Unschooling Input Desired

I can't believe this doesn't have any comments on it. I'm going to feature this so that maybe some of my connections who are unschoolers will come by and comment.

We're classical home educators ourselves so I don't have much to say. I will say I lean more and more toward the unschooling model as time goes by.

I find if I unschool nothing gets done. At all. We also classically homeschool. We do do some unschooling, as in my son gets to pick an array of subjects HE wants to learn about, (that list was as long as my arm, but Egyptology and Astronomy were among the really cool stuff he picked) and we can do as many as those as we have time for as long as he does the things I require (English, math, etc.) He is not as reticent to open his math book if he knows that he gets to build a pyramid afterwards. Home schooling at all is a system of trial and error, what works for someone else just might not work for your son, but the important thing is to keep trying until you find what works. What's great is since you can fit so much more into a day, even if he falls behind a bit at first, he should fly ahead in no time. Best of Luck!

we unschool all the time - it is the only way that our family works it! there are tons of blogs out there on it - google carnival of education and many will show up! they are weekly blog posts, with many unschooling links. also check out rue kream's book...and the live and learn conferences!

Thanks for the input, Ellynn and Jessie! I have to say that my son has matured abit, things are not so hard right now. We have added more structure, similar to what Ellynn described, at the advice of his social worker. It seems to help that I let him choose which days to choose to do math (I HATE MATH is no longer the catch phrase of the day) He got a 97 the other day, a big difference from the previous high of 70, had to add grades too to motivate him. "Why should I do it if I can't tell how I did?" There will be time for the reward to come from completing the task and learning something new, later on. I'm not worried as much. I love Gather! Thanks for being here for me!!

bunny - yahoo!! good for him!

hey did you know that next week, there is an unschoolers gathering at kalahari waterpark in sandusky? over 700 of us! we can't wait. email me if you want more info. :)

I am really late seeing this myself...it was on the side of the post that I just did. After 10 years of homeschooling I am trying the unschooling with my daughter that is unmedicated ADHD....It was hard for me at first, but now it's a lot less stressful than when I was trying and trying to push her to follow MY schedule.