Unschooling

I would say that unschooling is learning uncoupled from structure. Children take the lead by learning what they love to do and doing it. Parents are the cheerleaders, administrative assistants, and purchasing agents.

What is Unschooling

"Unschooling would be difficult to understand even if it were easy to define. From the point of view of the parent, it is creating and maintaining an environment in which natural learning flourishes."

"Unschooling is arranging for natural learning to take place."

(from Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling)

Four families in my study unschooled their children. Characteristics of their 'homeschool' were no curriculum, little to no structure, and probably a more relaxed approach to letting their children use technology than the other families.

They Were Always Learning

There was no on or off for them. They never stopped, and to them, the things they did to learn and the things they did for fun were one and the same.

~ Anna

You Have to Question Everything

You have to be willing to be skeptical about, well I just question everything. I don’t take people’s word for things. You have to be willing to question the value of institutional learning in order to see past it to the possibilities outside of it. It might be a personality thing, maybe it’s a privilege thing. I don’t know what all goes into it. For me it wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t that much of a stretch. In fact, to me, as soon as I really started pursuing it, I was like now it makes sense. It was children learning from their affections. To me it all makes perfect sense and I honestly struggle to see how people don’t see it. ~ Eva

If you really want to know what Unschooling is go to Sandra Dodd's website. She is a leading expert on Unschooling. You might start with her link to definitions.