Unschooling--how do you unschool?

Question

I am going to homeschool my daughter this upcoming school year--she wil be in Kindergarten. I am trying to figure out what is going to work for us and am interested in finding out exactly unschooling is--I don't think that I quite grasp the concept and would love to hear how it works and what the negatives are.

I don't want to hear that home schooling is bad and she won't have socialization--she is activaly involved in all kinds of activities and has lots of friends that she interacts with every week and has been in preschool until very recently. I have actually been home schooling her since birth and she is an extremely bright child which is the exact reason that I am not putting her in public school--After 2 weeks of being at a private school that goes to 3rd grade she was moved up to the kindergarten/1st grade class and was doing very well academically--but the school has some issues that I was not happy with and we could not reach an agreement so I pulled her out of there.

Answer 1

Un-schooling means you will not try to duplicate a "school" environment in your home. You won't have a set schedule, you won't have a set sequence of events. You may not want to "grade" and you may not teach traditionally.

You can teach reading, writing and arithmetic in your own manner, design your own excercises or you may use workbooks you find in any teacher supply store. You find way to incorporate "life lessons" into the day, just like you have already done, explaining things as your daughter asks about them. Why is the sun hot? That is the beginning of a lesson on the solar system, get some simple depictions on the net, print them out, talk about this to her, and put it into a folder for her. You can ask her how much money will she need to buy 3 packs of gum, if one pack costs a dollar. There you have counting and addition, make her a small work sheet showing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of something, she can later maybe color in, and there is your art lesson. If she loves snails, or insects, there is your science lesson, have her keep some in a plastic container for watching and discussing.
Meanwhile, take notes about your daily activities in your homeschool, so you can record her development.

You can get a lot of sample worksheet for kindergarten children on the web to print. (some free here: http://www.kidzone.ws/math/kindergarten.htm)
You can also incorporate a "real" curriculum, like A Beka or Alpha Omega, you can find great stuff in the library too. So get her a library card, and go there each Monday. Whatever her interests are, note them, so you can get the books for her at the library. Maybe one week she wants to know about Japanese people (social studies) or popcorn (science) or boo-boos (health).

Relax, enjoy your childs curiosity and be confident in yourself regardless of what people may say. Don't go crazy and purchse hundreds of dollars worth of stuff, start small, build a small library for her, with picture dictionary for example, and good story books...
Be sure a sign up with HSLDA and ask them for the homeschool kit for your state...important.

Answer 2

Read "Homeschooling for Excellence"
Public school in America places learning secondary to social engineering - read "socialization" and as a result we cannot compete globally. We still have some higher education that is good but Oprah had a show recently with a high school grad that got sraight A's and is now floundering in college. She felt she was 2 years behind. Schools in Montana and such arent quite as bad but. . .
You HAVE to take an active interest in your childs education.
It isnt that difficult. If you subtract out all the non academic time from the schoolday you will see you can match what they do in 3 hours or less.

Answer 3

I homeschool my children. My son is 10 my daughter is 6 1/2 and my youngest is 1.

My children get plenty of socialization from all the kids in the neighborhood who are constantly knocking at the door.

Homeschooling is only a challenge, to me, when your children defy listening to you. They don't want to, blah blah blah, you should know how it is, but once they are use to a routine they will adhere.

My oldest was 2 when he started writing. He knew his alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and so on an so forth WAY before Kindergarten. He is currently in what the Public School would consider 4th grade, starting in September. He is learning Sign Language, Spanish, reads on his level, does Math on a 7th grade level, writes essays, learns history, geographical locations, typing skills....the lists goes on. I would not ever put him in a school where he would be held back or not pushed forward whenever necessary.

My daughter is in what the Public School considers 1st Grade, in September. She taught herself her own letters, colors and shapes. Has an innate artist ability. (Where as my oldest is very calculating). She started Spelling and Reading before First Grade. She is also learning Sign Language and Spanish. I would not ever with to put her in a school for the same reasons I would not put my son, even though I think that she would do well in a school setting.

Both my oldest children are computer lilerate, an important skill to have in today's age. I have no problems with behavior, they do extra chores, they have outside activities to keep them from being completely homebound. They speak well, I don't have to deal with bully issues, principal issues, gang issues and so on.

I live in a large city and where I live if you homeschool your child they are able to attend college by the age of 14. That is my intention. They do not have to have a GED or Diploma to start attending. The county in which I live stopped testing homeschooled children because they were surpassing the scores of the public school children, but you can have your child tested if you wish.

I buy all my supplies from a store called Learning is Fun, they have several in my town, I believe that they are also on the web. We go rock hunting, leaf scrapping, you name it, for Science. All you need is a little imagination and a drive to teach your child and everything will work out great!

My StepMother is currently thinking of homeschooling one of her children who is ADHD. He is having problems in his school where they live. I told her that it would be an excellent idea, especially since he is ADHD, because ADHD children have short attention spans. One thing that she could use to her advantage is to keep his lessons short, 20 minutes in length and many breaks. He won't lose site, he'll stay on track. I believe it would be extremely beneficial for him.

One of the great advantages to homeschooling is that your child will learn at his or her pace. He or she will learn they way they know how to learn. My oldest son and my daughter have two very different learning styles. I don't see how that would be beneficial in a school that teaches in only one style, and most schools do.

Good luck to you!

Answer 4

There are a lot of children that were and are home-schooled that had positive results. Some might argue isolation and lack of socialization, but you can bring your child to play dates, have her participate in neighborhood activities, church, etc.

I prefer homeschooling and/or Christian private schools. I will not enroll my child in a public school system.

Answer 5

I think home schooling requires a lot of sacrifice for the parents and kids. Good luck! Here are some websites that discuss the pros and cons of home school.

http://school.familyeducation.com/home-schooling/parenting/29861.html

http://www.unschooling.com/library/faq/index.shtml

Answer 6

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