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<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">Seriously, I think you can organize YOUR stuff if it makes you feel better, and gives you a sense of control, and still let your child unschool.</td>
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This is exactly what I was thinking. You can still organize Your life (and thus aspects of your child's life), without having to have formal lesson plans and such.<br><br>
Personally, I keep a much tidier house, when I use my daily and weekly lists, and get it all done first thing in the morning. That's how I best keep my home as clean as I want it. Obviously, this does affect dd somewhat, in that if I'm getting this done quickly, first thing in the morning, I'm not as eaily at her disposal right then. If she asks me about butterflies while I'm mopping, she's not going to hear, "well, let's go get that book out..." but rather, "Um, I'm right in the middle of this. Give me 20 minutes. The bug is on the shelf if you want to start looking through the pictures for now though." But that's just life anyway. Same thing would happen if she caught me right in the middle of cooking dinner.<br><br>
So there are ways when <i>I</i> do better with more organization. I feel better when I've made out a weekly menu; I like it more to go to the grocery store with a Very specific list, to get specific items needed for our menu that week. So, I like to do those things.<br><br>
But I don't have to orgazine my <i>learning</i> that way. I really like to learn new things too. But I never give <i>myself</i> a lesson plan. I don't say that this week, I'm going to learn more about gardening, and next month, I'll figure more out about knitting, and this summer, I will study the history of South America. I go with what interests me at the time. If I see an interesting history book, I'll read it. If I have an urge to learn piano, I work on learning piano.<br><br>
So for me, a strong desire for structure does fit okay with an unschooling lifestyle. I mean, learning in life isn't <i>completely</i> ONLY learning when you spontaneously decide to learn something. Next week, we're taking a trip to another country. Since we're going, I'm going to learn more about that country than I knew last week. I didn't just decide, "I want to learn about _____," so decided to go. But rather, the opportunity to go, presented itself, and basically only for this time, so we're taking advantage. So there's a little organization, I suppose.<br><br>
Learning how to can food from your garden, is pretty much going to take place after the harvest. Learning how to swim, is more likely to take place during the warmer months. There is a level of organization for most unschoolers, it seems.
