Unschooling - where do we start?

[birthdance]

DH and I are pretty certain we want to home school Finn and our future kids. From what I know about unschooling/ natural learning, this approach seems to make the most sense to us.

So where do I start with unschooling? Finn is only 19 months, so not 'school' age yet. Do unschoolers see themselves starting unschooling at a certain point, or do you see unschooling as more a way of life that begins from birth? What about record keeping, what age do you start keeping track of what your children are learning?

I've just ordered a John Holt homeschooling book and 'The Unprocessed Child' from the Book Depository, so I'll be able to start doing some reading soon. What else do I need to know about home schooling apart from working out our educational philosophy?

Has anyone who has decided to unschool sent their children to preschool? We've got a place for Finn to start preschool at a Steiner school in 2011, and we were thinking we might still send him to try it out before we make a final decision regarding home schooling. I'd like to incorporate aspects of Steiner eductaion into our unschooling, has anyone else done this?

I have loads more questions, but I think I'll wait until I've done some more reading before asking more. :lol

[Ceres]

Well the good news is, you're already doing it! Finn is learning to walk, talk, relate to people and every other skill he's already gained, by unschooling. The idea is just to let things progress and foster his love of learning and his natural curiosity and desire to learn will do the rest.
I did send my DS to preschool before I committed to the idea of homeschooling, but if I could do it over I wouldn't. Really all he learnt was how to fit into school environments as it's just grooming for school. I also think he probably wasn't ready to be away from me for so long at that age. Live and learn tho...
I have a friend who is homeschooling using a steiner approach - she provides appropriate steiner type toys and art supplies and the kids just kinda do their own thing.
Hope that helps...

[Beatrice]

There is a US-based Yahoo group for people who are unschooling their kids from birth, Always Unschooled. It's a radical unschooling group and probably looks a bit full-on for newbs but it's worth lurking and reading and thinking for a while and seeing where you sit on the issues. I would no longer say I'm a radical unschooler but RU is a really good way to shake up assumptions about children and learning :)

I think trying out different record-keeping ideas is really helpful before committing to a program (if you register) since you will already know what works best for your family and your own personal level of (dis)organisation :lol Keeping "records" could just be keeping a diary of F's development and taking lots of photos or you could experiment with filing systems for artwork, etc. This year I've started a folder for K with photo layouts, flyers for activities we do and dated examples of artwork, early writing etc - a similar set up to B's portfolio but a bit more casual.

I think the key to understanding unschooling is to stop thinking about what kids learn through the lens of what we're taught to think of as being "educational". Kids learn, all the time, and everything they learn is important to them even if we don't know why. K is not the best example since she likes so many schooly things :lol but we don't put any more weight on her periods of intense interest in learning to read than we did on her equally intense phases of learning to ride her bike or memorising car logos. Kids move through periods of acquiring mastery and periods of hanging back and assimilating their new skills. The key is learning not to jump into the mastery periods and push push push them past the limits of their interest, or worry that the laid back periods mean that they've lost interest in learning.

[~*heket*~]

What Ceres said!

The idea that schooling only happens at school shows how the word school has come to represent the word learning these days.

I really must get onto reading some stuff from JTG too! Let us know what you think of the book ok?

[~*heket*~]

x posted with Beatrice, so not to forget anyone ... what Beatrice said! :lol

[Blossomtime]

Do you see unschooling as more a way of life that begins from birth?
Yeah, that. You're doing it already.

What about record keeping, what age do you start keeping track of what your children are learning?
We've been keeping artwork, photos and snippets of things they've done since birth anyway, so its just making sure we do it constantly now DD is registered.

Has anyone who has decided to unschool sent their children to preschool? We've got a place for Finn to start preschool at a Steiner school in 2011, and we were thinking we might still send him to try it out before we make a final decision regarding home schooling.
We are unschooling/natural learning, but DD attended the Steiner pre-school here before we made the decision to home educate full-time. It made some things trickier (we had a period of deschooling even though she only went 3 days per week). I found spending 4 days in the kinder gave me great insight and I'd really reccommend staying for a whole day if you have a chance. It helped me decide to keep DD at home, even though she was a "model" student. ;)

I'd like to incorporate aspects of Steiner eductaion into our unschooling, has anyone else done this?
Yes, we do this. We incorporate our fave steiner bits into our days. Its lovely. The best of both worlds. I found lots of the steiner philosophy not so much suited to the classroom with heaps of kids, but it can work brilliantly as part of family life.

[birthdance]

Awesome, thanks everyone. :)

Sounds like I just need to relax and keep doing what we're doing. :lol I obviously need some deschooling myself to get past this idea that Finn will suddenly start learning differently once he's five, and it will somehow be more serious. I'm a very 'schooly' type of person myself, the kind of kid who did grammar exercises at home for fun, and it's hard to get past the idea that he needs 'real work' at some point.

With the record keeping, I already keep and date the few drawings he does, and we take lots of photos. I think I'll start keeping a journal of what he's interested in. It will be nice to have and look back on anyhow.

[Sarasvati]

Just wanted to add my belief that pre-school is basically grooming them for school. It's hard enough counteracting the bombardment of "ooh off to school next year!" and the "school is GREAT!" propaganda, if you send them to pre-school expect fights over not going to school!

[birthdance]

Just wanted to add my belief that pre-school is basically grooming them for school. It's hard enough counteracting the bombardment of "ooh off to school next year!" and the "school is GREAT!" propaganda, if you send them to pre-school expect fights over not going to school!

Yes, I am a bit concerned about how I would explain to Finn that he wasn't going to go to school anymore, especially if he was enjoying it. I can see it doesn't make a lot of sense to send kids to preschool when I'm planning on home schooling.

[~*heket*~]

Take him along to a homeschool group, introduce him to some of the other kids he'll be un-schooling with.

If you were the type of kid who did grammar for fun you have little to worry about on de-schooling yourself ... you did grammar for FUN, so you can see that learning IS FUN, it's all a viewpoint, it's just that school is viewed as the only path to learning when you yourself clearly demonstrate that it isn't ;) (please don't correct my grammar :lol)

[pomegranate_tree]

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[~*heket*~]

That was a great link, thanx :D