Thoughts On Unschooling

I just found this blog today, by following a link on facebook, and on it I found this very interesting post about unschooling and this (also interesting) post about unschooling (same blog, a very good blog too from my glance, I want to add).  After reading these posts it got me thinking about the schedule that I just wrote up for next quarter (and haven't gotten around to posting yet because it's still a bit too early, start looking in a week) and some of the big changes I had made to it - and it also got me thinking about unschooling in general.

For those of you who don't know unschooling is one of the most controversial, misrepresented, and misunderstood (by both the pubic and, oddly, unschoolers) form of homeschooling that there is.  Essentially what unschooling is, is homeschooling by following your child's interests.  There really is no structure, you just let your child play, learn, and explore largely on their own but with you there every step of the way to guide them, support them, and nudge them if you have to.  You don't force, you don't threaten, you don't write up lesson plans, and you don't quiz or test.

I say that it is misunderstood because a lot of people - unschoolers included - believe it means a completely hands-off approach to homeschooling your child.  You don't do anything with them, they have to figure out everything on their own or you only teach them when they ask, you never check on their progress, you never make sure they are actually learning anything, etc.  Some unschoolers don't even read books to their babies because they argue that they are waiting for their child to show an interest in reading and books.

This could not be further from the truth.  True unschoolers may not buy textbooks and force their kids to sit at the table for six hours a day with a lunch and recess break, but they are VERY involved in their child's learning process.  They go out of their way to provide their kids with the resources and tools that they need to learn, they step back and watch, and step in to help when needed.

With all that said, while we have a semi-structured schedule and workbooks I actually do consider myself an unschooler.  Some unschoolers probably would not consider me one, and that's fine, everyone does have their own opinion about what unschooling is or means and even though I just wrote a couple of paragraphs about "real unschoolers"  there are some unschoolers out there that stand by their refusal to read to their kids so that their kids can figure it out on their own.

Just like with everything else there is a right, a left, and a middle ground.  There is no one right definition for every single person, and what it ultimately comes down to is unschooling is about doing what works best for you and your family even if it's the exact opposite of what other unschoolers do.

Which is why I consider myself an unschooler even though we have a schedule, workbooks, and quizzes.

We do this because, as I've explained to my kids before, I want them to have a good foundation for when they play, learn, and explore.  When we did our Dinosaur Concept Week Bumblebee learned even more about dinosaurs then he already knew.  Optimus Prime is always picking up new Spanish words and he uses them around the house in place of the English ones.  We just finished up our Seasons Concept Week and my kids learned about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah because of it, holidays that I didn't even think to mention to them because we know no one who celebrates them.  As a matter of fact, they decided to make Hanukkah cards to mail to Santa!  In our Science book we learn about animals from all over the world, animals that I had never even heard of before we started.  Geography taught them how to read maps, something that they had asked me multiple times to show them how to do.

All of their structured schoolwork is based on their desire to learn these topics - even the dreaded Spelling lessons!  They might hate Spelling, but they are desperate to learn how to read, they are so eager and impatient, so while they might hate writing out their spelling words they are so proud of themselves when they get them down and are able to pick the word out of a book all on their own.

My kids LOVE workbooks.  They love getting reward stickers on the pages they do really good on.  They love when I ask them questions about what we just learned and they get to show off how smart they are.  They love discussing a topic (sometimes to death!) after we've just learned about it.  They love debating, forming opinions, thinking things through that weren't mentioned in the books, and making (quasi-educated) guesses.

One day we will drop the workbooks because we won't need them anymore.  One day they will be able to completely read on their own, figure out math problems on their own, etc and sitting at the table to fill in workbook pages about addition, handwriting, dinosaurs or lemurs will just seem silly.  Yes, we'll still have some sort of basic structure to our homeschooling, but they will have the basic foundation that they need to go new places without me holding their hand anymore.  Workbooks?  Nope.  Quizzes?  Nope.  Book goals?  Maybe.  Book reports?  Maybe.  Zoo and museum trips?  Yes.  Discussing and debating books we have read?  Yes.  Discussing and debating current news stories?  Yes.  Discussing and debating every other new thing we learned?  Yes!

So while we can debate til the cows come home just how far you should take unschooling one way or the other, what it is really about is teaching your child all of the topics that they yearn to learn in the way that works best for you and your child.