Part of the ABC’s of Learning Beyond School.  Brought to You by the Letter A. 

Ask.

Ask yourself, your family, neighbors, friends, strangers, people at the park, famous people, unknown people, the internet, twitter, facebook, me. The possibilities are almost endless.

Even if it seems a bit scary.  Or forward. Or presumptuous.

What do you mean, ask? For what?

For information, help, ideas, suggestions, an introduction, book recommendations, resources, a good field trip, a super music teacher, how they learned something, how they solved a problem you are having, for their story.

You might learn the answer to your questions, or something completely different and amazing that you didn’t realize you needed or wanted to learn.

 Ask.

So, tell me:  What would you choose for the letter A?  Is asking hard for you?  Have you found a way to ask that works?  Love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Lisa

I’ve been mulling over lots of different post ideas, and have several in various stages of development.  Playing around with too many ideas.  I decided I needed to give myself some structure and just get something up!

I am a sucker for ABC books and rhymes, So, I am beginning a series of posts, short ones,  on the ABC’s of learning beyond school.  I decided to spare you my rhyming this time around.

Lisa

First smiles. So important for evolution.

There are so many people I would love to acknowledge for their support, influence, and contribution to our parenting experiment. I know if I started naming names I would invariably forget to include someone and maybe hurt some feelings. Which I would never, ever want to do.

Of course our parents, Dale’s grandparents, play an obvious role.

There are a few surrogate mom’s, adopted mom’s, big influencer’s for me who are no longer here. I tip my hat and give thanks to Ruth Hood and Esther Yanai. I miss you. They modeled different types of parenting and relationships and gave me new ideas.

RosemaryPowers, who I consider Dale’s goddess mother, and often our saviour when sleepless nights were  just too much. She babysat Dale once a week from his birth until ..I don’t remember but it was priceless, lifesaving, and much appreciated. Thank you.

And, then the very long list of friends, parents of other kids Dale’s age, neighbors, unschool and homeschool moms, preschool and school teachers,  college buddies, WFoL friends, 4H leaders, music teachers, mentors , our larger community….more experienced parents who shared their stories and gave advice when asked. Time and again. Thank you,

And maybe you didn’t give us advice, per se, but you gave Dale attention, love, affirmation and direction that he needed apart from us. Thank  you.

Thank you all. I hope you know who you are even without me saying your name. Thank you. It made a difference. It shows.