Unschooling, Homeschooling, Eclectic Homeschooling!

     I have been spending a lot of time learning about unschooling lately. I really like a lot of the philosophy around unschooling. For those of you who don't know to much about it, here is the basics. Unschooling is a type of homeschooling/home education. It is focused around child lead education. Children will learn to love learning more when they are in control of it. No standard curriculum is used and no testing, it is not school! Unschool children choose what they want to learn, not some state, or parents even.

I want to tell you how I feel about unschooling. First a little about our home education. My kids have never been to school or day care. We have been homeschooling through a public home based charter program for many years now and we unschooled prior to that, new born to age 5. We started officially homeschooling with the Charter because we wanted to be a part of a homeschool community and have access to many fun activities with other homeshooled children. Every year we go to the science class once a month at our local natural history museum and the kids enjoy meeting others when we get a chance to attend other activity.

We do use standard curriculum, consisting of workbooks and text books. To be honest we don't spend a whole lot of time on workbooks, but we get done what is appropriate at the time. Learning can consist of many different fun things, with  a fair amount of basic studies and intentional learning.

I like to call our style Eclectic Homeschooling! That is, I  learn about all the different methods of home education and take what I feel will work best for my family and create a unique experience for my children's education. Not something any school can do! When my kids reach the age for high school we will fit more into the standard unschool method. Our Charter goes to 8th grade and we will probably not be using any other programs after that.

With unschooling parents trust that their kids will learn on their own, I think this is great, with a fair amount of intentional time spent on reading, writing, and math. I have been told that, that is not real unschooling, and typically unschoolers do not have intentional learning time unless it is child lead. I feel a concept of unschooling is to do your own thing and not try to fit into someone elses mold? Unschoolers believe in freedom and not doing things the way others want.

My definition of  unschooling is NOT to teach your children, but to provide an environment conducive to learning, and learning with them and on your own, leading by example! Unshcooling will not work for children who have parents that don't like to read or learn, and just wants to watch TV all day! Parents must get kids involved in daily activity and yes, contribute to the House hold in one way or another, family values and team work principles. Children need to be lead to a love of learning by those around them for unschooling or homeschooling to be effective and more!! Kids are a product of their environment and individuals, unschool philosophy gets this!

I do feel however that there is so much room for children to learn what they want, when they want to. I had a private school education and a public school education, until I home schooled my self in high school and graduated one year early! I learned how to read, write do basic math and know basic history stuff. My real education started when I got out of school to home school my self. All the years in school and I hated learning and gave my mom and teachers a hard time! At the age of 16 I started Independent study, went to school one hour a week to turn in sample work. I did use curriculum and didn't mind it, It was about 3 days of work and I would get it done in that time and have the rest of the week to hang out with my friends. Not only did I do my work I started reading books not school related.

I think that to unschool effectively, parents should have lots of educational material around and not only encourage your children to use them but to learn with your children. Parents need to pay attention to their kids, that way when an interest is expressed you are right their to assist them in finding the information they seek. Children are natural learners, but getting into a habit of watching TV all day is not a positive thing. In our home we do not have Television, we do have a TV and the kids use it for movies. We also spend a lot of time watching movies as a family!. 

Unschoolers also don't participate in state standardized testing. This isn't a big deal to me and I don't really see how these tests help kids anyway. I do believe that a basic knowledge is a good and positive thing, but it does not have to come from curriculum. I don't care if my kids learn exactly what the state thinks they should. We learn what we are interested in at the time, but my kids ask some great questions and we find the answers.

We also love video games and my kids have been using some great tools for creating their own games and my son says he like creating his own game better than playing video games. Some days that is all we do, while other days they may do art all day.

Learning about unschooling has helped me relax in our home schooling life, I know more about how children learn and agree with most of it. I don't stress over getting workbooks done, because I see how they are learning anyway. We have a lot of board games and other activities for them to do and we spend time doing out doors activities as family. A Win Win!

I will continue to learn about homeschooling methods like unschooling and keep incorporating what is best for my children and family! 

If you are already an unschooler you may not agree with everything I said or my opinion of what unschooling is to me. I am just stating my opinion of the degree I feel appropriate to take with my own children.

To Your Success!

Eclectic Homeschooling on Facebook


Unschooled Children Learn Because They Love Life And Learning!

So You Want to Unschool? 1 of 6

Laurie A. Couture, Author of Instead of Medicating and Punishing, lists five steps to unschooling your child or adolescent. This is video clip 1 of 6. Laurie offers unschooling consultation and coaching for Moms, Dads or single parents who need support unschooling children ages 3-18 years. Visit www.LaurieACouture.com for more info. (February 25, 2011)

Unschool Adventures

 Anything Can Be A Unschool Adventure Too               

             Unschool Adventures, An Unschool Field Trip: Today my kids wanted to come in with me to pay our electric bill so naturally I had them come in. We went in and looked around the room as we stood in line then my kids wanted to go sit in the nice comfy chairs so I let them go. We noticed after that they had a light bulb usage display and it looked interesting, after I paid we went and took a look at it, it had a hand crank to generate the power and light switches to switch the lights on and a meter measuring the usage, the kids loved it. Then they had a bunch of free stuff for the kids, coloring books about water safety, pencil, stickers etc, of course they had a paper about saving energy and I took one.. We said thank you and our little unschool field trip was almost complete, tonight when we read before bed we will read our coloring books and free paper and I am sure we will learn a thing or to about power, water safety, and saving energy in them..

It is amazing the things you can learn just around your town. One thing we like to do when we go places it take any available pamphlets that they may have take them home and read them. You and your kids will not only be reading about the places you visit daily but you will also be learning about the places you spend your money, and you may as well know who gets your money!

That was our Unschool Adventures for today!

Thanks for reading.

To your families success!

Thank you! 

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What is Unschooling? Video By Dayna Leigh Martin

This is a great video that really explains unschooling as well as her experiences with unschooling...




Radical Unschooling - A Revolution Has Begun

I like To Think Of Unschooling As "Consequential Learning"

Message From A New Unschooling Mom

         I like to think of unschooling as "consequential learning." Learning is a consequence of life and life is a consequence of learning. For us, our daughter is six and so far unschooling is working for us. She sees the logic and reasons behind learning something to accomplish something else. When she learned how to write her name, she used all capital letters. She saw no need to write lower case letters - "Mom, I can already write my name." I could have forced her to practice writing lower case, create issues and a hate for writing. Instead she later wanted to learn how to write lower case letters because she saw how that is how most words are written and she wants to "sign" her name. She had practiced writing lower case letters for almost two hours on her own. Now when I point out that she hasn't practiced in a bit, she will sometime during the day practice in her books. Of course, I leave them conveniently open and ready for her. No fighting! That is just one example of how she is involved in her learning. She also watches PBS shows and we spring off them for extra activities - things she is interested in. I believe it does take an involved parent(s) to see and observe their children to take advantage of learning opportunites based on their child's interests when they happen. Or to let daily life activities teach, for example, as in math and science in cooking . Perhaps when she is older she may require or want a more structured approach. Perhaps...


Unschooling Mom from Michigan

What is Unschooling? Home Schooling

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