305,251,200 Seconds of Unschooling

Give or take a few... It also could be expressed as 5087520 minutes, 84792 hours, or 3533 days since my son was born 9 3/4 years ago until today. Unschooling doesn't really stop or start at any given time, like the date a child would've gone to preschool or kindergarten or 1st grade, or the first day they would've been compelled by law to go to school (2nd grade in our state). It's an unbroken stream of life and learning, going back to that first amazing moment of birth. More likely, it starts before that as each of my kids clearly came out knowing some things. M., whose favorite song in utero was always "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad", loves that song to this day, and had an amazing run of years of being a total railroad nut (even going so far at age 2 and 3 as to call himself Casey Jones and only allow people to refer to him as such). A. turned to her brother's voice as soon as he spoke after her birth. She clearly related so much more to his voice than to anyone else's, probably because his head was about belly-level while I was pregnant with her, and he used to talk to her, calling her "my little strawberry".

From some moment of cognitive spark in utero until today, they've been learning all the time. Today is yet another sunny wonder in a string of unbroken lovely days. I even had to water my nascent vegetable garden today, which is unusual for April in the often-wet Pacific Northwest. We had A.'s theatre group this morning, then home for a brief lunch and off to M.'s homeschool writer's group (which he started almost 4 years ago now!). M. read the latest installment in the SciFi chapter book he's been writing, and A. read a short piece about how much she loves Canada Geese. Too cute. After that to the park with our friends, then home with a few more friends. They've been playing outside and I've been gardening.

Another day of joy. Another day of learning, friends, life, fun, excitement, accomplishment. Another 24 hours, or 1440 minutes, or 86400 seconds of learning in freedom. Our lives are blessed.