Category: Learning Lifestyle

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I Don’t Teach Anything

My older son is getting a lot of attention in the adult jiu-jitsu class. People are learning what his coach and I have been seeing for years, that he’s focused on technique and won’t be intimidated by someone’s size or skill. He battles and learns like he was built for it.

A fellow practitioner asked me about his involvement with other sports and I said, “Actually, he’s really into theater. He’s been on stage many times and is the student director on a production of Much Ado About Nothing right now.”

Our conversation turned to Shakespeare and I was happy to find another lover of The Bard. I guess my passion got her to ask, “Do you teach Shakespeare?” “Well, I’m a homeschool dad, so I don’t teach anything.”

I’m a facilitator. Yes, I brought Shakespeare into my boys’ (and wife’s and lovers’ and anyone who will let me drag them to a show) lives, but after that, I don’t teach. I will spout off because I am truly curious and passionate about so many things, but I have modeled a spirit of challenge with my boys. It can be infuriating, but they know that speaking truth is their responsibility and repeating the words of an “authority” will never fly for truthful thought.

We found a lot of freedom when I gave up teaching. It created space for more passion and curiosity, it took the chains off our learning lifestyle.

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Bird Garden

“Dad! They’re learning to fly!”

This was an unschool morning.

My older son was enjoying cereal on our deck when the Carolina wren hatchlings living in our defunct grill hopped out to try their wings.

This is one of the parents who kept a close eye as the littles found their wings.

Below are the babies who didn’t have long to become independent. After a few hours in our small yard, the whole family moved along.

While watching this miracle of maturation, many more birds visited.

And a surprise poppy.

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Isaac Morehouse on the Ken Coleman Show

T.K. Coleman and Isaac Morehouse are the reason this blog is approaching one thousand posts. Although I have failed multiple times in the last few months at Coleman’s year-of-blogging challenge, the attempts have helped me find and grow internal and external connections.

In this conversation, Morehouse touches on all of the reasons I’ve been following him for years. He’s been a catalyzer for my learning lifestyle and an inspiration to start my own business. His aim to connect and help people aligns with my heart’s direction and I won’t wait to send him a Thank You as soon as I hit PUBLISH.

Isaac Morehouse on the Ken Coleman Show

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When to Start Home Schooling

You’ve been doing it since birth!

We didn’t start “formal” home education until K. I wish we hadn’t. Through a lot of fits, starts, and downright fights, I learned that children are the most natural learners. Schoolish assumptions tamp down our curiosity and mutate learning from playful discovery to grinding work and responsibility.

We slowly assessed and eliminated the internalized assumptions of our school training.

We went from schooling in our home, to an eclectic approach, and finally came home to radical unschooling. I don’t regret the length of our journey, but I hope to help others free themselves from the expectations of a system that cannot know how to serve the individual.

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Be Dangerous, Then Good

This kid got a little more dangerous today.

After years of training in the youth program at Elevated Studios, he joined the adult class and reignited his passion for the sport and art of jiu-jitsu.

Jesus told his disciples to carry swords. He toppled the money changers’ tables and whipped them. His ideas continue to upend the structures of oppression. He remains dangerous to this day.

I’ve watched a lot of good men fall in line with the oppressors. Good isn’t enough. Good avoids conflict in spite of cost. Good lets evil run free.

Good fails when it is not dangerous.

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Shakespeare’s Birthday with Pages Alive Theater

Westen has been performing Shakespeare since before he could read. We were celebrating the Bard’s birthday with Delaware Shakespeare when he volunteered to read some lines. Before I could protest, this little guy toddled up to the mic and I sat terrified for him.

Producing Artistic Director David Stradley fed him lines in his ear and he recited them darn near perfectly.

A small role in Macbeth came once Westen learned how to read and there have been many plays since.

Today was the culmination of two short weeks of preparation. Westen had to memorize two monologues (Hamlet’s To Be or Not To Be and Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech from Julius Caesar). Isaac’s lines were spread out and he had to navigate multiple cues.

After performing a cheat-sheet version of Julius Caesar in Barnes and Noble, the troupe headed to the Christiana Mall food court to surprise shoppers with quick hits from several plays and a remarkably bad rendition of “Happy Birthday” (in their defense, it’s not Shakespearean).

Homeschool friends came to support the boys and I was filled with gratitude for these opportunities and the community that creates them.

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A Good Day For Bad Jiu-Jitsu

When I first met my girlfriend in person, I doubted it would become romantic. She was seeing someone, lived an hour away, and had been clear about not wanting to be pursued.

It created a safe space, there weren’t games of seduction.

We talked about what we wanted in all our relationships, not just the romantic ones. I told her I wanted contenders, men and women who would push me as hard as they loved me.

Kristen has become one of the main contenders in my life. She loves me deeply and pushes me to be more than I am. She didn’t let me make excuses to skip jiu-jitsu training tonight. She called me out on my bullshit.

I got myself to Elevated Studios and got beat up.

I don’t think I could be more grateful for my lack of conditioning and flailing technique tonight. I pushed my self to dizziness and got off the mat before I got hurt.

We don’t voluntarily go to our uncomfortable limits often enough. Voluntary stress limits the power that involuntary stressors can have over us.