The New Global Student

Good book though it spent too much time trying to convince me why its a good strategy - just preaching to the choir. General recommendation, assuming we don't care if our kids don't go to an Ivy League school - take community college classes ASAP, graduate early, study/travel abroad for a year or two, then apply to colleges without having to submit a high school GPA, SAT or ACT score, with a more unique "personal statement", fluency in another language, and a more mature world perspective.

Unschooling Handbook: Book Club Discussion

I really love this idea of unschooling. Of course, it makes the whole homeschool co-op thing less feasible. I still think we should work something out where we share the responsibility of teaching sometimes, just so that we moms can get an occasional break! Maybe weekly field trips where only half the moms go, and the other half get to stay home and take a long bubble bath:)
Also, I think it would be good to create a database of skills, so if someone's kid is really into learning about microfinance, or building a table, or ancient civilizations, or creating a stock portfolio or WHATEVER then we know who to go to. And we could definitely swap things like that, like just have it be an open agreement where we'll teach each other's kids things that are in our areas of expertise.
And what I keep thinking about with this unschooling this is that basically you're just preparing them for life. Regular school prepares them for tests, prepares them for more school, but it doesn't necessarily prepare them for life. So, we have the chance to really show our kids how all that "school stuff" actually relates to the real world and they can learn it in context. Which makes me think that I'd like to make visiting places of employment, shadowing professionals, doing mini-internships, interviewing people, lots of volunteering etc. a big part of my kids education. What better way to help them see the relevancy of statistics and economics that have them spend a week shadowing or doing a mini-internship at a non-profit?
As for record-keeping, I'm kind of an organizational geek, so I definitely want to keep records for my own kids. And what better way than.... a BLOG! My favorite:) When the kids get older I think they should just blog what they're doing and that will serve as a great record and reminder later when they want to put together a more formal portfolio. I'd also like to have each kid do an end-of-year (or season or 6 months or whatever time period they decide on) portfolio project and presentation. It could take any form really, but would show what they had learned and accomplished and would be something concrete.
I'm only about halfway through the book, but I'm sure I'll have more thoughts before I finish it. What are you thinking so far?

The Unschooling Handbook

Christi's already reading this, so I'm joining her. I also picked up John Holt's Teach Your Own; I heard he's good. If anyone else wants to join in and read these so we can all swap ideas and impressions, jump right in!