I am Pam Sorooshian – mom to three wonderful daughters, Roya -27, Roxana – 24, and Rosie – 21, and wife to my fantastic husband, Cyrus!
I’m an unschooling advocate, college economics teacher, and theater box office manager. I listen to a lot of audible books, drink a lot of (decaf) coffee, and love to play games.
We love living in Southern California – between the ocean and the mountains and the desert.
I write a lot on the unschooling list, AlwaysLearning@yahoogroups.com, and a little on others (UnschoolingBasics@yahoogroups.com) and (AlwaysUnschooled@yahoogroups.com).
I’ve spoken about unschooling at conferences in South Carolina, North Carolina, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Arizona, and California.
March 8, 2010 at 2:10 AM
Hi Pam,
I’m on Always Learning and a daily reader. I have been snipping out so many quotes from you lately for later reading, you’re always such a great writer but you seem to have been especially inspired in the last couple of days
. I’m very excited you have a blog!
You asked for topic ideas? I have lots but the one i would really love is a piece written about what to say to grandparents (or other close family).
What is unschooling? and what can grandparents do? I want to say – Just play with your grandkids, just be with them and have fun. Is there more to it than that? They want to be involved and are loving people who my kids adore. They are going to be interested in our approach and i am wondering how best to sum it up to them and give them some ideas on how to contribute to our lifestyle (which they will want to). They were very supportive when i said we are going to homeschool. I think family support is such a plus, it would be nice to give them some ideas on what would be really helpful.
I wrote a similar piece on attachment parenting several years ago. I included ideas for helpful things they could give if they wanted to give a gift (new baby stuff), what support would be the most helpful, what sort of philosophy their adult children were embracing etc.
I think there are many people out there looking for things to give to close family to help them understand. As parents we are willing to put in countless hours researching and developing our knowledge in these areas so can read alot of information happily, but other family members may not have the same investment. What can we give them to read to help us explain to them? Guess thats what im thinking of
Does this inspire?
May 13, 2010 at 5:37 AM
Hey Pam,
Don’t know if you remember me or not but we talked for a while at L&L a couple of years back when you spoke a couple of times and gave the closing speech. If you’re looking for topics I would love to hear you write about what happens to unschoolers when they become adults – going to college, working, “supporting” themselves and successfulness. My husband has concerns that raising our children in a radical unschooling life will be detrimental for them later in life, that they won’t know how to function in the “real world.” He doesn’t really know any grown unschoolers and is concerned for our children.
Thanks,
Dawn
May 13, 2010 at 5:17 PM
This is probably one of the very best, most reassuring blogs I’ve ever read about radical unschooling, especially because your kids are grown up, so you’ve obviously walked the talk!