My boys' interviews for an unschooling newspaper article!

Jake and Sam were interviewed via e-mail for a local newspaper article. Here are their brilliant responses:

Jake:

***I wanted to find out from each of your sons what they thought about being unschooled - whether they ever think about going to regular school.***

Unschooling is fantastic and it is, in my opinion, the best way to really learn - I can't even imagine ever going to school. I've been to a few schools (just walking in, usually) and the whole environment just seemed so stifling and made me feel a little bit sick!

***When they are with other kids, if they have to explain that they don't go to regular school.***

Well, not really. Most of the time if they ask what grade we're in, we just casually say we don't go to school. Other kids are pretty accepting of it and even envious of it...we've had a few kids that wanted to join our family so that they could unschool, too!

***How they feel about their homeschooling - unschooling experience.***

This is hard to answer because it's always been my life, and that's the beauty of it, to me, it's *just life*. (A really great one at that!)

*** When they talk to other kids do they feel sorry for them that they don't have the same experience.***

I do wish that more kids could experience life this way, but I understand that going to school is their life, just like not going to school is mine. So I don't really feel sorry for them, but I wouldn't want to trade places with them!

***What is their favorite part of the process. What is their favorite subject.***

Again...to me, it's just *life* and there are no subjects - that's school. Out in the real world, is science really separated from math? Everything is connected in the real world.

***Do they expect to go to college?***

I don't know right now, honestly. I do have a lot of passions that I would love to see turn into something more (like a career), but right now in my life, I just don't feel like I should or can plan that far ahead.

I've always really hated the question, "What do you want to be when you growup?" because that seems to totally ignore what you are at the moment. As I always have, I will just keep going in the direction of my interests and trust that it will lead me to where I need to go (it always has).

*** Or anything else that they may want to talk about.***

I was trying to think of a way to explain to you how I learn through life, and all that I could come up with was, "What DON'T I learn from?" Everything has value.

For example, I've been interested in learning to speak and read Japanese for awhile. That came from my love of Japanese animation (it's called anime ~I discovered anime when I was about two) and then Japanese graphic novels(or manga). For my birthday a couple of years ago, I got an art collection book from one of my favorite video games. It's entirely written in Japanese and I've been wanting to know what it says! I learn so much about the Japanese culture from video games, reading manga, watching anime and looking up what I was curious about (I know a lot of Japanese words now from looking them up myself). And when we were in New York City, we went to a Japanese market,a Japanese bakery and a Japanese bookstore ~ just even going to those places and buying some things (who knew that red bean paste could taste so good in a pastry?!), I learned so much (and saw how much more there IS and that I want to learn!).

Mind you, this is only *one* example of something that I am learning from life, and only a small portion of my world and my days! There is so much more every single day.

Sam:

***I wanted to find out from each of your sons what they thought about being unschooled - whether they ever think about going to regular school.***

Heck, no. Never want to go to school ever. I hate the feel of it. I think unschooling is pretty great because I can learn from everything I do and I can stay at home most of the time and it's just nice to be home.

***When they are with other kids their each if they have to explain that they don't go to regular school.***

No, I just either say I homeschool or I don't go to school. Other kids usually say things like, "You're so lucky," "I hate school," or "I wish my parents homeschooled me."

***When they talk to other kids do they feel sorry for them that they don'thave the same experience.***

I feel sorry for some of the kids when they have to deal with bullies. I feel sorry for some of my friends who are forced to do something that they wouldn't naturally want to do - like my friend who had to square dance with other kids that he didn't like very much.

*** What is their favorite part of the process. What is their favorite subject.***

Subject? There aren't any subjects! I learn from everything I do! I learn from video games and trading card games, even, and those two things are lots of subjects combined! And I basically learned how to read from both of them.

***Do they expect to go to college?***

I don't really know at this point. Well, yeah, I'll probably want to go to college. Maybe culinary school some day...maybe when I'm 15 or 16. I've been interested in cooking since I was about two.