Nobody would say you can't pick and choose parts and apply them to your life, I encourage anyone to read into it and take whatever positives you can especially in regards to connecting with your children and encouraging natural learning, just that there is no reason it needs to be called unschooling because it wouldn't be (Ginger said she unschools outside of school, had she said she uses some of the principles I wouldn't have clarified). And that's okay too, unschooling in it's entirety isn't for everyone as you say and it doesn't need to be seen as some exclusive club everyone should be so keen to join that they want to bend and change definitions, it just is.

Personally I feel it does a bigger diservice to the ideals and message to not be clear on what it is. Especially when so many people are already unaware, unclear or holding onto misconceptions. It is like saying well why can't a daisy be a rose, people would like roses more if they could include daisies in their picture of it and they have a lot in common but in the end a daisy isn't a rose and there's no reason to pretend otherwise.

I am not so sure about the daisy analogy as a daisy and a rose are both things - tangible things, that are scientifically one thing or the other, (or if bred together become another separate thing) 'unschooling' is more like 'gentle parenting' a collection of philosophies and ideals and like all these labels are open to some interpretation. Even within 'unschooling' literature there is no one definition - the set of criteria that make a daisy a daisy and a rose a rose are pretty well defined though.

Or maybe that is the thing that a hybrid between 'unschooling' and school is actually something separate and distinct - but I don't think it is 'authoritative parenting' - because that really only describes the parenting aspect - and can be used with any type of educational approach. 'Active parenting' also I think doesn't quite fit, or doesn't cover the concept in its entirety.

Anyway it doesn't really matter - like most things it is a continuum and you choose to place your family at any point along it, I don't really believe in labels of any type anyway, but some of the philosophies and ideals behind 'unschooling' can be applied if your children go to school (or like me you intend for them to go to school) for all or part of their childhood and these may guide the school you choose for your children and also your interactions with that school. (It is our intention to spend a year or two travelling at some point - and during that it is likely we would be closer to 'unschooling' than homeschooling in our approach). My personal belief is, that school is not the primary method for learning, that it is the learning 'how to learn' not what to learn that is important - both which I think are closest to 'unschooling'.