I was looking throung an unschool page that I wrote the prior post for and it got me thinking that I would really like to go through some of my major beleifs about unschooling as a lifestyle. For me and for other people to see how radical unschooling really works or what it might look like. Though every home is different and my beliefs will be different then another unschoolers but neither makes us not unschoolers. Just had to put the provision in...lol

BEDTIMES:
This one has been one of transition for us. When our oldest was wee, he is 10 now, we were all about bedtimes..in your room at 8pm, lights out, tired or not...BED. Our 6 yp came along and we tried the same thing..lol...ya didnt work very well, she was pretty sure she wasnt ready for bed at 8 , but we stuck with it...our 4 yo came along , same and well it all went uphill from there..lol..we gave up on the whole make someone go to sleep thing. As we became more comfortable with unschooling, and educating ourselves on other more holistic parenting options, I realized that what we were doing to our children was wrong. Forcing somone to sleep when their not tired isnt only wrong its stupid..lol. I thought about if someone was to say to me, ok phoenix at 8 pm, your going to bed. I mean some days I would be like...hell ya! , but more often then not, I am a night hawk. I lvoe staying up at night, and even when I was in school (and later when I was homeschooled for high school) I did my best work between 10 pm and 2 am. I am the same now. I love night time. But I am not such a great morning person. The reason that this is so stupid to me as well is that , ok you send your kids to bed at 8 , but then you argue with them till 1o of why they NEED to go to sleep..then they FINALLY fall asleep yelling, crying screaming or whatever. Your stressed out , their stressed out. Whereas you COULD of jsut let them stay up and more then likely by 10 they would have been passed out anyway, IF they werent busy doing something awesome. SO really why do it? I understand people who send their children to school having to have a bedtime. Those kids need to get up early and function in a high stress environment all day long so they need as much sleep as they can get. But I dont have to do that, becuase my kids wake when they want, they need a nap thay take it, they sleep when they want and they are certainly not in a high stress environment where they need to "cope" all day long. I want my children to be on their own clock. I want them to be able to recognize when they function the best. Not only that, when we lifted "bed-times" I relaxed . I think that happened for a few reasons. one becuase bedtime was really stressful for me because it was going against my inner judgement, and two becuase it meant that I had more time to do THINGS...lol...I was able to relax about getting housework done through the day, because the kids knew they ahd me for as long as they needed my at night, they werent demanding time all day . SO I got done what I needed to get done , and still my kids were happy! It works. Its amazing. ANyway those are my thoughts on bedtimes.
tommorow...TV

The Walkers