soaked up for the first time since getting here. I did a couple more MAMA interviews, but other than that it was just a day to relax and assimilate our experience.

Somebody brought sidewalk chalk.

He drew the bridge.

Tomorrow will be a dark moon; a day of taking stock, checking out Portland a little bit, packing up the car again, etc. Then on Wednesday with the new moon and my brother's birthday we're off for a loooooong drive, and eventually to interview some Yurok native mothers down in California.

But first we have to wipe down our car and attach our new bumper stickers!!!

Goodbye wonderful friends!

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference: Day 3

2011-05-29T23:15:00.001-07:00

Partners.
Part of the reason we're on this trip together is to find our beginning again. But a second beginning is never really the beginning again, is it? It's more like a renewal. Today we went to Jeff and Ginger Sabo's talk about partnership in unschooling. Specifically they talked about unschooling our spouses: how we can apply the same philosophy, compassion, and openness to our spouses. It was good to sit together, resting heads together, listening to two people who are on a similar journey to ours talk about how to make it work. We could only have benefited from this if we'd done enough work on ourselves to be able to understand the value of the discussion, and I guess we have, now. That's a good feeling, and this was a good thing to share before our intense family trip.

The drawbridge -- we took animation photos of this but it's going to take a loooong time to make the animation!

Friends.
We also made some beautiful new friends. Spent a lot of time talking about homesteading, life, mothering, art, etc. Rhiannon made a friend named Rhiannon, and Tal says he liked most of the boys he met playing lego. There are people here from all over the States, as well as a few from Canada. Community. I went on about that yesterday, I know, so I won't continue...

Rhiannons!

Concerts.
The SuperMAMA concert had a pretty small audience, but seemed to be well-received by those who were there. A couple even went out part-way-through to bring their families in. But the best of all of course were the awesome unschooling musicians we encountered, here. One of our new friends is Rich McCloud, whose music is just soul-opening. Then in the evening there was a fabulous concert mostly by Amy Steinberg and Kimya Dawson. Totally impressed by the talent and intention of these people, but it's especially wonderful to me to come to this place where none of the art-making is just ego-driven; it's open. It's enriching. It's accepting. It's whole. It's for everybody. Here's the song we heard Rich sing last night:

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference: Day 2

2011-05-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

Markus and I took in a great talk by Kelly Lovejoy about unschooling tweens (we've recently realized that Tal is fast on his way to being a member of this illustrious group...). It was indeed very enlightening. Questions we didn't know we had yet were answered. We gained a bit of an understanding for why he is the way he is right now and some reassurance that, for tween unschoolers, who are sometimes disinterested and "boring" compared to their always-busy school-going compatriots -- this is just a needed lull while they figure out where they're going before the teen years. The teens at this conference are many and varied and ENGAGED. While Tal and some of the other 9-11-year olds (I'm guessing at ages, here) hides in his hoodie playing lego or reading for hours, or doing activities others are doing -- beside them, with only the occasional word exchanged, the teens create "people puddles" on the floor. They are expressing themselves in every conceivable way, some joining in with parents' discussions, and some being the socially vibrant creatures that they are. And it's really beautiful to see them for the most part accepted as an important and integral part of this community. Kelly talked about the probability that while parents may push the nest a bit at this stage, it's often a much needed cocooning stage for our tweens, and they may in fact need more of our help and attention than before -- and to trust that through this deeper connection they will not become dysfunctional adults, but that they are building their strong roots to grow into independent teens and adults. These are the things we think about abstractly, but to have her talk about them in terms of the specifics of our kids' behaviour right now made them more useful to us.

And those teens? THOSE TEENS! We had a family "Barefoot Boogie" in the evening, (a beautiful bonding moment for us, dancing and glow-stick-fighting with our kids and some of their new friends), followed by the teen prom. The teens came in every shape and colour, and pretty much shook the house. It was really amazing to see the inclusivity and connection, here. I'm sure there's plenty of disharmony that goes on beyond my radar, but on the whole it's obvious to me that these kids are a pretty accepting, open bunch of humans, and that is beautiful to see.

I can't say I'm totally reassured about the changes that my kids will go through in their teen years, but this day, to me, was extremely comforting. With not a whole lot of experienced unschoolers around as examples, it's easy to become worried about our choices. Being here is something like a big sign being held up to us: IT WILL BE MORE THAN OK: IT WILL BE GOOD!!!

Of course, there was more than that. While I was interviewing a mother, Markus took the kids to the farmers' market up the road, and there were also some fabulous kids' workshops at the conference... much more photographable than our parental ponderings:

Animal Clinic! Rhiannon had been looking forward to this since we saw it in the program a couple of months ago. She brought Woofbomb specifically so he could be bandaged up at this clinic. Here he is being weighed.

Hula-hoop making!

Hula-hoop using!

Rhiannon's Daring Book for Girls recommends knee-hooping. Apparently it's very difficult!

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference: Day 1 (and a half)

2011-05-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah we're back! In the US of A!

...which apparently means TV's in the hotel room! This is a completely faked pose. The TV was not on. The kids were just so hyped to be on our big trip that they started "goofing out" as Rhiannon calls it, with the remote control!

Homecoming Away

We left home at 5:50AM on Thursday, and arrived at the conference at about dinner time. Exhausted and a little cranky from the MANY wrong turns we made trying to find the right exits from the freeway, we suddenly found ourselves in a parking lot well-populated with decorated cars. Most had a plethora of bumper stickers, and some had other decorations, or recently-painted declarations of joy and unschooling. We had the collective feeling of fitting in. It was beautiful.

Then we walked into the conference centre lobby. Kids of all ages and colours (I include not only skin colours but much more vibrant hair, paint, and clothing colours, as well) lay sprawled out in various heaps and entanglements around the floor, walked around holding hands, and plied their wares of bracelets, crafts, bumper-stickers, greeting cards, and free hugs. It was a bit like the Vancouver Folk Society retreats that we love so much, but with 70% children, and a lot less music. There was a feeling of certainty that we were accepted.

Day 1
On Friday, we hopped around to various talks, circle chats and funshops, passing each other in the hallways (by far not the only family to be making use of little walkie-talkies), and a little bewildered and frazzled with the amount of information to absorb. Among the things we participated in were the Film Festival, Lego-building, Bionicle-building, Geocaching (there is a new travel-bug coming to Bowen, as a consequence), Theare Improv Games, Button-Making, Balloon-Sculpting, and Dads' Circle Chats and panels. I ran a MAMA Conversation, and arranged some interviews for later, too.

The greatest thing about this conference is the feeling of acceptance and diversity. A scan of the audience of the talent show, which was the biggest event of the weekend, so far, would show humans quite evenly distributed from the ages of newborn to grandparents (not many seniors, though), with hair-styles of every shape and colour imaginable, political leanings towards various extremes and in between, pacifists and military people, people with and without children, and families of many different educational philosophies. We are not the only people with a painted car, nor Rhiannon the only child who carries around a baby, nor Tal the only boy with long hair, nor the only poeple from BC. (In fact, Markus ran into someone he attended UVic with, at the button-making funshop!) But what is common in all of us seems to be that we are engaged in our lives and dreams, and in our children's lives. As simple as that sounds, it's a fabulous thing to have in common!

We think it's interesting to watch the bridge over the Columbia River go up and down. Interesting, too, that the main coastal artery (the I5) seems to stop even for a single lovely sailboat to pass by, underneath. Beautiful!

Glad to Be Where We Are
At the talent show, a couple got up and sang "We are Different", which apparently had been introduced at an earlier conference, and (just like everyone aged 2-60-something who got up on stage) received great applause and audience participation. When we went out into the community, however, things changed, a little. The further we got away from the conference and milling unschoolers, the less we fit in, and the more we felt like outsiders, partly because of our Canadian-ness and partly because we are "different". And suddenly that didn't seem like such an OK thing. This reminded me how lucky we are to live where we do; to live in a community rich with arts and diversity, acceptance and engaged people. Bowen is really quite unique in the world, and although we may be happy to have found such a concentration of "our people", here, we're also lucky to live in such a place, most days of the year.

(I'll add photos to this post when I get a chance to take them off the camera!!)

Tir-na-nOg: The land of perpetual youth...

2011-05-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

...where Angus Og dreams the dream that inspires life for the rest of us.

Taliesin and Rhiannon have been attending Tir-na-nOg Theatre School on Bowen Island this year, and have both just finished their year-end plays. Taliesin played a few roles, including a Bionicle, Numero Uno, and a word-seller in the Phantom Tollbooth; Rhiannon played Aslan, a deer, and a villager in Narnia. They both adored their classes, and were proud to pieces about their performances. (Yes -- that includes Tali, who maintains his longtime conviction that he doesn`t perform... but has created an exception for Tir-na-nOg, now.)

Photography is not allowed during performances, so, for you, we had them each re-enact their biggest parts so we could post them on the blog. Rhiannon`s piece is her (Aslan`s) soliloquy to the animals, after creating the world, and Taliesin`s is his scene with his friend Ryan, where the brothers King Azaz (Ryan) and Numero Uno (Tal) argue over their beliefs until their father comes in to break up the fight. Since Tal and Ryan did this without the other actors, Ryan mimics the father, speaking, with his hand at the end!

Update - May 24: Today Taliesin and Rhiannon made gifts (Tal made a story and Rhiannon made a script for a play) to thank Jack and Julie. Please note that these are entirely of their own device. Tal asked me how to spell `thank`, I spelled it, and then explained that I thought it would be nicer if he just spelled things himself. The rest, including the spelling, ideas, thoughts and content, really do express our children`s love of their time with Jack and Julie. (Rhiannon never asked for help. She was finished her book before Tal finished his extensive decorations, which were, of course, what he started with. Unschooling cheer: I love to see how very different my kids` learning and creative styles are, but how they both manage to build what they need out of their own desires and inspirations.)

Click these to enlarge them; it makes it easier to read the pencil markings.

Rhiannon Learned to Ride!!!

2011-05-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Rhiannon`s quick growth has made it difficult for her to learn to ride, mostly because she was so afraid of falling. She needed a few incentives, and she got them, this week:
--a bigger bike
--a basket for her baby Meme to join her on travels
--the promise of riding the Venice Beach boardwalk with her friend Hunter in June

Here is Tal delivering his newly-grown-out-of bike to her, complete with the basket he got for her, and the stages of learning to ride, afterwards.

Deception Pass

2011-05-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

First we crossed the first half of this two-span bridge. It`s impressive just as a bridge --

but then you look down.

And then you look more closely: It`s really very big!

There was camas growing everywhere,

and arbutus,

and beautiful steep hillsides covered with succulents and wild flowers!

And at the bottom there was a wonderful tidepool

with anemones, chitons, tube-worms, hermit crabs, fish, shellfish of many varieties, and even a pink sponge! The kids declared it better than the aquarium!

Then, back at the top before driving away, they also improved the sign, by adding a statue to it. :--)

Unschooling Family Adventure: Art Installation!!

2011-05-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

We went to Port Townsend, WA, to install the MAMA Project at Fort Worden. It was our first trip family work-trip. We were hosted by some beautiful kindred spirits, Steve and Elaine, and, although we didn`t have much time to look around, we had a marvelous time, and came home feeling much richer in spirit.

We left on May 3rd, on the 5:30 ferry from home, were stopped, held up for an hour and searched at the border because the border agent said ``Why would you do art if you`re not making money!!`` Then we stopped in Burlington to pick up the donated wood for the stands (generously donated by Coast Lumber), and drove down Whidby Island to take the ferry to Port Townsend. We arrived at the installation space at 3, spent until very late at night setting up, while the kids entertained themselves very well and graciously.


Hello, USA!

Cutting the stand-components (it was extremely cold and windy out there on the balcony!)

First sheet to be hung, with the evening sun hitting it from behind.

The kids were EXTREMELY patient. They exhausted their supply of games & books soon, and just invented more...

...some of which were a bit difficult for adults to understand...

By 3PM the next day I had finished setting up the show (post about the MAMA Project, on my other blog, here)... (patient kids again), Markus worked remotely for the first 3 days from Steve and Elaine`s home, and then began the waiting for visitors. The promotion for the show was on the extreme minimalist side, and it took a loooong time for word of mouth to bring people in, so for the first 3 days I spend most of each day with the following as my view, while the kids explored the fort, together.

Then on the weekend things picked up and I became extremely busy, while Markus took the kids exploring. They had a fabulous time, and he`ll post about that shortly, since he`s the one with all the good photos from those days. The kids and Markus brought me beautiful flowers for the show, and on Sunday, which was Mothers` day, they showed up with, treasures, and a delicious lunch for me, too.

Then on Sunday evening, as soon as the show closed, we all got to work taking it down. It was a big job, but we worked hard, and managed to get it done sometime late at night (9, if my memory is correct). And when I say we worked hard, I mean everybody! The kids had incentive (getting out of there!) and really did their bit. It was the most enjoyable takedown I`ve done yet, working in joy and solidarity with my own kids.

...and then... we got up exceedingly early and went home.

Well not quite. We promised ourselves a beautiful adventure in Deception Pass on the way home, and that promise was fulfilled completely, as you`ll see in my next post (whenever I find time for it).

Goodbye, Port Townsend!

Hello Chetzemoka Ferry!

May Day!

2011-05-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

This year we didn't have our own may celebration, but joined the Black Sheep's celebration in the cove. What a wonderful community we live in!!!

Hal an' tow!

Jolly tremelo!

We were up, long before the day-o!

To welcome in the summer!

To welcome in the May-O!

For Summer is a-comin' in an' winter's gone away -

Wild Food for (F)unschool

2011-04-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

Only three families, this week, but we went foraging in the meadow and surrounding woods & marsh for wild food. On the menu this week were licorice fern root, salmonberry shoots and petals, dandelion blossoms and young leaves, new cedar and fir needles for tea... We looked for maple blossoms, but none were low enough to reach. Then we got distracted with holding some baby and adult snakes.

Wild food is rather behind, with all the chilly weather, this year. We'll try again in a couple of weeks and see what else we can gather.

...and we went home with flowers in our hair...

(which appeared there while climbing around in a wild plum)

Witness Excellent Teaching

2011-04-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've talked about Brian, before, here. But last week Tal had his last violin day of the year with Brian, and I want to celebrate that, as well as give you all the opportunity to see really excellent non-coercive teaching in practice.

Brian Hoover is a virtuoso teacher. Not because he 'trains' people to be virtuosos, but precisely because he doesn't. Brian listens.

What you will witness in the 1/2 hour video below is Brian's extraordinary patience, flexibility, openness, and compassion. This is the definition, to me, of a good teacher. He acknowledges that teaching is not a one-way flow of information, but that it is a conversation, with acceptance and response being key to learning. In just 20 or 30 weeks (45 minutes/week), Brian has taught Tali many fundamental (conventional and unconventional) music skills, but above all he has become his friend.

Each class is a compassionate conversation between two people, through music. Beyond conventional musical theory, my son has learned to express himself, to hear music, to be open to ideas presented, that he has a valuable voice, and that the universe is available to him to create, to love, and to celebrate. And all of this happened while Brian honoured Tali's desire to hold his violin upright on his feet, and to never 'practice'!

Taliesin plays when he wants to, how he wants to, and he goes to his excellent teacher for inspiration, to learn about life, and for friendship.

Tali is very quiet. He prefers not to talk, if possible, until he has known somebody for quite a while. During the first few sessions with Brian, he was pretty quiet; he lightly fluttered the bow across the strings and mumbled a few words when absolutely required. He did the bare minimum. Then one day he played with volume. Volume!

Exclaimed Brian, "Well - that's a different sound than usual!"

"Yes," Tali replied, through lowered lashes and a screen of long hair. "My violin found his voice again."

Thank you, Brian, for your beautiful gift to us and to the world.

The Music Party on Ile Kerguelen

2011-04-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

I heard music coming from somewhere deep in the woods beside our property. Harmonica and accordion.

This morning the kids decided to go on an adventure around the world, and checked on their inflatable globe-beachball where exactly the other side of the world is... Turns out to be Ile Kerguelen, where they tell me a French music party is happening! So they planned their route over land via Alaska, Russia, the middle East, and Africa, made plans for rafting across the aqueous parts of that route, packed up both winter clothes and sunhats, first aid supplies, a French dictionary, a camera, a harmonica and an accordion, and they left.

They said I can call them in if their friends come over.

One beautiful part of this is that it the following were the only input from me:

"Mama, Where's the exact other side of the world?"
"I don't know; maybe Australia. You'll have to check your globe."

"Mama, can we bring the big first aid kit?"
"No; please don't."

Home

2011-04-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

On Friday 3 things converged upon my sense of place:

read a post at Radio Free School called Staying Local
finally replied with my feelings about our learning centre taking a family field-trip to Mexico
went on another (f)Unschool adventure close to home

The Radio Free School post inspired me to chime in on the issue, too. So here it is.

I've always felt very strongly that the beginning of any exploration (including life) needs to begin with the self. When a baby is born she first discovers the feeling of touch on dry skin; of air in her lungs, and the sound of her own voice. As she nurses, the simple act of living is her connection with her mother and her experience of the world around her. As she grows and her eyes become able to focus; her ears to differentiate voices, intonations, pressure changes, etc. she begins her relationship with the wider world. She moves into this relationship from a place of security, knowing that the strong connection she has with her mother will be her safety net; her 'home'. At first she will watch the world from her mother's breast: the changing texture of skin, the rolling of her mother's hair, the smell of milk and sweat; the feelings she's experiencing, and her own breath. Eventually she will take interest in movement and light, in her parents' faces and clothing, and also in others. She will look out from the safety of the arms whose smell and touch she knows as 'home' to explore the world around her with her eyes and ears, with her nose, and eventually with her skin and mouth. As she ventures into that world, she will return to 'home' for security and reassurance, at first dozens of times during the day, then perhaps one dozen, then just a few, as the safety net she's developed in her firm rooting of 'home' becomes less and less necessary. Eventually she'll move out of her parents' house and return perhaps once every few days with a phonecall to her parents or siblings, to talk.

It is the knowledge that that 'home' exists that gives her courage to explore beyond it.

I think most of us accept this scenario as normal. So isn't it normal, too, then, to expect all learning to follow a similar course? When our learning community was pondering having a family fieldtrip to Mexico, I responded that although I understand that those who can afford to travel find educational benefit in seeing other countries, I think it's very important, especially for younger kids, to learn and become inspired about our own home community, first. Although our kids do projects and field-trips and vacations to learn about other countries, cultures, and ecosystems, when do they learn about their own homes? How much time do most of us really spend getting to know our immediate surroundings? Every week I take families out to explore our island - the richness of history, ecology, biology, and sociology on this island is the same as everywhere else in the world, and it's free for us to explore. Every week, most if not all of the kids make discoveries that to them are 'amazing': things in our own 'home' that they never knew existed; things which inspire them to be interested in learning of all sorts, that inspire them to be curious learners, in general. We're developing a close bond with our home, so that the complex sciences of life have a grounding in that safe place the children know; so that we can grow our interest in these sciences from our deep understanding and concern for how those sciences apply to our 'home'.

We know home matters, so it matters to us to learn about it. Our learning community's director answered my email with these words: "One thing I really notice is that young kids especially are very present and mostly noticing the little things right in front of their noses. If you take them on some far away trip, what they remember the most is the flower they picked, or the water in the pool, or the dog that played with them, or the big hole they saw - which leaves you wondering why you paid so much money to go that far anyways!"

A couple of years ago I led a folk-song series with kids from our learning community, and did what I felt was natural: I started them off with a map of our island, and encouraged them to find their homes. From there, we began by singing songs about our island. It was that simple. Yes, we covered topics such as folk music, mining (there are mines on the island, marked on the map), driving (we pretended to drive around the map) and island life, but the root of it all was the children's understanding of their connection to the bit of land we call 'home'.

This past week for our usual (f)Unschool exploration we went up the bluffs on Mt. Collins. We got to know a piece of our home. Here are some visuals, photographed by myself, Rhiannon, and Beata:

Microcosm:

smell, touch, texture, physical connection, and tiny tiny things to see and hear

being here

Macrocosm:

Our smallness on the big island that sometimes seems small, itself. Our insignificance on a steep mossy slope; trees and rocks and animals whose existence supports ours, and whose fate is our responsibility.

Being Here.

Synthesis:

(Joy!)

(f)Unschool Discoveries, Today

2011-04-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Today we went exploring Killarney Creek.

Sarra found a Red-Legged Frog (blue-listed, but abundant in this area)

Tal still puzzling over the placement of fawn-vertebrae; Sarra learning how to hold a frog.

We found a little sinkhole near the creek, and measured its depth (with varying results, depending how far the kids stuck the stick into the mud at the bottom).

One of the earth's greatest puzzles: scattered bones! These are the bones of a young deer.

We accidentally frightened a wren from its nest-building.

Cedar Shells

2011-03-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

Much of our side of the island burned at the beginning of the last century, and we are left with quite a large number of enormous blackened shells of the old-growth cedar that once stood all over this area. (Much of it was logged.) These black, spiky towers stand like ghosts among the trees, sometimes inhabited by animals, and temporarily by children. They make great forts, as long as they're safe.

We stopped by one of the largest groups of cedar shells on the way home from the community school, today, and the kids had a bit of a play. As he ran up to them, Tal shouted: "This is a monument, you know!!"

Learning Nature-ally

2011-03-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned before that part of the benefit of (f)Unschool becoming a Nature Club program is that we will have opportunities to have local experts join us on our outings. Bob Turner, an inspired geologist and also our local mayor, is one of those experts. Last month Bob joined us and some of Island Discovery's kids and parents to explore a clay-bank full of sea-shells. Discovering fossils first hand and learning about the history and geology of the earth is amazing anytime, but when one has the opportunity to learn about one's own home in such a manner then we internalize that learning much more deeply. It creates a spark of wonder and personal inspiration for further learning, in the future.

It is with great thanks to Bob for his gift of time, spirit, and knowledge that I publish this video of our clay-bank exploration:

A couple of weeks ago, during (f)Unschool, we were talking about the history of the forest we were hiking through: springboard notches in old-growth cedar stumps, burnt-out cedar shells from the long-ago forest fire, various edible plants and the benefit of the spring flooding to the ecosystem. I try not to talk too much, especially to the kids, but let them wonder and explore ideas, adding bits of information when it seems appropriate. And usually the kids share their own diverse knowledge with each other, deepening their relationships and their desire to understand the world. In all of this, Andra, who attends our local mainstream school, looked at me intensely and waved her arms around. "I didn't know all this, before!"

I laughed, and said that she knows lots about the island; we all have something to share.

She did not smile. "No. Seriously. They don't teach us this. If I brought my friends out here, they wouldn't know anything about this place! There's so much to know, here!"

I like to imagine her out in the woods sharing her newfound forest with her friends.

***

This week we're looking forward to getting back out to Nature Club (f)Unschool, after 2 weeks' break. It will likely be raining, and I'm beginning to think we might head right out into the water and really relish it. Maybe the mossy rainforest on the other side of the island. Hmmmm... Or up the bluffs if it's sunny.

***

When I talked to the Nature Club directors about making (f)Unschool a Nature Club activity, Will Husby (a very knowledgeable and friendly entomologist, educator, flautist and father who also happens to be my neighbour) suggested I look into David Sobel and Richard Louv, whom I'd never heard of...

Well, needless to say, I did look into them, and can now sharehere some really very excellent reads:

Article from Yes! Magazine: Beyond Ecophobia, by David Sobel
Article from the Boston Globe: Nature Nurtures Learning, by Peter Dizikes
Richard Louv's Blog: Fieldnotes from the Future

Passionately Reasonable

2011-03-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

Auntie Bree (in black) practicing her excellent auntie techniques...

My lovely sister Breelana has started a blog!

Passionately Reasonable

And of course, because she's the manager of BC Playthings, and also in the process of getting her Early Childhood Development certification, as well as being both a beloved caregiver and a passionate supporter of child-led and life-learning, this thoughtful blog is going to have some interesting posts. :-)

Welcome to blogland, Bree!!

Peregrine Falcon Visit with the Homelearners

2011-03-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

Lori took the full time homelearners to meet this lovely peregrine falcon near the Cowan house, today. We heard about falconry duck-hunting methods, all the little baubles, rings, and leash, etc. that she wears, and how to hold her. I believe she weighed about 3lbs.

She has to wear a little hood too keep her calm while being handled.

She's interesting, definitely, but not affectionate.

Tali's Mining Shovel

2011-03-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

Tal has a mine. This seems to be his most usual outdoor haunt for the past couple of years, and all of his friends (and some of Annie's) make a habit of not only helping dig, there, but also often of checking out its progress before even coming to our front door! They were all rather upset when the mine was filled in by an overzealous Opa with a new tractor, last January... but then Opa made amends by putting up a steel fence and a "Slow Men Working" sign. The digging began again, and now the mine is better than ever. The mine is becoming so famous that Uncle Ralph gave Tali his own brand new shovel, this year. After repeated reminders, Tal has become a little more reliable about putting our shovels away, but now he has his own to look after. And it even has his name carved into it, so that passing adults will leave it alone.

Bird Feeders

2011-03-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

One day I came to the table to find the kids making bird feeders. I love that they have these notions and just begin them, all of their own inspiration. We did encourage them to continue their rather messy activity out in the sunshine, and Markus ended up helping choose drill-bits. Tal actually carved out a roof for his, but then decided not to use it, when he realized that his base (a little clay planter-pot he made 2 years ago) had drain-holes in it, anyway. These feeders were completely designed and created by the kids, hung, and filled by the kids, and now we adults get to benefit, too, as they are frequently visited by a pair of Juncos.

Crab-Trap Saga

2011-03-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

It began at Christmas. My brother Adrian bought a crab-trap for Markus. Finally in February, Markus appeared home from a friend's house, grabbed the trap and some life-jackets, and dropped it - with the friend's trap - on a line off of the friend's boat, in Deep Bay. All very lovely, but when the diligent friend went to check the traps, he discovered that ours had become hopelessly entangled with the buoy line, and had to be cut free, to save the rope. Various plans were hatched, and during the next couple of weeks we went out twice to try to retrieve the trap by fishing for it with various improvised tools... until one day the friend handed us a new trap.

The new trap sat around for a few weeks, until the kids and I took the notion to just simply drop it off the Mt. Gardner dock and see what would happen. We got a fishing license, and headed down. Oops. No bait. So we decided to just put a very mussel-laden rock in, which we first smashed the mussel-shells on. Here is what ensued:

Rhiannon and her friends untangled the rope.

We guessed that 20 knots might suffice, so they calculated 5 each, and tied with all their might!

Dropping time!

...and off we went.
When we came back to check the trap two days later, we found it neatly tied up on the dock. The rope was cut. Wait - no - not cut... lacerated! our rope had obviously wound around somebody's propeller, and we'd caused a moderately large pain in the ass for some poor soul who then carefully unwound it, rolled it up, and set it on the dock for us!! So sorry, whoever you are, and SO grateful!!

Well, we had arrived with real (junkfood) bait, this time, and tried to do a better job of setting the trap. Cheap catfood tied on a string, to keep it from falling or drifting out of the trap. Markus hunted the beach until he found a plastic bottle, which we filled with rocks and tied 2/3 the way up the rope. The idea was that this would keep the slack rope from drifting around at low tide. We also went through considerable effort to tie the rope around the actual decking of the float, in order to keep it out of the way of future potential prop-accidents.

Which would they like best? Cheap canned food or cheap bagged food? Are crabs picky?

Back two days later again... the kids made the exciting haul...

Tally: 2 giant sunflower stars, one small sunflower stars, and one giant pink spiny seastar.

Well, like everything else in life, it was a learning experience.

...learning about giant pink spiny seastars...

We went back with Ethan and Andra a couple of days later: More Sunflower Stars!! This photo shows the quickly-retreating stomach of the giant sunflower star who had completely encased the can of catfood and was busy digesting its contents to nothingness. It was not sharing. Upon contemplation, we realized that where sunflower stars (voracious, giant, and relatively fast-moving predators of the seafloor) are plentiful, crabs may not wish to hang around... At low tide we could see at least 20 sunflower stars just around the dock.

...nevertheless, for experience's sake...

...the kids added a new piece of bait and threw the trap back in, anyway.

A couple of days later again we went back and finally took our trap home. We now have plans to take it out with its own buoy, and see if we can find something edible. Someday.

Is Unschooling Bad for Us?

2011-03-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

After all this time, we still quite regularly encounter people who worry about the children's welfare. Some of these people are passersby; some are long-time friends and family. The well-meant comments my kids have mentioned to me range from "Don't you ever get tired of being with your Mum?" to "You're homeschooled. You don't know anything!" to long explanations of common-knowledge things that they assume my kids must not know. To me, people usually quietly mention deep concerns about my children's "socialization" or "keeping up with their peers" or their ability to "make it as adults" or "in the real world". Or they assume my kids are geniuses, or have learning disabilities. Or they just roll their eyes.

The fact is, my kids are just kids. I am not sure exactly what grade level they function at, and I'm happy about that. I ensure that they have some regular activity that helps them develop basic life-skills, and this includes a bit of workbook practise (but I allow them to skip whichever pages seem silly or boring). Generally, I allow them to choose their own activities. Sometimes they read all day; sometimes they draw, craft, play lego, or do dramatic play all day long. When they get involved with something they generally keep at it for many hours. I'm not sure if the extra-long attention span is a result of not having a TV or of being allowed to take as long as they want, but I do think it's a good thing. It can indeed be difficult to schedule social time, because so many of their friends are in school so often, but therefore most afternoons are spent visiting with friends, and it's certainly not an issue.

I can't see the future. I don't know if my kids will "make it in the real world", but, just as I have confidence that they will succeed when allowed to follow their hearts, I have confidence that if the "real world" doesn't turn out to be what they want, they'll shape it to fit their dreams.

Anyway, I came across this video, which is a nicely thought-out adult unschooler's response to some of the criticism we face:

...and this one...

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference

2011-03-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

We just registered!
And we're so looking forward to it! Perhaps some of our BC compatriots will be joining us...?

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference
Red Lion Hotel, Vancouver Washington (next to Portland, Oregon)
May 26-29, 2011

http://lifeisgoodconference.com/

Note: This trip is actually sponsored for the MAMA Project, and I will be interviewing mothers in Portland and Vancouver, while we're there, as well as (hopefully; depends on space and planning) presenting or facilitating MAMA Project events at the Conference.

The MAMA Project is making a trip down the coast to California, to interview and gather data for the next set of portraits (the US West Coast set!) which will effectively double the MAMA Project's size and scope.

Surprise Picnic

2011-03-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

Rhiannon's gift to Tal for his birthday was the promise of a picnic. One day when we had some time in the afternoon, she secretly made him a special birthday note, while instructing me on what to put in the picnic basket. She marched outside with a baby-carrier, retrieved Tal from the yard, and tied the carried around his face as a blindfold. Thankfully, he was a willing participant, as she led him to the car, down a somewhat dangerous blind-walk to the beach and over the rough rocks to the little island, where she left him to sit while she spread out her surprise lunch in front of him. It was a wonderful afternoon!