What I've learned so far deschooling

1. I have learned that the behavior of others should not dictate my behavior.
2. I want to be able to actually have conversations with my children.
3. I want to know what they are interested in.
4. I need to focus on the positive aspects of my children rather than riding them about the things that could be improved.
5. I need to include them in daily living so that they will model those behaviors.
6. I need to have behavior that I don't mind them modeling.
7. I can't throw my issues (ie, anger, uncertainty, frustration, etc.) off on them.
8. I can decide what kind of parent I need to be in order to have children that are autodidactic independent thinkers that love to learn.

I will continue this journey of self discovery, but I have to admit that I am really enjoying getting to know myself and them. Sunshine and I even played this game that I bought from a game company called Simply Fun. It is just a keyring with conversation starters...or more like questions that you might not ever think to ask. LOL Anyway, we talked for about an hour just playing around with that. For the first time I feel like we had a real conversation. She is quite a wonderful girl. To bad it took me this long to really figure that out, but we are on our way to a much better relationship.