What if Your Right is My Wrong?
I’m always talking about how important it is that our children develop a sense of right and wrong. But what do we mean by ‘right’? Could your idea of what is right be my wrong? Could my right be your wrong?
Although we are all unschoolers, we might not share the same values and beliefs. And this might worry anyone who is thinking about unschooling. What if we give our children the freedom to choose and they end up following someone else’s values instead of ours? It might feel very risky to unschool. Wouldn’t it be better to keep hold of our kids and make them live our way, the way we truly believe is right? Or isn’t control necessary to keep our kids safe?
Our children are very likely to adopt our belief systems if we listen to them, discuss things without pressure, respect their opinions and love them unconditionally. In other words, they are likely to follow us if we are closely connected with them. Why wouldn’t children listen to the opinions of the most important people in their lives, the ones who love them the most?
Despite our differences, maybe there are a few ‘right’ things we all have in common.
Perhaps you agree that it’s right to respect, encourage, trust, forgive, accept, and most of all, love our kids unconditionally.
Learning From Movies
Our kids are watching movies. Of course, they’re not wasting time. They’re busy learning. But will the education authorities agree when it comes to homeschool registration time? How do we turn movies into acceptable homeschool records notes?
This is the opening paragraph to my post How to Turn Movies into Homeschool Records Notes. I’ve also made a podcast on this subject: episode 63, Wasting Time Watching Too Many Movies.
You could also check out the Unschool Rules’ Ultimate Guide to Learning from Movies and TV Shows.
So what are you and your children watching at the moment? We’re working our way through season 3 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D!
An Up and Down Week
On Tuesday, Gemma-Rose and I went running before breakfast and it was a very unpleasant experience. We had to fight our way through a strong freezing cold wind. I told Gemma-Rose I was never going to run early on a winter’s morning ever again. I also said I hated winter. But then the wind dropped and a new tank of gas arrived for our heater and I cheered up. And so there’s no reason to complain about the cold especially as spring is only a week away!
Did you have a good week? What did you do? And what’s your weather like? You could stop by and share your week!
Hi Sue!
What is winter like where you are? Do you get snow? What are the temperatures like during your winter?
I live in the land of four solid seasons, complete with a long winter and plenty of snow. I realized I don’t think I’ve ever seen snow in any of your pictures. And then I realized I know next to nothing about the climate variations in Australia. (I googled to see if it snows in Australia so I wouldn’t end up looking like a total idiot asking the question and I see that it does snow there. LOL!)
Sallie
Sallie,
I’m sure our winters aren’t cold compared to yours. We rarely get snow where we live although as you have found out, it does snow in Australia. Each weekend during winter, lots of people head south to enjoy the snow. Some years the snow season isn’t very good and the natural falls have to supplemented with manmade snow.
Our night temperatures can fall to below freezing and we can wake up to white frosty fields and lawns, but our daytime temperatures can be quite mild. The temperatures can feel lower though because of the winds. We live on the top of a hill and it’s often very windy here. We wear coats during winter, but maybe if you came to visit you’d wonder why! I guess we get used to our environment and what feels cold to one person doesn’t feel cold to another. I suppose winter feels cold to us because our summers are very warm. But maybe yours are too? I’d love to know the range of temperatures you experience. Ours can go from about -2 C in winter to about 46 C in summer. But those are extreme temperatures and not averages. I love finding out more about where we all live. The differences are very interesting!
I had to use a converter to figure out those C temperatures. (My third grade teacher told me that we would all have to learn the metric system because everyone would be using it before I was an adult. Ha! Good old USA! LOL!)
So your range is 28-115 F. Ours in Rockford, Michigan (just north of Grand Rapids) would probably be around -10 to 100 F with it being more regularly between -5 and 90. We do get extremes of -15 or -20 maybe once a winter, but not often. We’ve gotten up to 106 in the past few years and that was disgustingly hot. I hate heat and humidity with a passion. Like really, really passionately. Wind chills in the winter are often well below 0 and can go into the -30 range but more typically stick to the -10 range.
We get on average 70 inches of snow a year and there is usually at least an inch or two of snow on the ground in much of December. There is almost always at least a few inches of snow on the ground in January and February (and sometimes much more – like measuring by the foot!). It can snow as early as October and as late as April. We had a lot of snow this past April. Crazy.
Because of the Great Lakes (especially Lake Michigan) we get a lot of cloudy days or partially cloudy days. There was one December a few years back when our area was the cloudiest place on EARTH for a particular week or month (can’t remember which it was). We had zero sunshine for I don’t remember how many days in a row. That got old. We usually get about half and half in terms of sunny days and cloudy days during the year which I like. Too much sun wears me out and too many cloudy days in a row gets depressing. I really like the mix we get here.
We get beautiful fall colors like you see in pictures of New England. Because of the moderating influenced of Lake Michigan, the area is excellent for orchards so we have a huge area of apple and other fruit orchards around here. We love to take drives around that area (Fruit Ridge). It’s beautiful. Other than winter storms, we get very little severe weather which is a blessing.
I really like where I live. I can’t imagine living somewhere without four seasons so I’m thankful. 🙂
Sallie,
You must be much tougher than me because your winter temperatures are much colder than ours! I bet all that snow is very beautiful. The heating in your homes must be better than ours. Our house is often cold because we don’t have central heating. We tend to wear lots of clothes inside. I imagine your home is very cosy and welcoming, a contrast to your cold winter weather.
It sounds like you live in a very picturesque area. Thank you so much for telling me about where you live. I enjoyed reading all the details!