Tuesday, December 4, 2012

December's Blog Favorites




Welcome back to the.... 

Unschooling Blog Carnival!

This year came and went pretty quickly, wouldn't you say? Sure, most of us packed in a lot of excitement for the year - still, it's hard to believe it's December already! Luckily, the Mayan predictions of the apocalypse are expected to be fiction and we can all happily fill this last month of 2012 with no concerns that The End is near! ;-)

December! So many holidays all in one month! Maybe you have wonderful traditions - I hope you're blogging about it! Or maybe you are soaking up as many new ideas as you can possibly handle. Perhaps you're in a part of the country where cocooning at home is the best approach.  And luckily, as unschoolers, the choices are all up to us! No schedules or "have to's!" Our time is our own!  Unschoolers around the world are simply making the best choices with our families, looking at what's needed and acting accordingly.

Thanks so much to everyone who recommended blogposts for the Unschooling Blog Carnival! We have such a great assortment this time. If you're a new unschooler or even if you're not new, you'll be able to relate to unschooling moms in the trenches, inspired by the veteran unschooling moms whose kids are grown or nearly grown, and reassured by the grown unschoolers who share their perspectives and lives with us.

So with this, the last Unschooling Blog Carnival of 2012, we'll start and end with a couple of videos. Take a few minutes to watch them both! And be sure to leave comments at the blog sites - it helps bloggers know you're out there!



Happy Unschooling!

    ~Sue


TED Talk: Bring On the Learning Revolution:



"Human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it's an organic process."
All you can do is create conditions under which they are going to flourish."
"Everyday, everywhere our children spread their dreams under our feet. And we should tread softly."

Unschooling Moms & Dads share...

Lisa Nalbone, who blogs at Lisa Nalbone: Fruitful Solutions for Parents and other Lifelong Learners was published at CNBC.com. Her piece, A Mother's Tips on How to Raise a Thiel Fellow shares her ideas that can easily be translated into great pieces of advice about parenting and unschooling.

Lyla Wolfenstein blogs at The Adventure Continues: Musings and Resources for Exploring the Primacy of Trust and Relationship in Parenting. Lyla shares her scripts from her Life is Good Conference talk in The Only Parenting Mistake I Ever Made... and Over and Over Again (or - The Illusion of Control) 

Sue Patterson, blogging at (my new Wordpress blog!) Lifelong Learning: For us, it's a Life Full of Saturdays shares how One Little Word can make all the difference: WITH.

Mary Gold blogs at ZenMommas Garden. Mary's blogpost,  Reality Check, shares her thoughts about reality television, including her concerns about having unschoolers participate.

Linda Wyatt blogs at Unschooling Me. She shares how the concept of giving kids Whatever They Want really does work.

Flo Gascon's blog January's Girl reminds us that life can change in an instant in How Are You Spending It?

And from both sides of the TV or No TV, Video Games or No Video Games Controversy:
Laurie A. Couture shared her perspective in Unschooling Without TV and Video Games: A Freeing Experience.
Sandra Dodd has a collection of articles from a variety of unschoolers called The Values and Uses of TV and Video Games for Unschoolers.

Alex Polikowsky shares what makes up My 12 Days of Christmas at her blog Holy Cow is Polykow.

Leo Babauta shares The Beginner's Guide to Unschooling from his blog, ZenHabits.

The Wonderful Happens blog gives us a glimpse into their busy lives and the fun of photographic traditions.

Brie Jontry writes at Noor's Blog. Noor is working on a Cats for Kids Fundraiser. Check it out, and maybe make a donation for a worthy cause and a philanthropic unschooler.

Colleen blogs about their unschooling adventures in her blog, Milking Ducks.  This post, A New Interest in Dead Presidents and Cemeteries is Born, shows how one thing leads to another when a child is curious.

The Elemental Mom blogs at The Excellent Adventure and writes about Learn Nothing Day.

Laura Grace Weldon wants to share How Kids Benefit from Chores at her blog.

Shannon blogs at Breaking Daylight. Her post, Bleary Eyed Parenting, shares the parenting challenges that accompany sleep deprivation when you have a sick child.

Nicole blogs at Verde Mama.  Sharing her blogpost, radical, Nicole shares what the word means to her and  how it translates into their lives.

Gwyn blogs at Gwyn Raimondi.  Her post, Loving Home, helps us see how readjusting our attitude about our homes might be just what needs to happen!


Unschoolers Around the World...

Kjerstin Stanavige blogs at Homeschool 101.net . Kjerstin shares 5 Things You Should Know About Unschooling.

Rippy Dusseldorp blogs at Seeking Nectar.  Rippy describes why they chose to live in the Netherlands in the blogpost, Effervescence.

Hema Bharadwaj blogs at The Bhardwaj Shine. Hema shares about connections and how her children learn at a deeper level than facts and figures in the post, On Capone, Elvis, and Learning .

Katie Pybus in West Sussex, blogs at Outside the Box. In her post, she shares Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Why We Home Educate But Were Afraid to Ask.

 Grown Unschoolers Share too...

Brenna McBroom blogs at Brenna at the Writing Retreat. In her post, Unschooling and Class, she shares her thoughts and questions about how people in poverty in India, as well as lower income Americans, can successfully unschool. 

Michael Patterson blogs at In the Nica Time from his Peace Corps assignment in Nicaragua. He describes what he found when he was Infiltrating the Tents of Circo Zuary.

Cameron Lovejoy blogs at One Wandering Poet.  This is a glimpse of one leg of his cross-country adventures in The Makings of a Book.

Idzie Desmarais blogs at  I'm Unschooled.  Yes, I Can Write. Read about her thoughts on her unschooling journey that she shared in her Occupy Education Conference Talk.

Lastly... RSA Animate 

The surprising truth about what MOTIVATES us

Let's talk about Motivation! While this video pertains to the workplace, Daniel Pink is talking about human nature. As unschoolers, we'll see that. And if you need a little reassurance, watch this:



"You probably WANT to do something interesting...let me just get out of your way!"
"The science shows we want to be self-directed."


Be sure to Follow the Unschooling Blog Carnival on Pinterest.



3 comments:

  1. There are some great posts in here. I suprised myself by enjoying the one about loving your home way more than I would havs guessed at the start.

    Thanks for including me too

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know! That was a good one, wasn't it?
    Glad to have you participating again, Katie! Thanks for sharing. :)

    ~Sue

    ReplyDelete
  3. Was pleasantly surprised to see my blog listed here as i scrolled and checked out sites. Thank you for including. And love the happy carnival background too. If you wanted to share the location of the International blogs.. mine is Pune, India. Metta, Hema

    ReplyDelete