The Schad family

Greetings from the Schad family! We live in the White Bear Lake area of the Twin Cities, Minn. -- Steve, Tracy and two girls Skyler (9 y.o., soon to be 10 on 5/9) and Delaney (6 y.o.). Steve and I will celebrate our 18th anniversary at the end of May.

I'm a former animal shelter worker; my favorite role was that of foster care and breed rescue coordinator. Animal welfare is a part of me. I enjoy reading, photography, and creating arts and crafts (well, more honestly, the idea of doing so; I love my Pinterest boards.) and simply enjoying our tree-nestled home with its large backyard and the small forest backing up to our property.

Steve enjoys history (reading biographies and watching documentaries), art and creating amazing vegetarian dishes for us. He works at Andersen Corp. as a corporate training and development manager. Like me, he loves being awed by natural beauty, and some day soon, we are going to take that love on the road with more traveling and enjoying what the world has to offer.

I first came upon unschooling while reading John Holt's How Children Learn as I rocked a 6-wk-old Skyler. I bought it thinking it was a how-to book; in a way, it was, but of the opposite sort of what I anticipated. Most importantly, It was a happy accident that set us down this path early. As an attachment/peaceful parenting household, it was a natural progression. We prefer doing things as a family and make home our sanctuary, to us and our 8 indoor cats. We are fortunate to live in an area where we can nurture many of our passions and easily meet up with like-minded families, or as least ones we can find commonalities with despite our differences. We enjoy art, board games, field trips, open play and nature outings with our various homeschool friends. The girls and I volunteer together with our local cat shelter.

Skyler's current interests include American Girl dolls, reading, fashion design, horses, drawing, Guinea pigs, dance (currently, tap) and musical theater. Delaney loves Littlest Pet Shop critters, American Girl dolls, cats, dance (currently, ballet and tap), butterflies, swimming and Squinkies. Both of them enjoy playing Club Penguin, Animal Jam and Webkinz, often together, side-by-side on their computers and with on-line friends. They can't wait until the trampoline goes back up outside for the warmer seasons.

We're a more quiet, introspective bunch, but are excited to have this opportunity to spend time with other unschoolers in a relaxed atmosphere.