Hello. I was wondering if anyone has had been "unschooled" in their childhood, or is currently unschooling their children.I would love to hear any experiences, positive or negative.I am currently debating it. I have a background in childhood education and am having trouble trusting my gut towards interest based learning. I have watched many Youtube videos, next I will read books about it. I will certain continue formal math instruction. My kids are 6 and 8 and are excellent readers and read for enjoyment, but only what THEY want to read. Thank you!
So, I just want to share my thoughts here for those interested is unschooling. Please be aware that it can be a very poor experience, and I would caution anyone against pursuing it. I am 35 now, and still continue to struggle with social interactions and making friends, even though I know all of the "what about socialization?" rebuttals which don't actually happen in practice. Yes, public schools are flawed, but unschooling is not the answer.
I was unschooled from 2nd grade until graduation, and my mom was a very prominent figure in the unschooling world so I knew many other families and can say these experiences were not just my own. I want to warn anyone who is considering this practice:
Most adults don't have ideas of what to learn or what they want to do, let alone children; expecting children to direct their own education this way is idealistic at best, neglectful at worst. I can't tell you how many times I was berated and yelled at for “not having enough interests” and being blamed for my lack of an education. I was depressed, isolated, and most of all I blamed myself for the failure of an un-thought-out system. And when it came to socializing, it was the same: I was blamed for being friendless, i was told I was failing at unschooling and needed to try harder, and I had nowhere to turn to for support: other unschooling families just fed me the same unwavering dogma of "you're free to do what you want, stop complaining and figure it out" or " how DARE you say you have no friends or social life, I'll get you all this literature some other mom wrote about how socialization is not a problem in unschooling, that'll set you right." On the other hand, it was highly discouraged to associate with any "public schoolers" because of their dangerous ideas.
Unschooling puts the blame on the child, and allows neglectful parents to flourish. If you're uneducated, it's your fault, since you (as an uneducated child) are in charge of your education. Some (most) parents, mine included, use unschooling as a way to let their children run free and absolve themselves of any guilt for developmental delays, since the child is in charge. (Oh he can't read? That's okay, he'll learn it when he feels like it…)
Most unschoolers treat their way of life as a cult. If you in ANY way support public school, or speak out against unschooling, you are ostracized and given lots of canned information (propaganda) about how wrong headed you are. The founders of unschooling are quoted l
... keep reading on reddit ➡I’m wondering if the way Colleen has made trucks F’s entire identity is possibly unschooling related. does anyone else think she’s taken it too far and has locked him into a box of only playing with trucks? they could at least branch out to related interests.
I’ve noticed Chris and Jessica use a mix of homeschool and unschooling. They do the same thing as Colleen, if their kids show the slightest interest in something they latch on to it and take it to an extreme. Then mention it in every vlog and make it into interest-led learning.
It’s clear she’s following playful parenting and mentioned her parents always played with her when she was a kid. playful parenting and unschooling philosophies often go hand in hand.
like the other Ballinger kids I think F would really benefit from playing with kids his own age. a parent playing with their kid shouldn’t be a replacement for other children
https://youtu.be/XNYr6K-2lvw
I want to set up daughter up to have the knowledge to go to college, I’m not sure if this is something I would be interested in, so I’m wanting to gather more knowledge about it
Does anyone here follow a loose guide for homeschooling that isn't religious based?
We're looking to stock up on curriculum for my nephew as odds are he's going to be expelled from public school soon.
He is severely autistic, ADHD, authoritarian defiance disorder, and several others things. He has proven to be a danger at school because he enjoys to misbehave and hurt others if a person from our family is not present.
At this point, he is practically sedated 24/7 by the meds his doctor has him on, which he can override at sheer will if he really wants. He is also in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help him understand why certain decisions or choices he makes are not okay.
He is in first grade, age 7. We are in Idaho state.
We need curriculum ideas that will let him work at his own pace, year round as he needs a strict and constant routine. Something that doesn't put the pressure of time constraints on him, if online. We have Saxon Math for him if we don't find an all in one curriculum.
Still need ideas for Language Arts, Reading, Science, History/Geography/Social Studies.
Any help is appreciated.
Edit: had the "Help!" Flair but it said I needed to add a flair so I changed it to "Curriculum". Not sure.... Which is better for this post.
Curious on people’s thoughts regarding this. I was raised in a Spanish speaking home and learned English in school fairly quickly. I basically want to repeat this with my child and add French to the mix. I read to her in as many languages as I can, I use youtube a lot for correct pronunciation.
Without pressing her to read in the unschooling fashion could she jump in to reading all the languages? Anything I should keep in mind? TIA!
The practice of "unschooling" is absolutely ridiculous. It's lazy parenting, it's completely neglectful, and denying a child any sort of education is abusive. It's setting the kids up for complete failure in life because they haven't learned anything, and I'm not talking about the factual knowledge they get from school, I mean structure, life skills, responsibility, etc that are all extremely important when the time comes to join the workforce.
Hello! I've been looking at the full range of opinions and options regarding this, and would enjoy a honest discussion around it. I have a teacher background and I'm a huge fan of self-directed learning, but I understand that some take self-directed learning to a whole new level to the point that there is no curriculum that is being followed. I thought I'd make a post with genuine discussion in mind.
***I'm not here to fight anyone, if there's too much negativity or people find this offensive, I will delete this post***
Traditional school - This one we are all somewhat aware of what it's like. There's a strict schedule. Teachers teach everything according to the country's or state curriculum, and the students listen and perhaps do some individul work or projects. Tests are held, students are graded and so on. It works for some, but has it's own issues with a big portion of the students and the motivation is often wrong (grades rather than learning).
Montessori -type school (or homeschool) - There is a curriculum and goals the child should reach in a certain period of time, and the goals can be tailored to each individuals strengths, interests and starting point. But it's clear there is some structure and curriculum. The base idea is that the child has inherent interest in learning as long as they have some control on when, how and what they are studying. They are free to expand their knowledge above their age level if that is their interest. The idea is to teach self-discipline and make the children capable learners. The hierarchy of teacher - student is much more equal than with a traditional school.
Completely Self-directed learning / unschooling - As far as I understand, the students don't have a curriculum. They are not graded. They are not told what they should learn. If I understand correctly, the idea is that children are provided positive influences, are in a democratic environment and start learning at their own pace out of their own motivations based on what they want to learn or if they see others learning skills (like reading or math), they start feeling incompetent and thus go ahead and try to catch up. Because they WANT to learn/catch up, their motivation is higher and do it at an accelerated pace.
What I would find interesting to discuss
I'm curious to ask those with more experience with completely self-directed learning / unschooling, do they see any risks with this approach? These are the things I'm most cur
... keep reading on reddit ➡
How is this not neglect and reported?? They don’t even do an online homeschool program and there’s no way in hell they pass any test when they can’t even read the words “cycle” and “only” at the age of 11! Again, this is legal and not neglect how??
I recently spoke to a parent who decided to never send his children to school. This, in a traditional society in India, where this is stigmatized and looked down upon. In India, like most Asian societies, getting a degree and performing well in exams are considered extremely important and it is gutsy for someone to take such a decision. You can watch the whole interview here:
One of my not-so-close friends is doing unschooling. As he described it to me, the kids learn what they want, when they want. But he’s got 4 kids between 5-11yo and none of them can read. They just play games and whine a lot. I’m all for giving kids more latitude in their educational experience but don’t kids need to learn some discipline and do some things that are are hard or unpleasant? This unschooling thing seems like it’s setting them up for a disaster later in life. How did this become a thing?
Since the onset of the pandemic, families globally have realized that homeschooling can be their ticket to freedom from compulsory schooling and all the pitfalls it brings into the unweary family's lives. Long story short, compulsory education isn't getting any better. Lately, unschooling is making a big splash as parents are coming to realize that their children really do love learning if their innate learning drive isn't squashed by schoolish ways. Check out my new video here sharing a very basic definition of what unschooling is: https://youtu.be/J2rXfMtpPLw
I have serious concerns about the unschooling movement. It seems obvious to me that this wouldn’t work for 95% of children. Maybe more. Unless you come from a family with tremendous means who is immersed in an intellectually challenging environment. There seems to be a lot of propaganda taking points around it too.
I wanted to share the news that Primer is gifting all unschooling families a free Primer membership through the end of the year. Primer is the world’s first community built for curious and ambitious kids to explore their interests — with kids from all around the world. Primer works using 3 easy-to-use learning formats.
- Clubs — fun, ad-hoc projects focused on a particular topic.
- Rooms — live, audio chat spaces for kids to work through challenges together.
- Pursuits — 6-week long immersive learning experiences where kids collaborate on guided mega-projects.
Right now they have lots of different options to work on. If your kid is interested in…
- Space? They'll help them design a habitable exoplanet in Galactic Explorations!
- Game design? They learn how to build games in Lily’s Minecraft Club.
- Screenwriting? Sign them up to debate the next Avengers plot in Finn’s MCU Fan Club.
- Art? There’s a group of kids exploring different art styles together!
To help unschooling parents, Primer is gifting all families a free Primer membership through the end of the year. The link to the free sign up is here: https://withprimer.com/?utm_campaign=reddit
Sorry if this has been asked before.
We’re really leaning on taking the unschooling plunge and are willing to relocate somewhere with an active, purely unschooling community.
I’m trying to get some ideas of how to be a little more organized. I pretty much go with the flow period and that we picked up some police officer books. But we just got a card to our local library and I’m curious what all we could do to utilize our newfound resource :)
Hey there, I’m 20 years old and about to graduate from university. The last few months have been eye opening to me as I’ve realized I have been stripped of individual curiosity or interests.
In elementary and middle school I learned under a Montessori method and through high school I took night classes at the local community college that interested me. After almost three years in structured university this curiosity and search for interest has seemed to disappear and I’m curious what resource those in this group have of unschooling oneself.
My younger cousins have been unschooled and having spent time with them I’ve been reminded what power curiosity and interest have in learning and though I work to have this myself I find myself struggling to learn like I did before. Perhaps at the very least you kind people of Reddit can offer a new perspective to help me out of my rut. TIA :)
Looking for books or other non-digital resources for learners who are in a rush to cover all the actually-important/necessary stuff learned in pre-university school.
Ideally, resources made for such rushed study. If they're made by "pro-radical unschooling people" if-you-will, that would be terrific! Definitely preferred over things made by people who disagree with (radical) unschooling. But if they're not such materials and they're helpful... please drop a comment about them if you don't mind 🙏 No offense intended to people of the non-radical group.
By "radical" unschooling, I mean the kind where you see everything (literally!) as a resource that shouldn't be limited (screen time is one example, another could be sugar consumption, etc.). But please take no offense by this definition of mine; I promise it's only meant to aid in my search for help and is not meant to insult or anything of that sort.
Thank you-- so much-- in advance ❤
Hello, I have a 3.5 year old and I'd love it if I could get some tips and advice on starting out on how to approach unschooling.
I absolutely love the idea of it and I have some more researching to do. I know play is very important and my little guy already asks so many questions.
Any advice welcome
Anyone here do unschooling for your kids while living somewhere very rural? I've always thought of unschooling involving a lot of community resources (places to go, things to do and see, people to interact with), but I also am interested in country living - not sure how to have both, or whether it's even possible. Would love to hear advice and experiences.
My situation right now: living in suburbs, full time work from home mom and dad, with an almost-4 year old and 1.5 year old. We haven't officially started our unschooling journey as such, but I'm a planner! We do not intend to send the kids to traditional school (unless they ask to go, and will probably try to avoid it if possible).
Has anyone tried "unschooling" or anything similar and had a good experience? I'm tired of fighting and want to nurture curiosity instead of forcing it.
My almost 6 year old didn't like hikes, barely climbed trees, was somewhat uncoordinated, while his older sister was aaaalways climbing and had been since she was 2 or 3. Suddenly since a few months ago, if he's at the playground he's masterfully navigating whatever the highest thing is, same with trees, lots of other things. He learned this on his own when the time was right for him. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I had tried to teach climbing to him a year ago when he wasn't ready or interested.
My 7 year old learned to read by herself at 5 whenever I wasn't looking, and her progress went backwards if I tried to teach her reading. She's now reading to her little brother flawlessly and starting small chapter books on her own. I'm starting to wonder if there's at least some school topics that they'll learn easily and much more efficiently when they're good and ready.
If there are unschoolers out there, how on earth do you give them opportunities to learn, track progress, etc? It would be so, so fun to see rapid learning from interested, invested kids, but I'm not sure how to even approach learning without turning them off to it.
My idea is to get a curriculum and teach the topics during a structured learning time (they're little information sponges and have never had any issues with listening to me read or watching educational videos), but any workbook buyswork stuff that I would otherwise have to prod, bribe, push them into would be available if and when they're interested. What do you guys think?
My 7 year old loaths math now (she's smart, but zero interest in it) - what if I had never forced her into it? Then it would just be this mysterious thing that she'd possibly be interested in later, or hold some passive interest in.
One last thing - When she was 5 or 6, I tried to get her to do x number of handwriting pages every day. It was miserable. She'd make little progress. Then one time I printed off a sheet of the alphabet and she spent 20 minutes excitedly copying each letter exactly with no mistakes, just because she wanted to. When she was INTERESTED, 20 minutes of work paid off more than a month of forced or bribed workbook pages would have. I completely believe that kids learn better when they're motivated, interested, and good and ready. I've know
... keep reading on reddit ➡So, I just found this subreddit and I wanted to ask this. Brief story: I'm 35 now, but I was unschooled from age 6 to 18. Someone asked on Quora for a detailed rebuttal of unschooling, and here's what I posted, based on my experience:
Most adults don't have ideas of what to learn or what they want to do, let alone children; expecting children to direct their own education this way is idealistic at best, neglectful at worst. I can't tell you how many times I was berated and yelled at for “not having enough interests” and being blamed for my lack of an education.
Unschooling puts the blame on the child, and allows neglectful parents to flourish. If you're uneducated, it's your fault, since you (as an uneducated child) are in charge of your education. Some parents, mine included, use unschooling as a way to let their children run free and absolve themselves of any guilt for developmental delays, since the child is in charge. (Oh he can't read? That's okay, he'll learn it when he feels like it…)
Most unschoolers treat their way of life as a cult. If you in ANY way support public school, or speak out against unschooling, you are ostracized and given lots of canned information (propaganda) about how wrong headed you are. The founders of unschooling are quoted like scripture, and you WILL be reeducated in the ways of unschooling. You are also told unschooling will take over the world since public schools are crumbling and failing; you are told your life is the best it can be, and non-unschooled children are miserable; you are told public schools are no better than prisons and are criminally overfunded, but due to evil and corruption they money is stolen away and not used on students.
You are told from a young age that you are better, smarter, and more capable than any of the “public school kids,” creating an unreasonable view of yourself and an us vs. Them mentality (more cult stuff).
It did not work for me. I can't speak for everyone, but I had to start in community college at age 16 and take almost every single remedial course because I had essentially the education of a 2nd grader. (Example: I didn't know the US had a civil war until I was 19, and I couldn't carry or borrow or even understand what those things meant when I first enrolled…). It took me a total of 12 years to obtain a Bachelor's degree.
My question is... was my experience just based on bad parenting? Is it this way for anyone else? I know unschooling is a niche within a niche, but sti
... keep reading on reddit ➡