High School


Learning all the time, mid-life transitions, and outdoor-living in Vermont

Learning all the time, mid-life transitions, and outdoor-living in Vermont

This is an interview where we're challenged to ask questions about the status quo - in society, in schooling, and our own lives. We're shown the courage of stepping into new opportunities and adventures, by necessity, and encouraged to trust in our ability to learn what we need to know, when we need to know it.

As we finish homeschooling 3 kids through high school

As we finish homeschooling 3 kids through high school

I don't have the same sparkly idealism. (It's fun! It's easy!) What I have instead is years of experience that have confirmed what was once just theory - it's possible to do something different with education and to build the kind of relationships I envisioned for family life.

On her way to university

On her way to university

We didn't have an expectation that Céline would start university straight out of high school, or that she'd go to university at all. But last year she set a course for costume design programs.

I need a summer

I need a summer

I feel weary. It's that time of year. It's that time of life. All the school year-end fuss and effort, deadlines and parties, the drama production. A long string of hard-working days, interspersed with "special" days (read: days with more work), punctuated by some bad news days. Ugh.

Post-production

Post-production

I'm pretty sure I'll look back on these particular Mays, when our kids were teenagers in a homeschool co-op musical theatre production, with nostalgia and fondness. So I do my best to be present for the experience, which is easier said than done.

Sitting front row to a person's becoming

Sitting front row to a person's becoming

It has been especially delightful to see the threads connecting their early childhood and their late teen/launching years. And I know it will just continue. This delight, this joy as they engage with and contribute to the world, beyond childhood, outside our home as adults.

A vegan teen (and other interest-led learning wins)

A vegan teen (and other interest-led learning wins)

A video interview of Brienne and my mom, Karen Toews, about her vegan diet. Brienne explains why she's vegan and how she maintains a vegan diet in and un-vegan world.