Petfinder has named August 12 to be Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day, and for good reason. Thousands of pets are waiting for a loving home, but are passed over due to various reasons. The most common reason pets can’t find homes is age. A full thirty percent of homeless pets are considered “seniors”.

Pets with medical problems are also rarely adopted. Yet they too need love, and are less likely to find it than most others. Why do people want only adorable kittens? Why not get an adorable kitten, plus one medically needy or aged pet too? Why not commit an act of kindness? All kindness is surely rewarded.

While fifteen percent of unwanted pets have medical problems, another full thirteen percent are overlooked because of breed prejudice. I have been aware of the prejudice against black cats for a decade, ever since I found a black cat in a shelter who had been in a small cage for over six months, awaiting adoption. That day she became mine, and what a loving, precious pet she was.

Recently I found three kittens abandoned at the end of my driveway. We gave away the black and white one easily, but the two black kittens didn’t get adopted and prompted me to write Black Cats Need Love Too a few weeks ago. At this point the kittens, now named Mischief and Shadow, are pretty much at home with us and it looks like we’ve got ourselves new pets. Another black cat, Midnight, lives outdoors. He has only one eye due to his constant participation in cat fights. He was another stray and we suspect that the younger kittens are younger brothers from the same cat colony, wherever that may be. (I have my suspicions.)

This brings us to an important question: What can homeschoolers do to help less adoptable pets? Here are some ideas on things homeschoolers can do to raise awareness for less-adoptable pets in need of homes:

1. Create fliers or pamphlets and hand them out on August 12, and be prepared to tell people why special pets need loving adoptions.

2. Go visit pets at a shelter and ask which pets aren’t getting adopted. Take their pictures and write about them, then give your photos and articles to the local newspaper, or print them yourselves and hang them up as posters all over town.

3. Write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper about less adoptable pets.

4. Adopt a less adoptable pet!

5. Put Petfinder’s ‘Adopt a Senior Pet’ or ‘Adopt a Special Pet’ widget on your website.

6. Blog about less adoptable pets, or mention them on message boards you frequent.

Any other ideas? Leave a comment…

I love freedom. I love letting children learn in freedom. Therefore I love unschooling. In theory it makes more sense than any other type of education.

Unschooling is child-directed learning. Unschooled children are free to decide what interests them, just like you and I have that freedom as adults. When they study topics that interest them, they are better motivated to learn. Learning happens naturally. All children love to learn. They don’t have to be coerced into it in a structured situation. They don’t need to be corralled into classrooms for learning to happen. Learning is a natural process in human life. It should happen naturally – and that’s essentially what unschooling allows for.

I’m not crazy about the term, ‘unschooling’. Why should we have to mention schooling at all? How about calling it ‘natural education’ or ‘natural learning’ instead? I like how Sara McGrath calls it Whole Life Learning.

Who ever decided that schooling was best for kids? Schooling forces unwanted and often, unnecessary information into them as if they were cups waiting to be filled with facts and figures. As soon as they tire of the topic the information washes over the sides and runs onto the floor.

Children may be cups, but they should be filled with the information their hearts tell them is needed for their own unique development. Why should children be subjected to someone else’s ideas of what they should learn when they are quite naturally learners who are curious about the world and how to do things?

Letting children choose their own topics for study allows each child to develop his or her own unique potential. For example one child may choose to study engines and motors. Another may be fascinated with mathematics. Yet another may want to spend all day reading novels. Each of these children is developing skills he or she will need for doing whatever they’ll do for a living later in life. The child who is fascinated by engines grows up to be an auto mechanic. The one that loves math grows up to be a scientist. The reader grows up to be a writer. Each one trains himself/herself in all the skills needed for the chosen preoccupation. And what’s wrong with that? — Nothing!

Why should these children be forced to do repetitive tasks involving subjects that bore or confound them? That’s what happens in traditional schooling. So the gear-head child is forced to read and loses self-esteem because it is so very hard to do due to dyslexia. And the math genius is forced to study Egyptian history and write term papers about it, and never totally develops to true potential because too much time was wasted with subjects that weren’t of interest. And the reader is jerked away from a fascinating stack of books to do page after page of boring math problems, and learns to hate math and feels inferior because it is such a difficult skill for this particular child.

Well, if the reader NEEDED math skills, then the reader would want to learn. And if the dyslexic mechanic-in-training NEEDS reading skills, the motivation to learn will come naturally. And if the mathematician CHOOSES to learn more about history I’m sure that will happen.

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Now a word about my own homeschooling of two precious children for nine years. I was an undercover wannabe unschooler because I was a single mother. I already had the traumatic experience of having a CPS agent remove one of my children because I was being battered by her father. I separated from him and fought in court to get my child home again when she was eight months old. It wasn’t easy, and forever after I was fearful of having CPS again interfere with my parenting. I turned into one of the most cautious parents ever, educated myself, got a paralegal degree at the local community college, and eventually started what is now one of the best known child welfare help websites on the web, FightCPS – also known as ‘Fight CPS and Win’.

Because of that experience and my lack of a husband, I was very cautious about unschooling and worked hard to try to be an eclectic homeschooler instead — one who chooses from a variety of curriculum materials with which to educate my children. I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t providing my children with a proper education. I know this sounds terribly paranoid and my hope is that homeschoolers in the future will never have to go through that!

Most of what I brought into the house to share with my children went along with their own interests, so in a way I was following the unschooling philosophy of child-directed learning, and there were months that went by when I allowed my children to follow their own interests and learn at their own pace. I would love to have been an outspoken unschooler, but it didn’t seem feasible for us at the time.

. . .

Therefore — I have a lot of respect for unschoolers who come right out and announce to the world that they have abandoned the traditional educational model of choosing subjects, books, and worksheets for their children… and trying to stuff that education down unwilling throats. I’m sure many of us who have homeschooled can see this would be a difficult thing – a total power struggle – anyway. But some parents are so domineering they’re able to maintain control that way anyhow, or so it seems.

So this posting is in praise of unschoolers, and I’d like to include some videos found on YouTube showing unschoolers telling what they believe about education and why they chose unschooling. And I thank these brave and adventurous parents who are on the cutting edge of unschooling — giving their children an educational experience that is sure to turn them into the amazing adults they were born to become.
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Sandra Dodd has a wonderful series of videos about unschooling plus a site devoted to this kind of education: Sandra Dodd – Radical Unschooling.

I identify with what she says about worrying that someone would come to the door and demand to know what we were doing. And in fact, that’s exactly what happened to us in 2001…

Perhaps I should leave that for another posting . . . maybe next week. I’m on a new schedule for this blog, by the way. I’ve decided to post here every Tuesday. More about my new scheduling attempt here: Schedules! Do they work for you?.

More from Sandra Dodd on YouTube:
Unschooling & Real Learning
The Universe Inside Your Head

Sandra’s daughter, Holly, is on YouTube too! She’s been unschooled her entire life.

I love Holly’s enthusiasm and would love to see more videos with her views on unschooling and what she’s learned this way.

Another outspoken unschooler on YouTube is Dayna Martin (no relation to me.) I love her videos! Her website is Unschooling America.

More of Dayna’s videos: Dayna Leigh Martin… at this time she’s got 22 videos and they’re all about unschooling!

This young woman, Kate Cayley, is a writer, theatre director and teacher who was unschooled. In this interview she talks about what it was like and what unschooling did for her.

I have to admire someone who is able to achieve so much early in life! Unschooling allows children and teens to focus on their goals and develop their interests.

One more! Idzie is an unschooling blogger: I’m Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. In this YouTube video she says “unschooling is definitely my primary passion” and talks about unschooling books she recommends.

I haven’t read most of the books she recommends — but I have read several John Holt books and loved them. She’s right, they start out slow and are hard to get into, yet his observations of how children learn are absolutely fascinating and sold me on unschooling even though he didn’t use that word. When I started homeschooling, the John Holt books were the only unschooling books available (that I was aware of.)

. . .

And now for a quote from a time management book I’m reading this week:

“…work that holds our attention and allows us to use our creativity may actually make us feel energized and exhilarated by the flow of our own intuitive resources.” — Ann McGee-Cooper

This is essentially what homeschooling is about. It allows children to explore their individuality and personal interests, and encourages deep learning by getting out of the way rather than distracting the learner with things he or she doesn’t need to learn about.

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One more thing I have to share with you this week: I started a Squidoo lens with homeschool tips and information, and there’s a place for you to leave a link to your blog there too. Please come by and see what homeschoolers are doing on Squidoo.Com: Homeschooling Tips.

This morning my eyes were drawn to an ominous headline: Home-school students need to be monitored. Gritting my teeth I clicked on the link only to find it was written by a person who used to be homeschooled. Weigellia G. Trook wrote: “For me, home schooling was no schooling.”

For teens with Weigellia’s problem, I offer ten ideas for teens who think they’re not getting enough education during homeschool hours.

1. Take charge of your own education. Make your own goals, decide on what curriculum will help you reach those goals, and while you’re at it, take responsibility for everything that happens to you. Don’t expect your parents to do for you what you can but won’t do for yourself. If you think you need to learn algebra, find resources on the internet that will help you learn. You might need to ask your parents for the money to buy books, or videos. If they don’t have funds, then think up some fund raising ideas – selling crafts, for example. A homeschooled young lady in our town made beaded hair accessories and sold them for ten dollars each. I’ll let you in on a secret from the parents’ point of view. When a teenager is unmotivated and finds fault with you and all your homeschool efforts, it is discouraging for the parent and they eventually get tired of trying. But when a teen takes delight in learning new things and is able to make decisions about what he or she wants to learn, education happens.

2. There’s no doubt that during the teen years life can get depressing, especially if you think that your parents are doing the wrong things for you. Make a list of one hundred things you could do that would make you happier. Then set your mind on doing those things, one way or another. You might start with things that are easily accomplished and not illegal.

3. Have you considered taking a literature-based approach to homeschooling? One of the writers in my critique group is a young formerly-homeschooled man who had his first book published at the age of twenty-four. He started writing novels for children as a teenager. Want to see his first book? Have a look: Lost in the Fog. He wrote down a memoir for one of his much-older neighbors. What a great project for a homeschooling teenager!

4. Great books are fun to read. Why not start a TBR list? A TBR list is a list of books “to be read”. When you think of something you want to learn about, look it up on the Amazon site, and write down interesting titles on your list. If money is tight you can check your local library for the titles you want. You can make a corresponding list of books already read, like I did: My Reading List.

5. Start an online business, or any kind of business for that matter. I mention online business first because that’s where I make my money. No matter what your primary hobby is you can bet there are others wanting to find information about it on the internet. You can write an e-book and sell it, or write a blog about it and place advertising on your blog for extra cash. If writing isn’t your thing, maybe sketching or photography are. Blogs with artwork are popular. If you start your blog at blogger.com you can put AdSense on it. You might need your parents’ help with the AdSense but it does provide a good revenue. There are lots of high school students bringing in fifty to several hundred dollars monthly just by blogging on a topic of interest to others. One sample is my Bigfoot blog… not by an actual teenager – but I do make a bit of money from the AdSense! Hey, if I can do that, so can you! On the other hand, your hobby might lend itself to some other type of income opportunity. My son is a BMX bike enthusiast and has helped many people needing bike parts and repairs.

6. Suppose writing or reading isn’t your thing. That’s okay. My son isn’t much of a reader either, due to dyslexia. You could start a sketch journal instead. Sketch whatever you see. Collect your sketches and you will see the progress you make. Yes, this is educational. Who said education has to be limited to things you can read in a textbook?

7. Start a nature study of the area you live in. Identify plants and learn more about animals. When you go out the door, do you know the names of all the weeds you see? How about the trees nearby? What kind are they? I don’t know about you, but it bugs me terribly not to know the names of plants I see. You might be able to get a plant identification guide from the library. I have one that helps me identify any tree I see. What kinds of animals live in your vicinity? Once when I lived in urban North Oakland, California, I found an oppossum in my backyard. Now that I live in the forest in Northern California, I get more exciting animal visitations. I’ve seen a mountain lion on my front porch and a  bear through my kitchen window! Do you know how to protect yourself from local wildlife? That would be a great research project and perhaps you could write something about it to help others needing the information.

8. Do you need to learn more about math? You might be able to convince your parents to buy you some math software. Most homeschool parents would be thrilled if their teenager took an interest in learning math. There are also plenty of websites that offer mathematics information. You don’t need your parents to push and prod you on this endeavor. Education happens more readily when you take a delight-motivated approach to your own learning, no matter what the topic is.

9. Imagine yourself as the person you would like to be. Get to know this vision of the ideal you. What steps would you need to take to become that person? Write a list of things you need to do, then do them.

10. Meditate. I know, some may say this sounds boring, but there’s nothing like inner space to give you new ideas about what direction your life should take. You are the one that needs the enlightenment and motivation to find areas of study that appeal to you. Nobody else can do this for you. Don’t look to your parents to dish out assignments when the true assignment is to make your own discoveries and direct your own life.

Making a conscious choice to have a preschool for your children at home is different than being just a stay-at-home-mom looking after your kids. These days many people assume that you will want to, at some time, put your child in a preschool. So as a homeschooling mother of a preschool aged child, you’re bucking the tide, doing your own thing.

Homeschooling your preschooler means assessing their interests, getting them ready for academics, and giving them experiences that enrich their knowledge of the world around them. It means getting a sense of what your homeschooling philosophy is, and eventually putting it down in words. It means going to the library and getting books related to your child’s interests, or other areas of study you want to introduce, and spending hours reading out loud. It means caring about your child’s education as much as you do about providing food and other essential needs.

Homeschooling preschoolers can be a lot of fun. Never lose sight of the adventure. You should never pressure a preschool aged child to do a preschool activity he or she doesn’t want to do. Either it is a game to look forward to, or it is detrimental to your purpose, which is to help your preschool child learn to love learning.

Here’s a list of twenty-five ideas for homeschooling your preschoolers:

Science

1. Choose an animal to study each week. It could be a mammal, bird, fish, insect, amphibian, dinosaur, or whatever you like. Go to the library and check out a children’s non-fiction book about your animal. Look it up in an encyclopedia, and read it out loud, making sure your child gets a good view of any illustrations. Visit a zoo and look at your special animal, if possible. Draw pictures of them to cover one of your walls. Make an animal mobile and hang a picture of your special animal on the mobile each week. Teach your child to write the animal’s common name, and even the scientific name if your child likes writing that much. Look for children’s picture books and stories that might include your special animal. Visit an expert on your animal to ask questions.

2. Get a tree identification book and start a tree journal. Every time you find a tree you don’t know the name of, take the time to identify it. Then collect leaves, seeds, and possibly a bit of bark. Have your child help with this project by taping the collections into your journal. Your child can write the tree’s name at the top of the page.

3. Teach your child to weigh things. If you use a postage scale, use small things. If you use a bathroom scale, use large things. Keep a list of things weighed, and have your child write down the number on the scale. This is a good way to introduce fractions as well as to introduce the concepts of weight and gravity.

Math

4. Create a wall calendar, or buy a large blank laminated month calendar at your local educational supply store. Cut circles, squares, or some other shape and write the numbers from 1 to 31 on them. Each day, have your child tape a number to the calendar to show which day it is. Your child will learn how a calendar works and how to count.

5. Get a long scroll of paper about 4 inches wide from your educational supply store. Alternatively, cut printer paper in half length-wise. Your goal will be to staple or tape this up along the top of your wall, so it encircles the entire room near the ceiling. Before putting it up, write the numbers on it from 1 to 100. Every day, count the numbers with your child, pointing to them with a yardstick. Alternatively, you could count by 2’s or 5’s. Have fun with it.

6. Does your child like dinosaurs? Go outside with a piece of chalk and find out how long a dinosaur was. Put a starting mark on the sidewalk, then use a measuring tape to mark the average length of dinosaurs. An average Apatosaurus was 75 feet long, but an average Triceratops was only 26 feet. Here’s a dinosaur length chart. If your child prefers studying trains or ships, find out how long they are and measure those lengths instead.

Reading and Writing

7. Use a table or shelf to collect things that start with a certain letter. Each week, choose a different letter. The table for “B” might have a ball, a book, a stuffed bear, a banana, and a box. Label these things by writing the word on an index card and taping the card to your item. Spend all week practicing the B sound.

8. Play a rhyming game. Start with “cat”, then the next person says “rat”, and the next person says “bat”. Continue back and forth until you run out of rhyming words, then choose another: slap/tap/map; stop/cop/bop; light/bright/might; candy/randy/sandy; cook/book/took; mouse/house/blouse; no/go/foe; etc.. This is a great vocabulary builder – you may have to explain some of the words as you go along.

9. For little ones that don’t care much for reading, but love cars: Go somewhere and look at parked cars. Show your child the name of the car, and have him or her write it down.

10. Write a story or poem with your child. Each of you can take a turn adding a sentence. When you’re done, go to a playground and offer to read the story or poem to all the kids in the park. You’ll most likely be surrounded.

Social Studies

11. Go to museums to see what people lived like ‘in the old days’. Ask grandparents to tell the children what life was like for them when they were kids. Show children the difference between modern structures and those built a century ago. Go to historic parks in your state. Stop at historical markers and let your children learn what happened there, long ago.

12. Every week, cook a meal that is common in a foreign country. Read to your child about that country. If possible, dress up in the traditional dress of that country. Go to the library and get a non-fiction children’s book about that country. Help your child learn to write the name of the country.

13. Get a map of your town. Show your child where, on the map, your house is. Put a big star there. Then drive to the store. Put a star at the location of the store. Use a yellow highlighter to show what streets you drove on. Have your child choose any other location on the map, and use your highlighter to mark out the path you’re going to take. Your child would probably appreciate being able to do the highlighting. Then drive there, explaining what streets you’re using, whether you’re turning right or left, and what places you’re passing, especially if they are on the map. If you don’t have a car, you can adapt this activity to walking.

Foreign Language

14. Choose a few words from your favorite language and start using them for a while. For example, one week you could practice saying “abre la puerta” (Spanish for ‘open the door’) and “cierra la puerta” (close the door). Each week, practice another simple phrase or word. Children benefit from learning foreign languages early in life. Don’t make it too complicated. Have a bit of fun with it.

15. Put three items on a table. For example, a book, a toy car, and an apple. Tell your child, ‘bring me the car’ in your favorite foreign language. If your child brings the right thing, give him or her a quarter to put in their savings bank. If he doesn’t bring the right thing, try again in half an hour. If you consistently get the right thing, increase the number of items on the table!

16. How many languages can you say hello in? Take time to learn some new words with your child. Say hello in French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. Make a list of all the ‘hello’ words you learn together. When you’re done saying ‘hello’ in as many languages as possible, start learning ‘welcome’ instead.

Music

17. Collect many types of music and burn them to a CD. Then give your child the opportunity to guess who sang what, or what type of music it is. Is it classical? jazz? folk? country? Who sang it? The Beatles? Rolling Stones? Beach Boys? (Giving multiple choice options helps a lot at first.) Give your child a quarter for every right guess. Instead of making a CD you could try this in the car. Tune the radio to various stations. This could be an ongoing game for a few weeks or a few months. Your kid will get used to it and it will keep him or her busy during long car trips.

18. Help your child write a song. It isn’t hard. Ask what he or she wants to sing about. “Dolls” could be a topic. “Why do you like dolls?” “I love to hold and dress them.” Okay, you have the idea. Ask your child to sing a little song about their topic. If you get a song, write it down. Record it. Sing it over and over; kids love repetition. If your child doesn’t want to sing his or her own song, make one up. “I love dolls – they are really nice; I hold them and dress them everyday.” Enough said – or sung.

19. Do you have a little bongo drum? I bought one for my children at a school supply store. There were lots of other hand-held instruments there too. Buy a few if you can, or make some at home. An oatmeal box makes a great drum, or an empty plastic cool whip bowl. A set of spoons, taped back to back, can make a great clacking sound. A baby bottle with a tablespoon full of beans makes a good maraca. When you’re done making music, put these away in a special place like the back of your closet. Bring them out only on special occasions for family music time.

Art

20. Get a glass pie plate and fill it with water. Put a drop of food coloring in it and let your child stir it around with his finger or a popsicle stick. Notice how it slowly diffuses and then fills the water. Add a few drops of oil. Notice how it glides across the surface in little oil slicks, staying separate from the water. Point out to your child how one substance goes into the water, and one stays out. (A bit of science to go with your kinetic art project.)

21. Make a collage of Autumn leaves. Get crazy with it and tape or staple 100 leaves to the dining room wall – a great seasonal decorating idea!

22. Learn to make balloon animals together. You’ll need to go to a party store and buy a supply of 260’s, often sold as ‘twisty balloons’ for sculpting. You can learn everything you need to know about this art at Balloon HQ.

23. Create a nature window. Collect dry leaves, pine needles, tiny twigs, grasses, and other items. Then get some waxed paper and have your child arrange the collected items in any way pleasing to him or her. When done, you will use an iron at low heat to iron another sheet of waxed paper on top. Of course this is not good for your iron so use some other kind of paper on top and underneath so the wax doesn’t stick to the iron or to the ironing board. Put the finished creation in your child’s window and let the sun shine through.

24. Help your young child learn the basic colors by dividing up the lego blocks or other similar toys you may have. Let your child build something that’s all red, or all blue. Then switch to a different color.

25. What does your child love more than anything else? Is it Care Bears? Trains? Balls? Mickey Mouse? Winnie the Pooh? How about throwing a party on that theme? Have your child choose the decorations or help make them. Be as creative as possible while staying close to your theme. Can you think up train games? Watch a Mickey Mouse movie? Sing one of Winnie the Pooh’s silly songs? This will be your child’s opportunity to share his or her obsession with friends, while learning to plan and decorate for a party.

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Submitted to The Carnival of Homeschooling.