Hurricane Sandy is off the coast. We're inside trying to invoke snow with an awesome new puzzle. Dear Girl just came downstairs to inform us the hurricane has breached the shores of NJ and sharks can be seen swimming the roads.

My view from morning, shifting perspectives. I've been knitting so much my wrists are burning. Indication from body: STOP. Ignore or listen? I finished the White Whale. The knitting is nothing. The fabric is divine--its all in the wool. I see that now. Am considering knitting myself long johns--the only civilized response to such fine soft stuff. I decided I must use all wool scraps before allowing myself to buy more. So this hat was born. Its the second most difficult thing I've ever knit and was a thrilling pleasure (can knitting thrill?) right up until I began to hate it at the end. Yet I could not stop. Ignore or listen, ever the challenge. In this case, not stopping was right, victory! So I bought new brown wool. For which I'm designing a mitten pattern. I'm still easily distracted by my dog sleeping and the morning light.

I have a friend with two children who have been in school their whole lives. He pulled them out last year so they could have extra time together. They unschooled the entire year, completely. No classes, no studies, nada. This year, the kids went back to school and were dismayed to learn they had to test back in. The oldest boy freaked out. He started crying, saying he couldn't possibly be expected to test with his peers after having been out a year. The pressure he felt was huge.

Both boys showed consistent academic improvement, in line with their schooled peers, and were enrolled  along side all their friends they'd left from before.

Unschooling is fascinating. Why does it work? Is it that nothing especially important is happening at school? Is it that the important things are happening at home? Is it that most kids get smarter no matter what?

Here is one to add to the reading list: The Beauty of Different
Be willing to be vulnerable so you can also fully experience joy. 
Control your own perspective. Perspective is everything.
Express yourself. Often, kindly, and without apology.

Handmade Puppet Parade!

Some of us were very excited to find a Walkingstick bug at our house early one morning. 

 Others of us were less pleased. 

If I knew nothing about unschooling and someone tried to tell me about it, if I were a stranger reading the essays here about unschooling, I would be profoundly skeptical. Unschooling sounds like bull shit. But it works. The children continue to show promising developmental progress. Their reading, writing, and thinking keep improving. Their world gets bigger and bigger as their bodies grow larger, and they are exposed to ever increasing ideas and information. They keep learning.

I suspect the explanation is simple. The reason most children show progress unschooling as well as in elementary school is because they are growing. Growing makes you smarter. Ad infinitum.

What about backwater uneducated hicks of all cultures left to grow on their own, will they get smarter? Yes, unless someone is trying to hold them back. The biggest cause of endemic stupidity is probably jealousy. That hallmark of low self esteem which gets passed down from parent to child, the attitude that equates bettering yourself with "putting on airs."

We've all experienced this, right? When you are watching someone walk a long (or reading their blog or meeting them or encountering their success) and the next thought is: "Look at her, she thinks she's so............pretty, smart, rich, awesome, etc" That is the moment reality is inverted and growth is squelched. Children raised with that attitude may never recover. Where can they go with the information that being special, standing out, striving, or simply living visibly well is frowned on? There is nowhere for them to go but down. It is a toxic and damaging mental loop and a prime cause, next to frank abuse, of generational stupidity.