Is Unschooling a legitimate homeschooling approach for Christians?

According to Wikipedia,

"Unschooling is a range of educational philosophies and practices centered on allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction, rather than through a more traditional school curriculum."

As a homeschool mom who believes that the traditional desk-in-a-classroom method of education is the quickest way to kill a child's creativity and natural love of learning, I have been enthralled with the idea of Unschooling since I first heard about it. After some consideration, though, I decided that it did not fit in with the principle of Due Diligence which I have heard used to describe a homeschooler's duty to, in good faith, attempt to give her students an education equivalent to that of the public school system as required by the state. I was thinking of Unschooling as simply doing nothing educationally, allowing my children to do as they pleased all day rather than directing their education. That doesn't sound like the way a Christian should fulfill her duty to educate her children under the law of the land , so I scrapped the idea.

After a few more years' thought, though, I think that Unschooling IS a ligitimate educational approach for Christian homeschoolers, if done keeping good stewardship of time and resources in mind, so we are going to try it at our house. For the 2011-2012 school year, we will be Unschooling!

So, how DOES a Christian Unschool? Please join me as I begin my journey to figure that out...

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

If we don't do "School," then what DO we do?

OK, I've established that we won't be spending our time sitting at a desk bent over textbooks;  But we also won't be playing video games and watching the boob tube all day, either.  So, what's the happy medium?

The way I see it, MY job is to ensure that my children spend a significant amount of their time in worthwhile pursuits that either help them learn useful new things, reinforce and utilize important knowledge already obtained, or contribute to the well fare of our family and others around us.  This is especially true during the times when our local public school district is in session, because I believe that it is important not to give our neighbors cause to think our students may be truant.  We are blessed with wonderful next-door neighbors who support our homeschooling on both sides, but I still like to be cautious about appearances.  So during the school year, we spend the majority of the hours between 8am-3pm indoors in quieter pursuits or in our backyard.  Or better yet, on Field Trips!

So, what exactly will those pursuits entail, and how will we use them to obtain an education equivalent to, or in my opinion, much superior to, that offered by the public school system?  I'd like to research and address that question on a subject-by-subject basis is future posts, but here is a general outline:

Bible, Religion and Christian living

The 3 R's:
   Reading
       Learning to read
       Reading for fun
       Reading to learn
   Writing
       Penmanship
       Composition
   Math

Science

Social Studies
    Civics & govermnent
    History
    Geography & world cultures

Work Experience
    Diligence at home
    Volunteer opportunities
    Jobs for pay

Financial Stewardship

Have I forgotten anything?  If so, I'll add it later.

I will also list some of our learning experiences in order to confirm for myself and demonstrate to others that my kids really ARE spending their time on worthwhile pursuits and learning a lot in the process!  Here are some of the things we've done so far this week:

*Visited Bricktown in Oklahoma City, rode the water taxi and learned about the history of that area (History)
Spent several hours walking around that area (PE)
Discussed highway driving & signage with my teens while driving to and from (Drivers Ed)
Discussed the cost of the water taxi ride & lunch, and why we couldn't afford souvenirs this time (Finance)

*Played Scrabble (Spelling & Math)

*Planted the garden (PE & Science)

*Worked at our local Free Clinic pharmacy (Volunteer work)
    (My children do not actually work in the pharmacy, of course, but they see me do it and they contribute by babysitting their younger siblings so that I can work.)

*Homeschool Band rehearsal (Music)

*My 12 year old accompanied me to my one year follow-up appointment with the bariatric surgeon and nutritionist and learned along with me from the experience (Health & Fitness)

*We go to the Library almost every week (Reading & Research skills)

So, what do you think?  Are we learning around here, or what?!  Not bad for the first half of the week!


For now, I plan to concentrate on using car time to maximize learning, in a couple of ways:  

(See Carschooling link to the right)

First, we will work on memorizing multiplication facts by oral drills and music CD's:
(See One Hundred Sheep & Multiplication CD's link)

Second, we will listen to CD's about other subjects, especially History.  I have a road trip coming up this summer with my three oldest children (age 11-15), and we will be listening to The Story of the World, which I've already previewed and it is wonderful!  (See link)

Blessings on you and yours!
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