Welcome February and unschoolers alike! Wherever you live in this fine, big country-or adjoining country- chances are pretty good that you will spend February 1st gazing out the window at some snow or rain. If that is the case, then you have found the perfect antidote to all of that boring shoveling or digging around for raincoats. Why not sit on your duff a little bit longer and read these many great posts by unschoolers about why they unschool, how they unschool, what types of things will get you verbally pummeled on unschooling listsserves, how to transition from schoolish ways to unschooly ones and so forth? There is no shortage of ideas here and lots of fun and images to keep you unaware of the vitamin D that has been gradually oozing out of your system since late Novemeber. If you are the one person in sunny Phoenix reading this today, fine, just go on out to the orange grove with your laptop and devour all the nutrients you need. But don’t tell me about it.

Special thanks to Joanne for allowing me to host this month and for being willing to make time for me in freezing Florida last week. I presume next month the 13th issue of Unschooling Voices will be found out about as usual here.

Now for Voices of the Unschooled and Unschooling the 12th…

Laura at i ate the sandbox has a hilariously insightful post about being a newbie on unschooling lists, and seeking wisdom without getting, as she so delicately says,the snot beat out of you. She also shares a story about a spontaneous educational opportunity that fell from the sky.

Lori of Chicagolo fame (yes, the very same Lori who writes Kids Ride Free for Gapers Block) got in to the unschooling images meme search to illustrate her unschooling adventures with the kids.

Over at 360 Multimomma Melissa took the unschooling images meme challenge! She added some good side notes to explain her choices too.

Some other folks who went the way of unschooling images, all with their own flair, Zenmomma the contrary one, Summer at Wired for Noise (starring her 2 boys), Mandaroo from Second to the Right,and Straight on Til Morning, and Diana of Bodhicitta! Can I use spell check on this stuff? Naw. Just forgive me if I mistype in the wee hours.

Christa at Sandy Feet explains in two blog segments what led her family to unschool her boys. The second explanation takes a more visual approach for us optical learners.

Steve of the Learning at Light Speed Weblog touches rapidly on the topic of the value of knowledge for its own sake in his post Is Knowledge Really Power? It is a thought-provoking point that many unschooling families have dwelled upon when considering formal, structured education.

Karen from Leaping From the Box reviews the new family acquisition- an educational board game ,with good results.

Some posts on the alternative topic;

How to be An Unschooler-in 400 words or less

Stephanie at Learning through Living talks about figuring out if unschooling is right for you.

Over at Homeschooling In New York City, written by Angela, there is a fine description of unschooling and how it can work given some trust- even with the heavily regulated requirements of her state.

Jessica from Joyfully Learning advises talking to the mailman as well as blogging to name a few unschooling tricks…

Tammy at Just Enough, Not More has ten tips for deschooling which any new-to-homeschooling family might want to tape to their fridge and rearview mirror.

At Wistful Wanderlust, Piscesgrrl is up to part three of her Q&A series “How Did We Get Here?” in which she details her shift in thinking towards TV and other technology that has helped everyone in the family to expand their interests. She clearly exceeded her 400 word limit, thus establishing herself as an antidisestablishmentarianist. I love all of the photodocumentation!

Sylvia of Po Moyemu shares her Live & Learn Conference goodies, and talks frankly about adjusting to radical unschooling in their household.

Lastly, there’s Lynn, who writes A Mother’s Journal. She took the time to review The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith.

If I missed your submission somehow please send it to me or link directly to it here in comments and forgive me. I’m off to see the snow fairies do their magic.

p.s. Oh yeah. Link to me. Spread the word about this issue if you are in it or like it. Oh man, I’m going to get lots of hits this month to boost my blogging confidence and it is all thanks to you nice people who did the actual writing! Like, 34 comments in the comments field would be an even cooler boost. I’d probably blog forever on that kind of steam. Thanks.