An Old Form of Education No One’s Talking About; Our Journey to Unschooling
What’s Unschooling?
Unschooling is a non-traditional way of educating children. It’s based off curiosity lead education with the philosophy that children have the capabilities of learning things they are interested in on their own and learn at their own pace in all areas. This typically means no structured curriculum, letting the child choose what they learn and cultivating freedom for them to be their own unique selves. Another aspect of the unschooling philosophy is that if and when a child NEEDS to learn something, they have already had the time and freedom to have the brain function, knowledge and tools to be able to learn something easily and effortlessly and in a lot less time.
Our Journey
For the last year we have Unschooled our kids and I have noticed a massive difference as their mother compared to the children I saw in the structured homeschool setting and in the public school setting.
Since our youngest was barely of pre-school age when we started unschooling we get to see the wonders unfolding so early on and let me tell you, it’s magical!
Our oldest has had quite a ride through the whole education system and I want to tell you what that’s looked like. Pre-school was a great experience for all of us. Casey enjoyed going, he had fun and learned a lot! He only went two times a week and it was a wonderful introductory experience. When kindergarten started and Casey actually started attending the public school system is when things started to change. Casey’s light started to dim. At such a young age, it was so painful to watch. He would cry over his homework and say things like “I’m stupid” which wasn’t any vocabulary he ever heard at home.
The school wanted to hold Casey back because he was struggling with reading too much for their standards. After several parent teacher meetings, we decided to pull Casey out and start homeschooling.
At this point in time Chris and I were both working 40 hours a week on top of me being in nursing school. We didn’t know how we were going to make it work, but we knew we needed to do what was best for our son. We were able to work out homeschooling on our days off between each other and took him to a trusted daycare 2-3 times a week depending on our work schedules.
I used my own currciculum and went completely rogue for the first semester at home while trying to mimic the classroom. Casey learned to read within that first semester and we finished off kindergarten with a thriving little boy!
The following year we went with a charter school to keep things a little more structured but continued to use whatever curriculum we felt like. We mixed and matched and did whatever felt right.
After moving, we decided to send Casey back to the public school system because he was very strong in his reading, writing and math. And scheduling wise, we were in need of it. We ended up having a great experience with the public school system as far as education goes, but the stories of bullying started to creep in. Casey always came home with stories of exposure to porn, being made fun of for acting “gay” or being called too short. We initially tried handeling it with grace and the fact that “this is what kids are like at school” and thought we just had to prepare him for life to deal with situations like these.
It only seemed to get worse as the months went on and by this time, Casey was in 4th grade. We had survived the remote learning, which was worse than doing homeschool. I still don’t know why I let that continue on and didn’t pull him out again sooner, but, hindsight, ya know?
He finished the 4th grade and by the time 5th was going to start we were planning our full-time adventures on the road, decided to not worry about making a decision right away on what homeschool plan to go with and focused on our family and our move.
I had reached this point at this time however, where I didn’t know why we accepted bullying as a normal thing kids have to go through. Having the normalcy of just preparing our kids for bullying, preparing for a school shooting, preparing to hold your head up high regardless of ridiculousy. It’s Ludacris! These are not normal things our society should accept. I can’t believe I accepted it for so long.
Once the school year “officially” began, we felt pressured to initiate a homeschool routine. I was still feeling pressured by society. We were in the beginning stages of changing our lives around and each small movement outside of normalcy felt “wrong”. We already are selling everything we own to live in an RV, we can’t go completely off grid?!?? But oh yes, you absolutely can!! We initially started off by mimicking the classroom again with curriculum and homework and quickly realized that wasn’t how we see Casey thriving.
We decided to give the concept of Unschooling a try and this is what I’ve noticed in the last year of watching my “5th grader” learn and grow:
The Side Effects of Unschooling
I have watched my son’s light come back after years of being dimmed by society, the educational system and bullying. He embraces himself, his likes, dislikes and passions!
He knows more about legos, collecting, coding, technology, streaming and computers than any other 11 yr old I have met!
He creates stop motion videos and writes his own scripts & storylines for every movie he makes!
He is insanely interested in Geography, loves to have fun in ninja gyms and is amazingly good at math!
But do you want to know the most amazing part about all of that? I have not forced him to do anything (Besides drink water, take showers and brush his teeth), he hasn’t done any busy work or worksheets. He has immersed himself in the world of the things he loves and organically learns in every second of everyday!
There’s no fighting over homework, there’s no forcing learning when their unable to focus. It’s very freeing, it’s a no pressure thing and guess what? You can’t get it wrong! Every child is whole just as they are! They WANT to learn, they WANT to know things and they each have such a unique way in doing so!
We have also utilized Outschool as an amazing resource to support us and our children in the pursuit of knowledge. Outschool has one-time as well as reoccurring classes for ALL interests and passions. We have loved the flexibility in schedule as well as our kids’ ability to be able to CHOOSE what classes they want to take! Casey has taken classes from hoe to build a YouTube channel, to computer coding to Biology while Cade has taken story time classes, arts & crafts, as well as Bluey themed classes that get him so engaged! You can use code “GRATITUDE20” for $20 0ff your first class!
The Hard Part of Unschooling
The pressure to do it the same as everyone else. Unschooling is the easiest, most natural, most organic, most beautiful way to approach education IF you can black out what everyone else is saying. It’s a noncomparison philosophy as well.
It’s totally ok for an 8 year old to still be learning how to read, it’s totally ok if your child doesn’t express interest in math problems (pssst, I bet you they know a lot about math in a lot of other unique ways), and it’s totally ok to never open a text book.
As a society we have been conditioned to view education one way. A high school diploma, a college degree and a 9-5 job. That is a way. It’s one way in a sea of more than a million ways to approach it.
A high school diploma isn’t required for college entry either. It’s testing into college courses that matters. If an unschooling child has a desire to go to college, trust me, they are testing into exactly what they desire. Because they have learned themselves and have a desire to WANT something & they know how to get it!
One Size Does Not Fit All
The beauty of unschooling is that you and your child get to choose. And if Unschooling isn’t for you, that’s ok too! The unschooling philosophy knows that each child thrives in different areas and different environments. It’s truly just finding what works for you and your children.
But, if you’re looking for a low stress and freeing way to educate your child, this is definitely an amazing option!
