the continued saga of our unschooling adventure

Where were we? Ah yes. I was ten years old, my mom took me out of school, she took me to the beach every day and I was hooked. (Go read my other hub for the expanded version).

So then! When my mom took us out of school I knew one other family of homeschoolers. They were nice enough, but to be perfectly honest, I was worried that we'd end up like them. They were not my favorite people in the world. I was worried not only that we'd be like them, but that they would be the only people I'd have to hang out with. At last the day came when instead of loading up the van to go to the beach, my mom put that same cooler in the car, and said "today, we're going to the park."

At this part was a group of homeschoolers called "Rainbow Kids" who met once a week at different parks throughout Orange County. I'll never forget the moment our car pulled into the parking lot, and I saw the expanse of blankets and lawn chairs spread out on the ground - the number of parents, the number of kids. I believe I looked like a cartoon right about then, my jaw dropping to the ground. It was my first glimpse that this whole "homeschooling thing" was not just my crazy mother's latest whim, but an actual movement of people. There was quite a lot of comfort in these numbers for me at that time. I was immediately enveloped by a group of kids of varying ages, while my mom settled with her chair into the circle.

Rainbow Kids, as it turned out, did all sorts of things, in addition to hanging out in parks. We went on tours of some of the neatest places - Thomas Bros. map company, LA Times newspaper, a water recycling plant, grocery stores, radio stations, zoos and museums, you name it. We also put on our own elaborate events which we called "theme days." We'd pick a theme, such as Colonial America, or Ancient Egypt, for example, and each family would be responsible for some sort of activity. We would dress up, walk the walk, talk the talk. I loved those days. I can't even tell you how much. At that point in my life, I had more costumes than jeans and t-shirts. I was really into the American Girl dolls, because of their historical accuracy and the glimpse into those past lives. I loved all things Laura Ingalls, and all things Civil War. It was my dream to live in hoop skirts, stamping all of my envelopes with sealing wax.

Rainbow Kids happened to be home to a group of very theatrical kids who all shared my passion for dressing up and acting out. It wasn't long after my 11th birthday sleepover that we decided to put on a production of the Wizard of Oz. I was to be Dorothy, the rest of the best parts distributed amongst the girls present that night, and all the other roles we gleefully determined right then and there - no audition (or even interest) necessary!

A group of about 7 of us 11-13 year old girls put on a production of the Wizard of Oz with our entire homeschooling group. It was an amazing feat, it really was. We had lights, sets, dance scenes, a drum machine, flying monkeys, a cyclone, and everything. We rehearsed in parks, coerced the unwilling into eager participants, designed the costumes, practiced choreography - it wasn't that we didn't have adult help. We did. The whole group got so involved that it was awe-inspiring. This project took over for months. In the end, we had a successful one time performance (on an actual stage in an actual auditorium). All because some kids had an idea at a sleepover one night.

I want you to stop and think about what would have happened if we had been in school and had that same idea. First off, would we have been able to use it? Would the school's curriculum have had space for it? Would we have had a teacher so flexible as to use our idea? Would we have been able to have such complete ownership of the idea? Casting, rehearsing, all of that would have been taken over by someone else - and as well meaning as that person would have been, it would have taken away some of the glory of this project. We probably would not have been able to work with people of all ages, either. We cast the youngest children as munchkins and Ozians, and us older kids spent a lot of time working with them on choreography and singing. Parents were mixed in with their kids as flying monkeys, trees, guards, the live music, etc. In school, a teacher might have directed, and parents might have helped behind the scene, but you would probably be hard pressed to find mixed ages working together the way we did. We were also able to focus entirely on this show for as long as we wanted to. We were able to dive completely into it and not resurface until we were done. We could spend 10 hours in one day at a park painting sets if we wanted to, and not have to stop after 45 minutes to clean brushes and get to the next class.

If anyone says that we weren't being well rounded by spending so much time on one show, then they just don't have the imagination to see what we were learning. There are all the typical "school subjects" such as history (when did the Wizard of Oz get filmed? When was it written? What about the Wiz? How does that connect? Wow, crazy different cultural contexts. MGM studios is still a place? What other movies have they produced? When? How old is Judy Garland? Her daughter is who? What has she done? What was so special about the color of Oz? What do you mean black and white tv?) math and geometry (set design. that's all I need to say.) Interpersonal skills (oh man, where do I begin? Conflict management, leadership, public speaking skills, self-esteem, team work..) and a whole host of other "subjects" that we learned.

Here's the difference. We learned it, mostly unconsciously, but it's still there, it still counts, because we were doing what we wanted to be doing. No one said "okay, today we will learn about the historical context of The Wizard of Oz for one hour before learning how to measure area to make the house that lands on the witch and then it's time for recess."

We also learned warm and fuzzy things about empowerment, our own capabilities, we watched our ideas turn into realities embraced by a hundred people. Do you know how powerful that is? Have YOU ever seen something you dreamed of happen like that? I was 12 years old and completely responsible for my own learning (but that's not what I would have called it then). That's a pretty heady thing. Take a minute, think about it.

After the wonderful success of the Wizard of Oz, Rainbow Kids went back to tours and theme days for a little while. We did end up staging another production - this time we also wrote the script. It was a civil war melodrama entitled "The Fight For Freedom" - also dreamed up at a sleepover of friends, if I recall correctly. Oh, and yes, there were hoopskirts.

I could (and might) do an entire article about what we got out of that production too. For some people, maybe the link between these experiences and "what we were learning" would be easier to see, since the Civil War is something studied in classrooms, and the Wizard of Oz doesn't tend to be. But I think YOU will understand

Rainbow Kids meant a lot to me and our production of the Wizard of Oz is a flashy example of many things. However, I do think that most unschooling kids have their own version of this. It might not have involved spotlights or red shoes, but it does involve that empowered feeling of choice. It involves lots, and lots, and lots, and LOTS of time to dive deep into interests and the responsibility that comes with the trust of parents letting their children guide their own lives. (It's a two-way trust, by the way, but that's for another day).