See, the concept of "follow the child" is one that I absolutely subscribe to, as well as practical application of academic concepts. As people have implied, if not said, the Devil really is in the details.

I've surprised a lot of parents at the library by asking hat their child is interseted in when they ask for " a good bookk for an X grader" - the basic concept of unschooling seems like a good/natural place to start. One of the things I think I learned at school was how to deal with things I didn't like to do. ( not nessicarily well, but I sort of figured out what the consequences were- and if I wanted to pay them)

See, the concept of "follow the child" is one that I absolutely subscribe to, as well as practical application of academic concepts.

Oh yeah, this I get. It's natural, I think -- if your kid loves dinosaurs, then you get her books about dinosaurs and go to the museum and all that. For a while Jake was fascinated with Stonehenge, so we checked the History Channel for stuff about it, and got out library books.

What I've always found funny is how naturally some kids fall into gender stereotypes. Without any prompting from us, Sara loved dresses dressing up from the minute she could walk and talk. Totally girly, although she wields a mean play sword and loves to play "bad guys" with her brother, too.

One of the things I think I learned at school was how to deal with things I didn't like to do. ( not nessicarily well, but I sort of figured out what the consequences were- and if I wanted to pay them)

Yeah, I don't think I ever actually got that. The first time I ever got a B or higher in every course in a single semester was in college, when I got to pick my own courses. (And I'd taken enough AP exams to place out of most of the requirements -- pretty much the only things I still needed to do were one science, one "Foundations of Western Culture," (I took something like "Women in Victorian Literature,") and one "Non-Western and Latin American Civilizations" (I took "Modern Middle East."))

(I remember getting annoyed that courses in ancient middle eastern history that focused on Jewish history did not count as "non-western," but courses on the same place and same time period that focused on any other group did count as "non-western.")

I have skimmed. I have no meara cause I have no brain.

This afternnon started out with a haircut and ended with a rush trip to my mom's doctor's office. Her nurse rocks for staying late and saving us from a trip to ER and possible hospitalization. Seems mom has peritonitis - a fairly common thing I now learn for dialysis patients on PD. She was in a ton of pain, which they were able to treat and get her started on anti-biotics.

We are now home. I'm exhausted. She is exhausted and still not entirely out of pain. And I leave town tomorrow night for 2 days. Blarg.

Health~ma for mom would be quite appreciated.

All my health~ma are belong to you.

All kinds of health~ma for your mom, Suzi. And big hugs for you.

Man, I have to go to bed. I don't know why it's so hard tonight.

Much ~ma, Suzi.

Tons of get-well~ma for you mom, Suz.

And some added try-not-to-stress-too-much~ma for you, sweets.

Man, I have to go to bed. I don't know why it's so hard tonight.

Me too. Both counts.

And some added try-not-to-stress-too-much~ma for you, sweets.

It is like you know me.

But without stress, I would fall apart. Stress is my duct-tape.