Choosing to Unschool

A lot of parents are passionate about providing their children the best education and raising them the way that they feel is right. One area wherein this can be seen is a parent's choice to homeschool.

Why Parents Choose To Homeschool

There are many different reasons why a parent may choose to homeschool their child, including:

• Religious or value-centered reasons
• Unique family circumstances
• Dissatisfaction with government ran schools or the local school system's values
• Less pressure when it comes to education

Regardless of your reasoning, homeschooling is nothing new but it is definitely less conventional. Most states will still keep track of students to ensure that they are up to par with other, traditionally schooled, students their same age. As such, parents must have some type of guidelines in place when it comes to what their children are learning.

Introducing Unschooling

Unschooling is a form of homeschooling. Herein parents use daily living as their classroom. As such, any activity can turn into a teachable moment. Parents pay close attention to what their child is interested in and then helps them explore that topic. For instance, if your child wants to know where sausage comes from, you would take them on a field trip to a sausage farm.

Unschooling's Roots

John Holt, an American educator and homeschool advocated, coined the term "unschooling" in the 1960s. It was at this time that he published a book entitled, "How Children Fail." Writings such as this have been very influential when it comes to unschooling.

Questions From Traditional Educators

Unschooling is a great, laid back way in which to educate your children. Traditional educators do have their questions and doubts about it though because they feel that living out our lives each day doesn't provide enough intellectual challenges for children. Thus they believe that unschooled children will not be able to compete with their traditionally schooled peers, especially the ones who are being challenged with today's technology.

A Final Word About Unschooling

Unschooling can be successful if you establish some boundaries. These boundaries are important so that your child will not be at a disadvantage. One such boundary is that there are some subjects that a child must learn, even if they aren't interested in learning them. After all, who can make it through the world without knowing such things as basic math?