Idle Unschooling?

You have a comment from "Is Unschooling for You?" to thank for this post.
Referring to becoming an unschooler, the comment reads, "It's clear that I still have work to do. I'm much less capable of idleness, leisure, and enjoyment of things for their own sake than I thought I was."

The way I see it, it's not so much "idleness, leisure and enjoyment of things for their own sake," as it is being moved to discipline by the pursuit of your own interest.
To a child, play is work. They don't make a distinction. They don't go around saying, "I'm going to lie around doing nothing."
This is true of creative/inventive people. They get caught up in what they are doing... and time goes by in concentration and focus.. for the love of it.
Some times, the love of a thing translates into doing work that is unappealing, that is difficult, that is frustrating but they'll do it because there  is a bigger vision that is guiding the effort.
This is the spirit of interest-driven learning.

Of course, this also means that there will be lulls, changes in rhythm and pace, days of what on the surface seems like nothing much is going on- all good.

The comment also talks about having to "fight my own inclination to be a joiner when it comes to all of the extracurriculars."

My reply to this is that you don't have to fight. There is nothing wrong with joining others in a worthy event/class/situation.
We all need community and learning in community is one of the joys of being a human being. When I was unschooling all three of my daughters, they all loved going to 'extracurricular' classes.

Being unschoolers, we didn't think of the classes as 'extracurricular.' They were just again, interests we were following: 'art class, or girls guides, of swimming, or basketball.'
My one remaining unschooler enjoys many different activities- especially soccer! Thank goodness she is a 'joiner'!!
So, I'd say to anyone who is starting off, read more about unschooling, meet other unschoolers, go out join activities in your community that you find interesting, bring your children with you!

Our John

By now most of you might have heard- John Taylor Gatto has suffered a serious stroke. Here's a message from Jerry Mintz at AERO: 

I talked to his wife who told me that John was in the hospital for a week and has been in a rehab center for three weeks. He has speech problems and problems on his left side. But she said he can walk 40 steps now and his speech is getting better. We need John to return to full health! If you would like to send some good words to John you can write to me and I’ll put them together and get the messages to him. Send to JerryAERO@AOL.com

I've been thinking about John these past few weeks-actually since school started. And I've been thinking about all that he has given me."Genius is as cheap as dirt." "You don't get an education. You take an education."
"Really educated people favor love, curiosity, reverence, and empathy rather than material wealth."
"Really educated people think for themselves; observe, analyze, and discover truth without relying on the opinions of others."

John is funny. I really appreciate his sense of humor in the discourse on growing without school (which can be become preachy or over-zealous at times). "Would you give your TV set to a person you know nothing about? Yet that's what we do with our children."

John tells it like it is: "if you weren’t earning money and adding value to the town by the age of seven, you were considered a jerk. I swept out a printing office daily, sold newspapers, shoveled snow, cut grass, and sold lemonade," he says about growing up in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.

"That was the American dream, that you could write the script to your own life"
Keep writing that script John!

Is Unschooling For You?

So you've heard about unschooling, read about, read some more about it and now you're wondering if unschooling can work for you and your family. There is only one way to find out. Do it. Take the plunge and start unschooling.  Don't get hung up on the word 'unschooling' though, if it makes you feel anxious. You need to simply not do school.

That means to begin with, you will not be giving your kids a curriculum to follow. You may have workbooks lying around for them to scribble over or paste in- or even do the work in them if they wish to do so. But insisting that they complete the content from A to B-or even in any form at all- is out.

Let there be tools: paper, paint, measuring cups and spoons, shovels, spades, brushes. Let there be music and dance and song, and nature, plenty of nature. Let there be lots of reading or reading to. Let there be lots of cooking and baking and raking,and sewing and growing, and pouring and digging, and building and taking apart and organizing and reorganizing. Let there be outings, and let there be staying at home, and let there be jumping and twirling around and let them be sitting staring at the wall. Let there be. let them be.
Instead, focus on unschooling yourself. It can take years -depending on how you've been schooled.
You're worried about income? I hear you. But that is the price you have to pay. You will have to do with less because you can't have your cake and eat it.

But you can still earn money. You can have a small business, or work part time, or work in the evening or in the morning. The key is flexibility.
Be flexible in your thinking and in getting your goals met.
Remember, you only have them for a little while. All too soon, they are off and away.
If you've considered all this and still do not feel sure about unschooling- then you can still adopt the unschooling philosophy to how you educate your children. Simply encourage their interests, give them lots of time to think and be alone ( avoid over-scheduling them).
Don't think twice about taking them out of school for a day or two to go on an exciting outing or to simply stay in bed that morning. The school will not burn to the ground because your child was absent.

Check out Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver's Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Child a Read Education With or Without School. I reviewed it on this blog a few years ago and I still think it's one of the best books on education around.

September. Oh No! (School again)

 "School starts on Tuesday," my 15 year old announces. Say whaaaaaat?
How can this be? Mostly, why is she (as well as my 13 year old) going?
I thought that after their three year stint in institutionalized education they would have had enough. I thought that they would have had a taste of compulsory schooling to make them come running back to personalized learning. But no, something keeps them going back for more.
Routine? Predictability? 'Normalcy'? A sense of solidarity/needing to identify with the peer group? God knows but it sure is a damper. I was just getting into the holidays. I can't fathom that just as the weather begins to cool down, and the breathtaking colors of fall will be there for the looking at, they are heading to classrooms. Luckily, I still have one at home who has no intention of warming the school bench.
She will be reading on the couch, researching at her computer, playing soccer, volunteering in the community, training dogs and making art.Maybe when they see how much she achieves, how rich her life is, they might want out of schooling. Here's hoping!