What deschooling means to me....

Till three months ago, our lives revolved around Raghav's school......we started our day with "getting ready for school" and ended the day with "getting ready for school"!.....coming to think of it, our routines and his revolved around his school routine! School was life! Holidays were planned around it, outings and playtime was planned around it, family time was planned around it, eating times were planned around it.....can you imagine how "important" going to school was??

And to think that suddenly all that vanished! School became non-existent! We had nothing "to do" as a family every morning! I think that was the first thought and issue we had to confront in this "deschooling" process! Ourselves!

It takes time to adjust to any change and although Raghav was ecstatic about it and there was a drastic change in him after we took this decision, we had to come to terms with this "nothing to do". I think that is what deschooling means to me now......having nothing to do that is imposed from outside....where everything you do comes from within.....you do something because you want to do it.....

We have learnt to adjust to a life without school and in the process we are discovering and understanding each other better, are learning to be more comfortable with ourselves, figuring out what is important to learn, what is possible to learn and to learn with understanding, meaning and joy.

Time seems to have stopped suddenly......or slowed down!.....we don't have to rush all the time anymore......we can do what we want and when we want.....we are learning to value and manage our time better....

We are learning to question our own ideas, thoughts and beliefs on education, life, values and other issues.....we learning to rely on ourselves....we are learning to be free....learning to just be!

Th Real Cons of Homeschooling

This is an interesting article....

http://justenough.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/the-real-cons-of-homeschooling/

Of Questions and Answers

Today, we were out in the morning doing some errands for home and Raghav was with me. Very few kids his age, would have been out on the road at that time of day! Most would be at school! On the way back, we stopped by at his Patti's house and their neighbour was asking him why he had not gone to school, whether it was a holiday and so on......Raghav just decided not to answer. He smiled and walked away. We had discussed this earlier.....what to do when someone asks which school he went to - and to answer that he was being "homeschooled". Later in the car, I was asking him why he chose to remain silent and he said "amma, they will not understand if I say homeschool!" so then, we discussed more about how to explain that term to other people.

Well, that is a simple, everyday question that every other person would ask a kid - "which school do you go to?". But to think that today, that question doesn't have a simple answer, because there are so many more options available....and options and answers perhaps just make it more convenient for people to attach labels to kids or people and create their own opinions! I did feel a bit marginalised today, but not he! He was so matter-of-fact about it and handled the situation with so much ease and diplomacy.....I thought of people and what they would think, but not he.

This is the first step I guess in this journey which does not have a road-map. We are going wherever we want to go and wherever it takes us.....living in the moment and enjoying it....and to do that I think you need a lot of courage, which Raghav showed that he had today!

Thatha and Raghav go into Space

One day Raghav and Thatha called the Magic Carpet. They got onto the magic carpet with some food and some yummy, “rummy” snacks. Then they told the magic carpet – “You go into space! Aam…..eeem….oom…..go into space and shoot off! When we reach space we will all build a space station and then we can live there for 100 weeks!”
They went to the shop and got two rocket boosters for the carpet to shoot off. Then they got onto the magic carpet, wore their astronaut suits and shot off into space. They saw clouds, the sun and the moon on the way. They did not see other planets as they went another way. It was very dark in space, but they saw lots of light. The light came from all the stars.
Then they reached the moon. There they built a space station and lived there. They did lots of work at the space station. When they were hungry, they took the dry and wet food like icecream and snacks, added a little water and ate them.
They stretched their hands out and jumped and walked on the moon. They were very happy.
Then, they did not want to live there anymore. So, they came back to the earth on their magic carpet.

Bring on the revolution - a must-see video!

I just love this man and the way he puts
things across with his subtle sense of humour......"human communities
depend upon diversity of talents......not a singular conception of
ability......education doesn't feed people's passions and spirit....a 3
year old is not half a 6 year old!...".....and many more wonderful comments and thoughts.......hey friends do make time to see this video!

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

"Never let your schooling interrupt your education"

I love this quote! And this is a nice blog to follow.......

http://simplehomeschool.net

Raghav's first mind-map and story

The Little Cloud and Her Friends

One day there was a little cloud. She was white and soft. She loved to play hide and seek with her other friend clouds, the sun and the moon. She floated in the sky and had a big smile on her face. She loved her friends and herself. She was very kind, careful and never hurt anybody else.

The little cloud was in another country where it rained every day. Everyday her friend - the wind pushed her into the water gently. The cloud sucked up all the water from the sea, and the wind under the cloud pushed her up into the sky. And then the water came lashing down as rain! The cloud danced and laughed and said “I made everything wet!” She laughed so much that people could not hear what she was saying.

Then there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. The little cloud went behind the rainbow, hugged and kissed her. She smiled at the rainbow and the rainbow smiled back. The little cloud loved her so much and they became good friends.