since i’ve been passing our summer adventures off as unschooling i’ve received lots of questions about unschooling, mainly: what is it?
the truth is, i don’t know exactly. My first exposure to the idea of unschooling was on a tv program called extreme parenting. when i first saw it, probably due a bit to dramatic tv editorial, i thought it seemed very strange. but something piqued my interest and i began to poke around on the internet for more information.
i follow a couple of blogs {here and here} that employ unschooling in their homes. with the homeschool movement back in full force, unschooling now seems like not such a big leap.
what has appealed to me about it thus far is that it allows me to educate darla in a very fluid way. i don’t have to prepare intricate lesson plans. i or darla can determine an activity or adventure for the day and we “see what we can see. find what we can find.” also, unschooling just makes sense to me. children learn by doing. children learn by seeing. children and ADULTS learn by gravitating towards their natural interests.
but i admit i am just now starting to really dig my fingers into the research. i just picked up my first two books on unschooling. i hope to follow these up with more. See, i’m unschooling myself.
i’ll share what i find out. then you can read if you want to and unschool yourself. or not.
momjeanz 
If you’ve been “unschooling” all summer, and learning serendipitously during real experiences in the real world, I think you’ll be happy with continuing along that path. :) We’ve been unschooling for several years, and somehow our lives and how we learn are always evolving…but we are still “unschoolers” and we have ALL become more and more passionate about learning over the years. We truly become obsessed about different things–the Titanic, origami, marine biology, the Beatles, the Sixties, Russia, ballet, etc, etc. I’m excited to follow your adventures and how things evolve for you!
Thanks, Angel. Well, we’re definitely giving it a go for this next year and we’ll see where it leaves us from there. I can already see how much it’s impacting her. Even though she had a year of preschool this is pretty much what we’ve done thus far so it will be nice to see how this next year goes. She’s really into mummies & Egyptian culture. Also, we’re currently reading the secret garden and she’s now interested in India. And she’s been fascinated by learning how the brain works. I just don’t think these are things a 4 year old would be interested in if a “western” curriculum was being pressed on her. we shall see. thanks for following and feel free to share any tips or feedback on here anytime.
Pingback: afternoon | momjeanz