Roadschooling: The 5-Month Mark

As our time in Central America draws to a close, we’re reflecting on our choice in 2010 to leave institutional schooling for a less structured, more relaxed life as an unschooling family.

What have been the benefits? What have been the drawbacks?

I find that my answers differ from the boys’ answers.

Keep Out — The International Edition

All over the globe, people have made it their business to keep other people off their land. Out of their yard. Away. We’re learning how this plays out in Costa Rica and Nicaragua as compared to what we’ve come to know in various places in the U.S.

Why We Are Going to Nicaragua

Demonstrating to the kids that rendering aid can take many forms: the shape of a hot pizza, the length of a park’s perimeter by carriage, the heft of a backpack filled with toys.

Good Eats

We were thrilled to get into “the system” here—-that of figuring out who knows whom, who can get access to a fishing boat to get fresh fish, and when (roughly!) the fellows with the seafood truck will be coming through town to sell frozen shrimp (or camarones in Spanish).

Question: What Is Infrastructure?

Over the summer, we witnessed major bridge repairs along an oft-used highway coming out of Portland. “It’s such a drag!” the kids always said, as we lingered in orange-barrel traffic. Well, kids, we’re living differently now in Costa Rica. Paved roads—and safe bridges—would be quite nice.

The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet

It’s 1927. Newly widowed mother of five Muriel Wylie Blanchet packs her family onto a 25-foot boat in order to explore the coastal waters of British Columbia. It becomes tradition each summer, all summer, for a dozen years. The Curve of Time, Blanchet’s account of their adventures, is well written, delightful, and inspiring.

What the Danish Guy Taught Me

The European man who came, saw, and challenged my world view: Why do people have their kids, only to warehouse them all week with strangers? And why are the children’s days so scheduled to death?

Mr. Laszlo and Company

I fell in love with foreign language to the sound of hammers and saw blades.

A History of High-Grade Fever

4, 3, A+, B…see ya!