How is unschooling working for you?

Question

I was recently just introduced to the idea of unschooling, and it sounds perfect for our family. The idea seems to be the way I've been teaching my preschoolers all along for the most part.

I know it's very typical to be concerned with "making sure my children learn what they need to know," but I can't help it. Being a teacher as well as a very organized person, I find it very scary to give up my long-term lists of skills they need to have each year.

So my question stems from this insecurity. If you unschool or have done it in the past, what positive or negative effects have you seen on your children? If you have grown-up unschoolers, how have they turned out? Do they go to college? Have successful careers (successful in their pursuits of passion, not necessarily money)?

Any info on past or current experiences would really help me in my decision to unschool.

Answer 1

My mom has stopped schooling me since 5th grade and I absolutely love it! I can learn what I want when I want to.

I used to get horrible headaches doing things over and over again when I just couldn't do it. (Which was mainly math..I still do have problems but it's no so bad now.)

Now I'm learning art, photography and soon graphic design and hopefully start playing guitar and piano. :]  Can you do that in public schools? Nope!

So far I'm going pretty well with photography I have several people interested in it. (not for buying though..yet. XD) I'm a bit stuck in art but I keep going at it.

I'm against public schooling to tell the truth. I don't believe in MAKING kids learn things that they most likely will never use later in life. Especially if it's something they're not naturally drawn to. And plus if they're not doing good in a certain subject then maybe God didn't build them for doing that. (Oh wait I forgot they took God out of schools so they wouldn't know that. geez...God is what this country was founded on!)

*cough*...back to what I was saying lol

I'll be able to go to college without a GED or whatever it might take some more time but it'd be worth it. There's hundreds of schools in the US anyways there's bound to be more than one school that doesn't require a GED. Like the one I found in Georgia that accepts home schoolers that don't have GED's.

I hope that helped some! :]

Answer 2

Some people don't understand the difference between "UnSchooling" and "HomeSchooling".

I am twelve and have been un-schooled all my life.  That's right folks, never been to school.  I LUV beiong unschooled.  I have been very successful -- I won my first writing competion in the third grade.  First place, baby!  My story was even featured on our local public tv station -- you can imagine how exiting for an eight-year old!  I then went on to learn HTML and how to make websites all on my own.  At ten I won best of show and best of class against a couple fifteen and eighteen year olds in a 4H competion at the county fair.  They only reason I couldn't move on to state competion is because you had to be twelve to do that.  I have also raised money for local charities; most recently in fifth grade when I, with help from friends, raised over $1000 for a local teenager.  I am now interested in film editing, theatre and graphic design, and am very involved in youtube.com (www.youtube.com/xxcomputercrazyxx).  I would definetly say that un-schooling has worked for my family and I for the past six years.  And now, I am applying for a local school for the arts, I know it will be very difficult for my family to adjust, but I would definitly say that un-schooling has made me very succesful and I think it would be an awesome thing for you to do.  Good luck.

Answer 3

I took my 10 year old out of school 4 years ago and embarked on 3 years of unschooling.  I felt this was necessary because he had become so hung up on making mistakes that he was unable to enjoy anything that might be new.  We did lots of field trips, talked incessantly, looked at words for the fun of them, rather than the necessity of them and built up a huge store of general knowledge.  He also built up a huge store of trust in me.  We are now embarking on a classical education, which is quite rigorous, but he seems much more ready for it and is able to bring some of the fun and general knowledge of the last few years into it.  

Reading has been the most important key.  We have about three books going at any one time.  There is the book that I read to him - above his reading level and classically beautiful.  There is the book that we read together - often, but not always non-fiction.  This is our cuddle time.  (My husband often steals this time.)  Finally, there is the book that he reads for himself.  Initially, I used to insist on 30 minutes a day.  Now he reads voraciously and I rarely have to check up on him.  We tend to keep to the classics as I like the model the provide - both ethically and linguistically, and I find the content more enriching.

I, too, am a teacher and I wish I had done this with my (much) older children.

Answer 4

As a very structured and organized person myself I will share with you that it was a process, and it took a while to change my thinking about what education was as well.

My children are  complete opposites of me when it comes down to this;  structure and organization comes natural to me, not so for them.

I know now that for many it is a learned skill, and not just a simple character flaw.

My husband has a Masters in Education, and he was actually the one to say; try anything but the conventional/traditional methods used in classrooms.

I/we started with a classical approach; the way I was taught; slowly we progressed to relaxed which became even more relaxed as I saw the simplicity of it, and trusted  myself, as well as their ability to learn.

The end result was unschooling; we adjusted "schooling to our life style, and did not adjust to it by fitting life around school hours, an academic year, or a curriculum that tells us what to learn when, and how.

We do math, reading, and language arts in a semi-traditional manner since learning the steps, and not moving on until they get the concepts is very important to us; the basic foundation has to be firmly in place for them to built on.

This does not mean that they have to have it all done by a certain age though, each child again is different; his does not mean they are gifted, or have a learning problem.

As for the method of instruction/learning I will never even consider a more structured approach to "schooling" anymore; I know that the motivation must come from within the youngsters, and to foster that you have to let go of the need to control, turn that focus to encouragement, and guidance rather than telling them when, where, and how.

Our children range from p*****n to late twenties, they serve/served in military, are ready to move on to college, and have many other activities, as well as hold/held full/part-time jobs before doing so.

The families I know who used this as the primary method have had positive outcomes, with children who persued their goals because they were theirs, not what someone else; parent or teachers; expected of them.

There are, and always will be exceptions, and some children will not do well no matter how they have been raised, or educated, because they choose not to do well.

As parents we should never underestimate the power of "choice"; all we can do is our best; and pray - a lot -

Home/unnschooling can be completely, or to some extend be child directed, and this; at least for us; means that when our children come to a particular subject that they want to learn about, we do not put a time limit on them as to how long they can learn about it, we simply try to provide every opportunity they need to learn as much as they want too.

Most often when children are allowed to learn in a natural way, in the form of unschooling, relaxed, Montessori, or self directed learning, they understand the concepts better, and score high on any (academic) test they are given.

Hands on teaching, instructors who are experienced in their field, from a car mechanic, pilot, store clerk, to a doctor; if these are willing to answer childrens questions and children would be incouraged to ask questions freely; can teach more in 15 minutes than textbooks, and hours in classrooms could accomplish.

For some other sources to research the many faces of unschooling see:

Click on the little purple box to view the video for free.

http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/...

Click on home school methods, and than unschooling.

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/...

http://ulfaq.home.comcast.net/~ulfaq/ULf...

http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

http://sandradodd.com/life

http://www.unschooling.com/

http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/

Answer 5

Do you mean home school?

Well i am a teen and go to an online school. I get a highschool deploma if i choose to graduate from this school. I do everything that some in schools do or even better stuff. I i have a teacher for help ect.  I want to go to collage.  I would suggest an online school. because it is the same thing as there are projects i have to do. When if go to high school through this i can take classes at the puplic high school.

If you have a question about this clcik on my avaitor and email me

Answer 6

My kids have always unschooled and have never been to school.  They are now 9 & 13.  Both are extremely knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics from geography to math and science, to html coding and graphic arts.  My oldest is anal about spelling, grammar, and punctuation ON HER OWN and hates when other teens lapse into net speak online, LOL.  Both are avid readers.

The best thing about unschooling is that my kids are free to be themselves and are free from peer pressure.  They do what they like, whether or not it's 'cool.'  Also, they find everything fun and don't dismiss things as 'educational.'

An example, when my son was younger (6) he was fascinated with numbers.  One day we were in the car with a schooled girl who was 9, and my son was having fun reading the prices of cars.  "Mom, this one is twenty-eight thousand, three hundred and ninety nine!"  And the school girl piped up:  "Eww!  No math!!  I'm not in school!"  My kids have none of that distaste for any subject -- it's all cool!

While they don't learn things systematically, they do learn a lot of things in a wide variety of ways, and so much stuff overlaps and is reinforced.

I find that when reading here on YA in the homework help, that most of the questions have no bearing on the real world in the lives of these kids, but are random things someone deemed important to know.  It's dry and lifeless and irrelevant, whereas the stuff my kids learn has relevance to their lives, they learn because they want to, because they need to know for their own personal reasons, not because somebody told them they needed to know it.

I have only seen the positives.  I do know other unschoolers who have gone on to follow their passions.  Some have started businesses; others have gone to college, others may take on an apprenticeship (one went into glassblowing).

We live as if school doesn't exist.  And it's wonderful!  You sound like a very involved mom, and that's all your kids really need.  Give them lots of things to play with and explore, take them cool places, answer their questions, read to them.  Trust that they want to be capable adults.  They will!!

Answer 7

Unschooling is definitely a process for those of us structured types.  My family is not totally there yet, but are definitely relaxed homeschoolers.  I find that my son learns so much more when we aren't doing formal lessons because he is actually interested in what he is doing.    And he has learned so much more than what the curriculum providers wanted to teach him.  He is so far ahead of what was on his schedule, that at this point, many of the lessons are just a waste of time.

You might want to read some books by John Holt and John Taylor Gatto.  Also read Homeschooling for Excellence by the Micki Colfax.  The Colfax children went on to graduate from Harvard.

Answer 8

Unschooling is fantastic. I unschool, but I also do "bookwork" once a week to make sure I'm learning everything I will need for SATs and ACTs. (I’m in 10th grade.) Pros are that you basically get to decide what you want to do, when you want to do it, and how you want to do it. Cons are it might be a little tricky working in math into everyday life or motivating your kid to read novels. Of course this all comes with time and you've got to keep in mind unschooling is not for everyone. If the kid isn't somewhat self-motivated, this will make unschooling very hard, if not impossible. Try it and if it doesn't work for ya, get some books and start doing a more traditional approach.