Short-term Unschooling

[MyCalling]

I'm putting this in the regular homschooling section because I figure it's not true unschooling and maybe non-unschoolers would have experience with trying unschooling or doing short-term unschooling, too. I planned a 28-week school year and just realized we're on week 30. We still have half a year of math since I switched curricula to Teaching Textbooks half-way through the year, but it's so minimal it hardly counts as school time.

Anyway, I was thinking of taking a month or two off to try unschooling and see how much time they decide to pull themselves away from the screens (comp, tv, video games). I read this quote in the Unschooling section and wondered how I could do this best:

Originally Posted by umami mommy

Unschooling (aka natural or organic home based learning) is a process by which parents are children's active allies in learning and exploring the world.

I'm not thinking radical unschooling, but definitely child-led all the way. What is my role? How do I get them into this new learning mindset since it's only short-term?

[RiverSky]

I'm always surprised that people think we can answer questions like this without knowing how old the children are, whether or not they were in school, how long they have homeschooled, how many hours a day you "school", etc.

How old are your children?

Usually, to break a child from the mold of "school", they suggest deschooling the equivalent of one month per year of school. So if the child was in school for 3 years, 3 months of deschooling would be the minimum. Deschooling is simply leaving the child to play and do whatever the child wants, never trying to force "schooling". The idea is that the deschooling will allow the child to break free of the bad habits they learned in school, the lack of love for learning, the lack of self initiated learning, the poor socializing, etc. I think the same exists for rigid school-at-home. So I guess I think it depends on how rigid your homeschool has been and whether or not your child resist "schooling", hate having to sit and do workbooks or experiments or whatever, etc.


How many weeks do you think you would like to spend in your unschooling experiment?

[zjande]

We "unschool" all summer plus for a month or 2 every time I have a baby.

But I'd never allow my kids free reign of the glowing screens.

[kathymuggle]

I don't think people can US for a few months - that is just called a break.

It can take a real long time for kids leaving a formal environment to kick back into an academic mode. The following might be a typical process:

1. The child destresses and relaxes. This is the same thing you would do if you left a job, but did not need to immediately find another one

2. The child may grow bored or fall into a rut (screens anyone?)

3. The child will grow bored of the rut, and start to branch out into interests, often the parents relief, lol.

Sometimes the above is cyclical....and it is very much in keeping with the way life works. I think there is a heck of a lot to be learned in all stages of the above (for both kids and parents) and much of it is not academic.

I would hate for you to try US ing for a month or two, be frustrated with your kids laying around the house (cause they might!) and decide USing does not work for you and yours. It takes longer than a month or two to see the beauty of USing.

Good luck!

Kathy

[confustication]

I don't know how to answer your question simply, but I will share my current experience. DD (age 8) was in public school for K and Grade 1. For a number of reasons, it was not a good fit, and we decided to homeschool. We blasted through a year's worth of curriculum WAY ahead of my anticipated time frame (read, we began the year in August, she was done by Thanksgiving.) Since I'd skipped ahead and eliminated the grade 2 coursework, she was already way ahead of schedule... so I decided to take a step back to see what happened.

For about a month she relaxed, then became bored... but she really needed the time to decompress. I realize now I should have given her a longer break after the end of public school to learn how not to be a micromanaged kid and to completely change her mindset. She was bored and immersed herself in mindless things (glowing screens included!) for about a week- and finally, she became comfortable, engaged, interested, and a true partner in learning.

I've filled the house with great books for her to read, and we're doing a largely literature-based experiment focusing on local history for the moment- and seeing where that takes us. Interestingly enough, as she reads and asks questions- she's learning far more, far faster, and far more happily than I've ever seen before. Some of this may be maturity, but certainly not all of it.

Going forward, I'm going to purchase a curriculum for next year (mostly as a cover my butt in case anyone raises questions) but if she remains as engaged as she has become, I suspect we won't really use it much.

I think to get a good feel for unschooling would take a year, at minimum.

[dannic]

I think you can be child-led in as much as you are comfortable. For me, my goal is to allow the child to lead in areas of interest and then inspire them to want to do other areas that I may feel lacking...I am not sure that people would consider this full-fledged USing...we have devotionals and I read to them everyday, but other than that, we go with what interests them.
I agree that there would be a detox time and then the true process would begin...however, if you're asking if it's acceptable to be more lax for a while, then I'd say go for it!

[annethcz]

I love the term "tidal homeschooling." This is what our homeschooling looks like naturally, and I've found that many other families follow this same pattern.

We'd have periods of time when we worked hard on academics, and other periods of time when we're not working hard on academics and our lives are more interest-led. For us, it's just a natural ebb and flow.

Even during the times that we are less academically-focused, I've found that our household runs more smoothly when we stick to some sort of a routine. In my house, having nothing but free time all day long usually leads to boredom and bickering between my children. But when we break up the day into smaller chunks, with some of those chunks being parent-led, and other chunks being child-led, life is happier.

[MyCalling]

Sorry, I have a bunch of kids: 12g, 8b, 7b, <5b, <5g, <3b, 18mo b. We're on our 4th year of homeschooling and the oldest 3 do lessons for about 10-12hrs a week. The almost 5yos on down don't do lessons.

I started by telling them we were taking time off (I'll play it by ear) and asked the older 3 what they wanted to learn about. They each had lists and we researched the books covering those topics that are at our library and have lists they're each going see if they want to check out when they look at the actual books when we go. I don't care if they read them, just have them as an option.

How have you enriched your children's environments? How do you lure them away from the screen or do you limit it or not care how much time they spend in front of it?

I'm hoping we can later develop a happy medium between lessons and totally unschooled that we can do long-term. I like the tidal homeschooling idea.