Any families "unschooling"?

[BethanyGrace]

Thanks Louise!
Blog address is in my signature

 

[romacox]

The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom

 

[Eagles' Wings]

Please let me know if you'd like these books - I can send them to you.

"Real Lives: eleven teenagers who don't go to school tell their own stories" by Grace Llewellyn
This is one is really fun.

"Guerrilla Learning: How to give your kids a real education with or without school" by Llewellyn and Silver
Lots of practical info.

 

[erowe1]

When you unschool, are there still rules, like telling your kids they can't just play video games?

 

[Eagles' Wings]

When you unschool, are there still rules, like telling your kids they can't just play video games?

There is a whole chapter in "Guerilla Learning" about freedom.

"Freedom means choice. Children benefit from being clearly told when they have a choice and when they don't rather than from some pretense that they always have a choice, or a broader range of choices than they actually do." (Grace)

 

[jllundqu]

We are doing a combination of Homeschool and Unschool. Me thinks everyone unschools automatically to some degree, already. Just answer your child natural curiosity and don't give the cookie-cutter answers to complex questions. I spend at least an hour a day with my son (4 years old) just talking to him and answering his questions about everything! He is very into science and physics right now. He can explain in depth how a star is created and how gravity works (minus the complex math and equations of course). My wife is a stay at home mom and does the homeschooling topics, but with a loose schedule. She just makes sure she covers certain topics by the end of the week/month. If we put him in kindergarten, he would fall asleep or start having behaviour problems.... he can already read and do math at 1st/2nd grade level so kindergarten is OUT. Make your own rules, do what is right for you and your family. There is no 'set' system that's one size fits all.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

We are doing a combination of Homeschool and Unschool. Me thinks everyone unschools automatically to some degree, already. Just answer your child natural curiosity and don't give the cookie-cutter answers to complex questions. I spend at least an hour a day with my son (4 years old) just talking to him and answering his questions about everything! He is very into science and physics right now. He can explain in depth how a star is created and how gravity works (minus the complex math and equations of course). My wife is a stay at home mom and does the homeschooling topics, but with a loose schedule. She just makes sure she covers certain topics by the end of the week/month. If we put him in kindergarten, he would fall asleep or start having behaviour problems.... he can already read and do math at 1st/2nd grade level so kindergarten is OUT. Make your own rules, do what is right for you and your family. There is no 'set' system that's one size fits all.

Wow, this is impressive. +rep

 

[Seraphim]

But if we'z unskool da kiddies dey willz turn out Rtarded!

 

[DamianTV]

I try to unschool everyone I meet every day, both adults and children. I try to encourage Thinking as opposed to only being allowed to come to one preconcluded conclusion.

 

[XNavyNuke]

But if we'z unskool da kiddies dey willz turn out Rtarded!

As opposed to Socially Progressed, Komrade.

 

[catfeathers]

When you unschool, are there still rules, like telling your kids they can't just play video games?

Believe it or not, my son learned a lot of history from video games.

 

[DamianTV]

Unschooling is definitely a new and practically mandatory subject that parents have to create by hand due to the damage that Public Schools are doing to our children.

 

[Sanguine]

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?

Only at a second grade level? pffft.

Anyways, unschooling is a load of hogwash. While games, gaming and such do act as means to learning, they should be supplemental to lessons. Unschooling stomps on your child's potential. While the current systems are poor, compulsory school is unquestionably a need, and unschooling isn't a productive -let alone efficient- means of education. Instead of just focusing on games than actual learning, we should be molding the system to be centred around the child. For instance, school hours ought to be shifted so as to not accommodate work schedules, but the hours when a child can efficiently learn. That is to say, 10:00- 4:30.

 

[Danke]

...compulsory school is unquestionably a need, and unschooling isn't a productive -let alone efficient- means of education.

And conscription is unquestionably a need. Everyone should have to serve minimum 2 years in the military. Everyone should be educated to march well together in large groups.

 

[Occam's Banana]

[...] compulsory school is unquestionably a need [...]

All must think as one for the benefit of society!

And conscription is unquestionably a need. Everyone should have to serve minimum 2 years in the military. Everyone should be educated to march well together in large groups.

All must march as one for the benefit of society!

Think together ... march together ... it's the only way ... Ordnung muss sein!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZks5jRDbxk

 

[Sanguine]

And conscription is unquestionably a need. Everyone should have to serve minimum 2 years in the military. Everyone should be educated to march well together in large groups.

Thank you for misrepresenting my position completely.

Edit: Oh man, now I'm being compared to Nazis because I support that parents require their children to be educated? Christ, it's responsibility one day, and totalitarianism the next, right?

 

[Occam's Banana]

Edit: Oh man, now I'm being compared to Nazis because I support that parents require their children to be educated?

*shrug* I can compare you to Bolshevists, if you would prefer. It's all the same in the end.
Or maybe not - the socialists ended up murdering a lot more people than the fascists did ...

Christ, it's responsibility one day, and totalitarianism the next, right?

Pretty much, yes.

What else do you expect "the next day" to be like after you've arrogated to yourself the authority to dictate what is or is not "responsible" - and to use force to make others comply with your dictates?

 

[Danke]

Thank you for misrepresenting my position completely.

Edit: Oh man, now I'm being compared to Nazis because I support that parents require their children to be educated? Christ, it's responsibility one day, and totalitarianism the next, right?

Misrepresent? How? I support it.

 

[oyarde]

Only at a second grade level? pffft.

Anyways, unschooling is a load of hogwash. While games, gaming and such do act as means to learning, they should be supplemental to lessons. Unschooling stomps on your child's potential. While the current systems are poor, compulsory school is unquestionably a need, and unschooling isn't a productive -let alone efficient- means of education. Instead of just focusing on games than actual learning, we should be molding the system to be centred around the child. For instance, school hours ought to be shifted so as to not accommodate work schedules, but the hours when a child can efficiently learn. That is to say, 10:00- 4:30.

That sounds odd to me.

 

[oyarde]

And conscription is unquestionably a need. Everyone should have to serve minimum 2 years in the military. Everyone should be educated to march well together in large groups.

Two years does not really sound like good economics . Training takes quite awhile ,lol