College Without High School

I recently read Blake Boles' "College Without High School" and I have to say it's the best "unschooling" books I have read so far. I'm not much of a book critic, but I'll try my best.

Blake writes as he is speaking to the student directly. He also gears it toward  kids already in high school and encourages them, if they are bored (as I think most are), to get out there and seek adventure. He stresses that he's not saying "quit school and lay around", but rather "quit school and live out your dreams." If one of those dreams is college, so be it, and live the next several years preparing for it in your own way. He encourages college to be a dream for a high schooler, but THEIR dream, and not the dream of others, such as parents or other adults.

Blake then lays out what he calls dream mapping. By doing this, the student has written down the things he/she wants to accomplish now and later, and exactly how they are going to go about fulfilling that dream. For example, I may dream to run a marathon. It is a long, hard road to train for a marathon, but if I break it up and accomplish mini-goals along the way, I can get there. I may start with a 5k, then a 10k, etc. and eventually work my way up to the full marathon. If my dream is to be an astronaut, I would lay out some mini-goals that I would have to accomplish to get to ultimately be an astronaut.

Blake also lays out how it is a high schooler would put together his dreams and mini-goals as well as other accomplishments together as a sort of "resume" to use when applying to college. He equates getting accepted into college with getting a job...a very good way to look at it!

I highly recommend this book to any high schooler but also to any 7th or 8th grader so they can start to look ahead and plan for how they will attain the goal of college acceptance.

I'm reading the book again and taking notes this time because I plan to teach a course around it in our homeschool co-op. I can't do this until the fall, but I can't wait!

Why aren't you in school?

All of Charlie's funny sayings lately have got me thinking....I wonder how he would answer someone if they asked him why he wasn't in school. I'm not sure if he understands what school is. He hears about it on TV all the time and he sees school busses, but I'm not sure what he understands school to be. I can only imagine what he would say to someone if they asked "Why aren't you in school?" or "What grade are you in?" or "Who's your teacher this year?"

So tell me, what are some funny ways your kids have answered these types of questions. Or even share some things your kids have said when they've been old enough and inquired about what school is.

The Snow Got Me!

The snow came again and got me off my game. I tried so hard to not let it get me down, but I lost. :-(


Monday was our library day, and that's where I blew it. There was another reason too but I can't remember what it was. LOL! The truth of the matter is that I didn't try hard enough to get there. So I figured I would make it up on Tuesday. Fail. So today is Wednesday and I am trying again. I will get there today.


Charlie has been full of funny sayings lately and I always get excited to hear what will come next. Yesterday he asked "How do you become a movie theater owner?" I had no idea what he was referring to but later learned it had to do with a game called "Roblox". I can't stand this game. As an educated adult, I can't figure it out and when he gets stuck on something, I am of no help, and then he gets SO upset! Ugh!


He's up to his antics again too. The other night I caught him writing on my bed sheet. He said he was trying to write "I am the goodest." I didn't know whether to laugh or teach him about good, better, best! LOL!