What a great morning! We went to an unschooling talk with Sandra Dodd and Pam Sorooshian...if you're on any of the main unschooling lists, you know who Pam is, and of course...most unschoolers know of Sandra Dodd.

It was just what I needed. I had been struggling with the label "unschooling" since it sounds so negative, so I had been shying away from the lists and identifying with other unschoolers. I knew we were unschoolers at heart, but I was resisting the name and therefore, those associated with it, if that makes any sense.

These women are just so wise and I related to so much of what they were saying, at times it felt that in a room full of people, they were speaking only and specifically to me. Every so often I need to see someone like that in person to re-affirm that I'm on the right path with my kids ;cool:

Wow! I love Sandra Dodd's website. It must have been so cool to hear her in person! Maybe someday she will make it to NJ.:)

:heart: sounds like you had a wonderful experience. I'm glad it went well.

It was great...I love to hear her speak!

I'm glad that you enjoyed her talk, Brandy. I saw her in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday and felt she had some great things to say, although I disagreed with her her on many things, especially allowing unlimited TV and video games. Unfortunately, DH was far from impressed, especially when she mentioned that her kids (all teens) don't really like to read. DH considers a love of reading to be a cornerstone of life long education and feels that we must do everything possible to foster such a love. Also, she mentioned her son's difficulties with the math placement test as he didn't know "the language" of math. DH feels that this has placed the teen at a permanent disavantage and that many doors will be closed to him because of it.

Needless to say, any hopes I had of convincing DH that unschooling was they way to go were completely dashed. It was good, though, in that it sparked some deep conversations and has made DH more open to an integrated curriculum such as Oak Meadow (we had decided to follow The Well Trained Mind but I was finding it so dead and dry).

We didn't get to hear Pam speak :( .

I'm glad that you got to hear her Kimberly and that it was able to open some doors to conversations with your dh. I wish that mine would have been able to attend, but he was on kid duty.