Speaking With An Unschooled Child

There was a discussion, on one of my unschooling e-mail groups, about how extended family members seem to have a hard time finding something to say to a child, when they can’t ask about school. It’s like the only questions anybody can think of to ask a kid is “What grade are you in?”, “What’s your favorite subject?” and “How are you doing in school?” lol I’ve found...

Being An Unschooling Parent

A large part of being a (successful) unschooling parent is being present and mindful with your children. Being involved in their lives. Because let’s face it, if you’re going to get rid of school, it should be replaced with something. That something should be you. One of the members of an unschooling e-mail list I belong to, wrote that she is having trouble being truly present with her kids. I’d like to...

Opportunites For Learning

**This was originally posted on 4/8/06** I re-read a bit more of Guerrilla Learning by Grace Llewellyn this morning. (You can pick up a copy in our amazon store). She writes about what she considers to be the five “keys” of Guerilla Learning. The first one is opportunity and this is what she has to say. “Read. Write. Talk. Play music. See dance and theater and paintings. Read poetry, write poetry, get poetry...

Five Steps To Unschooling

This article by Joyce Fetteroll was a big help to me when I originally removed my children from school (in 2004, when they were in the 1st, 4th and repeating the 5th grade) and began unschooling. The link to Joyce’s wonderful website and the original article are at the end. Some people understand unschooling as soon as they hear about it. Others wander about in a fog of confusion, wondering how unschoolers can be so...

What Is, And Isn’t Unschooling

Unschooling isn’t so much a method, as it is a way of looking at learning. It’s seeing the learning in everything. To me, it’s much more than just dropping the curriculum, although that’s an excellent place to start. It’s changing the way you view learning and education. It isn’t leaving your children to find their own way. It isn’t brushing them off and doing your own thing while...