“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 know that unschoolers don’t use curriculum, but what if your child is asking for it? Is it wrong to give them a workbook and let them go through it?
This questioned is posed a lot in our Facebook group. It will pop up every so often and I always try to answer in specific terms to the discussion and person asking.
My personal response usually goes something like this:
Yes – but with caveats. It’s not “wrong” to give your child a workbook, textbook, or curriculum as a resource to use. Unschoolers are not against those things. In general, we disagree with requiring a child to learn or complete a curricula. If a child is interested in physics there is no reason to deny him any resource that would help him learn it – including schoolish ones.
Our daughter was 11 when we unenrolled her from public school. For the first 11 years of her life, I worked full-time-plus, in an office, and for several of those years, I was also a full-time college student. My husband works a 55-hour-a-week office job as well (much of that in the late evening and early morning hours), and there were days we felt like we didn’t even see our house, or each other. Continue Reading
I took this photo of my son, helping his grandmother learn a software program to remind me: my children are and always will be autodidacts. He had no knowledge of this software Grandma wanted help with, but he was there to help give her the confidence she needed to see how to explore and learn what it was she needed to know. If there’s one thing autodidacts know how to do, it’s helping others learn how to be autodidacts themselves. Continue Reading
Sometimes, it seems like the dirty little secret of the homeschooling universe.
For a lot of different reasons, many of them entirely valid, there aren’t too many unschoolers who go beyond the proverbial whispers of “We don’t exactly use a curriculum…” and “Don’t TELL anyone, but we don’t take tests!” when asked about their style by friends and family members. Continue Reading
Our “Unschooling in Action” series highlights photographs of real, live unschoolers doing real, live unschooling. If you’d like to see your unschooling photo here, please post it on our Facebook wall!
Recently I wrote a post series on my blog about strewing. For my final post, I told how my middle daughter Denna followed her passions, with me strewing along the way, through so many topics and interests that it would be hard to measure how much she learned from the experience.
My kids have so many passions that it would be hard for me to pinpoint any that particularly surprised me. I am a variety-loving person. When I was young I bounced through hobbies and interests just as quickly as they do. Continue Reading
Our “Unschooling in Action” series highlights photographs of real, live unschoolers doing real, live unschooling. If you’d like to see your unschooling photo here, please post it on our Facebook wall!
Unschooling at our home. Our three playing the Game of Life outside with two of our neighbors, also a fulltime RVing family. It did come to blows (between our two boys!) so a good time to learn that life is indeed hard and unfair at times, but doesn’t need to end in a fight.
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Our first lemon!
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Local butterfly exhibit.
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Apple field trip.
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Writing Transformers fan-fiction.
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Perusing books at a library book sale.
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Assembling new Lego sets.
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Grand Opening of local gym; Zumba demo in which 9-year-old son joined right in. He loves dancing!
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A bunch of homeschooling cousins enjoying a nighttime trip to the zoo and talking to a naturalist after seeing a live tarantula, snake, porcupine, hawk and opossum.
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Share your unschooling photos on our Facebook wall for a chance to see them showcased here next week! Meanwhile, if you crave more, you can browse previous Unschooling in Action posts, or check out the Unschoolers’ Art Gallery blog for cool art from unschooled kids.
~ Happy Unschooling!