Any families "unschooling"?

[Matthew5]

My wife and I have been in serious discussion about our daughter's education recently. She's 4 years old and is already reading at a second grade level (she's in smaller chapter books now). She also started kindergarten this year and usually ends up getting in trouble because she keeps trying to teach the other children. My daughter has a photographic memory and usually takes her once or twice to understand and memorize something.

She has an insatiable appetite for learning and loves reading 24/7. I'm afraid that there are few educational options being in such a rural area. My wife and I have looked into homeschooling her (I'm a product of homeschooling and absolutely loved my experience). I had always dismissed unschooling as non sense, but a recent essay by John Taylor Gatto (Against School), really made me reconsider.

Is anyone here engaged in unschooling? What's the experience like? How does it work day-to-day?

 

[romacox]

Your child sounds like an analytical personality, and they usually do very well with unschooling. Following is an article explaining the various methods used by home educators. It includes unschooling, and has a link to resources. How To Home School

 

[LibertyRevolution]

I cannot give you advice on unschooling other than to say that I plan to do so for my children, if I have any.
It can't be any worse than letting the government brainwash them for 8 hours a day.

Let them learn what they want when they want.
Encourage them when they show interest in subjects.
Seems like a logical way to learn to me..

 

[Matthew5]

It can't be any worse than letting the government brainwash them for 8 hours a day..

I agree, and that's why we have her in a private school now. I'd never consider public schools...never.

 

[specsaregood]

//

 

[Eagles' Wings]

Sandra Dodd has a yahoo group with tons of info and daily digest of family questions. Grace Llewellyn has several books that are good.

I regret that we did not do it with our kids. We homeschooled for a couple of years with a packaged curriculum. I would love to have un-schooled.

The concept of attachment parenting, etc. can be assimilated by any family.

I hope you bring your little darling home.

Romacox (see above post) is a fantastic source of info. We've talked and she is knowledgable and so kind.

 

[Matthew5]

That is great. I think that my parents instilling the love to read is probably the #1 thing that has made me successful in life. I'm repeating the process, my 2 yr old will spend hours in his room looking/paging through his book. He's knows all the letters now.

It's amazing how they instinctively want to learn. When our daughter was 2, she did the same thing. She would just look at books all day long, and then ask to go to the library when she had thumbed through those. haha

 

[Matthew5]

Sandra Dodd has a yahoo group with tons of info and daily digest of family questions. Grace Llewellyn has several books that are good.

I regret that we did not do it with our kids. We homeschooled for a couple of years with a packaged curriculum. I would love to have un-schooled.

The concept of attachment parenting, etc. can be assimilated by any family.

I hope you bring your little darling home.

Romacox (see above post) is a fantastic source of info. We've talked and she is knowledgable and so kind.

My wife is certainly on board. She's the kindergarten teacher at the school at which our daughter attends. But she's ready to come home at the end of this year to homeschool. Just gotta hope I can get a raise at work. :o

Which package curriculum did you use?

 

[XNavyNuke]

We unschool. They get their chores done in the morning. They have areas that they are interested in that they work in throughout the day. When they're done with that, then they are on their own time. While we have dinner, we go around the table and everyone takes time to says what they've learned for the day in each area. Me and my wife check off a list that everything got done. Evening chores get done by sunset. There's some structure when it comes math and science. The kids get to choose their area of interest and we check that the assignments are done correctly.

Our philosophy is that everyone will learn to read and write at a 12th grade level and know math to calculus, minimum. If you can do that and know how to teach yourself, then you have a foundation to learn whatever you want to.

Oldest is already in college and doing fine.

PM sent.

XNN

 

[Eagles' Wings]

My wife is certainly on board. She's the kindergarten teacher at the school at which our daughter attends. But she's ready to come home at the end of this year to homeschool. Just gotta hope I can get a raise at work. :o

Which package curriculum did you use?

We used Seton, it is Catholic and very rigorous.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

We unschool. They get their chores done in the morning. They have areas that they are interested in that they work in throughout the day. When they're done with that, then they are on their own time. While we have dinner, we go around the table and everyone takes time to says what they've learned for the day in each area. Me and my wife check off a list that everything got done. Evening chores get done by sunset. There's some structure when it comes math and science. The kids get to choose their area of interest and we check that the assignments are done correctly.

Our philosophy is that everyone will learn to read and write at a 12th grade level and know math to calculus, minimum. If you can do that and know how to teach yourself, then you have a foundation to learn whatever you want to.

Oldest is already in college and doing fine.

PM sent.

XNN

Wow. This is impressive.

 

[AlexAmore]

I was unschooled. I was left to my own devices. This is around late middle school and into high school years. I ended up turning into a total knowledge addict. I used to belong to a mmorpg forum (I loved video games) and often ended up debating politics in the off topic section. I needed to substantiate the various arguments occuring with research and that's how I learned about Libertarianism. Debating was what got me wanting to learn more about libertarianism philosophy and economics in order to debate further.

Moral of the story, support your child's video game addiction. j/k

I even ended up going to college, but I'm not bragging. I'm just saying all options are still available.

Edit: Oh I also had (and still have) a major knowledge addiction for business and real estate. Again, all decisions I made 100% on my own. I then read mountains of books on the topic from my preteen years on.

Unschooling is pretty amazing. Kids will self school themselves especially if they're in a supportive environment.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

I was unschooled. I was left to my own devices. This is around late middle school and into high school years. I ended up turning into a total knowledge addict. I used to belong to a mmorpg forum (I loved video games) and often ended up debating politics in the off topic section. I needed to substantiate the various arguments occuring with research and that's how I learned about Libertarianism. Debating was what got me wanting to learn more about libertarianism philosophy and economics in order to debate further.

Moral of the story, support your child's video game addiction. j/k

I even ended up going to college, but I'm not bragging. I'm just saying all options are still available.

Edit: Oh I also had (and still have) a major knowledge addiction for business and real estate. Again, all decisions I made 100% on my own. I then read mountains of books on the topic from my preteen years on.

Unschooling is pretty amazing. Kids will self school themselves especially if they're in a supportive environment.

+ rep for being just an incredible example of what kids really need at home. This helps me as a parent of a highschooler. Thank you for giving us your story, Alex.

 

[fisharmor]

Is anyone here engaged in unschooling?

Your daughter certainly seems to be, whether you like it or not.

 

[XNavyNuke]

We used Seton, it is Catholic and very rigorous.

We have Saxon math. Some of our kids liked it, others didn't. Youngest is still using Saxon.

All are using Rosetta Stone for foreign language. The youngest two are trying to catch up to their older sibling in it.

Most of our curriculum comes from the book section at Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc thrift stores. Its amazing how many good high level texts end up there amongst the romance novels.

XNN

 

[ShaneEnochs]

Wow, I had no idea such an option even existed. I taught my daughter all of her ABC's by the time she was 2 1/2 and she could count to 50 by the time she was 4. If I had custody of her, and I had known about this, I would have definitely gone in this direction.

My son is 1 1/2 now and I'm eager to start teaching him things. I'm going to talk to my wife about this after I research it a little more. How do you get the DoE off of your back to be able to do this? And do the kids go for their GED?

 

[Matthew5]

Wow, I had no idea such an option even existed. I taught my daughter all of her ABC's by the time she was 2 1/2 and she could count to 50 by the time she was 4. If I had custody of her, and I had known about this, I would have definitely gone in this direction.

My son is 1 1/2 now and I'm eager to start teaching him things. I'm going to talk to my wife about this after I research it a little more. How do you get the DoE off of your back to be able to do this? And do the kids go for their GED?

I know in Texas that a homeschool family can issue a high school degree. But you usually have to have transcripts to back it up and they require certain courses to be completed. I too wonder how unschooling addresses the state's requirements.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

Wow, I had no idea such an option even existed. I taught my daughter all of her ABC's by the time she was 2 1/2 and she could count to 50 by the time she was 4. If I had custody of her, and I had known about this, I would have definitely gone in this direction.

My son is 1 1/2 now and I'm eager to start teaching him things. I'm going to talk to my wife about this after I research it a little more. How do you get the DoE off of your back to be able to do this? And do the kids go for their GED?

You guys really must look at Roma's website. And Sandra Dodd's website talks about highschool transcripts. Each state is unique in requirements.

 

[romacox]

As for the DOE, each State is different. But check with your state's home school association. They usually have information on their site to help. If you check the same site for home school groups near you, you can connect with home educators near you for advice, field trips, co-ops and more. How To Find Your State Home School Association

Sometimes they go for a GED (not usually necessary though, because colleges now prefer home educated students...they do better in college), but Dual Enrollment is an even better option. Dual Enrollment

Wow, I had no idea such an option even existed. I taught my daughter all of her ABC's by the time she was 2 1/2 and she could count to 50 by the time she was 4. If I had custody of her, and I had known about this, I would have definitely gone in this direction.

My son is 1 1/2 now and I'm eager to start teaching him things. I'm going to talk to my wife about this after I research it a little more. How do you get the DoE off of your back to be able to do this? And do the kids go for their GED?

 

[romacox]

Thanks Louise. How To Home School does contain lots of information and resources as you pointed out. I am a home school workshop leader, and am asked lots of questions, so I created that page to answer the most commonly asked questions (for free).
http://www.read-phonics.com/how-to-homeschool.html