[tracilicious]

I see unschooling talked about a lot here, but the actual workings of it are rather mysterious for me. What exactly does it involve?

 

[raleigh_mom]

Others will address the thought process and the philosophy, I'm sure, but I'll give you an example of how we learn.

I just found a song on the internet about the planets. I played it for my girls and they begged for it several more times. We'll go to the planetarium next week to see some cool shows.

My daughter is about to join Girl Scouts. I can only imagine the learning that will come with that. I know her well enough to believe she will want to earn lots of badges.

We don't use a curriculum. We live our lives and when something sparks our interest, we go with it.

We learn by living.

 

[UnschoolnMa]

We just live. We just get up every morning (err afternoon lol) and live our lives.

We do what we need to do: clean, make food, run errands, go grocery shopping, etc. And we do what we want to do: watch TV, go to the movies, visit friends, go to the library, read books, listen to music, travel to the coast or wherever when we can, and so on.

 

[~*SugarMama*~]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raleigh_mom Others will address the thought process and the philosophy, I'm sure, but I'll give you an example of how we learn. I just found a song on the internet about the planets. I played it for my girls and they begged for it several more times. We'll go to the planetarium next week to see some cool shows. My daughter is about to join Girl Scouts. I can only imagine the learning that will come with that. I know her well enough to believe she will want to earn lots of badges. We don't use a curriculum. We live our lives and when something sparks our interest, we go with it. We learn by living.

That's the same thing that we do here! I don't consider myself an "unschooling" family yet mainly because I am still in the phase where I introduce something and if its a hit, we ride it out as long as possible. If its not, then I file it away for another day.

Right now, my two are really into snakes (thanks to the new zoobook that they got on Monday) So we have been learning about snakes. Studying the zoobook, playing the games and doing the activities in there....inventing our own games and making our own crafts. We have read about them on the net, gone looking for them in the park, and talked ad naseum about snakes.

Once this week is over, I will try introducing something new. Maybe it will take and we will have something new to explore. Maybe it won't and I will just sit back and wait until something else sparks their interest.

 

[raleigh_mom]

Right now, my two are really into snakes (thanks to the new zoobook that they got on Monday) [/QUOTE]

OMG, that reminds me of how my daughter loves Animal Planet. I understand a lot of kids her age do. She can sit and give you the total run-down on all sorts of animals and insects. I've learned a lot from her!

Also, I think unschooling uses the child's natural curiosity as the learning tool. My daughter is learning to read because she enjoys stories and wants to read some for herself. She loves showing off her new skill.

I must admit, I am not a "radical unschooler". Both my kids have chores and are expected to participate in family activites.

 

[SagMom]

I see unschooling talked about a lot here, but the actual workings of it are rather mysterious for me... QUOTE]

That's understandable, as I don't think there are "actual workings." Unschooling is more a philosophy of how people learn, rather than a particular method of homeschooling, imo.

This thread: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=487349 will give you an idea of what some unschoolers are doing.

Reading anything by John Holt would explain the ideas behind unschooling.

A particular example in our home is that my dd has just decided to learn about DOS. I did not tell her she needs to do this, or "should" do it, but when my dh's friend was here trying to fix our computer, she got into a conversation with him about computer repair. He recommended some books to her and he's invited her to help when he opens the cpu to...um...do things I don't understand.

He taught her how to "defrag" the system and he talked about different spyware and where to get them. We'll probably be at the library looking for those DOS books today.

That's just one topic, with one kid, but the bottom line for us is that I don't assign anything to the kids. They discover an interest, either on their own or by exposure/conversations etc. with others, or just from being out in the world and then they run with it and learn as much about it as they choose. I do whatever I can to help--make suggestions about resources, sometimes learn alongside them, etc.

 

[SRHS]

For example...on a recent trip to CO we listened to "The Dragon Rider" by Cornelia Funke in the car, when we got home, we found the book on our shelf, my 9 y/o took the tapes to his room and read along with the tapes, when he finished he asked for more books and books on tape, so I went to the library while he was in some acitivity (Oh, ya, VBS...another long story). So I got him "the Sign of the Beaver" on booka nd tape and he read that. Now he is totally into Native American's We are currently making a tipi, moccasins, and discussing the differences between that sort of society and ours (those are my inputs..he is just totally inthralled with they way they lived..which I'm taking as a good sign of getting back to nature and taking care of mother earth).

Oh yes, VBS, he went to a Lutheran VBS with a neighbor and so now we are discussing religion and fundamentalism in all sorts of religion, and when religion becomes dangerous (ie foreign affairs and current events).

My 5 year old is totally into bugs and is always collecting them whenever we are outside. He also helps me wit the garden and finds all kinds of bugs there and we go in a look them up and decide if they are harmful or helpful to our garden and then remove them or replace them as necessary! He likes to be read to and is p icking up words and points ot the words he knows on signs and books, etc.

That's all the jumps out at me right now...I'm sure there's lots more going on, and they'll enlighten me in a couple weeks!!!

 

[simple living mama]

Well today we are going to the fair. We'll check out the animals, all the entries, and see if we won a ribbon for our mural we entered.

I have a 2:00 meeting. I take the kids and they play on the computers in the next room.

Then I will bring the kids to work with me. I run a kids garden/art studio. We will check out the garden to see what's come up with all these rains we've been having. We will probably hang out there because it's so nice to be surrounded by plants, exploring, eating, and talking about them.

Then I will introduce the kids at work to ATC (Artist Trading Cards) that I recently learned about on the Live And Learn Conference site. Basically they are like baseball trading cards except they are artwork made by you that could be original or printed. They can only be traded. (I think, still learning)

Then tonight we will visit our next door neighbor who is plays several bluegrass instruments. He will be giving my husband and I lessons in guitar. Hopefully my kids will want to join in as I have kid guitars laying around for them.

That is the main plan of our day. What happens in-between I don't know yet.

 

[Linda on the move]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joan That's understandable, as I don't think there are "actual workings." Unschooling is more a philosophy of how people learn, rather than a particular method of homeschooling, imo.

I think unschooling is about giving kids the freedom to learn what they want, when they want, in the way they want. Unschoolers have a lot of respect for what their kids are learning when they aren't being taught, and a lot of faith in the kids to learn the things they need to know.

It's easier to give an example that to explain how it works.

One of my DDs saw kids taking swim lessons when she was 2, asked what they were doing, and then declared, "Swim lessons for ME! Swim lessons for ME." So I enrolled her, she loved it, and she learned to swim.

My other DD didn't like the idea of swim lessons at all, prefered a swim suit with built in floaty things until she was 7, and suddenly this year, at the age of 8, without any swim lessons, started swimming (above water, under water, on her back -- you name it, she can suddenly do it).

Both are examples of unschooling because both kids were learning what they wanted, when they wanted, in the way they wanted.

 

[tracilicious]

This is all cool and useful information for me, thanks! It seems like quite the leap of faith though. I worry that perhaps my kids won't learn anything at all. Like, if one can fail at unschooling, I probably would. That, and there are a few things that I learned in school that I didn't particularly care about at the time, but in retrospect I'm glad I know. Like what an iscoceles (I obviously didn't learn to spell it!) triangle is, or certain algebraic formulas, or osmosis, or whatever. None of this is particularly useful to me, but I'm glad I know it.

I'm not criticizing unschooling, as I think it's cool, I just have these seeds of doubt. Do any of you deal with that? Do you worry that it will go horribly awry and your child will be intellectually crippled?

 

[SRHS]

LOL!!! HA...ya, about every week...but hey, that's down from once a day...and in all reality its probably like 2x/month that I have those panic attacks "Oh my god, my kids are not learning anything, or they'll never learn X" It really d oes get easier as you go along and you learn to "trust the children" We are humans, learning is what we do!!!

Sus

 

[RiverSky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tracilicious This is all cool and useful information for me, thanks! It seems like quite the leap of faith though. I worry that perhaps my kids won't learn anything at all.

I think of unschooling as the natural progression of normal stay-at-home parenting. Did your children learn when they were one? What about when they were 2? 3? 4? (minus any preschool time) Well, my daughter has never been to any institutionalized school, and yet, at 5, she has already learned so much about the world, through play, through books, through storytimes, through field trips, through vacations, through her interest in her pets, via cooking and baking, via asking questions, constant questions, 5 years of neverending questions...

You get the idea. [fyi: some might want to know, but she taught herself to read, we had no idea she could do it, when one day she just started doing it. of course, she has been read to since she was born, constantly, daily, etc.]

I think that unschooling is just a progression...just don't take them to school, continue to read every single day, do art projects, join playgroups and clubs and do charitable acts and go to every conservation group, zoo, science museum, children's museum, aquarium, park, beach, etc., that you have access to.

Take fun classes like dance, sports, art, theatre, try a million different things and see what your children like. If TV is okay with you, there are TONS of things that my children have learned about from TV, even from the Diego show and Dora the Explorer, Stanley, Zoom, Crocodile Hunter, educational DK videos about animals borrowed from the library, etc.

Reading a few good books on unschooling and then just observing my children, allowing them to ask questions, seeing how well they learn on their own and WANT to learn, they want to know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING, it is ME who often wants them to stop asking questions NOT them!!!! I'm the one who stops the learning because I'm TIRED, I need to do stuff, I want to be alone, read my own book, look at my own websites, play my own games, on occasion.

If you don't teach your children that learning is a chore (by forcing them to learn stuff when they don't feel like it, or they aren't feeling interested, or they are tired or hungry or still stuck on the last project they wanted to do which they were forced to leave, then they still retain that quality that very young children have of being excited about EVERYTHING! Wanting to push all the buttons, check out what different things in nature look like under a microscope, feeling free to ask "why why why why why why why why". My children would spend 10 hours a day playing educational board games, like math games and scrabble and word games and matching games, etc., if I would sit and do it with them.

My children WANT to read, have always wanted to, because we model that for them, we read CONSTANTLY. They love books so much that when we get tired of reading 20 picture books or 5 chapters, they want more. So they need to learn to read because we stop at a certain point, before they are ready to (at least on occasion, sometimes their attention span is less than ours, but we just go with the flow).

Years ago, when I read an article in a free local parenting magazine on unschooling, I thought it sounded incredibly wacky. Homeschooling, yes, but unschooling? Ridiculous! Dangerous! Freaky! (that's what I thought) But then I read some books by Susan Richman (is that her name, the 3Rs lady?) and the coup d'etat, the piece de resistance, "Homeschooling for Success" by David and Micki Colfax and I was hooked. I always send people to Lillian's website, too, you can never look at that one too many times:
http://www.besthomeschooling.org

John Holt's books and David Guterson's "Family Matters" are both very interesting in an academic and philosophical way...they are both award winning and successful long-time teachers and they both think homeschooling is the better way, by far. I have not found any of their books to be page-turners (the kind you can't put down) but I did find "Homeschooling for Success" to be so interesting that seriously, I read it in one day and stayed up very late (3am, perhaps?) because I could not put it down and I was so incredibly excited reading it.

I swear, reading some books and allowing them to lead my mind in the right logical direction made ALL the difference. My husband is more wary (he can't be bothered to read the books, that's my job

) but he admits, the results are there. Both children are reading, love to read, love to learn, love to ask questions, are learning about more and more every day. The results are evident. My son can't learn enough about math. It's not because we do anything to promote it, we are just willing to pull out pencils and paper when he asks questions, and we show him whatever he wants to know.

Does that help?

 

[tracilicious]

It does help, but it's still scary.

 

[SagMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tracilicious It does help, but it's still scary.

Heh. Only in the beginning. Sort of like after your first child is born and the midwife goes home and you're thinking, "WHAT? You're just going to leave me here with this baby?"

And, eventually, things fall into place and you realize that all the things you worried about you really didn't have to worry about.

 

[RiverSky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tracilicious It does help, but it's still scary.

Do you homeschool? Are you planning to? Is unschooling something you want to do? Or are you just curious about this?

 

[majikfaerie]

Basically, unschooling is knowing that a child will learn everything she needs to very quickly and easily when she wants / needs to learn it.
Just like they learn to speak English (or any mother-tongue, or even multiple "first" languages, like my dd who speaks fluent in English and Hebrew, as well as a bit pr Spanish, German and Portuguese) at age 3, without being taught. Just like they learn the incredible massive multidtude of stuff they learn before being put into school and forced to "learn" things they aren't interested in.

I was taught a bunch of stuff in school, I barely remember any of it. But even more stuff I was interested in and taught myself with a minumum of fuss after school. In school we were taught piano. to this day I cant really read music, nor play piano to save myself, but at 17 when I got it into my head to learn guitar, I was playing proficiently within 2 weeks, and the skill has never left me. I picked up mandolin in even less time.

In school I was taught Japanese and Modern Greek, cant remember more than 5 words in either language, even after 4 years of study. But since teaching myself as an adult German, Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew, I'm pretty proficient in those.

it goes on.

and children learn way faster than grown ups. Unschooling is giving them the freedom to do it. A child WILL learn to read and write when they are ready for it, and at their own pace. some kids get it early, others late, but they usually get it easily and without too much stress if given the space to do it in their own time.

Same for mathematics. Same for science, history, geography, biology, EVERYTHING! the whole world is your teacher, be free to listen to it!

 

[tracilicious]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RiverSky Do you homeschool? Are you planning to? Is unschooling something you want to do? Or are you just curious about this?

Heh, whether I homeschool or not is perhaps the debate in the "Why homeschool preschoolers thread," but we do plan to. We actually only recently decided this, so I'm exploring my options. I feel drawn to unschooling, but WTM also has some things I like about it.

 

[Linda on the move]

I found it helpful to journal about my own educational experiences and form an "I believe" sort of statement. For me, it really boils down to a belief that learning is joyful, so what ever is joyful for my kids and I (and DH too when he is around) is a good thing, and anything that isn't joyful for us is not right for us. At times we've done unit studies, Charlotte Mason, etc. but whatever we are doing has to be something that the kids look forward to -- it has to quality time together.

I think that there are limitless ways to homeschool and that labels *often* get in the way.