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Learning in Freedom

Welcome to Learning in Freedom, a blog all about the learning adventures (and mishaps) of the Allen family. My four children are unschooled, following their interests and passions every day and living the lives of their choosing. The purpose of this blog is to share our every day lives (and my not-so-humble opinons) with anyone interested in stopping by. We hope this will give a glimpse of how natural learning unfolds from day to day......

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Name: Ren Allen
Location: Jonesborough, Tennessee, United States

I was born and raised in the far north of Fairbanks Alaska where the moose trample your garden, northern lights dance and darkness rules the winter. Met my husband of 19 years while living in Portland, OR. I adore raspberries with lots of sugar and cream, lazy nights watching movies and drinking wine, hiking, gardening, beekeeping and traveling. I speak and write about our unschooling life, online and at conferences around the country. Some of the things I don't have time for currently, but plan to in the future, wine/beer making, building a cob house and falconry.

Monday, July 20, 2009

It's our "thing"

Rivers and Obos that is. We build them wherever there are rocks and leave them for nature or other humans to find or destroy.





This is how we spend our days at the river. Building, scooping, swimming, fussing, collecting and laughing. I've spent too much of my life wishing and dreaming, I'm more into DOing now. Because you can use what you've got, rather than waiting for things to change. I don't have a house near the river. I don't have a kayak. I have a truck though, and I have kids that love the water. So we go and in that moment the river is ours as much as it is the earth's and it seems to love us too.



This one likes to try and catch fish. The fish aren't so cooperative...smart things.



Sand, water and rocks are a bit more malleable. Mini dams and rivers make for great fun.





Happy faces, nurtured by the water and trees.



Later, Sierra insists on trying Meringues again. This was her second attempt in her desire to perfect them. Yes, they're eggs from the farm down the road.



We've spent a lot of time trying to come up with a plan for buying property and building a house. We found the property, haven't found the money yet! But that isn't stopping Bleu and Sierra from spending HOURS designing and redesigning, looking at Deltecs, abandoning Deltecs, designing again...and so on. I came home from work two nights ago around 8:30 and they'd been at it since 6pm. I think they finally put it all away around 10:30 or so.

Sierra was delighted to learn about square feet vs. cubed feet and other such things that made me cringe in school. She's drawing designs to scale and loving every minute...I think even the frustration is joy at this point. :)

I laminated sheets of common household furniture and appliances drawn to scale (thanks to the Deltec rep we chatted with at the model home last week) and they had a ball placing them and replacing them on their home designs. Cool stuff! Such is the life of natural learning....things we believed difficult in school are actually fun when the learner chooses it, because of some internal force that guides their interest. Human beings are SO wired to learn. I wish people could see that and trust the process...whether their children are interested in home designs or pokemon. It's all learning. It's all worthy.

Her other current interest is memorizing Jason Mraz songs. Why? Because she's going to the concert and she wants to know the music better! Funny how that motivation stuff works when it's for our very own purposes. :) I do so love this life.



Jared is having his own water adventures, with family and other unschoolers up in the light of far North. Water and obos...it's what we do in the summer.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Nesta Fest and other such fun...

Have I mentioned we've been busy? Summer is full of activity and work, it seems everything is on steroids this time of year!

One day Sierra decided to haul out some of the contractor plastic I use to kill off weeds for new garden areas. We cleaned it and turned it back into the "slip and slide" we originally purchased it for. Lots of good water fun that day.



After you get wet and use up lots of energy playing, baking cookies is necessary. Didn't you know that? We used the handmade butter and buttermilk from the farm we visit occasionally. SO yummy.



In June we went camping for "Nesta Fest", a yearly birthday event for our friend Nesta, down in the Nolichucky River Gorge...one of the most amazing places on earth.



The noodle wars, which went badly a couple times. But overall were only a semi-painful battle.


Jalen with a friend and his new pet slug "Jeffrey" in the tipi.


We take up a section at the campground, filled with tents and friends and fires and lots and lots of laughter and talk.


Rob has got this whole river relaxin' thing figured out!


Building castles and dreams....


Just chillaxin! It's so beautiful and serene, time seems to stand still for us.




Birthday cake!


A man and his rock; I think he's fishing for something other than fish.



This one was definitely fishing for fish, but he let's them all go after observation.


Me and my buddy La taking in the sun....I'm nearly blind here as the river ate my sunglasses!




Barb even stopped by for a little bit, in between running kids to places and packing for a trip (did I mention she's crazy??) :)



Jalen hanging out by our little campsite. No, we didn't sleep in the tipi, that's our tent to the left. We really need more than a two-person mountain tent though. Soon, soon.




In the morning, before our friends are awake and other friends arrive for the birthday, the kids and I snuck down to the misty river. I feel more whole, more awake, more content there and I realized I need to visit the river often. So we do now. Every Monday at the least....working on getting a kayak next.




Then there was the visit from the Lovejoys and an afternoon spent at Boone Dam Lake. We stole Sadie away and took her home with us. They spent lots of time jumping off the concrete wall with the sign that says "keep off wall".



They jumped off the divider too....



...and made lots of cool designs with string, fingers and even faces.


Back at home...


...where the garden grows,


and grows,

the bees stay very busy, and butterflies stop in for brief visits.




There are hidden places in the brambles now, because it's summertime! How we love it.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sadie and Sierra cartoon

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Things keep on growing...












Monday, July 06, 2009

Jared went to Girdwood Fair

So Jared and Kevin traipsed off to Girdwood Fair in the middle of the woods with a bunch of hippies and other friends for the weekend. When Heidi dropped them off they had no reservation for a campsite, but they had food and a tent and decided to wing it. As it turns out, having no plan and a spirit of adventure pays off lots of times.

They found a friend, whose Mum had a friend, who had a house adjacent to the festival grounds. They pitched their tent on his rooftop (how cool is that?) and had a real bathroom to use all weekend. Being willing to head into the unknown isn't something Jared would have embraced until recently. His cousins are cool guys though and it doesn't hurt to have weather you love.:)



Check out that view! I do miss Alaska this time of year...


Pitching their roof-top tents.


It looks like a very Alaskan style house. He was exhausted when I talked to him on the phone last night so it must have been a lot of fun.

Addendum: Heidi posted some cool pics of their weekend at her blog.

Jalen convo

The boy wakes up behind me as I type on the computer. He's snapping his fingers (new skill) and when I notice and come to snuggle with him he keeps giggling.

Me: You're sure full of giggles this morning. Did your dreams fill you up with giggles?
Jalen: Nope, I had a zombie dream.

Nevermind.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Trip to the NW: The conference

I'm way too behind for anything remotely organized at this point. So here are some random highlights of the conference weekend, which was full of many grand and somewhat stressful moments for me. Such is the way of unschooling conferences....

Lunch with Amy Steinberg, Donna, Heidi, Robin and Mary. Glorious weather, yummy food, lots of laughs, the massive Columbia river flowing past as smoothly as the margaritas we drank.






They had the mariachi band sing Happy Birthday to me....all while wearing a very large hat I'm not going to show you.



There was a very cool "river" in Esther Short park, a quick walk up the street from the conference site. We went there every day. Didn't hurt to have a very good coffee shop/cafe right on that particular square.;)



The post-conference picnic...














My friend Lindsey even showed off some of her amazing acrobatics for us! Lindsey and I worked together out here in Johnson City and she had moved out to the NW to join a dance troupe. It was great to re-connect.



Searching for a four-leaf clover.It's one of his "things".





Saying goobye...




The late-night parties in my room...




The late-night ATC making in my room....








The deck overlooking the Columbia, where we could sit and chat or drink or hug. My room looked over this deck and the river, it was awesome!




The talent show. We were helping Calista fulfill her dream of being in the show for the very first time ever. She wanted to sing "Five green and speckled frogs", which she did. We were her "frogs".




The Amy Steinberg concert, always a hit, always a blast! We love you Amy!!:)



Visiting the In-laws....it had been too long and it was great to see them and give the kids a chance to share some hugs.




It was a great trip and a great conference!! I'm still exhausted.;) Thank you Mary and Jon for hosting this incredible weekend. You rock!