fester

Today the mortgage broker called to let me know how much we needed for the closing on Friday and to ask what we like on our pizza, as he will send four pizzas and soda to our moving party at the new house. I thought that was so nice. I found my passport last night, which was really exciting because I thought I was up some kind of creek without an ID for the closing.

Charlotte turned 7 last week. We had two families over and kept it real tame like. She got such nice gifts from these good friends. One made her a skirt and a matching skirt for her doll and matching purse. The others looked for two days for a tiny toad, after I told them she'd just lost hers and cried for hours. The thought and time that went into these gifts made them so special. I bought Charlotte a 3 musketeers Barbie, as requested. I was so pleased that she loves toads and Barbies.

For the record, I no longer give the girls allowance or continue with any schedule I may ever have mentioned. Also, Gracie weaned about 3 weeks ago and she replaced some of that time with snuggling, which she previously wasn't into.

I am enjoying the Tao of Pooh; tonight we read about Wu Wei, or non-action. This is like unschooling. It looks like you are doing nothing, but the things are getting done and there isn't the stress of forcing it.

My latest idea, which comes from my friend/boss, is to start a local charter school. I am trying to imagine an unschooling-friendly non-curriculum that would be be appealing enough to warrant tax dollars. It may be worth pursuing because the biggest motivation I have is to serve the kind of high school kids I know now through my classes (which won't continue forever because of budget problems.) I can go on my merry way doing what I want for my own kids, but I think I could really help a lot of other kids and the community as a whole, too - and if my motives stay selfless, it still has the potential to be a good idea.

I envision as small a student body as possible. Like 20 would be perfect. Maybe we'd cover academics in the morning, have lunch together - mostly grown and prepared by the students, and send them each out for the afternoon to different apprenticeships or college classes appropriate to their goals. Every student would have an IEP, a plan, co-authored by them. Students can use the facilities of the community, get out into the real world and learn to live and work alongside a wide range of ages, while becoming useful and valued residents. ... I think the day should start with yoga and that art-making as therapy should be heavily involved, but I'm afraid that's just me and a little too granola. ... That's what I would want. And every student volunteers at a place like the soup kitchen and every student attends an annual camping trip ... of the ropes course variety ... for bonding. I guess I couldn't force those, it would be against the philosophy, but I'd offer it. I just want to take the mob mentality out of high school. These kids need individualized educations and personal attention. An educational system can't serve everyone's needs if it doesn't allow for different paces of learning.

Can I make a high school where we teach sustainability, survival skills, permaculture, Eastern philosophies and exercise, how to make stuff, including art, as well as math and reading and science and history and analyzing and writing? Or is that just all the stuff I like? OR, could that become an environment that a small group of students at a time could make their own, get comfortable enough to actually learn, and come out well-adjusted self-starters, equipped mentally, emotionally, and physically to live happily and successfully? The kind of students who would choose this school - it wouldn't be forced on anyone. (the kind of student who walks the halls of the enormous public HS wishing she were dead so she didn't have to be there ... yes, like me.)

How would we deal with discipline? Would we kick them out if they used drugs? I don't want to run a stoner club. What would it cost? Would there be good relationships between staff? Would it be too hard to get such an alternative school chartered. Probably. Would the tax money be worth the bureaucratic pain in the ass? Probably. Is it selfish to only worry about my own kids and forget it? Can we budget in international backpacking? Cause that's really what I want to do. ....Questionable, though, how fun would that be with 20 teenagers.

Why do I always have to have an idea festering in my head? An idea in the idea stage. Not like an idea in the almost done and now you can enjoy it stage, like, we bought a house and move in this weekend. I did think about that quite a bit today, too - but where's the challenge in that? No more puzzles to work out there.