Quote of the Day

“So many people have said to me, ‘If we didn’t make children do things, they wouldn’t do anything.’ Even worse, they say, ‘If I weren’t made to do things, I wouldn’t do anything.’ It is the creed of a slave. When people say that terrible thing about themselves, I say, ‘You may believe that, but I don’t believe it. You didn’t feel that way about yourself when you were little. Who taught you to feel that way?’ To a large degree, it was school.” ~John Holt




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Garage sale #1, DOWN!

Lord love a duck, as my dad would say. We garage-saled long and hard this weekend, and man....people are rabid dogs! On the plus side, though, we made a lot of money and got rid of many years of accumulated crap.

Saturday's crowd were the professional garage sale circuit players, it was obvious...bothering us in the pouring rain at 7:30 when we weren't starting until 9, digging though boxes of books on the porch with their UPC readers on their phones, buying to re-sell. It was raining for the first hour of the sale, so some friends had come into the house to visit...and soon our living room was full of people I didn't know! "If I don't know you, get out of my house right now!" I yelled from the front door, and 10 or 12 people sheepishly shuffled out. You can't make this shit up!

Sunday's crowd was much better, though. Not nearly as many people, but they wanted to visit, ask about the story behind items, tell me about their plans. I talked to many people who had been to Thailand, or wanted to go to Thailand, or just to travel with their families. I talked to a public teacher, who bought a box-full of books for her classroom, that complained about the school system and lamented not having home schooled her own kids. She was amazed at our collection of books and told me I had obviously given my kids a very well-rounded education. Actually, I told her, they had very far-reaching interests and had simply followed their passions.

She's coming back on Tuesday to chat.

(please excuse any mess this post might be in...I'm learning how to blog from my iPad!)

Why Thailand?

Start with a daughter who loves Asia.  Lauren (18) has studied Japanese for a few years, and last summer headed off for three week to Japan.  She came home even more delighted with Asia, and more anxious to explore it. Add a friend who has been to Thailand.  My friend TC has been to Thailand a couple of times, and is closely affiliated with a group called Power of One, that organizes trips for teens from around the world to Thailand, for volunteer projects.  We went over for dinner with TC and Myn, and by the time we left Lauren was excited to head to Thailand after Christmas, 2010.  Mix briskly with a jealous mama pining away at home.  Lauren is not a caller.  She goes away to a foreign country, and she ENJOYS that country.  She doesn’t think about home.  So mama sat at home....and read a travel book about Thailand.....and checked it out on the internet....and plotted her daughter’s course through the country....and found a link to teaching English in Thailand....and read it...

I should back-track a bit here.  Paul and I had been talking about quitting our day jobs and taking off for a few months before this. We are an unschooling family of 5--Lauren, 18, Otto, 13, Miranda, 2 1/2, and mom and dad. Paul works as an IT guy, and I’ve been a coffee roaster with my own company for the past 7 years...but lately we felt we'd been spending too much time working, and not enough time hanging out as a family.  Sooooo....when we started reading about teaching English in Thailand, and looking at pictures of warm, white beaches, and imagining swimming and caving and shopping and eating and boating and exploring....well, it seemed like a no-brainer that THAILAND is where we would go, to have an adventure together as a family. 

Stay tuned for further adventures from the rabid unschoolers!

Have to start SOMEWHERE....

As some of you know, my family and I are preparing for the adventure of a lifetime--we're quitting our "day jobs" and skipping the country! As a way of keeping you all abreast of our adventures, I'm finally getting this blog off the ground. WELCOME! Yes, you! (I mean you!) If you are interested in LIVING life to its fullest, LOVING your family and really enjoying their company, LEARNING about everything that comes your way, TRAVELING to far-off exotic lands (with family in tow!), and MAKING a living while doing so--this is the place for you! We can learn along with each other, dear reader. Please feel free to leave comments with questions, or just with support. Thanks so much for coming along with us on this WILD RIDE!