Cool School

I spoke with Susun Weed on the phone today!

No joke. Urban Shaman and I have signed up for a herbal correspondence course with her, to learn about how to make our own infusions, tinctures, vinegars, soaps, etc. using simple herbs. It is a course that you do at your own pace, and using your own learning style(s). The fastest student took 6 months to complete it, the slowest 10 years. We hope it will only take a couple years!

Susun herself was so sweet and uplifting. I believe this will be a fun process.

Urban Shaman and I are very excited to do this as a team. We're sharing all the materials and will learn together yet still read different things. It should work out really well because Urban Shaman really loves learning about plants and plant knowledge, and I love to be in the kitchen and cook/follow recipes. We've always wanted to have some practical skills, things that we can do with our own hands.

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Speaking of practical skills and working with your hands... today I visited school #5 in my search for where I will send Il Tonino in the fall. The schools are all soooo different. The two that I like the most, so far, really do emphasize practical, hands-on learning. As I am looking at them I keep trying to think back on my schooling experience and figure out what hands-on knowledge, if any, I learned. Honestly almost nothing. All of the hands-on stuff was extracurricular. Thus I would really like it to be a bit different for Il Tonino. Here Urban Shaman and I are, 20 years later, trying to school ourselves again so we can have that.

Of the schools I am looking at, one school is a K-8th grade only so that is not in consideration right now. Another school I have struck off my list -- it is a very good school but I just don't feel that *I* would fit in very well there. Il Tonino would do fine, but it is a little too mainstream for me. That's kind of funny considering I am looking at Montessori and Waldorf schools, which are about as away from the mainstream as you can get. (And yes, I like those schools.) I have an appointment to visit one more school this coming Tuesday, and after that I will work on making a decision (and I'll post about it).

Ack!

My head is swimming.

I am looking at schools for Il Tonino for fall 2009. So many choices. It is overwhelming.

Soon we will start going to some school open houses and trying to get a feel for what we like.

My mom will help, for which I am grateful. This is one instance in which her many, many years as a teacher and then later as a supervisor of student teachers will really come in handy for me. She'll come and just observe in the classrooms and observe the student-teacher interactions.

I think I'll be figuring a lot of it out based on my intuition.

I'm kind of hoping the school(s) I like the most will be within walking or biking distance. But knowing life, I'll probably like the one that is the farthest away!

Any advice for us when we are looking?