Unschooling?

[Mynyel]

So... I have been researching it a bit. I think it would fit our lifestyle as it is at this moment but...

 

It appeals and is scares me. I am used to having a set guideline. I am very much left brained and need check lists and schedules otherwise I feel like I am in a downward spiral. That isn't to say I can't be spontaneous but I like to plan.

 

How do I get past this? It seems that if I was to make a schedule then I wouldn't be unschooling. I don't really care about the label, I just want the general feel that my kids want and like to learn. Right on down to math. Which they hate. Which I like.

 

Suggestions?

[alef]

What are you doing now? What is it exactly about unschooling that appeals to you? If you are used to and like structure, I'm not sure that unschooling would really appeal as a lifestyle. I would however take a hard look at what you are doing and what aspects you might like to change. If your kids hate what they are doing in school, can you involve them more in choosing materials and determining a schedule? If there is something they love that they are not finding enough time for can you rearrange things to make that a higher priority? What about making one day a week an unschooling day? Just throwing some ideas out there...

[Ellie]

So... I have been researching it a bit. I think it would fit our lifestyle as it is at this moment but...

 

It appeals and is scares me. I am used to having a set guideline. I am very much left brained and need check lists and schedules otherwise I feel like I am in a downward spiral. That isn't to say I can't be spontaneous but I like to plan.

 

How do I get past this? It seems that if I was to make a schedule then I wouldn't be unschooling. I don't really care about the label, I just want the general feel that my kids want and like to learn. Right on down to math. Which they hate. Which I like.

 

Suggestions?

 

You can have a daily routine in your house as far as meals, homekeeping, and so on. It can include things like going to the library, or community outings, or activities such as scouts of some kind. That might satisfy your left brain. :-)

 

If you're thinking that you'll unschool but then expect your dc to want to learn math by joyfully opening up their textbooks and doing their lessons, then maybe you don't really want to unschool. :-)  OTOH, if you can let your left brain see that your dc are learning math by doing real-life activities, then maybe you can unschool after all.

 

Have you read John Holt's books? All of them? That would be very helpful in understanding what unschooling really is. It isn't unparenting; it isn't unlearning. It's living your life and letting your dc join in. It's understanding that children learn in all sorts of ways, all the time, and that their scope and sequence might be completely different from the one followed in the school down the street.

[albeto.]

If I may ask, what do you imagine unschooling will look like in your home? What are you hoping to get out of it? What are you hoping to avoid?

 

I would ask seasoned unschoolers, and a lot of them because we all have very different ideas about what unschooling *is*. I'd be considered a "radical unschooler" because I don't incorporate any traditional, conventional academic expectations in my kids's day, and I don't expect to see anything that resembles academic progress. Unschooling is a very different understanding about learning than traditional (classical) education. Perhaps we can help you troubleshoot the problems you want to solve without too drastic a change, because going from schooling to unschooling really is quite the change! A wonderful thing, in my opinion, but certainly not for everyone.

[momto2Cs]

Some other unschooling threads that might intrigue you...

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/494285-classical-unschooling/?hl=%2Bunschooling&do=findComment&comment=5303187

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/492043-thinking-about-something-new-and-maybe-crazy/?do=findComment&comment=5265669

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/488700-creating-an-environment-of-learning-resources-to-encourage-pbl-interest-led-learning/?hl=%2Bunschooling+%2Brelaxed&do=findComment&comment=5206762

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/481538-talk-me-down-im-a-wannabe-unschooler-sorta-maybe/?hl=+unschooling%20+relaxed

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/472379-talk-me-out-of-unschooling-i-need-ideas-to-inject-joy-back-into-our-day/?hl=unschooling+relaxed&do=findComment&comment=4956464

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/467307-anyone-ever-truly-considered-unschooling/?hl=unschooling%20relaxed

[Berta]

I have a question regarding unschooling and state requirements. We are very laid back homeschoolers. We don't have a set schedule, it's more of a routine. My state requires certain subjects to be taught and I have to keep a plan book. 

 

How do you totally unschool and get around keeping track of subjects/hours/portfolios etc?

[Ellie]

I have a question regarding unschooling and state requirements. We are very laid back homeschoolers. We don't have a set schedule, it's more of a routine. My state requires certain subjects to be taught and I have to keep a plan book. 

 

How do you totally unschool and get around keeping track of subjects/hours/portfolios etc?

 

Unschoolers happily exist in states that are highly regulated. :-)

 

When you understand that learning happens all the time, even when it doesn't look like specific subjects, you learn to categorize the things your dc do into those "subjects." And you can keep track of things in your plan book as you go along. You can also do some gentle guidance if you think you need to. For example, you can keep books around the house that deal with, oh, world history or state history or whatever, which your dc might pick up on their own, or you might read historical fiction aloud to them, just for fun, you know. :-)

[albeto.]

I have a question regarding unschooling and state requirements. We are very laid back homeschoolers. We don't have a set schedule, it's more of a routine. My state requires certain subjects to be taught and I have to keep a plan book. 

 

How do you totally unschool and get around keeping track of subjects/hours/portfolios etc?

 

Conventional education operates by having a plan to teach a particular skill to the student, then allowing that student time to practice the skill. Tests reveal if the student has mastered that skill to an appropriate degree. Unschoolers do this backwards. We see what skills our kids are learning, what they are practicing, and what they have mastered. We record it (in states where that's necessary). As they get older, their knowledge may surprise you. I have one child who studies neurology. I had no idea the extent of oceanography he knew. He learned because in studying neurology, he became familiar with molecular biology. One interesting aspect of molecular biology is

. Along the way, he became familiar with different ecosystems, plant biology, chemistry, math, and history. He discovered that to understand physiology, he needs to understand molecular biology. To understand molecular biology, he needed to understand chemistry. Throughout chemistry books, he found all kinds of math equations. He taught himself the math to make sense of these equations. That's how *he* learns. 

 

I have another child who wanted to join the local charter school, so she caught up on those subjects she needed to in order to be at pace with her peers. Being surrounded by kids her age was a huge motivation for her. Before that, she explored her interests, including learning about musicians (mostly from the '60's and '70's), which led to learning about the times in which they lived and the subjects they wrote about. She's almost always lost in a book which opens up all kinds of interests. 

 

Getting to different places in the area helped them to broaden their horizons, and it also allowed me to see what they knew. When we went to a local military museum, I was surprised to see how much my kids knew. One child knew quite a bit about the history of WWI, which opened up interesting discussions, the other could explain the mechanics we saw on the various armory. Same museum offered different perspectives, and as we talked casually about it, we learned new things. As we enjoyed ourselves, the value and pleasure of learning was once again reinforced. Really, this is the goal of unschooling - to provide an environment in which the child's natural curiosity is met with an opportunities to learn and explore; to allow a child's internally motivated desire to learn, explore, and share with friends and family to happen naturally and spontaneously, not on weekends and holidays. 

 

Keeping track of subjects and hours are done when you note these illustrations of knowledge (like keeping a note book on field trips or on the kitchen counter to record how long they've been playing a particular thing, and which school subjects that learning incorporates). There are unschool forums and groups where people from your particular state can share what they do with regard to keeping records.