The W5

WHO: It's us again. You know. Breakneck Dave... Zookeeper Cat... Spazzerific... Banana Brain... Squirrelly Girlie... and of course, Brat Boy, who bears no relation to that occasional feature on
the cover of Weekly World News. Well, almost none.

WHAT: We are an unschool.

The Lazy Creek Zoo features four wild (but not uncultivated) children, two cats, a dog, and the occasional irrational parent. (The chickens are still missing...) Our methodology is simple. "Here's a trumpet. Go play it."Well, not quite that haphazard. We don't believe in goofing around withour kids' development, and we do believe that learning - even unschooling -has an underlying structure.

WHEN: Year-round, really. We have pauses for seeding season, changes in teaching style as we move from winter books to summer hands-on. When you're learning from daily life, you don't
really get breaks. Even the days you stay in bed, you learn things about what kids will do when they think no one's looking.

WHERE: Everywhere. Anytime. Whenever somebody asks a wild question about why the cat has to get neutered or all the details of the new cousin's ultrasound picture, there's a conversation.

WHY: Oh, goodness, I have no idea. (Just kidding.) Because it's easiest, actually. Cat is a laid-back, float-through-life kind of chick when it comes to home and family. If the kids want to bake something, fix something, or try something, a better question is, why not?

As a nod to the subject links, we don't school in strict subjects. When we read, for instance, we take into account Language Arts, any applicable critical thinking, and the content being read (often related to something educational). However, we do keep a nodding acquaintance with the streams of thought that comprise an education, and under each heading you'll find beloved incidents that illustrate how our unschooling day might go. Go ahead and feel inspired. Or weirded out. Either one is a normal state at our house.

More unschooling talk:

Unschooling FAQ at Unschooling.com
Family Unschoolers Network (FUN)
Can Christians Unschool?