Hey everyone! I am very late on this months carnival. It has been a crazy time in our household lately. We moved 3000 miles from Pennsylvania to Oregon. It took a little while to find a permanent place to settle in and get internet service. It’s hard to maintain a website with no internet service! I am back and ready to keep up much better. I hope you enjoy the posts. And many of you will send us even more submissions to November’s Carnival
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Kelly of Unschooling Liberty:
Unschooling, specifically radical/whole life unschooling and libertarian philosophy are at the very core the same. Individualism, in unschooling the kids are the individuals having freedom to make their own choices as long as those choices don’t infringe upon another individual. In the same way adults in a libertarian society are free to make their own choices as long as those choices don’t infringe on the right of others.

Brenda of The Christian Unschool:
I think of myself as a shepherd in that it is my job to guard her heart as she enjoys being a child. She has plenty of room to graze and, most of the time, we have a very peaceful home and I have a child who I love being around. That’s what unschooling is all about for me.

Stephanie of Ordinary Life Magic:
All things considered, I s’pose others might look at our life and say that we’re chaotic or lazy.
But I’ll tell you… it sure doesn’t feel lazy.
It feels Happy.
It feels Engaged.
It feels Thriving.
And it feels free
and friendly
and open
and abundant
and peaceful
and safe
and loving
and joyful
and big.
Yeah – it feels Big.

Lauren from Sparkling Adventures:
Once we started to wrap our heads around the idea of unschooling our children, we found that the principles of letting go flowed onto other aspects of our lives. Church has always been a big part of our lives, as we love God and study the Bible to know Him more. However, we started to discover that Christianity is really just churchianity, and the first celebrity unschooler of all was Jesus Christ!

Kelly of Kelly Halldorson-Unscensored:

Some people might look at us and see neglectful parents, parents with kids that don’t have a lot of rules and don’t even have electricity…but those people would be so far from reality. Jeff and I have *never* been more attentive to the needs of our children than we have been this past year. We talk with them constantly about what their individual interests and goals are. We are WITH them nearly all the time. We bring them on adventures. We introduce them to more families and children who may or may not live how we do. We talk with them but more importantly we listen to them. We answer questions. We discuss. We find resources for their interests. Which include music, building, friends, technology, welding, boating, animals…and more of course…there is always more.

Teresa of Parenting for Social Change:

Ironically, when I accept all the parts of myself, I come much closer to liberating myself from this dominant paradigm. I have spent almost 45 years living and accepting the idea that the feelings, needs, and desires of adults were more important than any child’s feelings, needs and desires. For Greyson’s (and Martel’s) sake, I hope that unlearning this will not take another 45 years.

Kati of Radical Mama:

Then I remembered to breathe.

I packed up the kids and we went to my parents. It was cool there and that already made a huge difference in everyone’s outlook on things. But I could feel how disconnected we were.

Jeff of Just a Bald Man:

The real hard part is dealing with being imperfect. When we make a mistake, be it raising our voice, making a cutting comment, or making a judgment about our children’s needs or wants, we let it consume us. We beat ourselves up, questioning not only our performance in the moment but our fitness as a parent altogether. We lose our ability to be objective about all of the amazing things we do each day, all of the things that create an environment of peace and harmony. { Read the complete article }

This month we have several posts from unschooling bloggers about bed times, sleep, and nighttime fun. They are tales of adventure, informative pieces, personal stories and thoughts of perspective shifts.

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