Category Archives: Live: What is Unschooling?

Tree Climbing and Real Life Learning

-How the joy of climbing trees provides optimal conditions for quality learning- My children have spent many hours climbing trees in local woodland. There was a time when if I couldn’t see one of them, then I had to remember to look up as well as look everywhere else too. Once when I was heavilyContinue reading “Tree Climbing and Real Life Learning”

I am a part-time unschooler

-Let’s bust this myth- Unschooling is different to school. It is not school. It is the opposite to school. It is an entire working way of living your life without school. You are either unschooling (or working towards unschooling) or you are not unschooling. Unschooling is primarily about two things: Learning and parenting. These areContinue reading “I am a part-time unschooler”

Unschooling is not child-led learning

-Let’s bust this myth- Child-led learning is a common and easy description to use and one that is easy to understand. It is easy to see why unschooling could be described as child-led learning. The difficulty is that is also paints a false picture as it is not entirely true. Unschooling is not child-led learning.Continue reading “Unschooling is not child-led learning”

Unschooling is NOT unparenting

-Let’s bust this myth!- There is a myth that unschooling is akin to unparenting. Maybe it is because they share the same prefix. More likely it is because most parenting styles work on the premise that parents are in charge of children whilst unschooling parents work with their children in partnership. Unschooling as a philosophyContinue reading “Unschooling is NOT unparenting”

Partner your child in supporting their interests

Unschooling is valuing our children’s interests and facilitating and supporting them in their passions. There is often no need for a curriculum to follow or to identify learning in terms of subjects. Our children’s interests take many forms and finding ways to engage in them can take many forms. Our children’s interests and passion oftenContinue reading “Partner your child in supporting their interests”

Supporting Self-Expression

Our children are born unique. I have four children, born of the same two parents, and they are all different. They look different, they move differently, they express themselves differently and they learn differently. Our lifestyle gives them the freedom to engage with the world around them in their own unique ways and enables usContinue reading “Supporting Self-Expression”

Trusting our Children

Trusting our children is the opposite of controlling our children. Trusting our children is enabling them and empowering them. Providing them with a safe place that they can try out their ideas and practice making decisions. For example: We trust them to make decisions about how they want to spend their day: what they wantContinue reading “Trusting our Children”

Trusting the Learning Process (Part One)

Children are born with a natural ability to learn. They are naturally curious, interactive, engaged, exploratory, and playful. They learn, amongst other things, to recognise their main care givers, they learn to crawl and walk, and they learn to feed themselves. They do all these things with the support from family members and without tuition.Continue reading “Trusting the Learning Process (Part One)”

Kind (and other key words)

Here are some words that you will come across repeatedly whilst reading about Unschooling: Love Love your children on purpose. Unconditionally. Even when they are struggling and emotional and aggressive. Choose a loving atmosphere. Create loving moments. Love them all the time. Joy Seek joy. Support joy. Choose joy. Create joyful moments. Be joyful. PeaceContinue reading “Kind (and other key words)”