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, September 14, 2011

We're back to school!

Usually we officially begin each new school year the day after Labor Day, but this year we put if off an extra week because Daddy was on vacation last week.  We've been back in session with our homeschool coop for a month, but yesterday was the first day of our 2011-12 homeschool year.  Monday is Coop day.

We have a tradition of going to the Krispie Kreme donut shop for breakfast on our first day of school every fall, to celebrate the fun and freedom we enjoy as homeschoolers.  One of the children wasn't feeling well yesterday, so we went today instead.  It's so fun to see how the donuts are made, and the free donut fresh off the line and still hot can't be beat!

After that we went to the park and (hopefully) worked off all those surplus carbs.  It was perfect weather to be at the park this morning, cool enough to make you want to stay in the sun.  After a summer of a record-breaking number of days with temps >100, it was a real treat!

While we were in the van we listened to a CD with songs to help us learn the states, their capitols, and their location on the map.

Home by lunch time, and after that we began our school day.

This is what Unschooling at our house looks like so far:

Each child is required to READ something every day.  They love comic-type books and will happily read them all day, but that's not what I mean here.  I expect them to read at least one chapter of a book that helps them learn something useful or that they did not already know.  If they have any trouble finding a book on their own, I have a whole bookcase for them to choose from.  I really like the Youth With a Mission history books about missionaries and other historical figures such as presidents:
http://www.ywampublishing.com/p-1446-christian-heroes-then-nowbr5-book-gift-set-books-31-35.aspx

Each child is required to WRITE something every day.  A journal or diary entry, a letter to a friend or relative, a business letter or a short report of some kind.  Even an email will do!

Each child is required to do a MATH lesson.  We use Teaching Textbooks:  quick, simple and fun! 
http://teachingtextbooks.com.

Each child is required to do whatever homework is required by their coop classes.  These are classes that they have chosen to participate in, with the knowledge that their would be work required.


The rest of our studies are done together in as fun and interesting a way as possible.

After breakfast we begin with Bible time together.  First prayer, and then singing.  There is this wonderful little song that Virginia Knowles came up with called the Alpha Virtues song: www.virginiaknowles.com/alphavirtuessong
The kids love it.  They each pick a letter of the alphabet and we sing the corresponding verse of the song.  Next we read a chapter of Proverbs.  Whatever day of the month it is, that's the chapter we read.  So today we read chapter 14, since it is September 14th.  All readers take turns reading aloud until we have finished the chapter.  Then we listen to a little bit of the Bible on audio CD or mp3.  We started at the beginning yesterday with Genesis 1, today was Genesis 2, and we will continue on this way.  Hopefully more than one chapter each day, but it has just worked out that way so far.  Life will interrupt your best-laid plans.

We are also studying the great classical composers this year, starting with Bach and moving forward chronologically.  We use DVD's, music CD's and library books learn about each one and become familiar with their major works.  More specifics at a later date...

We are using a set of CD's called The Story of the World as the basis for our study of ancient history this year: 
http://www.amazon.com/Story-World-History-Classical-Earliest/dp/0971412901
It begins with an explanation of Archaeology as a means for learning about ancient history, so I have checked out a selection of library books at different levels about archaeology and ancient history in general for us to dig into.  More details on these later as well.

Now some Unschoolers would say that it is not truly Unschooling because of these requirements I've made for my kids, but  I believe that this is the minimum I can do with a clear conscience as a Christian in regards to abiding by the law of the land and giving due diligence to my children's education, while still allowing them the time and freedom to run off down the bunny trails that catch their interest.

 
At the moment the children are working on their own projects.  Bailey (15) is in her room working on Biology homework for the class she takes at coop.  Brad (13) did his required work already and is playing on the Wii with Brooke (6).  She still has a liitle work to do but will need my help for her reading lesson.  Beth (8) is playing in a bubble bath with Belinda (3), and Brandon (11) is getting his shower out of the way.  Time for me to go get the girls out of the tub so we can watch our DVD about Johann Sebastian Bach!
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2013 at 1:07 PM

    Thank you so much for an informative post about Christian homeschooling. I have read a bit about unschooling and sometimes a very humanistic way of relating to our children comes across. I was wondering how this could be done in a Christian home, so that you get a balance, and you have described it beautifully.

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