I have always believed that nurturing is the greatest task I do as a teacher. When love flows unconditionally, not based on whether or not you completed a worksheet correctly, the atmosphere is primed for learning. One thing that unschoolers (and others, of course!) do really well is to focus on relationships. I completely agree with Renee when she wrote that all you need is love. Education is all about the process of discovering that mission and becoming equipped to achieve it. My kids know what it means for their parents to have a mission in life, so they know it means they have one, too. I’m not taking anything away from them by having my own life, instead I’m inspiring them to have their own. Just as toddlers follow us around wanting to “help” in any way possible, it’s only natural for a child to imitate what they see the adults in their life doing.įor that reason, I feel my writing career, the books I read, and the example I set to be one of the foundations of my kids’ learning. But when it comes to academic achievement, these early years are about building confidence, not pointing out flaws or areas of struggle.Īt my kids’ current ages of 8, 7, and 6, I (along with my husband) am the most important influence in their lives. We set the foundation for that when it comes to the area of character development every day.
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One day my children will, of course, need to know how to overcome their personal weaknesses. Yet in our day-to-day homeschooling it seems so natural to focus on our kids’ weaknesses instead of their strengths. Typically the most satisfying careers are those with skills in which the person naturally excels and enjoys. We focus on strengths and potential, not weaknesses.įew adults have careers based on areas in which they struggled as kids. Exposure to language, to words, to writing, to numbers, to art, to music.īut I’m not as concerned with the need to master this material according to an artificial timetable– believing instead that mastery will come later as the child’s development continues to progress and mature. I want them exposed to as much richness and depth as possible.
In my belief, the early years of life (up until age 12 or so) are about allowing my kids to fall in love with learning. Last year Jena wrote a post about the two foundational principles of unschooling–that children are born to learn, and that forced learning kills the desire to learn.īut what exactly do unschoolers do all day? That varies as much as individual families vary–in other words, a lot! But as I’ve come to know more unschoolers, it seems to me that we often have in common the following six focuses.
But basically, we just do what works and what best fits our needs. We pull from a variety of influences in our homeschool–unschooling/interest-led learning, Waldorf, and leadership education predominantly. I’m not the type who likes being put into a box, so I don’t label myself or my family. And I now find myself parked most resolutely on the informal side of the homeschooling spectrum. I knew it wasn’t for me since the idea of traditional homeschooling already freaked me out. It sounded to me as though unschooling parents ignored their children, not getting really involved in their education. While I can’t remember her exact definition, I remember my reaction–far from positive. I was standing on a street corner chatting with a homeschooling neighbor, who used the term. I remember the first time I heard the term unschooling.
Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool also writes about motherhood at Steady Mom
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