Rethinking Education: Barb Lundgren Interview


Like me, Barb is a mom whose kids are now adults but she is still very connected to the homeschooling/unschooling experience. So much so that she even runs a yearly conference, Rethinking Education. If you go to the site and read more about it, you will see that it is set up to be quite the learning experience. The 13th annual conference is held in Texas on Labor Day weekend and anyone interested in attending still has time to beat the early registration deadline of April 30th.

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We have been an unschooling family for 26 years now. Once you're in the unschooling groove, you are always learning, always rethinking, always unschooling. Now that my kids are are adults, my husband and I are still unschooling ourselves!

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

I love the flexibility of sleep times, eating times, vacations off season, shopping when stores are empty, and absolutely the freedom to set the course for our own lives, all the time.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Mud fights, creating new games like pool baseball, understanding our legal system by setting up "court" in our own home, moving into the treehouse for weeks at a time, having gnomes living in our backyard.>

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Yes, one really funny story comes to mind. My youngest was about 3 years old. It was a hot summer day and we were all seated around the dinner table having spaghetti. I had my arch nemesis Dr. Dobson on public radio during dinner because I wanted to hear what he had to say, mostly because I enjoyed getting all riled up back then over stuff that differed from my world view. The funny part is coming: my 3 year old was stark naked, uninterested in eating much, and draping spaghetti noodles all over his body ( did you hear ALL over?)and then picking them off one at a time and popping them into his mouth. We all thought it was funny, and really funny when the suggestion was made that we call Dr. Dobson to get his advice on how
to handle this!

1 comment:

piscesgrrl said...

Oh, I so very much want to attend Rethinking Education this year but don't think it's in the cards for us. RATS. Love the Dobson story! So great.