Unschool question..?

Question

i have pulled my 2 9th graders out of public school to homeschool...this curriculum thing is just not working out for them...they are both very intelligent kids and although i hate to admit it they are smarter than me...what daily activities would you suggest i have them do ? or should i just let them do their own thing.?i dont want them to be labeled as drop outs...any ideas on how to keep them interested in learning?my son is 14 and my daughter is 15...thank you

Answer 1

Agree w/ deeply and like many things Earl said, but in the interest of well-rounded being, head, heart and hands, here's some other ideas:  1)  Teach your children to sing and to play multiple musical instruments.  This is one of the best things that ever occurred in my childhood and has stood me in good stead for my entire life, as well as brought me great joy.  2)  Teach your children to play chess.  It teaches discipline, foresight, systems theory, geometry, strategy, logic, step by step thinking, mechanics, and it's one of my favorite things to do on this earth...They will always be in good company if they can play chess, I believe.  3)  Teach (or cause them to learn w/ someone else, as many foreign languages and cultures as possible.  If it's possible for you all to go to another country and live for a week, a season, a year or years, DO IT!!!!  It's one of the most enriching and mind enlarging things you could possibly give your children and your adult selves.  4)  Take in foreign exchange students if you yourselves cannot travel.  In fact, I think always having visitors and boarders in one's house is a mind-enriching, life-enriching thing.  You can make your lives really rich that way.  5)  Have people to dinner a lot, and teach your children to bake and to cook EXTREMELY well.  This is an essential life skill for everyone, IMHO.  6)  Teach your children life skills, such as checkbook balancing, how to change oil in the car and how to change a tire, get and give a jump start, how to comparison shop, how to budget, how to do home repairs, how to sew and mend, how to take care of pets, how to troubleshoot life problems, how to clean and organize, how to garden, what to do when you're bored out of your mind, and you have no money or only a little money, how important it is not to just be an egghead, but to get up and out and move your body around through space, how to give back to the community, how to take care of yourself if things are not going well in one's life or in the world, how to plan ahead for contingencies,  what to do if you're alone and sick, etc. etc. etc., how to prioritize, how to brainstorm, how to motivate yourself, how to get what you need on a limited budget and where to look for alternatives and resources, how to barter goods and services, how to get help in the community if you're a broke college student, or traveling or out there in the world on your own for the first time in your life.  IMHO, they will learn all they need about their chosen areas of study and pleasure when they're in college.  Some of the other stuff I've listed is ESSENTIAL, but no one ever covers it, it seems.  As for your daughter, some of us were raised in incredibly sexist families, with really rigid gender/role identities, and so we didn't learn things like interpersonal and dating safety, how to keep yourself safe in the world, how not to get ripped off just because you're a girl, how to do "guy stuff" like a) buy a car, b) ask for or demand a raise, and support that demand w/ facts and evidence as to why you should get one.  AND how to negotiate!!!  Especially with prospective employers which is "where the money is shown", and which is where so many powerful women behave like newborn kittens...c) go into a bar or other place that serves alcohol and stay safe, d) get help if needed, e) how not get pregnant or an STD, f) how to change tires, oil, trouble shoot problems w/ our cars, what to do if your car breaks down, your cellphone is out of range and you find yourself all alone...I once fixed a car with duct tape, phone wire, a wire hanger and something else, I can't remember what it was now...well enough to get myself to where I could get safe assistance and fix the car permanently;  g) how to take care of yourself if you're sick or someone you love is, h) again, how to get food, clothing, esp. enough warm clothing in the winter, shelter, medical care if you need any of these things, and don't have enough money to get them for yourself, i)  I STRONGLY suggest teaching your children about diet, nutrition, herbs and esp. homeopathy as this is a system of medicine I've used  for 27 years now that is inexpensive, non-toxic, readily available and with minimum to no side effects.  If it were me, I'd also teach my children about Ayurveda, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), and chiropractic to keep themselves well.  Most people take better care of their cars than they do their bodies.  I could go on and on here, but that's enough for a good long time.  We pay so much attention, and spend so much time on educating the head, that sometimes the heart and the hands are completely missed.  Were it me, I would also look STRONGLY at sending my children to Waldorf School, as it's absolutely the best thing I've ever found for children, and will help and IS helping to heal the entire world, which, believe me, needs it now more than ever.  One last thought:  Teach your children to be critical thinkers, and to question EVERYTHING.  My observations of this current generation show me that they have almost ZERO ability to think critically or for themselves in any way whatsoever.  Teach them to be socially responsible, and also teach them about civil disobedience, as it's more increasingly the MOST important thing any parent could ever do.  Their lives may depend upon it soon.

Answer 2

Well you have to find "hobbies" that are interesting and educational.

Computer programming for example.  Mastering C++, VB.

Electronics, circuit design and engineering.

Some are esoteric and work to a small degree and fullfill general science like Astronomy (telescope and star chart), meterology (weather equipment).

If you work at these things right you develop a variety of skills.

Of course there Discovery, History, Science and PBS on cable.

Literature, reading.  Researching.

The thing with unschooling is it requires an itch to scratch.

You have to provide a lot of itches and see what motivates them and how far they go with it.

Astronomy.  You can even build a telescope.  LEarn how to grind a mirror, learn how to measure a wave in the mirror, learn how to get a focal length and F/stop.

Optics in general,  Edmunds scientific makes a little optical bench for $50

Understanding optics is geometry and trig.  Learning about the curve of the lens and how it works.  Refraction is physics.

Stacking lenses together is being an optician.  THat's how eye doctors correct vision by putting together a variety of lenses in  stacking order to correct for problems.

You learn about anamorphics and that leads you into filmmaking medium and modern wide screen HDTV processes which use anamorphics, excepit it's digital these days more than physical optics.

Like I say you need an itch a desire to scratch it and see how far it goes and how far you skills can take you into side trips like math and physics.

My desires in working with computer graphics made me want to explore the harmony of geometry with SINE COSINE TANGENT CO TANGENT SECANT CO SECANT

It was not easy going because I didn't know anyone with enough math understanding to get me past the ratio basics, which is all a 4 year college education provides.

I needed to know the harmony of how it works and what happens when you move a small fraction in radian and how the whole thing changes

My work in television and video also did this to me as the synchronization is done by the sine wave of the AC signal.

Unschooling works best with a thrist for understanding and it usually isn't applied in students until the Masters and Doctorial work in college, because students are not anticipated to think for themselves or have the capcity to do independent reserach.

My lack of understanding of applied math is certainly a hinderance in my quest for the harmony of SINE the wave and the circle, but it's only an obstacle.

Answer 3

By all means try unschooling, but it could just be that you need to use a different curriculum. There are plenty to choose from. De-schooling is pretty important though, let them have some time to relax. Have you asked them what they think they should learn? Have you asked them what they feel they need to be taught formally, and what they are happy to persue on their own? For example, they might feel it necessary to follow a maths curriculum, but browse the library for science and history.

Answer 4

You have lots of good answers.  Keep them reading, keep them writing.    I enjoy reading the news in the morning off the computer with one of my children.  We then research all the people and places in  the news.   We look up everything and discuss it.  We researched the Spanish Civil war for two days before we watched Pan's Labyrinth.  It brings so much meaning and understanding to the world when you research every interesting little thing you come upon.   I am HSing two children.  One loves the unschool history, the other loathes it.  You have to do what your children respond to.    You also have to follow the path that will bring them their personal success for where they want to go in life.

Answer 5

I'm 14 and an unschooler. I've been home educated all my life though (apart from a brief flirtation with school in Primary 3!). I'm not sure why exactly we are unschoolers and don't follow a fixed curriculum etc. I do reckon though that, with 9 kids, it would be chaos for my parents to try and keep us all on track with 9 different curriculi; both mum and dad work fulltime (at home) keeping their various businesses afloat so, from my family's point of view, it has to be easier to unschool all us kids than try to manage to school us. Also they have certain political beliefs that suit their rearing a family of unschoolers.

My best suggestion for you is to try and get hold of a copy of Grace Llewellyn's book: "The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education (ISBN 0-9629591-7-0)". That will give you and your kids heaps of information about unschooling and how to get started, as well as plenty of ideas on what they might like to include as part of their education and how they can go about setting up opportunities for themselves to try those things.

I also agree absolutely with the above poster (whose name I've forgotten, sorry!). Well, all except for the civil disobedience thing but then I'm guessing that we probably live in two very different countries, on different continents...and in different hemispheres come to that! Still, Life Skills are probably *THE* most important thing for your kids to know...said by the kid who doesn't remember when or how she learnt to strip down and rebuild tractor engines, just that she reckons she's always known how to do it; but does remember (and this is pretty much my earliest memory!) the first time she 'helped' Dad to artificially inseminate a herd of cows!

Answer 6

My children are MUCH younger than yours and have never attended school, but I have heard great advice to de-school for like a year when removing children from public school.  It helps them get used to the "new" life they are beginning!  

Things we do:

1 - Go to the library weekly and let them choose books, while I also choose books for them on "new topics" or on topics about which they have expressed interest lately.

2 -  "Let" them learn what they want to learn, as opposed to forcing all of their learning by following a preset curriculum or other guide.

3 - Do lots of reading, both mama reading and kiddos reading.

4 - Lots of outside time to get exercise, learn about and explore nature

5 - Set up the house to be "learning friendly" by having reading materials, computer, art and craft supplies, and more, available to the kids at all times.

6 - Watch educational tv and things they are interested in like anything on Animal Planet or Discovery, like How It's Made, Myth Busters, Good Eats, Unwrapped, and more.  They love to watch how things are made and love to watch science shows.

Lastly, I highly recommend finding a local or online homeschool or unschool support group.

Good luck!  It sounds SO exciting!

Answer 7

They way to keep them interested in learning is to stop teaching them.

I will assume you enjoy watching TV. What if whenever you watched Law and Order, you had to take notes, summarize, analyze the symbolism, and write an essay on the episode? That would make the whole thing boring, nasty, and you wouldn't want to touch TV again.

Let them do their own thing. They are their own people, with their own brains. Give them library cards and Internet access, they'll do the rest.

The tough part of unschooling for a lot of people comes about when their kids are 'in tenth grade' and doing 'seventh grade' math. That's when it's most important to realize that your kid is going to be okay in the end, even if he can't do long division until he's 16.

Ultimately the minor benefits of making your kid memorize how to do long division are far outweighed by the damage of forcing them to follow an unnatural path, and teaching them that their own pace, no matter how fast or slow, is the wrong one.

The main thing you have to remember is that you don't 'unschool your children'.

Your children are unschoolers.