Unschooling with curriculum?

Question

Are unschoolers bothered when people say "We unschool and use XXX's grammar and literature and XXX's history"? I see that often in answers and just wondered. To those answering with that type answer, do you just use that if your child wants to learn about grammar or history?
Note: We are relaxed eclectic but I am not opposed to unschooling. I am confused by the term when it is used with curriculum terms.

Answer 1

That pisses me off so much!

It's not unschooling if you impose it on your kids, doesn't matter what it is. If your kid asks for a daily curriculum and assignments, that's unschooling because you didn't decide he's going to do that.

All across the AE (alternative education) board, the terms are far too nebulous. I think it's funny when a kid says, "My mom is unschooling me," what a complete oxymoron.

Some people think that unschooling is letting their kid pick which grammar textbook he would rather use, or letting him decide how he wants to write his term paper for his mother. That's not unschooling, to me that's basic human freedom.

Answer 2

I'm not bothered, but I don't call that UNSCHOOLING, I call that HOMESCHOOLING

Unschooling would be reading books on history. Burr or Homer or this Nurse Practitioner I knew was reading this 1,000 page book on some Middle Eastern Major guy and that book covered his childhood years. NOW that's an unschooling book!

Unschooling is a subscription to Sky and Telescope, a copy of the Observer's Handbook from the RASC, a star chart and a small telescope

Unschooling is NOT a high school used text on Astrnomy. Unschooling is NOT randomly doing a Penn Foster Astronomy course study. That's homeschooling.

Unschooling is using REAL WORLD TOOLS and absorbing them.

Unschooling is some TV guys $29.95 Learn How To Draw kit.

Unschooling is a 100in1 electronics kit from Radio Shack or Edumunds, augemented with some general books on electronics or DC theory.

Unschooling back when I was a kid was a Heath Kit stereo. It came in a box unassembled, it had a schematic, it had some minimalist instructions to show you what all the parts were and after that you were on your own.

Homeschooling is a systematized, step by step instructional method, it doesn't matter if you follow a linear stream or not. You can take Chemistry before Biology (which you would NEVER do in High School) if Chemistry excites you more.

Unschooling is a Gilbert Chemistry set, followed up by some books on chemicals and such.

For younger kids, COLLEGE TEXTS would qualify for UNSCHOOLING, because they assume yoiu already leared the fundamentals, so they dive right in

Unschooling is a subscription to Writer's Digest, a copy of their yearly book on magazine and book publishers, maybe a few books by authors on how they broke into the business, some paper, a printer, a good idea, an evelope, some postage and learning to live with rejection slips.

That's how you teach yourself creative writing.

AND your "A" in that unschooling course comes when you get your first sample copy of a magazine with something you wrote in it or a check for $25.

It might help to get a few books on Grammar and Composition, you can borrow them from the Library

Maybe a copy of the Chicago Manual

Unschooling is changing oil with mommy or daddy in the driveway.

Unschooling is the kids gathered around learning how to cook every meal mommy or daddy knows and then doing it themselves and then IMPROVING IT A LITTLE.

Answer 3

Some are and some aren't. I kind of see unschooling as making the most of learning opportunities as they arise and making the most of your child's interest in something. Of course, I think all homeschooler's do this to some extent anyway. The difference is that unschoolers might suggest something and see if their kid runs with it, but otherwise they leave them to decide what they want to learn and when.

Now, when my daughter was 2 1/2, she told me that she wanted to learn how to write her letters. I had no idea how to teach someone so young to do so. The motor skills just weren't fully developed. So I went to the store and bought a Kumon workbook on upper case letters. I think I was unschooling without realizing it. I was also using a curriculum of sorts in order to make the most of something that she decided that she wanted to learn.

I am in an unschooling group, but I am not 100% committed to unschooling (which I told them up front). For the most part, though, they have the attitude that you have to do what works for you and your child. However, curriculum is kind of treated like a dirty word. I save that topic for my other homeschooling friends.

I think most long-term homeschoolers are eclectic but lean towards a particular method. I also sometimes think that unschoolers are more radical and zealous about their method because it is the most controversial and requires a bit more faith.

Answer 4

I have to agree with "thefilthycommie" that the terms we use are not well-defined. People say they are homeschooling when they are going through a virtual academy or charter school. People say they are unschooling, then in the next breath, tell you which curricula they use. Even the definition of "classical" education has changed in meaning over time (read the prologue to _The Latin-Centered Curriculum_).

It used to bother me when people would say they are homeschooling with k12 or Penn Foster, but I have come to see that the lines are very blurry indeed. Why would Alpha Omega's Switched-On Schoolhouse (a computer-based program) be different from k12 or Penn Foster (an internet-based program)? Some people even think unschooling is the same thing as homeschooling (you're "un"-schooling because you don't "go" to school).

Because there are no hard and fast rules and most people homeschool eclectically (blurring the lines even further), I can't forsee a time where any of these terms will be better-defined (unless the government sees fit to define them - heaven help us all!)

EDIT: It would appear even the term eclectic is not well-defined as the poster above me used it to mean they use different curricula for each different child.

Answer 5

Unschooling, to me, is completely child-led. If the parents collect or buy curricula materials as a resource, and the kids pick it up and use it, I feel it is still unschooling.

If the parents are requiring a certian amount of structured work with those materials, then they need to call themselves something else, because they aren't unschooling.

Unschooling can take many forms-- even schooling, if that makes sense. The question is, who made the final choice to use the curriculum-- the parents or the child?

Answer 6

I know unschoolers who say things like that. The resources are optional, provided for the children as part of an enriched environment, not at a forced curriculum. For example, one unschooling mom I know bought Story of the World to read to her kids. Yes, she initiated it but her children had the option of listening or not. I know another unschooling mom who talked with her kids once they'd hit a certain age about the importance of math skills and what they wanted to do about them. The kids decided to have some math workbooks they could do at their own pace.

Unschooling doesn't have to mean not having textbooks and curriculum in the house (just like homeschooling doesn't have to mean being at home all the time); it's about giving the children the freedom to decide.

Of course, there are also some people who think of themselves as unschoolers but are really just unschoolers for certain subjects.


ADDED: To the person below me, I have to vehemently disagree. I know yet another girl who was unschooled: her mother left the girl's education entirely in the girl's hand. This girl, at the age of 14, designed her high school program which included the use of college-level science texts and other textbooks. She was not forced to use any of it--it was all her doing. If you don't consider that unschooling, then what would you call it? Unschooling is often referred to as child-led learning. It does NOT mean that certain resources can't be around, that no unschooler would ever use a textbook.

Look at Sudbury Valley and the Albany Free School. They are the epitomes of unschooling in an institution. They've got texts available as well as various books. The children have the freedom to use them or not.

Answer 7

Wow! what a feud. I used to think unschooling meant that children absorbed knowledge by osmosis out of the thin air. I like to think I unschool some of my subjects by having an enriched environment and just following all the little rabbit trails of exciting new ideas. We don't have tests or fill in blanks in workbooks. The knowledge is in their heads not on the paper. I use several different approaches and materials for my kids. In High School we are clamping down on the math, writing and science for college prep. I think, basically, unschooling means that you use whatever resources you can find and use what you want of them and toss the rest-not nailing yourself down to teaching some one else's prescribed dogma.

Answer 8

It doesn't bother me, but that is not truly unschooling. That is more like homeschooling. I wish people would just say their child is learning at home instead of the school.

Answer 9

I can see from the answers you have allready received that it does strike a cord with people.

It does not bother us when others imply we are not" true unschoolers" because we also use a basic curriculum.
Unschooling means learning in a not-traditional way. and looking at it from that point of view, all home schoolers are unschoolers.

We will not waiver on Math, Grammar, and writing; we use a few different sources (eclectic) because not every child enjoyed the same books, or method of instruction.
Our basic foundation comes from Christian Liberty Press.

We believe children need guidance, however they do not need to be on a 180 day, 6 to 8 hour a day school schedule with 50 minute lessons in order to "learn".

Often times parents have not changed their own views from conventional schooling to home schooling, and mistakenly think they need to emulate the "school at home".

I don't know if it is inexperience, or a lack of confidence in their own, and their children's abilities.
We doubt, and question ourselves still, even after all these years, but we do not have to second guess the results anymore; we have seen our children grow, flourish, and succeed.

Here is a rundown of our unschooling way of life:
First, and most important we have long talks, and discussion about anything, and everything.

For history we choose, movies, documentaries, live talks with veterans, good historical fiction books, games, and other literature.

For geography we do essentially the same, again we include games, travel video's, road trips, and cooking meals from the regions.

Map skills (regular, and topical), as well as compass reading are learned, because these skill are a necessity where we live.
One should not rely on technology (GPS) alone, these gadgets do break.
The Civil Air patrol teaches many of these skills to them as well.
The highlight is learning how to fly a plane.

Science is part of everyday life, the first six years are the day's of creation, each "day" has enough subject material to cover a years worth of reading, experiments, as well as field trips; one drawback are the animal habitats; they become a permanent part of our families zoo. :)

Home economics's, and life skills; chores, learning how to budget, shop, and cook by planning the meals, and preparing them.
Getting a job, balancing a checkbook (even at age 12), and learning how to save, learning how to work with, and interact with all kinds of people on the job,or while doing their volunteer work are skills that need to be practiced, and cannot be learned properly from a textbook.

They are learning languages, cultural diversity and music, from members of our congregation who gladly share their knowledge, and talents with them, because the children are genuinely interested.

Bible; Sunday school, Awana's, youth groups, and Bible camps; add daily devotions, voila, no curriculum needed unless you like to have a chronological study; my kids did want to do that so we got one.

Civics's, study a basic book; add a study of the constitution; go to see your elected officials in action at your state capitol, follow a bill to see how it is drafted, and what it takes to move it through the system, volunteer at voting booths, or a candidates campaign.

Speech, and debate sign up for Toastmasters, or another club.

Electives; use 4H for everything from cooking, sewing, photography, veterinary science to robotics.

Sports; the sky is the limit, both for recreation, and competition.

I would say all that adds up to much more than the average "textbook" could cover.
Life was meant to be experienced, lived, and questioned, with all it's ups and downs.

The added benefit is that learning actually clicks, because it is a part of their daily life, it makes sense, and they gain the needed self confidence to become independent, with a "I can do attitude".

Is it easy, heavens no, it is exhausting, my house has never looked the same again (it once was neat); I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to throw in the towel, and say please take a long vacation, or please go to a school (not); believe me it is well worth it, and I would not trade it for anything.

Answer 10

Were the children "forced" to do the books or did they find them interesting and something they wanted to learn at the time?

My children have done worksheets. I have a 5 yr old that asks me daily to print out stuff for her to do. My 11 yr old will ask me to print out some stuff to do, on occasion he will ask me to grade it and give him a percentage that he got right.

Currently two are playing video games, one is watching noggin, and two are playing tag with the cat while one is napping.

If I wanted to ask them all to play a game of states I am sure they would all be up for it, but they would always have the option of saying no. I think that is unschooling. Giving them opportunities to be themselves, and also expanding their ideas. :)

I collect tons of information so that they have the opportunity to have the information at their fingertips at a moments notice when their interest is at it's highest, they have the best retention then. :)