pile o' questions

Shannon over at Phat Mommy, after answering some homeschooling questions posed her own list of unschooling questions. I'm taking her up on her offer to answer her questions here at my own little home on the nets. So pop yourself a beer and lets hop on in.

1) ONE FIELD TRIP YOUR CHILD LEARNED A LOT FROM

What counts as a field trip? I'm going to use the trip to Birmingham for Momma's roller derby bout. We arrived in town over an hour before the caravan of other teammembers and had some time to roam around. We had a list of restaurants to perhaps visit, but we didn't get around to doing any real planning. Discovering Kelly Ingram Park and the civil rights exhibit was really interesting. We haven't really approached civil rights and America's dirty past before that. I don't know really that he learned a lot, and The Boy, at three, was much more interested on what he could climb, but it is a door that we've opened to something we'll eventually cover.

2) THE GAME/TOY THAT’S GIVEN YOU THE MOST EDUCATION MILEAGE

The Medal of Honor games that we have for the Gamecube have opened up discussion of World War II. These weren't intended as educational, but that's the beauty of the unschooling life. While most of Big Brother's interest in the historical aspect involves the weaponry, we have discussed some of the causes of the war, and it's a beginning.

3) ORDINARY HOUSEHOLD ITEM THAT’S GIVEN YOU THE MOST EDUCATION MILEAGE

The kitchen? The computer would probably be a more accurate answer.

4) NAME THREE MAGAZINES/BOOKS ON YOUR COFFEE TABLE

Seed is a science magazine that we had never heard of till recieving a gift subscription. I would recomend this magazine to every person that is literate. We also get Popular Science and National Geographic.

5) ONE SKILL YOUR CHILD LEARNED FROM GROCERY SHOPPING

Picking produce, which may be the single most valuabe skill one can take away from the grocery store. All the other things one can learn from grocery shopping pales, in my opinion, to knowing to smell the blossom end of a cantaloupe to check for ripeness.

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT BUYING, BUT THEN REALIZED YOUR CHILD COULD LEARN THAT INFORMATION JUST BY LIVING LIFE

I can't really think of anything. We've seen things that, on first look may have looked interesting but proved to be more crap than not. But I don't know of anything that we didn't buy for this specific reason. More than what we can learn from something we will look at the use we or the boys could get out of it, and as often as not we would pass on something because it wasn't likely to be of lasting quality. I'm more likely to pass on something for being too simple or because it seems like crap.

7) AMOUNT OF MONEY YOU’VE SAVED BY NOT PURCHASING CURRICULUM

I have no way of knowing. I've never really considered any curriculum as the freedom from that sort of mentality is one of the bright lights of not schooling for me.