Lesson 2: Creating a Personal Philosophy
What is unschooling?
An unschooling approach to homeschooling is the exact opposite of the structured homeschooler. Very few homeschools are completely unstructured, however. Often there is discreet maneuvering going on behind the scenes.
Unschoolers learn from real life or they plan their own learning. An unschooler might wake up and decide to write a story, read about the Civil War and then head off to do some volunteer work. Another day, she might choose to work on algebra, watch a video about ancient Egypt and then build a pyramid. She might choose her learning at random each day, based on her interests, or she might choose to create a unit study of her own. Sometimes the lessons are planned with the guidance of a parent, but it is based on her own interests or needs. Many unschoolers do structured reading and math, but leave all other learning to the interests of the student.
We used a complete unschooling program one year when the family was facing some time-consuming difficulties. My only rule was that from 8-11, the children had to be learning something. At the end of the year, they met with a counselor from a public school they wanted to attend part-time the following year. She asked them what they had studied this year, and I held my breath, worried that they would say, “Nothing.” However, my daughter rattled off a curriculum that even impressed me, since I’d had no idea some of that learning was happening. I discovered she had spent our crisis year happily studying the Civil War and black holes, reading, doing projects and experiments and writing papers. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.
This method assumes, however, that your children have caught the vision of learning. Do they think learning is fun? Can they read well enough to study books on their chosen subjects? Do they have the ability to decide how to learn something? If not, you may need to be structured or eclectic, discussed in the next section, and focus on teaching your children how to learn. Then they will be ready to be unschoolers. In the meantime, you can still plan structured lessons around their interests. Although we did science together in the early years, we used unit studies. Each child chose one unit, and I chose the remaining one. They participated in the planning process until they gradually took on more and more responsibility for their own learning.
If you choose unschooling, you may want to begin with a conference approach. Ask the children to tell you their plans for the school day. Discuss them and make suggestions, to be sure the time is used productively.
Unschooling is an excellent choice for children who have just emerged from very traumatic school experiences and need time to rest, build confidence and rediscover the joys of learning. It is a poor choice for an unmotivated child who will do nothing but play video games and watch meaningless television. It is also not a good choice for an older child who cannot read or do basic math. Catching up should begin as soon as possible, especially if you live in a state where your child will be tested or monitored.
