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I am unschooling 2 children, ages 5 & 8, and it works brilliantly for us. I don't think unschooling is for everyone - you have to be prepared to have a really deep mentoring relationship with your kids. Real unschooling is the opposite of child neglect. It involves a lot of time, trust and understanding. You have to be prepared to be spontaneous, to surround your kids with a rich learning environment, and to really understand them and how they learn.

Unschooled kids do learn the basics. The basics are considered the basics because they are useful knowledge. We learn math because we need it, and unschooled kids encounter situations where they need it and develop their skills accordingly. If there is a subject that never manages to come up in the next 15 years, how important or useful can it possibly be? If something does get overlooked, it's not like the child won't be able to pick it up when they do need it. Learning doesn't stop at age 18.

Unschooling is not coddling - it is a lot more challenging to chart your own course and design your own education than it is to take an education that is spoon-fed to you by someone else.

Kate

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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