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.
Step 1: Let your children play
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.
Step 2: Provide opportunities to expland your children’s play
The world is also big and wide and one way in which we can broaden our children’s opportunities is to introduce them to people and ideas out of their normal field.
Step 3: Recognise that play is learning
Being engaged in their own interests is learning.
Curiosity about the world around them is learning.
Asking quetions and seeking answers is learning.
Train yourself to see the learning that is going on, for your own peace of mind.
Step 4: Embrace the diverse nature of play
Natural learning is a complex notion of making connections between new information and connecting it to pre-existing information. These ideas and skills are collected from real world interactions and experiences and potential for cross over of interests is unlimited.
Step 5: Enjoy your own playtime
That question that you’ve always wanted to know the answer to, that thing you’ve never really understood but intrigues you, that hobby you’ve been fascinated by for years, now is the time to do them.
Live. Play. Learn 