Am I doing it “right”?
I was reading through some old post and I started to think…I would love to know from the people who have been doing this for a long time…if I’m doing it right. Unschooling that is. I know this is a very “schoolish” question, but I am over educated and just now learning about the really important things. How to love and give and accept…how not to judge. I thought what if I wrote out what our average day/week/life looks like and see what kind of responses I get. SOOO here I go.
Oh, by the way I have 2 kids. A DD 9 and a DS 7, who have been out of school for almost 2 years. We are all still deschooling our minds. This is what we do… sew,paint,knit,bead,cook,plant and harvest vegtables and fruit,play videogames, I read vidoegame stuff to 7 year old who still thinks he can’t read, we read together,DD reads to DS, DD reads,reads and reads. All kinds of stuff from fiction to non fiction, science stuff and experiments, magazines. We look at things under the microscope we have tried to cross pollenate flowers, we make all kinds of huge messes with gooey science type stuff and alike.
We play games indoors and out, we run throught the sprinklers, do slip and slide and have water balloon fights. We visit with neighbors, DD helps a neighbor with her kids, we play guitar and piano. We listen to music, make up silly stories, we lay in bed and laugh. We love one another. DD runs track and is the SC state champ in shotput(as of today!!) she also plays soccer and I have had a hard time with the organized sports, but she loves it sooo I honor that. We take care of our pets, a bird, a turtle and 2 guenie pigs (one just died) we learn about life, death and god.
We play with friends, go to the movies and watch TV. We do dishes and laundry, we hardly ever make our beds…hehehe! We bird watch, spider watch etc…We go out on our boat and see all kinds of fun stuff like, crabs,fish,jellyfish,dolphins,seagulls,pelicans and we play at the beach. We dig holes at the beach, we make sandcastles, we boogie board on the waves. We google everything!!! I could go on and on!
OK, well after typing ALL that without even having to think about it…I think I’m doing it “right”. I am enjoying my family, we are learning together, loving together and living together. WHAT A GREAT WAY OF LIFE! I’m so glad I wrote this it has given me all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings of gratitude! Thanks so much for showing me this way of life and thanks for not
grading my grammer, because I was just typing…not thinking!
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Clearly you lead a full and interesting life. However really only you can answer whether you are Unschooling. I can suggest some ideas to think about, since you were asking the question.
This list of (fabulous) activities, taken alone, could easily apply to someone schooling-at-home or using unit studies or being an eclectic homeschooler, or even someone at school whose parents are really committed to extra-curricular activities.
The point of Unschooling is not the activities (which all sound absolutely wonderful) but the how they are chosen and the why and the Trust behind them. The point is the how the parents and children are interacting. These are issues you could think about if you wanted another way to *describe* your life to others in Unschooling terms, rather than only as a catalog of how you spend your time (which is also very interesting, and useful to people who might be wondering if our lives can be rich and full).
Unschooling kids formulate their own goals, and engage in activities for reasons of their own, rather than because some external person, such as Mom, has some kind of educational *or* life lessons agenda. They generate their own criteria for success.
Unschooling kids are free to stop doing anything that they have lost interest in at any time, even if it has been fun in the past, without being pressured by an external source to continue.
Regardless of the activities the family is undertaking, the parents Trust that their children are getting something meaningful *to them* out of any that they choose to pursue. Parents don’t set arbitrary time limits, or quiz, or check up that some milestone or goal has been reached.
Unschooling children have privacy of thought – they are not required to report what they have learned, even if they could quantify it which seems unlikely, and they are not required to share or publicize their writings or art works – unless they choose to.
Unschooling families tend to handle conflict resolution without making one person’s needs subservient, or without reference to any judgment that one person’s desires are more worthy or educational than another’s. Playing video games is not considered more or less valuable than exploring through the microscope.
Unschooling families tend to see all of their activities and pursuits as interconnected and forming connections, as part of a greater concept of understanding how the world works and out place in it.
And this just touches on the Un*school*ing part, not the rest of the Whole Life Unschooling – the other life issues like Bedtimes, Food, Chores, Personal Hygiene.
<<<< and living together. WHAT A GREAT WAY OF LIFE!>>>>
This is what sounds the most unschooly! I agree!
