I had this super awesome post about my recent epiphany... and blogger crashed and the interwebs ate it. Sadness... indeed. Anyway, I think everybody should take a minute (realy!! that's all it takes!) to read this very awesome article about unschooling.

Zero Tuition College/Unschooling

It really cemented some ideas for me. I've been in such a funk/rut about where we have been heading in regards to schooling (or lack thereof) our kids. I've really embraced the unschooler label but I think it took reading this and noticing that hey!! this IS exactly what we are doing. Or more so, what I am encouraging my children to do.

My oldest is greatly passionate about music and he just happened to be learning to play Carol of the Bells (all initiated by him after watching a Family Guy episode where Peter Griffin hums it and my son thought hey! that would sound AWESOME on the electric guitar) on his guitar. I feel he has an awesome talent and I don't say that just because I'm his mother and I'm supposed to. When it comes down to it, I'm a musical snob. If I don't like the sound of something or if it doesn't sound original to me I turn my nose up. LOL

We've heard the gamut of ideas about our lifestyle, especially in regards to my almost 16 year old. How will he amount to anything if he doesn't go to school? What about high school, these are the best years of his life and he should experience high school!! What about college!? How will he get a job and be successful if you let him sleep until 2pm every day? Fact of the matter is... if it's important to him, he'll get up. If he wants to succeed I'm giving him the tools (hopefully!) to do things he's passionate about instead of passing along skills he may or may not need to just eek by.

I realized I've always been an unschooler.. I mean, the label always resonated with me but it took an external source to point out the obvious. Even when I was schooled (and yes, you can send your children to school and still unschool) I was ever seeking my own passions. Mostly in the form of devouring books with such a voracious appetite that expanded and branched to a myriad of topics. I learned a lot from my books... things that even though they were fiction based, I still probably use in my day to day dealings with other people and I'm not talking social skills. :D And I'm still that way though the internet is now my format of choice. At any given moment I have 30+ tabs open in my browser with all sorts of information to devour as I go through my day. I often will come across a tab with a website that I had forgotten about and my interests are stirred all over again.

I'm like a sponge and so are my children. I want to give them more than I had. I want them to embrace their passions and follow them to the end (or hey! even the beginnings of something new!) So anyway, I encourage you to check that article out and let the ideas marinade for awhile. :)