Unschooling

A Letter to Concerned Relatives

An explanation of natural learning and the reasons for pursuing this in a family.

Language Arts and Unschooling

A former high school English teacher shares some of the ways that reading, writing, and grammar are learned naturally through living.

To produce life-long learners, we need to show our children that learning is not just something that they get graded on or that only happens during certain hours of the day or certain times of the year. We need to help them hang on to the natural joy of learning that every child is born with, to help them see that learning new things is fun, and to help them realize that learning can take place anywhere and at anytime. Fun Books has put together a catalog of books, games, and other materials to help you in your efforts to produce life-long learners.

Homeschool Parents Don't Need to Be Teachers

Instead of needing parents to be teachers, kids need teachers to get out of the way of their learning. Homeschooling is not about a teacher-student relationship. There are people who are trying to recreate school at home. For the rest of us, though, we an see the school model is broken, and we are not recreating it at home. For us, homeschooling is about the parent-child relationship.

Unschooling or Homeschooling: What's the Difference?

Ask around at your next homeschool conference to compare what people answer when this question pops up: "What does it mean to unschool?" Some will answer that unschooling is homeschooling without using a pre-packaged curriculum. Others will say it's simply the degree of freedom that the parents allow the child in his learning. Still others will say that unschooling defies definition because each child is unique and will go at learning in his own way, in his own time. So what's the big difference between homeschooling and unschooling? In homeschooling the parents make decisions on how to best educate the child, while in unschooling the child somehow makes those decisions for herself.

Ten Signs that You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child

Because our public school system has now considerably deteriorated, many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon themselves to create public and private alternatives to that traditional system which is definitely failing. It is important for parents to know that they now have choices, alternatives to the neighborhood school. How do you know that it is time to look for another educational approach for your child? Here are some of the signs.

John Holt: Teach Your Own Children...at Home

An interview with John Holt from 1980 from The Mother Earth News. Holt discussed his own schooling experiences, how he discovered the key to real learning, and how the idea of homeschooling developed. He also discussed some concerns that parents new to the idea of homeschooling have. There is a short description of some of the legal issues that homeschoolers have faced and where the homeschooling movement is headed.

Structured homeschooling gets an A+

A new study from Concordia University and Mount Allison University has found that homeschooling -- as long as it's structured or follows a curriculum -- can provide kids with an academic edge. "Structured homeschooling may offer opportunities for academic performance beyond those typically experienced in public schools," says first author Sandra Martin-Chang, a professor in the Concordia Department of Education, noting this is among the first nonpartisan studies to investigate home education versus public schooling.

How do Unschoolers Turn Out?

As more and more families take up unschooling, self-directed education, researchers have pondered whether it is a successful learning model or not. Peter Gray and Gina Riley offer the results of a survey of 232 parents who unschooled their children. The results were overwhelmingly positive about the unschooling experience. In a follow-up survey, Gray asked children who had been unschooled for their feedback. They recounted their experiences and how it affected their lives as adults, with most saying that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages of unschooling.

Unschooling in the Midwest

This group is for unschoolers in the midwest to offer support to other life learning families and to organize activities.

Grown Without Schooling

Grown Without Schooling is an interesting documentary about homeschoolers who have grown to adulthood. It tells the story of 10 homeschoolers and allows them to explain the influence homeschooling has had on them and what it meant to them as children and now as grown adults.

Unschoolers Coffee Talk

A place for unschoolers to come together to discuss our adventures and experiences,share resources and information.

Allowing Your Highly Sensitive/Out of Sync Child to Shine with Unschooling

A look at using an unschooling approach with children who are highly sensitive and out of sync.

Why Unschoolers Grow Up to Be Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are creative thinkers and experimental innovators. Unschoolers learn in these same ways, so it's no surprise that lots of unschoolers end up as entrepreneurs. Without the constraints of a classroom, unschoolers nurture their own interests and passions and many figure out how to make a living from these interests and passions. Fueled by their lifetime of curiosity and self-learning, many unschoolers end up very successful in their adult endeavors of self-starting business ownership.

Omaha Unschoolers

The goal of this list is to simplify the dissemination of unschooling information from informal get-togethers to scheduled events. This is also an excellent venue to easily organize group discounts for activities and events whether attending as a group or individual families. Unschoolers and very relaxed homeschoolers from western Iowa and other parts of Nebraska are welcome to join.

Unschooling Stories

This is a place to exchange stories from your unschooling life. Describe how your child learned to read. Tell us anecdotes of how your child made unexpected connections. How does your child learn math through play and everyday activities? This list is for stories of how unschooling works. You'll learn from each other by sharing experiences and observations.

Always Learning

Discussion for homeschooling fans of John Holt, whose books Learning All the Time, Never Too Late, and Teach your Own have made unschooling an option for thousands of families.

West River Academy

West River Academy is a fully accredited independent private school in Colorado designed for families who desire the benefits of private school enrollment but minimal oversight over their educational activities. Families may follow the curriculum and/or learning style of their choice, or may receive assistance from us in designing or choosing a program that fits their needs. Grading of students is optional and if desired, it is done by the parents. West River Academy enrolls students of all ages, including adults who would like to earn their high school diplomas. They are fully accredited by the National Association for the Legal Support of Alternative Schools (NALSAS). Note that West River Academy caters to unschoolers.

Beware the Curriculum Mentality

One of the most important duties of parents is to help their children to discover and pursue new interests, retaining the love of learning that is almost universal in young children and almost universally extinct in conventionally educated adults. Standardised curricula, and the stultifying educational hoops that schoolchildren have to jump through, sabotage this aim. This can cause trouble for parents who have to satisfy other people ... that they are educating their children properly. Under pressure, they may slide into a "homeschooling" mentality that distorts and damages their children's education.

Can a Christian Be an Unschooler?

Unschooling is an educational approach, an attitude towards learning. It refers to the ways in which we use books, materials, and experiences to learn and grow. The type of underlying structure you have inside yourself, your goals, value system, discipline, whether you watch TV or call parents by their first names, whether you use a patriarchal, democratic, or any other type of family structure, are not unschooling issues; they are parenting issues. Whether unschoolers or not, every parent must deal with these issues. Homeschoolers can agree on matters of how children learn and can even share a similar homeschooling style without agreeing on all of those personal issues; Christians can be unschoolers.

What is Natural Learning?

So what on earth is natural learning? Isn't all learning natural? What would you do different if you were following a natural learning approach? How can I pursue natural learning?

Why Unschooling Isn't Just Another Method of Homeschooling

What makes for a good education? It turns out that sometimes the best education comes from simply allowing a child to follow his or her interests and passions. A rich and interesting life lead to a child learning in a way that's important to them.

Classical Lite Homeschoolers

Classical Lite is a group for families that like many parts of Classical or Charlotte Mason methodologies, but choose to have a less restrictive learning environment for their children. This list is for families who see the merits in both, Classical education AND Relaxed-Unschooling methodologies— families who wish to incorporate more of the later methods in their home or have children that learn best with Classical educational methods and the other family members are relaxed-unschoolers. Those who utilize child-led Unit Studies are also encouraged to join.

Poudre River School

Poudre River School is an independent, private school for homeschooling families in Colorado, also known as an umbrella school. PRS provides legal enrollment in a private school while parents direct the daily education of their children. Enrollment is open to students in kindergarten through high school. PRS believes that parents/guardians are capable of educating their children according to their individual needs and should be trusted to provide a high-quality education for their children. All styles of instruction are honored and accepted, including unschooling.

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