Unschooling moment

Or maybe a deschooling moment. T got me an iPad for my birthday (woohoo!!), totally unexpected and I couldn't talk for about five minutes. My jaw just hit the floor. It was one of those wish list things but not really on my current wish list - more somewhere in the fuzzy future wish lists. I have been so excited at the possibilities and freedom it gives us for work. That's our main goal at the moment - to set ourselves up so we can travel anywhere, anytime while still being able to conduct business. I love this technology.

I have been downloading podcasts to listen to and am soooo excited about this. It has taken me into a whole new realm of learning possibilities. I have always had in the back of my mind that I would one day go to uni - in my mind the only thing stopping me was the fact that I can't pinpoint one subject passion. I love psychology, history, forensic science, biology, anthropology, travel, languages - French and Italian, literature and more I can't think of just at the moment. Very hard to do a uni degree encompassing that lot :)

As I move more and more into unschooling and fresh off getting home from the First Ever Australian Unschooling Conference and reading Dayna Martin's book Radical Unschooling - A Revolution has Begun, I was up until 2am listening to podcasts! I literally had to give myself permission to stay up this late. I was lying in bed at about 11pm (late for me, usually 10pm) thinking passionately about all of the fabulous free podcasts I have downloaded and getting excited about listening and suddenly gave myself permission to get up and do it NOW, not tomorrow or next week, but NOW. I know this probably sounds bizarre but I had a very strict bedtime all through childhood, even into my twenties and early thirties (self-imposed then but deeply ingrained) and spent those years with the belief that I would be tired, I would be tired if I didn't get enough sleep and guess what? My refrain was always, "I'm so tired". I am feeling excited and joyful this morning after about five hours sleep and that is so against my normal mindset. I feel like I have had a breakthrough in both understanding myself and where I've come from and with unschooling/deschooling myself.

Uni is getting pushed further and further into my future, not with regret or disappointment, but with excitement, passion and joy at how easy it is to gain knowledge when, where and whatever you want with the technology that we have available to us. I love unschooling myself probably more than watching the kids learn freely.

Love Karen