Promoting unschooling.

[Michael Fisher]

Today I convinced another mother to look into unschooling and educational alternatives for her three children.? It's amazing how quickly an adult mind can change when you take the right approach.

The approach I use is to bring up unschooling, children's freedom, and equality every time someone asks if I have any children.

See if this approach works for you!

This type of thing happens almost every week because of the nature of my on-site support business.?

[Kat Kanning]

I tried unschooling at first with Kira.  It turned out to be the wrong approach for her.  It seems like a cool idea, though.  Dawn's girls amaze me...think it must be perfect for them.

[Michael Fisher]

Well, I promote unschooling, the most extreme possibility, and people often meet the idea half-way and pull their kids out of school.

I recently convinced yet another one of my customers to pull their kid out of a religious school because they said it was too restrictive on him.  His friend, an artist, was not allowed to draw anything without five layers of clothing on it because it was a strict religious school.  Before talking to me, they simply put up with the school.

Last week, they pulled him out and found a better private school! 

I can't take credit for any of these things happening.  I'm only telling people what I personally believe.  They're taking action entirely on their own.

[Ron Helwig]

I'm not familiar with 'unschooling', but would like to hear more about it and more details about how you speak to people about education.

[Kat Kanning]

http://www.freechild.org/unschooling.htm

[Michael Fisher]

The Free Child Project?  OMFG!   

[Russell Kanning]

I know....I was looking to see that you were the webmaster

[KBCraig]

The Free Child Project?  OMFG!   

TANSTAAFC!

Kevin

[Michael Fisher]

The Free Child Project?? OMFG!? ?

TANSTAAFC!

Kevin

Not as far as money goes, no. 

[KBCraig]

The Free Child Project?  OMFG!   

TANSTAAFC!

Kevin

Not as far as money goes, no. 

As a father of five, and Grand Central Station to all the area teenagers, trust me -- I know!

Kevin

[dawn]

Kat - thanks for the compiment about my girls!

Unschooling, for us, is about letting the girls follow their natural interests. I try to provide them with the opportunity and encouragement and exposure to interesting things that may light a fire for them to do something, learn about something that means something to them. They do keep pretty busy and do volunteer work and started a small (very small!) business.

When we started homeschooling, I took a more school like approach which was very hard on all of us. Weren't many days that one of us wasn't crying or screaming )) Now, life is fun and shouldn't it be?? I do, on occassion, force them to do things they don't want to do. I may read them a science book or take them on a field trip that they're not interested in. I also make them do things around the house that they don't want to do either - like make their beds or empty the dishwasher. But, the vast % of their time is child-led.

People worry about unschooling, that there may be gaps in the child's education. Of course there will be! There were certainly gaps in my public schooling as well as after my 4 years of college. But, that's OK - you can fill in the gaps when you need or want to.