Unschooling Myself

Since I have embraced the unschooling lifestyle, I have seen how truly we are learning all the time. Life presents a multitude of opportunities to embrace new experiences, participate in new activities and learn new things. I have tried to embrace this for my children who are always moving from one thing to another, investing themselves headlong in a subject and really getting into it in a way they would not be able to if they were in school for 8 hours in a day. But this has not only been beneficial for them, it has been a paradigm shift in lifestyle for me as well. I have always loved to write. Always. From the second I could form letters on a page, I had stories to tell. In fact, I just published my very first, paid magazine article. It was an assighment that wasn't something I would necessarily choose to write about, but it was good writing. More recently I've been studying the art of screenwriting. I've learned to crochet, tried my hand at HTML and CSS, worked with imaging programs and learned to design and tweak digital scrapbook pages, taught myself to design newsletters, learned to create a PDF file and am learning now how to make a PDF form interactive. There is so much more and there is no end in sight. Some of these things I do just because I enjoy them, and others even generate a little extra income that always seems to come at just the right time. Last week I designed a blog header and yesterday used the format of my template to put together a blog make over for my good friend Dwayne who spent his first Mother's Day without his mama. There is just so much to do, and learn and try. My husband is the same way. Just recently he designed a wire puller that would be helpful to electricians on the job, and has always come up with gadgets and gizmos to make any work he is doing easier. (Too bad we have no idea how to patent some of it!) The best part is when the kids see us diving headlong into our own interests and pursuits, they are inspired to do the same. Yesterday I got a homemade Mother's Day card from my beauties that said this:

Thank you for being the person you are, and for giving us space to do the same.

That is just about the best thing a mother could hear. Isn't it what we all truly need most, the opportunity to become who we were created to be?