This morning I was perusing my Facebook feed when I can across a post by a newish unschooling mom that asked the question of “My daughter sometimes wants to do school work; how do I deal with this as unschooling?” I replied with, one common misconception is that there will never be any formal learning. That there is flexibility in how information on any particular subject will be learned be it a workbook, structured type classes, experiment or simply a conversation. Shortly after posting my thoughts a comment was made by another group member to me that in its gist was that I was doing Unschool all wrong. Now, I was not upset by the reply, but it did get me to thinking.
My very most favorite about unschooling is the flexibility in adjusting the ways in which each individual gets to learn. My role as a parent is to be a mentor that is along for the ride to help out with resources & maybe some personal experience that is beneficial. Yet often I see in group chat forums that even though there are structured rules about unschooling there appears to be a rift in the acceptance of the fluid nature of unschooling from one idea to another. I often disregard the conversations as “to each there own” and move along with my day.
When I started out I didn’t have anyone to even bounce ideas off of. Now we know many homeschoolers, however out of our little group we are the only family that is unschooling in our area. I rely on Facebook, Instagram & blogs to fill in the gaps of my unschooling process and bounce ideas off of and to give myself little pep talks when I get a negative comment or interaction from people who don’t really matter to our educational progression. I took a moment hours after the comment came in to go back a read all the other comments on this newbie moms original post, I was saddened by the number of “you’re doing Unschool wrong" comments that were present in her thread.
So, on that note I want to share a little story that took place just the other day.
We just recently purchased 22 acres in the Arizona Aguirre Valley. We had a big monsoon storm that blew through Sunday night, so we took the opportunity to take a drive out there and see where the water flows and to make sure the proposed build site was not in an area that will potentially flood. On our way out the door Brizzy noticed a spider friend had built the most amazing web on a step stool that was outside. As a family we all stopped to admire that beauty of the web and the magnificent colors of this spider. I casually mention that spiders use a form sacred geometry in the construction of their webs. On our way to the car Buttercup casually mentions that some spiders will recycle their web to be used at a later time. This I didn’t know, so I asked her some questions. This conversation lasted maybe 30 seconds tops.
Later that day out on the property we came across another spider friend and again had a quick look at the construction of its web and noted the color of the spider and decided that we need to get some book on Arizona insects, plants & animals as well as sign up for a local medicine walk.
When we returned home we stopped by the step stool to check out if the spider had had any luck in catching a meal and came inside. The next morning EK was out cleaning his truck. He came a short time later to tell us that he just watched the spider ever so carefully dismantle the web and roll it into a ball. He said it as fascinating and he was so glad that Buttercup had mentioned the fact to us otherwise he would have completely missed it.
We are fortunate that we get to spend as much time with our children as we do, and I am thankful for the opportunity to have Unschool as an option. I hope for all the parents that are out there that are looking into unschooling that you are able to find your groove and thrive.
This is an interesting post. I hadn't heard of unschooling before. There will always be type-A personalities that have to do things to a T, but it doesn't mean that they are always right. Stick to your guns and do what is best for your kiddos!!
Admittedly, I don't know much about "unschooling" but I think with pretty much everything in parenting, you need to do what works for you and your family. I think children all learn differently and the beauty of this is the flexibility in being able to adapt learning to your particular child. I am homeschooling my preschooler and was told that I should only do 15 mins of structured learning a day. That may work for most kids, but I am finding that my son really enjoys the structure and wants to do about an hour of activities, then take a break, then he comes back for at least another hour. I was told "its wrong" and I'm "Overwhelming him". In…
Unschooling is a new concept for me, thanks for this post. It's great to learn more.