South Central Kentucky. Where my permies at?

I have land now! Yay! 👍
But no one I know understands me or what I want to do. Boo!👎
Anyone want to be friends?

I'm still married (separated), so I don't know if THAT kind of thing is really what I'm looking for, but I do crave friends and community. If that other thing is the kind of thing that YOU are looking for, you should know that I'm non-monogamous and fat, so 😁

I have a 6yo and a 7yo, and if you have kids too, we should get them together to play. We homeschool and this past year plus has been pretty lonely for them. They love video games (Roblox, Minecraft, Breath of the Wild), and bugs, and rough and tumble play.

I'm starting from absolute zero, but I'm super interested in cob structures, rabbits, goats, pigs, silvopasturing, food forestry... I'm just so excited!

It's me and them.

Hello Jennie Sue, I'm a bit too far to be a companion in the way you desire.  But still, I wanted to wish you the best in your grand new adventure!  Starting off at zero may seem daunting, but in some ways it is a very enviable place to be.  You've made no mistakes, yet.  You've made no decisions or choices.  You can go in whatever direction you wish!

If there was some way I could go back to that point while still knowing what I know now, I totally would.  Hell, when I started developing my own property, I didn't even know the word "permaculture."  My own design plan has evolved and accreted over time, rather than ever actually being planned.

So my advice - not that you asked for any! - is to take things slow and focus on the design phase before you start digging or building or planting.  I know how excited you are to get things started.  But to the extent that you can afford to, given your living situation, take as long as you can thinking and envisioning and drawing and researching.  And take advice and inspiration from as many experienced gardeners and homesteaders as you can.  Share your plans with them, see what they think, make modifications, and then share your plans again with yet more people.

To that end, good luck meeting local permies!  And feel free to drop a line via PM if you wanted to talk about your plans and aspirations.  I'd also be curious to hear your homeschooling stories, as that is a method with which I'm most intrigued.

Are you near Sloans valley in southern Kentucky.  I have done a lot of caving in Sloans valley cave.  I have also canoed the Cumberland river way above the fall north of Onida Tn.  I have Kayaked the Russel fork river through the breaks interstate park through the gorge.  I've back packed the Cumberland river below the falls and trekked every trail at Red River gorge national forest.  So what part of Kentucky are you tromping grounds.
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Matthew Nistico wrote:take things slow and focus on the design phase before you start digging or building or planting.  I know how excited you are to get things started.  But to the extent that you can afford to, given your living situation, take as long as you can thinking and envisioning and drawing and researching.

You must be reading my mind. I get so excited studying the things I would sensibly shoot for 3, 4 years down the line, when I NEED to be focusing on the path directly in front of me. It's a recurring theme.  Like gazing out the window, daydreaming in class.

I still have not seen all of it. It's overgrown and brushy, and the kids complain if they have to hike through too many brambles 😬😆

Our homeschooling method is closer to "unschooling," letting the lessons come up where they may, seizing every opportunity to teach a kid something while I have their attention, and of course offering every opportunity to learn anything they like. Like permaculture for the brain, I think. Very laissez faire, but also a lot of work when the golden hour hits. When they say they want to understand/ learn something, it takes a lot of patience to redirect my focus and shift gears. Any moment can be a teachable moment. I'm not always great at it, but for at least one of my two kids, I really feel like this is the best way for him to learn.

Steven Rodenberg wrote:So what part of Kentucky are you tromping grounds.
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I'm just south of Glasgow, so farther south and east. Buttt. It was the Daniel Boone National Forest over there is really the reason I came to Kentucky.

I have family in Florida/Alabama, so I always have remembered the long drives as a kid down I-65 with those gorgeous sheer rock cliffs on each side of the highway. Passing through, but I never got to stop.

But it was my hike last year in September at Dog Slaughter Falls that really sealed the deal on Kentucky for me. Just so special. Makes my heart want to 'splode.

Jennie Sue Dean wrote:Our homeschooling method is closer to "unschooling," letting the lessons come up where they may, seizing every opportunity to teach a kid something while I have their attention, and of course offering every opportunity to learn anything they like. Like permaculture for the brain, I think. Very laissez faire, but also a lot of work when the golden hour hits. When they say they want to understand/ learn something, it takes a lot of patience to redirect my focus and shift gears. Any moment can be a teachable moment. I'm not always great at it, but for at least one of my two kids, I really feel like this is the best way for him to learn.

I like it!  I don't know too much about this philosophy of education, but from what little I've heard I think it has so much promise.  I'm sure it is very much akin to the way parents naturally taught children whatever they needed to know for millenia before schools were ever invented.  Children are naturally curious.  It takes a school to beat that yearning for knowledge and experience out of them.

I imagine that you are still in the most difficult phase, given how young are your children.  Once they are confident readers, I imagine that they will take over for themselves exploring the areas that interest them most, which will surely take some of the burden off of your shoulders.  Do you think?

Matthew Nistico wrote:

Jennie Sue Dean wrote:Our homeschooling method is closer to "unschooling," letting the lessons come up where they may, seizing every opportunity to teach a kid something while I have their attention, and of course offering every opportunity to learn anything they like. Like permaculture for the brain, I think. Very laissez faire, but also a lot of work when the golden hour hits. When they say they want to understand/ learn something, it takes a lot of patience to redirect my focus and shift gears. Any moment can be a teachable moment. I'm not always great at it, but for at least one of my two kids, I really feel like this is the best way for him to learn.

I like it!  I don't know too much about this philosophy of education, but from what little I've heard I think it has so much promise.  I'm sure it is very much akin to the way parents naturally taught children whatever they needed to know for millenia before schools were ever invented.  Children are naturally curious.  It takes a school to beat that yearning for knowledge and experience out of them.

I imagine that you are still in the most difficult phase, given how young are your children.  Once they are confident readers, I imagine that they will take over for themselves exploring the areas that interest them most, which will surely take some of the burden off of your shoulders.  Do you think?

Unschooling is a research based curriculum where in the kids immerse themselves in subjects that they are interested in.

It can be anything they are interested in:frogs, dinosaurs, pokemon, Naruto or what ever holds their fascination and interest. An example would be to let them read books on the subject, watch videos , websites etc. Any thing that they can gain info on the subject of interest. For younger kids you may have them write something about the stuff they are learning  or not, but as they get older learning to write reports becomes more and more important..

The idea is that the children learn to teach themselves anything they want or need to learn instead of just memorizing facts. A research based curriculum including report writing should also better prepare the kids for college than does memorizing facts.
.there are also periods of time called deschooling that the kids should go through where in they do no school, but instead allow their minds to unwind and just be. This does not mean that they are not curious and not to ask questions or learn, but that they just relax, and no emphasis is placed on learning anything.

Seth Gardener wrote:Unschooling is a research based curriculum where in the kids immerse themselves in subjects that they are interested in.

It can be anything they are interested in:frogs, dinosaurs, pokemon, Naruto or what ever holds their fascination and interest. An example would be to let them read books on the subject, watch videos , websites etc. Any thing that they can gain info on the subject of interest. For younger kids you may have them write something about the stuff they are learning  or not, but as they get older learning to write reports becomes more and more important..

The idea is that the children learn to teach themselves anything they want or need to learn instead of just memorizing facts. A research based curriculum including report writing should also better prepare the kids for college than does memorizing facts.

There are also periods of time called deschooling that the kids should go through where in they do no school, but instead allow their minds to unwind and just be. This does not mean that they are not curious and not to ask questions or learn, but that they just relax, and no emphasis is placed on learning anything.

I actually knew that much.  I once listened to a podcast from an adult who had been unschooled discussing the results as she saw them in retrospect.  But I've never read any books on the subject nor seen it in practice.

I would be interested in learning who are the top figures in this area whom I might read.  How does one prepare oneself to become an unschooling "teacher"?  And I am most interested in hearing more of the OP's observations about how it is working with her boys in practice.

Matthew Nistico wrote:

Seth Gardener wrote:Unschooling is a research based curriculum where in the kids immerse themselves in subjects that they are interested in.

It can be anything they are interested in:frogs, dinosaurs, pokemon, Naruto or what ever holds their fascination and interest. An example would be to let them read books on the subject, watch videos , websites etc. Any thing that they can gain info on the subject of interest. For younger kids you may have them write something about the stuff they are learning  or not, but as they get older learning to write reports becomes more and more important..

The idea is that the children learn to teach themselves anything they want or need to learn instead of just memorizing facts. A research based curriculum including report writing should also better prepare the kids for college than does memorizing facts.

There are also periods of time called deschooling that the kids should go through where in they do no school, but instead allow their minds to unwind and just be. This does not mean that they are not curious and not to ask questions or learn, but that they just relax, and no emphasis is placed on learning anything.

I actually knew that much.  I once listened to a podcast from an adult who had been unschooled discussing the results as she saw them in retrospect.  But I've never read any books on the subject nor seen it in practice.

I would be interested in learning who are the top figures in this area whom I might read.  How does one prepare oneself to become an unschooling "teacher"?  And I am most interested in hearing more of the OP's observations about how it is working with her boys in practice.

I'd also like to hear her her experience or anyone else. I unschool my son.i also use text books for things like math, and grammar, geography. I pretty much learned everything I learned by more orel less the same way but it wasn't structured. I used to ditch school and go to the library to read about things that interested me. It was shortly after I had summarized my own education and realized how anything I wanted to learn to do I could research and do it, and how much my background of learning that way prepared me for college that I first came across a description of unschooling. I realized it would be the perfect curriculum for my son and I was pretty qualified to guide him through it.

I forget who the originator of unschooling is, but maybe the OP knows?

Hi , Sir Ken Robinson is a prominent name in unschooling, You can find a lot about his views on the web.

John Holt is supposed to be the "father" of unschooling, but I don't really subscribe heavily to any gurus. I have my instincts and unschooling friends and I do what we do, and it works.

My kids are still young, being 6 and 7, they wouldn't have be achieving any great feats in the school system just yet, anyway. My technique is a combination of what I mentioned before, where I lean heavily into their windows of interest. Find cross-cirricular suggestions to pick apart the topic until the window of interest is passed, but by then, it's firmly lodged in their brain. No "in-one-ear" here. So, it's a combination of that, and being a motormouth.

I talk to them about things, all the time. Ever since they were babies, I used full sentences, and so did my family. Sure, we did some baby talk too, sometimes, but I'd also have full, one-sided conversations. I'll tell them things about stuff they never asked about, but I won't demand their attention. I'll ask them questions about what they think about things. "How do you think that happens?" Or, "do you remember how that works?" Or a random simple word problem associated with the activity we're doing.

But I'm super hands-off. They play a lot of video games. It's how they're such great readers, I'm convinced 😆 I've always offered them educational content and supplies, though, with great success. When kids don't feel forced to learn, it's fun for them.

Their father comes from a stricter background and has in the past forced them to sit and practice their penmanship or math or forced them to do some other subject with him. Sometimes he can win their attention, but mostly he will wind up yelling at him. It's hard for him to let go. I get it. It's scared to imagine your kid to grow up to be ineligible for college. And I don't know that my kids won't ever insist on going to school. Maybe they will.

My opinion is that I don't care if they ever go to any academic institution. I honestly don't think their dad cares either, so much. It's just that old habits die hard.

He and I both appreciate and value character developed outside of a box. I am grateful every day (ok, most days, lol) I get the opportunity to ruin these kids for the normie world 😜

Jennie Sue Dean wrote:It's scared to imagine your kid to grow up to be ineligible for college.

I seriously doubt that.  There is of course a role for genetics - some people are just naturally smarter and, more to the point, some are more naturally inclined to academics than others (not at all the same thing!).  And of course a role for their own wishes - maybe they'll never desire college.  But I strongly suspect that, if you maintain your unschooling and maintain a safe, stable environment within which they can mature, your sons will be more than ready for college when the time comes.

It is quite possible that there will be some subject matter for entrance tests they will be missing, and they might need to do extra prep work.  But by then they should excel at such prep work!  Not to mention excel at motivating themselves to go out and find the specific knowledge they need.

The thing that occurs to me is that test taking is in itself a skill, separate and apart from the subject matter being tested.  They might not have much practice at that.  But there are always professional courses that teach test taking.  SAT prep courses, like Kaplan, for example.  I took one myself, once.  They can't actually prepare you with the knowledge you need for the SAT; that's far too vast.  What they teach are test taking skills!  Time management, how to decode and deconstruct the questions, how to weed through multiple choice answers, etc.

Jennie Sue Dean wrote:And I don't know that my kids won't ever insist on going to school. Maybe they will.

That will be interesting.  They might well grow curious about the experience they are missing at a regular school.  Perhaps later, as teenagers, they'd wish to enroll in high school just in order to have more girls to hit on, LOL!  Let them indulge their curiosity and enroll in a regular school if they wish.  I imagine they would quickly learn the error of their ways and come running back home ; )

HI: Want your kids to learn good penmanship? Just buy them Calligraphy nibs and pens (handles - I've forgotten what they are called) and some examples of great Calligraphy and challenge them to do the same ART! Eventually they will get it and transfer what they've learned into their own hand writing. Then they can start doing old-fashioned letter-writing to relatives, with a little Calligraphy thrown in (Caps and Titles, etc.).

As you say, make it fun, competitive, rewarding, and challenging - and they will get it!