The advantages and disadvantages of unschooling

I am going to take a moment to talk about myself here, which is something that I do not do too often but I feel that doing so will help some of you out right now...

I have gone through various phases of homeschooling my daughter. We started out with doing unit studies that I created. This did well for us for quite a while but I soon got burnt out with everything that I was trying to do, so we started doing various workbooks. Of course, my dd didn't like them 1 bit. So, after figuring out that it really was not worth fighting with her, I slowed down a bit. This is when I met a radical unschooler and started to really understand what unschooling is about. While we are by no means radical unschoolers I have embraced this lifestyle and it works quite well for us. The reason I say that we are not radical is that whenever my dd says she's interested in something, I'll look for worksheets to do about the topic. For instance, she is now interested in sharks and so I've gone to such places as Enchanted Learning and printed out some worksheets for us to work through together.

My point is that I really recommend that you go with the ebb and flow of homeschooling instead of fighting it. You are going to have to spend some time figuring out what method really works for you and your family. If you are thinking about unschooling, like we do, then here is an article that I have written about the advantages and disadvantages of this method. I encourage you to take a look, weigh the advantages with the disadvantages and then decide whether or not this method will work for you and your family. Whatever you decide is great, I just think it's important to think everything through. Good luck!

What is uschooling?

Unschooling is probably the most misunderstood style of homeschooling. Regardless of the name, you should know that children do still learn a lot of valuable subjects, just in a different manner. This is because unschooling parents believe that their children were born with an innate desire to learn. As such, the parents teach teach their children about what they are interested in and so children are interested in learning. Of course, this style is not perfect for everyone.

If you want to know more about unschooling, I invite you to read my article, entitled "The Definition Of Unschooling."

More on unschooling...

I'm glad that some of you took the time to post about how my description of unschooling was fair and accurate. I was afraid that I'd come across as Dr. Phil did when he met a radical unschooler by the name of Dayna Martin. While I think that is a rather extreme example of unschooling, I will not knock how she's chosen to educate her children at home. Of course, it is important to know that this extreme does exist, but not all of us will go to this extreme with our children. So, I'm glad that my definition of unschooling did it justice.

A brief introduction to unschooling

You have probably heard of unschooling (a.k.a. "child-led learning") in the news. This is a type of homeschooling that is somewhat difficult to describe because it looks so different from any other form of homeschooling.

This form of homeschooling was greatly influenced by John Holt's writing. Herein children are allowed to have the freedom to grow and explore at their own pace. With this in mind, it is important to understand that there are no curriculum, lesson plans, work books or any other form of formal schooling done unless the child requests it.

Obviously, parents have to take a leap of faith in order to unschool their children. These parents have to trust that their children really do want to learn and grow. They have to have faith that these children will learn in their own time and for their own reasons. Of course, this form of schooling is not for everyone though. Some families need to have a learning environment that is structured and controlled. These people will find that just living life and allowing learning to occur naturally a bit unsettling.