“Unschooling is an educational method and philosophy that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschooling students learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, internships and work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors, and social interaction.”
When I started my journey into homeschooling I would never have thought that Unschooling would be a path for me. I am a structure kinda gal. I have color coded notebooks and learned math on graph paper to keep the lines straight. We started with a curriculum that basicly told me what to do every second of the day. At first I got right down to it and my son was less than receptive. Then I started to make “modifications” to what they were doing.
The last year we did this we struggled and were losing our love of learning… Both of us. So I made the decision to totally change how we functioned. I had met some unschoolers and I was unsure of how I could make this work for us, I like structure and my son needs some. The great thing is I met some wonderful people who taught me that just because I am Unschooling does not mean I am unparenting. This helped me a lot and I learned to make my way slowly to a less structured education for my son.
I am not an unschooler but I am working that direction. I still have some things that we can’t seem to let go of, but I am learning that doing worksheets and taking tests is not the way my son learns. I have let go of the “schooling at home” mentality for the most part, and embraced that we learn things everyday all day in many ways.
Seeing my son’s joy in learning return has been a blessing. He is a smart kid (if I do say so myself) and I much prefer the return of the curious kid who enjoys learning. To this end, we have incorporated group learning such as co-ops and group classes. Living history is a gift from the gods. Family discussions over dinner yield many hours of education and family bonding that we would never see otherwise.
In the end I learned that maybe a path less structured is the way to go for us. Who knows where this might lead? Wherever it goes we will enjoy the ride.
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