What About Unschooling?

I had previously taken a brief interest in unschooling, after reading "Learning All the Time" by John Holt, pioneer of this educational movement.  But the teacher in me wouldn't allow me to see outside the box.  So I have dabbled here and there, in Montessori, Classical, Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, Waldorf... I knew for a fact that I wasn't going to be merely holding school at home with my daughter.  And the alternative options all had something of value to offer.  Since Natalia is only 2, I had settled on a Montessori-inspired approach, though I most definitely am still solidly in the Ecclectic camp of home educators.

I started to have an inkling that I had begun to go down the wrong path when I bought my first set of flashcards for her - shapes and colors.  Or maybe it was once I finally typed up a proper lesson plan with all the various areas of study I wanted to cover on a daily basis?  Perhaps it was actually much earlier, when the alphabet went up on our wall? Regardless, I had finally been awakened to the fact that I was trying too hard when I began reading "Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery" by David H. Albert.

Again, my gut objections rose to the top.  The idea of child-led learning sounds reasonable, sounds like the ticket to a truly freedom- and passion-based education, one that can set my daughter on the path to a lifetime of enjoying learning.  But.  But I'm still a teacher.  A big reason I wanted to homeschool was because I wanted to teach.  Also, how can I just sort of let her pick what she wants to learn about without first exposing her to what's even out there for her to choose from?

In the most recent conversation I had about this with a friend, I remember myself saying that at this point I'm definitely on board with unschooling for the teenage years - middle school (which I've already become convinced, from my time learning about the Classical approach, can be skipped entirely), and most definitely high school.  But the elementary years?  She's got to have some basics, doesn't she?

Eeek!  What are these basics, exactly?  And who decides what's basic knowledge, what's basically important to know?  Certainly not the school board or textbook authors or curricula writers.  But was I really doing my daughter any favors by merely replacing these "authority figures" with myself?

Well, I actually think the answer to that question is, yes.  As her parent, it is my responsibility to decide what she "ought" to be learning - about life, values, habits, etc.  So as long as I stay away from dry academic subjects, I have every right - responsibility even - to come up with a flexible, child-led to-a-degree, values-based curriculum.

To satisfy my teacher instinct, I see my role as twofold.  One, I will set forth goals for my daughter's education, but they will not be anything that can be measured via a standardized test.  When she was born - or even before - I had said that my goal for her is that she be healthy, happy, and kind.  And that still stands.  So as a home educating parent, I simply need to translate this three-fold goal into more practical experiences that I believe will enable her to reach this ideal.

And two, I do not need to put away all lesson plans and curricula in order to unschool.  Rather, I will write these as we go, filling in the details after the fact.  Instead of "what WILL we do in the area of math/science/language arts.... on Monday".... our approach will be, "what DID we do in the area of math/science/language arts.... on Monday?"

This will not only satisfy the teacher in me, but will also serve as an assesment of sorts, making sure that we do get around to the various areas that Big Brother mandates of us in our state.  This way, if we've been away from an area for too long, I'll know to gently steer our experiences in that direction for a while.

Yesterday was the first day I consciously paid attention to Natalia's lead, rather than trying to reference my lesson plan (which to be honest I hadn't even followed for more than a week since writing it up).  After waking up (on her own, that's generally the rule in our home), she pulled out her foam letter puzzle and dragged it all into the bathroom before I was even finished getting ready for the day.  So we went and practiced her letters - her initiative, though I was there to guide her, name the letters and sounds for her as she asked, and light-heartedly said yay or nay when she matched letters incorrectly.  (She does this herself as well, in any puzzle, she seems to enjoy purposely making an incorrect match, saying "tutaj?  nieeee!"  (Polish for "here? nooo!") until finally she makes the correct match.)

Next, she had remembered a science experiment - turned art project and asked to play with the ice again.  So I dutifully took out the large frozen ice in a bowl with old food coloring, gave her salt and more food coloring and she proceeded to salt the ice to get it to melt, added food coloring, and finally used a brush to smear everything together.  We then dumped the ice on the balcony (the whole project was an outdoor activity - bonus points for fresh air!) and proceeded to chip away at the ice to see what would happen.  Before putting the ice back in the fridge for a future time, we dumped the colorful water that had melted at the bottom of the bowl onto the balcony for one of Natalia's favorite activities - jumping in puddles!  (She calls it "charcos" from the Spanish version of Peppa Pig that she watches at times.)

Today, she started asking to watch Maya the Bee before she had a chance to get bored with any other activity, and I began to worry.  Feeling a little burned out anyway, I thought we had been good with limiting screen time and I could use the time to do some cleaning around the house.  She watched a bit of her favorite shows, in Polish and Spanish (so bonus points for language reinforcement), and about 45 minutes later just got up and found me to see what I was doing.  She took out some of her musical instruments and started playing.  She had naturally gotten bored with her shows and moved on to something else!

I took the opportunity to compensate for the screen time by taking the dogs for a walk.  We spent roughly the equivalent time she had watched her shows, outside.  Again, I had to remind myself to let her follow her curiosity, instead of insisting that she follow where I'm going and make no pit stops.  We ended up going by some tall dried up grass near a creek, she collected sticks and dried pine needles and piled them up for a "bonfire", and of course she shuffled her feet for a bit in a pile of fallen leaves.  She found a lone holly berry on a bush and asked about it.  When she gets older, we can take these lessons farther, actually looking up the answers to whatever we are curious about.

For now, for crying out loud, she's only 2!  Most of her peers will continue to wear diapers for another year, while she's been potty trained for six months, and going on the potty and/or toilet since 6 weeks old!  Let's count that as advanced learning already (and why not?  At this age, she learning the true basics of life!), instead of rushing to get to the next thing and never savoring the present moment.

I see already that the joy of home educating will be not so much that I get to teach my daughter, but that she gets to teach me!