Any advice for our family? We are considering Unschooling but I am apprehensive. Our children, a boy (14), boy (13) and boy and girl twins (11), were in public school, then we were called to homeschool for the past 3 years. We have done mainly “school at home.” Is it to late to try unschooling at their ages?
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“Encouragement and support to unschool” are the two most-repeated reasons people give for joining the Christian Unschooling Facebook group. The group has a brief application form to let moderators know which requests are intentional, versus which are random “you might also like” clicking or spam.
But when people join and ask questions from a school-oriented viewpoint (a normal part of the learning curve), they’re often surprised to receive questions in return. Continue Reading
We receive many “but, but” objections and statements from those who are questioning unschooling and not yet ready to make the leap. For those who are just beginning, many of these thoughts may also recur, so here are some responses. When things get scary, the best option is to breathe… and release. We can let go of fears with the help of a little practical thinking.
1. My teenager is going to college. How do I make sure he/she has all the right math/writing/science/whatever requirements if we unschool? Will colleges even accept them if they don’t have those things? Continue Reading
Autumn is slowly coming into itself here while most of the country is welcoming the chill and stillness of Winter. Days are only reaching high 60′s and early mornings are met with blue orange glow of fire in white stone fireplace. We spend these days deep in exploration and learning. It seems fitting to me that as we really find freedom and settle into who we have been becoming, we are in the season of freedom, of shedding away of the old and preparing for the renewal of life. Continue Reading
I do a bit of Virtual Assistant work that puts me smack dab in the middle of the mainstream homeschool culture online. I not only spend time daily scrolling the #homeschool hashtag on twitter but updating many free homeschool deals around the web in a given week. And doing this work I’ve noticed a pattern. It’s a predictable formula that goes a little something like this: Continue Reading
When I first envisioned unschooling in our home I imagined rich days full of a variety of obvious “learning.” I would look on with pride as my children miraculously volunteered to write essays, read the classics without protest, demonstrated flawless mathematical logic, and excitedly read about faraway places on the internet.
Reality check: it’s unschooling, not utopia! Luckily, I wasn’t heavily invested in that fantasy world because it hasn’t come to pass. Continue Reading
The room was nearly silent. The awkwardness was palpable. Even the speech therapist … bubbly, outgoing and friendly until just a few weeks prior, absolutely refused to look us in the eye, instead staring down at some imaginary spot on the table. I remember looking at the clock – a standard issue, one-in-every-room school clock – and watching the second hand slowly sweep around until I heard the audible click that signified that another excruciatingly long minute had gone by. Continue Reading
When I first heard of the philosophy of unschooling, it immediately stirred something inside of me. I could sense an innate truth within it and my heart both eagerly and timidly reached out to grasp it. But my mind? Well, my mind took a little longer.
You see, my mind needed evidence. Logic. Proof. And while those things can definitely be found in unschooling, they’re not black and white. The proof in the pudding of unschooling is not standardized, it’s individualized and it flows like the Spirit. The evidence you have of your six-year-old reading might not materialize the same way with my six-year-old because we’re all different and have different interests and develop at different paces. Continue Reading
We didn’t intend to homeschool.
Our son attended pre-k and kindergarten in public school. I had the typical my baby’s going to school all day pangs, but that was the norm, so I dealt with it. Pre-k was fairly smooth, but things started getting bumpy in kindergarten.
One day my little guy came home from school and said, “Mom, would you please homeschool me? School is chaos!” Tears became part of our bedtime routine, crowding out our stories and prayers. I was at a loss. I’d loved school as a child. I couldn’t understand what was causing our son so much anxiety. Continue Reading
I was raised in a very schooly family. My mom was a high school history and English teacher. My older sister worked her way from elementary teacher to elementary principal in a huge school district. My other sister is a school board member. You could say public education is in my blood. Being the black sheep of the family didn’t fully release me from the hold of public education although it did give me a healthy skepticism.
My husband attended a tiny rural school. He insists that he flourished in that environment. But he, too, has a healthy skepticism of public education in general. Continue Reading