Unschooling

this site's interesting also-- www.lifelearning.org


Unschooling is whatever you/your kids want to do! (or not do)

 

not exactly. If the kid wants to sit at the table, filling in worksheets and memorizing the times table, that is not unschooling. It *is* however, child-led education.
a small distinction, but a very important one. if we are to be able to communicate, we must first have agreement on the definition of what it is we are talking about.

 

We like unschooling and used a mixture of that, Waldorf and Charlotte Mason approaches when my children were younger. My son craved more structure. He BEGGED for it. I fought for years, because it did not seem right to me. But it's not my education. I finally gave up & found a solid "standard" curriculum for him and he's been doing better. We went on a month-long break recently, but returned when he said he was ready and he's doing better than ever.

My daughter LOVES unschooling! Has anyone used this with older kids??? I hear of plenty of preschool & kindy moms using this, but never anyone older than this. She is much more... uh, freethinking (?) than my son and it's very likely we'll be using Waldorf/CM throughout her education. Other than cooking & things like grocery-store math, does anyone have any ideas for incorporating unschooling into her education?

She just turned 6. If you understand the tooth-loss "thing" then she has one barely-wiggly tooth; hasn't lost any yet. She's in Kindergarten right now, but it's kind of accelerated. We don't teach her *more* per-se, but we take each lesson deeper. For example if we are discussing an owl, we will not only read a few books about them & visit the zoo to see one but we'll also check out the woods to hunt for signs of owl pellets, and discuss their part in the local food-chain and anything else she may want to know at the moment. She is pre-reading; just waiting for the lightbulb to go on, and she knows & understands simple math, including some very basic algebraic concepts. I'd love to be able to keep this up with her, but haven't really seen much out there for example / guidance. All I really need is a nudge in the right direction; if anyone's seen something, I'd love to hear about it
love,
mom

 

My oldest will be five next month, but is seriously precocious academically (she said her first complex sentence "I want my Daddy!" before her first birthday, and has already taught herself to read.). I am radically unschooling her, a bit more structure for the little one who responds better to that sort of thing.
With both kids, I just look for appropriate things to talk about with them, all day every day. They ask lots of questions, and I keep going until they lose interest. Like one day, we were outside playing in the yard and they notice some mushrooms growing on an old stump. So we talk about decomposition. We find leaves in various stages of decompose, we crumble up leaves and see how they break up into smaller and smaller pieces, we find worms, we play in the compost and talk about the different things we put in there, how you could still see the shape of those potatoes, but when you pick them up, they are just black and crumbly like the rest of the compost pile. We compared the soil and plants growing in the flower beds that have had compost recently added, and the soil in the yard that has not had any compost. We spent a whole afternoon in that same vein. Every time I cook anything, it's a math and science adventure. We play lots of number games and word games aloud, just making them up as we go along. One trip to the grocery store involves all kind of things, math, nutrition, economics, social studies, geography, and more. It's a matter of explaining everything we encounter each day to my kids on a level they can understand. All I do is answer their unending stream of questions, and sometimes talk about things before they ask. It's really that easy.

 

I'm ok with that... I'm not too big on definitions, but I can relate and understand why they can be important to people. For me "child-led" and "unschool" are very close -- simply because formal schooling is almost never student-led. It's planned, prepared and scheduled by committee. So if a child initiates the learning process, they are in a sense "unschooling". Doing whatever the opposite of school is. Hope that makes some sense.

I do believe in learning, just not by rote and repitition. My eldest (that's with me) is 8-1/2 and has never been to school. She's doing well, we try to live at our own pace. One of the things I oppose the most in formal education is the systemic grading, from our formative years it feeds the competitive side of us which I think is mostly negative. My definition of a good society would be one that collaborates rather than competes. I've travelled all over and generally found the happiest, most carefree (and helpful) people in the poorest places! They could not compete in the global economy, but knew how to help each other.

Well, 20 posts my first day here, I think I like this place. Good night.

 

Wow! Thanks for all your responses, you've given me loads to read and think about. As I haven't even conceived yet I have plenty of time to research everything! Unschooling definately seems the way to go for me, I'm glad I asked now

 

I'm not so sure I agree with your definition of unschooling. I have 3 children; in there 20's who were all unschooled until they went to college. I have 4 more that are still at home. We began unschooling with the John Holt definition which would certianly include following a child's lead to have some structured lessons. We have had very few times of sitting and filling in worksheets or memorizing times tables, but we do those things from time to time, at the child's request. We have also had some formal music lessons, dance lessons, art classes, sports training, etc. I don't feel that having some formal training in any way goes againest the concepts of unschooling. In fact, I believe that the unschooled mind is better able to utilize these learning tools than the schooled mind. The unschooled mind is a curious and creative mind, and they will find unique ways to learn and understand information, that you would never have thought to teach.

My daughter is now unschooling her young children and it is blessing to see this philosophy being passed to the next generation. I also see my grown children continuing to learn in an unschooling way as adults, and even through college they each had their own unique approach to the traditional methods of "schooling".

If you are considering unschooling, I want to encourage you to explore it without putting any restrictions on how to go about this style of learning. Find out for yourself, as you allow yourself to think outside of the box, and that includes not putting your learning style into a box either!

 

You don't know anything about me. I am not restricting myself or my children's education to what I consider unschooling to be. But I am going to continue to define unschooling as not including any school-like worksheets, pre-made lesson plans, curriculums, or structure. I don't understand why there are so many people who want to claim to be unschooling when what they are doing is school at home. There's nothing majical about the label. It doesn't make anyone any better than anyone else. All it is is one approach to educating children, among hundreds of other approaches. And it gets really confusing when the definition starts to encompass other methods. So far, it's what works for us. If it starts to fall short, or if we need to try a different approach at some point, we will surely do that, and I will call it what it is and not continue to use a term that describes a totally different concept.

 

Hey now mamaboogie, why all the hostility? I didn't mean to say that your opinion is wrong, just that there are other ways of approaching unschooling. Of course I don't know you, and I would never criticize your way of learning. I'm just trying to give a perspective coming from someone who has been living this unschooling life style a long time, and has raised kids this way.

I understand your frustration with people saying they are unschooling when they are really not! I am very frustrated with that alos, however, I am also frustrated with people trying to define something I have lived with for near 20 years, as being a method. Unschooling is a philosophy and although it does not rely on textbook and teaching, it is not defiend by what one does not do.

maybe the confusion is that in some circles what has become know as radical unschooling is being confused with traditional unschooling. the radical style may very well say that one can not direct, suggest, or offer information to the learner, and it must all come organicly from the learner her/himself. I see much merit in that approach, but find it limiting in the context of a family relationship where give and take is an organic quality.

I'd like to see more acceptance within the home education movement amongest different styles, as well as within such styles. There is no reason to not encourage people that are new to home education to take their time and find what is right for them, while at the same time helping them to see the merit of one's own way of learning. KWIM?

Anyway, I still want to encourage people to explore home education and the unschooling life style. It is a fabulous way to live and raise creative, intellegent, well rounded, individuals.

 

sorry, bad day (week maybe)...


the hostility is from people I know in real life putting down unschooling, when they haven't a clue what it is. It's not towards you, or anyone else, really. I totally agree with everything you just posted. Unschooling is a way of life, a way of thinking about education, and some people simply don't get it, can't comprehend that children can and will learn things without guidance, on their own, as they come across a need to know more things. It's amazing to me that my child is so well educated without me doing anything more than constantly answering her unending stream of questions every day and talking to her about everything we see and do every day. That is the biggest difference, I think, between my version of homeschool and that of everyone else I know. I encourage questions, and always do my best to answer them. If I don't know the answers, I know where to find them. Too many kids are encouraged not to ask questions, and their love of learning new things gets squashed. I help her when she asks for help, but I do not go out of my way to teach her the things the government or other homeschoolers think she should be learning. If the subjects come up, it's because my child asked me about them or because we ran into real life instances where such information was needed. Amazingly enough, she is learning all those things, on her own! And I also know that how we approach homeschooling/unschooling will most likely change as she gets older. We already take a very different approach with our younger daughter, as she has a totally different way of thinking about and learning things than her sister does.

Just the other day, DH says to me "since we're going to register her for kindergarten next year, does that mean you are going to start doing school?" I must have just stared at him like he had three heads or something, and asked him why should we change what we're doing if it's working so well for us? He's not sold on the idea, but he's willing to wait to change our approach until we have a need to do so.

 

I hear ya. it is true that every child really does learn differently and at their own pace. I have several children that haven't read proficently until near puberty, and others that were reading the newspaper and Shakespeare at 3 or 4. All in the same family, with the same mom, answering questions, and providing a rich and interesting enviroment.

They really do learn what they need when they need it and their creativity and curiosity is allowed to blossom naturally and unhindered in an unschooling enviroment. One of the things I love is seeing how my grown children continue to think so "unschoolingly" in their everyday lives.

Enjoy!