Christian Unschooling

[lilyka]

O.k. I am not an unschooler but refuse to get bogged down by explaining every little decision. Suffice to say I am much closer to unschooling that school at home, will never order a curriculum set, never make lesson plans, give tests or grades, and will not even bother to quantify what we do by placing everything under a subject heading (we are thankfully not required by law to report so I have this luxury).

So here is my delima. I have Christian values and part of my reason for homeschooling (the small part) is because I don't trust people to not to contridict what I am teaching even in a Christian school.

My bigger reason for homeschooling ios because I feel ther is a much bettter way to learn and want to get far away from the school modle.

If I go to Christian Homeschool stuff I end up not being able to relate. All they talk about is the evil world, curriculum packages, how bad harry potter is, schedules andhow to avoid burnout. Stuff that just doesn't effect me. I also get harshly judged for not being diciplined enough. For not properly training up my child.

If I go to secular homeschool meetings they go so out of the way to prove they are not a Christian homeschooling group that I feel alienated for my beliefs.

So here I come to Mothering to ask the eternal question "Can anyone relate". Does anyone here fit the profile of being a Christian laid back ecclectic/unschooler and not have another place to fit in?

please don't move this to spirituality. I really feel it is more related to my homeschooling journey.

[Lucy]

yes! we use five in a row, so I cant really say we unschool, but we are sooo relaxed abt it, and dd loves it. my heart leans toward unschooling, thats what originally attracted me to the homeschool idea. I agree with you, that all the hs grps I can seem to find are christian (good, since we are too), but everyone is curriculum oriented. dd just turned 5, and I've had moms tell me, well next year you are going to need to supplememt fiveinarow with a phonics program and a math program. I don't agree with this approach, but its awkward being different. I would love to find a christian unschoolers grp! Is there such a thing?

One of my dd's ss teachers was talking abt starting a grp, at first I was excited, but then she talked abt how it couldn't meet in the morning, bc everyone needs to be doing schoolwork from 9 am to 12 am atleast. Then she started raving abt calvert, ect. I feel like I have to defend my choices to not do 100 easy lessons, reading made easy, ect. I just dont want to do school at home, kwim?

Sorry I didn't really help you, but I know exactly what you mean. I guess i kinda turned this into my rant. Sorry abt that.

Are you involved in any grp right now?

[karengayle]

YES!!! I can totally relate! I've been having the exact same problem with finding support for our homeschooling method.

We started the year just doing unschooling, but we belong to a school-affiliated group that requires a bit more documentation, so we do a tiny bit of traditional paperwork just to satisfy the supervising teacher. We get many benefits from belonging to the group - field trips, sports classes, etc., so we feel they outweigh the pain of having to discuss what we do.

The other group in our town is very conservative Christian and feels the school system is evil. They shun any activity that remotely associates itself with the schools and won't tell the system what they're doing, etc. They do very traditional home education with only Christian curricula. For me personally that's a bit too extreme.

We have no lesson plans, grades or tests. I follow ds's lead as to what he wants to study on a given day. He's actually very good at coming up with his own activities; for example, the other day he was intrigued by an online alphabetical list of dinosaurs and decided he wanted to choose one dino from each letter list and make a dinosaur ABC book. Entirely his choice.

I constantly feel out of synch with the rest of the Christian world because my beliefs aren't easy to pigeonhole. I relate to how you're feeling! You can e-mail me if you want to discuss homeschooling or Christian issues.

[erika]

I have seen Christian unschooling groups on the internet. eclectic homeschool - eho.org - has resources for Christians who are 'out of the box' as well as very extensive support group listings - not strictly unschooling, but you should be able to find Christian unschoolers there.

[Darci]

Wow!! I think I could have written exactly your words!
This is our first year of hs'ing. I chose to use the Sonlight curriculum because it gives a very round world view and it teaches many different sides of a story. (my opinions here )
My boys like it, and it is very relaxed curriculum. The only thing I will do differently next year is not purchase the books, but get them from the library! They also have wonderful message boards for users of the curriculum that have been a source of great support for me at times.

I belong to none of the support groups here in my town, because they all seem to be very school at home-ish. Besides, I am not that excited about signing any kind of belief statement, no matter how vague it may be, kwim? I do not have a time schedule, I just list for my boys what they need to do that day and then they decide when, where and how to accompish that.

I do belong to an email group that is for homeschoolers in my state, (my friend is the moderator) and i feel that we are able to be a lot more supportive there without actually using the same philosophies to teach our children. Besides, it's nice to post a question and get an immediate answer!

Good luck!

[ekblad9]

I also totally relate to your problem! There was a HUGE blow up about Harry Potter when the movie came out in my Catholic HS group. I just didn't get it at all! But I didn't say anything. The funny thing is that the next time we went to an activity at the church my 3 yo was wearing a band aid in the middle of his head that said "Harry Potter". I didn't even realize it until the event was over! Oh well!

I have found a couple of people in my group that are somewhat similar to me but still no one with my general beliefs. It is true that the "non Christian" groups try to prove so much that they're not Christian that they're just as excluding as the Christian groups! I guess I'm just hoping to fit in somewhere soon! Maybe here is the place!

[Faith]

Cool Links!

I just just checking out the old threads and saw this one, and it was like you were reading my mind, too!

We are extrememly Christian, and are unschooling. Not in a strict sense~ we plan on buying Sonlight one of these days and have the play room and house set up Montessori/Waldorf style, but you get the idea.

Anyway, here are some links I though you would like! (I hope they all work!)

www.inspirit.com.au/unschooling/

www.home-educate.com/unschooling/cu.htm

www.hometown.aol.com/dolphinmom5/CUnschool.html

Jesus was an unschooler!

[lilyka]

Wow thanks for bringing this thread back up. I don't remember ever reading any of the responses. Thanks everyone who responded

[guest^]

It is waay late, so my thoughts might not be all together here....

I too wanted to say that yes, I can very much relate!!!!

This too is my first yr of officially HS dd and she is at K level....

I just became a Christian(Catholic actually) and before last year, was actually a NewAger....

I have joined the local Catholic HS group, but since ds or dd have been sick a lot, we haven't made it too much to activities....

and when we have, I've felt like the blazing convert sticking out in a sea of
supermoms that are both very devout and cradle/generational to the faith. KWIM?

They seem very strictly school-at-home.Some even have HS uniforms.

We are very relaxed...am also doing FIAR,singapore,and ETCode.....but in a VERY relaxed way...this past week dd every day made paper snowflakes...EVERYDAY...she made over 100. She forecast the weather and played with ds. Did some cooking. That's it.

I just really feel like I am finding my way right now,in HS and my faith.

I do come here as I love thedifferent approaches,and that we all have the basic parenting(AP,non-mainstream,etc) styles in common.

My sis is HS for the first time this yr also with older kids too, she is Catholic and is unschooling too.


mamapoppins

[Faith]

Home schooling UNIFORMS?!?!
That has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard of!:LOL

I am a new Christian, too. I wasn't really anything, until last March.

I think school-at-home is better than school-at-school, but I also think they are really missing the point of the whole thing. The first HSer I met has a little room in her house with five school desks and a chalk board. I just couldn't do that!! I think there is no reason to model ourselves after the schools. They are failing, for one thing. Also, why model ourselves after a secular example? Look at Jesus learned and how he taught people, just by talking to them as they lived their lives. I just read the other day this article that said what they force-teach kids in schools is either SO obvious they could not grow up without learning it anyway, or so obscure they will never need to know it! I think that is about 95% right on. I think the whole point behind the school doing it their way is because they have 30 kids to deal with a piece (terrible ratios!), and there is NO need for a family to resort to that when they only have their own chilren to care for.

[lilyka]

I grew up in the environment where there were desks, chalkboards, saying the pledge and uniforms. I fully expected to homeschool that way. I was going to use abekka cirriculm and start dd a year early so that she would be super smarter than everyone else. i was sure that was the only way to do it. Wow, how things change in 10 years (OMGoodness, I can't believe I have been done with high school for 10 years - I am getting old - sorry, little crisis)

We even have the desks, they hold a lot of stickers and crayons.

[hahamommy]

I didn't realize this thread is almost a whole year old! I hope you've dug in and found your niche since your first writing! I've had a similar (though opposite) problem since leaving East River... I really want the *one stop shopping* for my homeschooling and spiritual support. What I've had to accept is finding each in different places. The people with whom I share spiritual values are generally not homeschoolers or even parents! And the homeschoolers are fundy Christians ~ who generally school-at-home, as well. It's been a real challenge to get out and socialize the kids, but not an impossible one. And though it's not as convienent and I seem to end up with two sets of friends and outings, I come away feeling fulfilled in both areas.

I just want to throw in kudos to you, Sandra ~ I was just talking about you with a group of non-Christians and I held you up as the standard that other Christians should meet for me ~ your acceptance and love are amazing. You, chickie, keep the Christ in Christian, I'm sure He's very proud of you using his name to label yourself. Keep up the good work!

~diana