Unschooling/Natural Learning

[Rouge]

This thread is for all members who have chosen the path of unschooling to share and discuss their journey. Please read the following guidelines of this thread before posting.

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[SunnyRain]

Thank you, this will be a great and informative thread for those of us who choose a different path for our children.

Who else is considering or has chosen this option?

[BrightSparkles]

This may seem really naieve of me? What is natural learning/unschooling??

[M D]

My Dd goes to school next year and although that will be the style we have chosen I am very intested to hear others stories. I have recently had a light bulb moment where I realized I can teach my children at home but without the structure of doing x for y minutes z times a day. I came across a blog of a lady who unschools her children. Reading her blog really opened my eyes to this style of learning. I can't wait to hear your stories.

[SunnyRain]

Sunshine: it's difficult to explain because it requires a mental shift. One of these days I'll sit down and compose an eloquent response.

However, unschooling is a philosophy that centres around the ideas that:
1. A child learns in their own way, in their own time, according to their own interests.
2. A child learns without being taught, they learn to crawl, walk, talk, think, feed themselves, act independently etc.
3. Learning does not begin at the age of 5 at school and end at the age of 18, but begins at birth and never stops.
4. We don't necessarily retain, use or require most of what is taught to us externally, but what we learn through exploring our personal interests, we will retain and find a use for.
5. (requiring a total change of mindset) We should only ever really need to learn that which will help us achieve our dreams in life. Do we want our children to be like us, working jobs we don't really love, or do we want them to discover their passions and pursue their dreams?

Note: dreams, passions, interests are flexible and change throughout our lives, and it is our prerogative to pursue new dreams, learn new tricks, gather new knowledge when we want to.

Unschooling does not deny a person a right to attend classes, college, university in order to achieve a dream that requires specific qualifications or complex knowledge. However, it is not up to parents or other educators to choose what a child/ teen/ adult studies.

There are many resources available for independent learning. Google Khan Academy, for example.

There, that's a start. As I said, it takes a mental leap to consider not sending your child to school or even formally homeschooling them in any structured way.

[Butterfly Dawn]

we have just pulled ds2 out of school for health reasons and I will be following his natural interest in things.
I taught briefly at a kindy and I find it rewarding to semi structure our day.
I guide him through our daily life, explaining and teaching and following up with more things he enjoys. he's very creative and loves to make "machines" out of whatever he can find.
every day I have a rough idea of what I want to teach him and make sure we get outside into nature as much as possible.
I'm finding him becoming more settled in himself. but this is a temp thing just to get his immune system a break.
ds1 however is totally different and this kind if learning doesn't suit him. he needs the regiment of school

[SunnyRain]

That's interesting, dt. Your ds1 doesn't mind that he goes to school while ds2 is having adventures with you?

[Butterfly Dawn]

he did for a few days but ds1 loves school. ds2 does as well but he really needs to be stronger and healthier to go. its was showing good response with his behaviour- til I had to be away for 2 days and left them with mil. now back to start again.
I make sure I do stuff with ds1 when he's home. so he doesn't feel jealous.

[Shanti]

Happy to see this thread started! great to see a few people posting in here too.

DD is only 3.5years so not old enough for school yet but once she is, we will be 'home educating' which is what I like to call it because that's what we're already doing now I understand the term unschool/natural learning and we'll be doing this however to family and friends we call it home education because it's just easier for others to understand it!
We're so excited about all the natural learning we will be doing including what we already do with the girls and they're only 1yrs and 3yrs. Museums, beaches, rainforest walks, etc there is so much to learn out there in the environment and real world. Our kids are learning ALL the time. It's impossible to inhibit their learning as they are such curious little things. I love how natural learning/HE allows the child to learn at their own PACE. That's really important for me. We plan to record daily the things we do. Lots of unit studies so if we went on a walk and found lots of insects for example, we would then go to the library and get a book on insects and bugs and learn about them maybe through a documentary. Collages.... that sort of thing.

I look forward to following this thread where we feel safe & unjudged by others with differing opinions.

[Lady-bug]

I too am very interested in unschooling/natural learning. We haven't made a decision either way.
However can I ask, no pressure to answer of course, do you plan to be out of the work force the whole time? Obviously this is a big commitment.
Just interested to hear what other people's plans are.

[Shanti]

I too am very interested in unschooling/natural learning. We haven't made a decision either way.
However can I ask, no pressure to answer of course, do you plan to be out of the work force the whole time? Obviously this is a big commitment.
Just interested to hear what other people's plans are.

Ladybug, yes I'm really lucky in that my DH & I can afford for me to never have to work again and we own our own home (huge mortgage though in saying that!!!!). So I'm in the position to be able to choose whether our kids go to school or home education. I understand not everyone has that 'choice' so I feel very lucky.

Kuraiza, yep there are a lot of people out there who have plenty to say about home education/unschooling whatever you want to call it, but they don't really know much about it. I didn't either until I started researching it at the beginning of this year and subscribed to various websites and magazines and forums and started chatting to people and realised 'wow these people really REALLY care about their children's' educations!!!'. It's so sad that majority of society assume that people who home educate are 'neglecting' our kids or something. When it's the total opposite. Home educators REALLY care.

I've already met a few homeschooling families at a workshop we did in a park with my local group and they were so lovely!!! It's so exciting to know that I don't have to send my kids off to school and miss a HUGE part of their growing up.... I also don't want teachers and school kids having great influences on my kids because that is what happens in schools. Whereas for us, we want to be the greatest influence on our kids

I also think it's totally empowering to be different to what the majority do.....

[surprised]

I love the philosophy but the practicality won't work for us... I'm hoping it's ok to ask, but what would you do if your homeschooled/unschooled child came to you and asked to go to school?

[Shanti]

I love the philosophy but the practicality won't work for us... I'm hoping it's ok to ask, but what would you do if your homeschooled/unschooled child came to you and asked to go to school?

Yep you can ask that We have discussed this and we believe that a child at the age of 5 or 6 isn't old enough to know what is necessarily 'right' for them or old enough to make these big decisions themselves. We feel that perhaps at the age of 8 if our DD is asking to go to school and really really wants to try it out, we will let her. We are honest with her about school and what it involves and we even talk to her about it now. We NEVER are negative about schools because we understand there may come a day when she wants to go or needs to go for whatever reason (although we aren't planning on this happening). But life can be unpredictable so we aren't ever saying a complete 'no' to school if that makes sense.

We respect schools have their places but are not for everyone. We also understand some families use schools AND home education too! I know some families (on forums) who send their kids to school then have them home for a year then they are back at school.... whatever suits the child and/or family at the time

Our DD will, as she does now, be always in contact with other kids whether it's at the local parks, beaches, play centres, sporting events, swimming etc..... and I don't feel kids at the young age of 5 or 6 need to be with other kids EVERY day anyway. 2-3 times a week is plenty. Plus they have their siblings too.

[blessedatlast]

I'd ask why they want to go.. I'd probably send them to school, but my concern would be once they are in the system I assume it would be harder to get out of, so I'd really want to make sure it's what they wanted to do.. It would depend how old they were etc.. If it was for the social aspect I'd do more to try and accomodate that at home..

[Shanti]

I'd ask why they want to go.. I'd probably send them to school, but my concern would be once they are in the system I assume it would be harder to get out of, so I'd really want to make sure it's what they wanted to do.. It would depend how old they were etc.. If it was for the social aspect I'd do more to try and accomodate that at home..

I agree with you BAL.

I have heard of many families who have sent their children to school after they asked to go and they lasted a week or two!!! I think many kids who have been home educated would find it pretty tough in that they are 'told' what to do and what to learn etc, not as much freedom etc.... less play time etc....

BAL - I think a Steiner school is a wonderful option especially if you aren't able to stay home and home educate I would love to have that option nearby to us but the closest school to us (the one you know) is just simply too far!

[SunnyRain]

Shanti, that sounds like such a great, dedicated approach to "home education". I'm a bit lazy when it comes to going to the library, we do a lot of research online and finding youtube videos about things of interest. My eldest is just 4, not technically school age but I also consider his "education" to be ongoing.

Like you, I'm really very much attracted to the allowance for my children to learn at their own pace. I can very clearly see that as necessary for ds, who is quite unlike any of his age-related peers in that he has zero interest in competing with others and his interest in learning specific skills occurs in waves and ebbs to the point that at times it seems he unlearns something until I see that he is simply trying something new, rewiring what he knows and trying old skills in new ways. It's very interesting to witness.

I do consider our family very fortunate, it won't just be me at home with the kids. Dh's business affords him the opportunity to share the role with me, which is almost paramount to our success because I would worry I might burn out otherwise.

We're actually currently conducting research to find studies on the topic of unschooling, so that we have some facts to back us up and to uncover any potential problems we might face. As we know it can get ugly and gee people have such strong opinions about everybody else's parenting choices, don't they. I mean, they must all be experts and have done lots of independent research to back their opinions, right?

[Heaven]

We are interested in Natural Learning! I think about 7 months ago I read something somewhere about homeschooling (which I previously thought was for weird hippies ) and have been reading more and more since then! It is something I NEVER thought I would do. But now that I know more about it it sounds like a fantastic lifestyle. And after learning that my kids can learn as much as they learn in school in a far shorter period of time I don't know how I could send them to school and away for that long when it's not necessary. I like that I could give them much more time to just be kids and to get involved in more extracurricular activities too.

I really like the idea of Natural Learning. I guess that's what we have been doing since birth! Following their lead and watching them learn. I don't see what that has to stop at age 5.

[blessedatlast]

I would love to hear from anyone that unschools and also works outside the home.. I am a single Mum (although that could change by 'school age') but I'll have to work. I would love to unschool, but I'm just not sure if it's viable.. In the mean time I'm planning to send him to a steiner school if he does end up going to school.