Interview with Annalise Burton, age 7.5

Annalise and friend Gabrielle at Bowman's Apple Orchard, Fall 2010

Annalise's Unschooling Interview, Session #1

This interview was informally conducted over the course of an afternoon.  I came up with some questions, and Annalise asked and answered some of her own, too.

 At the time of this interview, Annalise was 7.5 years old. 

 I have indicated whose question it was, in parentheses, after the body of the question.

All answers were transcribed as faithfully as possible.      

In some cases, I used invisible prompts to

 draw out more detailed answers.

Standing on Dolly with help from Kresney, Summer 2010.

How is your life (Annalise)?

It could use a little more snuggles in it. It could use a little more horse in it, too.

Happily rear-facing horsegirl!

What is really good in your life right now (Me)?

That you're kind of tending to me cause I just hurt my foot. You give me some suggestions. I get lots of opportunities for cleaning, chances to go places, a lot of that stuff.

Happy bubble girl, Winter 2011.

How many times do you let me take a bath (Annalise)?

100% of the time, basically.  

How often do you like to take baths (me)?

Really often, basically. Seven a day, my age, but usually there's not enough water. I want to go to a pool weekly. I'm desperate to get into a pool!

Woodman family pool, July 29, 2011

  

                                                         

Where would you like to go to learn (Annalise)?  
      

I would like to go to a zoo. An aquarium. Horse farms, where I can learn more about horses.
Sewing places, so I can learn more about sewing. Beaches. Nature preserves. Platypus - I want to g o up to a platypus and say, “Hey, platypus -bleh!”. Car parts stores. The craft store – pottery actually.  Somewhere you can do pottery.  Sticker store, where I can see how they make stickers, like the stickers we have on your wall and my wall.  A place where they make televisions, so I can see how they make them.

  

New Jersey Cookie Party Fashion Show - December 2011 at the Woodman's.

What are your favorite places we've already gone to (me)?

Sylvia's (our friends, the Woodmans, live a state away.  Annalise and Gabriella, also 7, are very good friends learning to balance differing preferences and temperaments).            

The Invertebrate House at the National Zoo, Washington DC, 2008.

The National Zoo and the Syracuse (Rosamund Gifford) Zoo.


Marley's house (a local schooled friend she hasn't seen for a while), which I really want to see how their dog turned out –probably very very big now (the dog is a Great Dane).




Gabrielle's house (her local best friend, age almost 7.  Pictured above with Annalise).



Journey Through The Body - especially the bones and the slide!


Hannaford (local grocery store).


Borders – and all of them are gone now, forever. I'm going to start back up Borders.

The Jack and Annie (Magic Tree House) musical at Proctors' , and we could add to it if we went to Shrek the Musical. January 24^th and 9^th.

Devil Darling, Halloween 2011.

Butterfly Conservatory.

With a new Arboreal friend and Jeremiah at the Popp Butterfly Conservatory, Oneonta, NY Winter2009

Butterflies Mating!

Meeting the wolves.

The otters –(at the WILD! Center) I really miss them – what we their names again? I remember the little cave you could go in and poke your head up and you could see everything the otters could see.


The hospital we just recently went to – the doctor's office we just went to, I mean. I know that sounds weird, but  -

The Children's Museum in Saratoga .

The (New York) State Museum as well -

Ahhhh and CMOST!

The thrift store - now that's a good one to put on.      

Oh, the Sheraton. I love it. Put a heart at the end.  Cause there's a lot of unschoolers there, I meet people, there's a swimming pool really near and it's big for playing hide-and-seek in. And there's two other things, three actually. There's lots of activities, like art, games, and other cool stuff, like nature walks.  But I've never been on one of those, there.


Plymouth (Village)– the ripping off the rock. They so ripped off the rock, didn't they? They just put a giant rock and stamped a number on it, didn't they?


(Plimoth Plantation and Wampanoag Homesite) It was kind of torture – there was no technology there.   And it is also kinda not torture, there was lots of old stuff, and I even got a special souvenir on my knee- a painful one.
I loved the craft center, but they didn't really do pottery while we were there.

I liked the Mayflower but it was painful, too, because of all the sunlight that day.


(Atlantic) Ocean, it was really wavy and cold the second time we went.


Philadelphia – Liberty Bell, Liberty Bell –and our car got towed there.

–