unschooling?
I have a question to put out there. I have finally figured out how to homeschool my 9 year old and run a daycare, thanks for anyone who commented on that but now my dilemma is.... I have been homeschooling for about 2 years and I have found I use the unschooling method more often than not (she is ADD and letting her guide her studies seems to work best for her, at the time I didn't realize there was a name for it!) so I would like to unschool her fulltime. Having said that... can anyone help me with ideas of how to unschool and also where to find more information. I have used google as a search engine but was hoping someone out there unschooled their children and could give me some insight.
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I'm an unschooler.
I don't think it's really right to say tht you unschool your kids. Unschooling is having faith in your kids and letting them go, and being the person who drives them around, signs the forms, and gets them the books.
Have faith in your daughter and just have a lot of books around. Get some math workbooks and just put them on the shelf. Don't mention them, if she brings them up, say they're for her. Answer her questions as you would if she were ten years older. Read a lot, share what you read with her -assuming it's something you're okay with her reading- and ask about what she's reading. Have actual discussions with her.
The main way of thinking you have to get rid of, is the 'Should be' mentality. She's nine, she 'should be' doing this math, reading this book, know these facts about this culture, et cetera. That is completely antithetical to unschooling. Why must a nine-year old know what a ziggurat is? Why is she somehow defective if she doesn't know until she's fifteen? Why is she somehow better if she knows when she is eight? It's a very pervasive way of thinking and it takes some time to realize how truly irrational it is.
I consider myself an intelligent person. I know a lot about quantum mechanics/quantum physics, but nothing about chemistry. I know a lot about WWII, but very little about Korea or Vietnam. I know a lot about the history of aviation, but very little about the history of feudalism. I know a disturbing amount of philosophy, and music history, and economics, but very little about earth science, grammatical terms, how to write an outline, the main imports and exports of Nicaragua, and so on down the line.
Why are some facts more valid than others? More importantly, who is this strange, faceless authority who determines that, and why does s/he have any say over your life or your kids? Once you get out of school your thoughts are not regulated anymore, but in school you are beaten down every day and told what to think, how to think and when to think it. If you impose facts on your kid, that is in essence what you are doing.
Sorry about the lecture up there, I spent a lot of today trying to explain unschooling to a cousin of mine who is not that sharp, and a teacher (a hopeless endeavor, I know, but it was too hard to sit back and listen to her bash homeschooling/unschooling when she really knows nothing about them) and I'm still kind of riled up about it.
A lot of people don't seem to understand what unschooling is, and what it isn't.
Unschooling is simply taking the reins for yourself. I want to start taking community college classes -I'm 15, I'm not starting college-, and I will need to know some chemistry. When the time comes -which will be soon- I will get a book about chemistry, learn what I need to know to get in, and be fine.
I have my goals, and I'm working to reach them. I want to be an engineer or a quantum physicist, so I'm working for that. I'm doing what I need to do. Sure, I can't diagram a sentence, but who the hell does that in the real world?
I'm in the actual real world every day, from the moment I walk out the door at 9 AM until I come back at 7-10 PM. The real world where I could get robbed -or worse- on the subway. The real world where I'm not in an institution fawning all over me and my every need, to make sure I do what it wants me to do. If I don't meet my obligations, I don't get teachers talking to me and counselors and an entire school full of people, and my parents, begging me to do what they want me to do. School coddles you. I have actual responsibilities, and I have to deal with people by actually showing maturity, not by cliquing and crap like that.
In school, you are locked up inside one building, all your choices are made for you so you never have to think, and you have your parents and an entire institution pleading with you to do their work. That is not the real world.
If I don't work at my job, I don't get a counselor. I get fired.
Unschooling is really a misnomer, but not an escape from education as some might think. Often 9 yr olds have a curiosity about the world around them, and they ask questions that can lead to learning opportunites. If she asks how crystals are formed, look it up on the net or utilize your local library (or both!) If you can purchase a crystal growing kit, you and she can see first hand how they form.
If you email me, I can provide you with more links and book titles than there is room for here. (Just put unschooling in the subject line and I'll know it's not spam)
I use a combination of school at home for the tougher lessons and self-directed learning for my 11 year old.
I'm not an unschooler but have read "The Unschooling Handbook". It's full of great ideas. Other than that, I'd recommend looking into Yahoo Groups for unschooling groups. There are sure to be a bunch with people following the same philosophy as you.
http://www.sandradodd.com/
http://home.earthlink.net/~fetteroll/rejoycing/
I could tell you lots of how we do it in our house, but it won't work the same for you. Think of the principles, and read those websites. It's a LOT to go through, so plan on spending a few hours. We've been unschooling fro two years now, and my children have all grown exponentially. It's been wonderful! Good luck
Proper unschool can work, but it wont' get you into college without Homeschooling in MATH, LANGAUGE, and HISTORY
I unschooled myself and here's what I did and how it made me work right.
Astronomy. I got a telescope a chard and some books. This will help in college but not a career
Movies, working with Mini DV and editing with Movie maker
I did it with 8mm film
Photography, I'm published in newspapers and magazines
Writing, I'm published since 16 but it don't pay much
Sound recording. I produced records and made a little money, work is not easy to find
Computer programming. I sell a little software and pay for my programing tools and interent.
That is decent unschooling
But without the MATH, ENGLISH and at times FOREIGN LANGUAGE it won't get you into college, but it will help you in life.
I would suggest listening to Dayna Martin on YouTube Weblog. She has some good ideas.
We don't unschool, we are relaxed eclectic but have learned much from Dayna.
here are some online resources I've found:
http://www.naturalchild.org/
http://www.unschooling.com/index.shtml
http://www.home-educate.com/unschooling/#FAQ
http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/index.html
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/unschool.html
Why don't you just chain her to the wall inside a deep cave; that way, you'll protect forever from the dangers of real schools.