Have you heard about unschooling? It is a form of home schooling except the child learns what they are interested in the most.The child has the freedom to learn what they love, many people still incorporate standard book work with this while others may not.
For us we have the workbooks we do for math reading and spelling but everything else we just do what ever we are into and my son has so many questions and wants to know everything so we look things up learn about the holidays as they come up go to the library and get books to answer the questions my son has.
My kids learn reading, writing and spelling with work books but every thing else they learn the most from coloring pages, talking, reading books, asking questions and figuring things out!
One day my son wants to know about dinosaurs so we read a book and discus it the next day it may be something else or we can spend a whole week on one subject.
I consider us half unschooling and half home schooling I am training my kids for life and entrepreneurship not a JOB or to be like every one else. I could not accomplish this sending my kids to a school. I think structure is very important but freedom and knowledge to do and learn what you want is what America and Life is all about!, I like the fact that my kids don't go to school we just have a Passion for learning! I would like to go unschool when my children have reached the teen years after the 8th grade mark.
Children are naturally curious learners! We need to provide them with an environment that is conducive to that natural ability to learn. Children also learn best when education is not forced on them and will learn when placed in a educational environment not a school.
Unschoolers typically don't use curriculum, tests, especially state testing. Parents are not teachers they are facilitators and only assist the child in learning what the child wants to learn. Education is not forced but done freely, naturally and at the child's lead. They don't use grades or other titles invented by schools that refer to the stage in education the child is at. In unschooling there are no stages of education like grades the child just learns at his own pace. Here are some quotes to help you understand unschooling even more.
To unschool your kids you do have to follow your states home school laws at Getting Started Homeschooling.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ~ Albert Einstein
“When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” ~ Jean Piaget
“There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.” ~ William Glasser
“Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.” ~ Lillian Smith
“None of the world's problems will have a solution until the world's individuals become thoroughly self-educated.” ~ Buckminster Fuller
“All the time you are in school, you learn through experience how to live in a dictatorship.” ~ Grace Llewellyn
See this fun post called Famous Home Schoolers
