The “unschooling” in our homeschool

In my last post, I said that we’re “Charlotte Mason-Unschooling-Touch-of-Classical-Unit-Study-Book-Loving-Learners.” Since I’ve already covered much of the Charlotte Mason aspect of our homeschool, I’d like to touch on what we do that could be called “unschooling.” What, exactly, is unschooling? Well, it may just depend on who you’re talking to. One of the problems with homeschooling lingo is that it’s not really standardized. A lot of terms, such as “unschooling,” are used differently by different groups, and that can lead to misconceptions and confusion. But, I’ll try to touch on some general definitions. “Radical” unschoolers generally advocate a hands-off approach, … Continue reading →

Where Did the Notion of Unschooling Come From?

John Caldwell Holt wrote How Children Fail and How Children Learn in the 1960’s. His ideas are credited for getting a lot of people to consider homeschooling, and more specifically, unschooling. John Holt started out as a teacher, but quickly became disillusioned after participating in a joint teaching/observation project, where one teacher taught while the other watched. What he observed was that children did not learn out of fear of being wrong or ridiculed. John Holt is quoted as saying, “It’s not that I feel that school is a good idea gone wrong, but a wrong idea from the word … Continue reading →

Resources for the Unschooler

Unschooling, also known as natural learning, or child-led learning, is a means to educate children that allows them to investigate what they’re interested in. While opponents say that it could produce children who don’t understand how the real world works–research shows the opposite is true. Some of you have asked me to put together a list of resources for unschooling. Even if you are not an unschooled, I guarantee you that you will find something on this list that you’ll be able to use. Unschooling.com This is a comprehensive resource containing everything. This is a great place to visit for … Continue reading →

Coloring Outside the Lines

I have to warn you: I am on the war path. My child got in trouble today during school. We went down the block to play in our friend’s back yard and they have a sand box. You know, because we have to socialize. So we played at the sandbox for a while with another family and my daughter decided it would be more interesting to take the sand out of the box than to keep it in. She had made a nice hill before anyone noticed. Since it is not polite to spread sand all over someone else’s back … Continue reading →