Welcome to the Five Steps to Unschooling mini series. Here you will find five small things that you can implement in your home as you move towards unschooling. They are in no particular order and I am certain other mini series will follow to give you further ideas of how you can move forward towards an unschooling life style.
I once saw a poster which was entitled ’10 ways to encourage your children to read.’ It simply said, in list format, 1-10 read to your child. In a similar vein, and to keep things straight forward, and focus our attention on one single aspect, all five steps will be about the role and importance of play.
-Let your children Play-
When we seek to unschool our children we begin with their interests.
We rid ourselves of the things of school that dictate what our children should be learning and when. We do not have a need to invest in curriculums or compare our group activity schedule to any other family. Subject headings become a thing of the past and year group defined materials become accessible to our children regardless of their age.
To discover what their interests are children need to be able to play.
They need to be able to play with whatever ignites their curiosity. They need to feel comfortable to be able to look deeper into the things that they find fascinating, to ask questions and spend their time on their own pursuits.
We have a positive role to play as they explore the world around them.
We can provide them with space and time to discover or return to what they love doing. We need to let them choose how they spend their time, how long they explore and play in any one endeavor, and when to change course or rest. We can observe what they are choosing to do and help answer their questions and provide them with more time to continue with their interests until it reaches its natural conclusion or is put aside for another time.
We can value what they are doing and support them as they play through their day. We can employ the use of the word ‘yes’ when they ask if they can do an activity or watch something online or ask to visit a certain place. We can start to rearrange our lives to accommodate and support what our children want to do and work out how to incorporate their pursuits and needs into our family life.
Read more
Five steps to unschooling: step 2
Five steps to unschooling: step 3
Five steps to unschooling: step 4
Five steps to unschooling: step 5
Live. Play. Learn 
Hi Heidi, the problem is if I want to let them play freely, I am afraid they may watch TV all day. Because she is watching Paw Patrol, she wants a dog which at the moment I don’t think it is possible, how should I meet her pursuits?
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