As time passes and more parents look to different options to better educate their children unschooling has become one method that is given serious consideration. This type of teaching has also been called child directed learning, natural learning, discovery learning, interest driven learning and organic learning. It s very much like taking the practice of homeschooling a step further and allowing the child to choose the direction that their schooling follows. Not everything in education follows the basic three Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic, anymore. The important part of this method of learning is to give a child the opportunity to follow their interests and provide them with the means to learn.
If you are seriously considering the unschooling option of teaching for your children there are things you need to do to begin the process. First, as a parent you need to think of yourself not as the teacher but more as a facilitator of your child’s education. You will not be giving lesson plans, marking work accomplished and grading as much as you will be helping your child to find the sources of information that will allow them to learn what is of interest to them. You must not expect that the child will necessarily learn all there is on a topic. They will learn about it until their interest is sated and they are ready to move on to another subject. That process could take an afternoon, months or years depending on what their interests are. Your job is to encourage and help them to find materials to answer their questions and feed their thirst for knowledge.
Depending on the subject they are studying there are many options you can provide. There are books, internet access, library visits, and field trips to get them closer to the source of their interest or movies to watch. For example, if you child has an interest in animals husbandry, once they have searched the internet you could take them to talk to your veterinarian, to the zoo or to a farm. This allows the child to get closer to the subject of their interest and lets them learn in a completely unhampered way. As the facilitator your job is to provide suggestions on what to look at and where to go but to be open when your child says no. They are making the decisions on their education.
One difficult aspect of unschooling is to be able to stand back and let your child chose their subjects of interest. You will need to be able to allow them the freedom to learn not just by reading textbooks. Do not be concerned if they learn by watching documentaries, getting involved in chat rooms on the subject they want to learn about or spending hours researching on the internet. Their sources of information are not the primary concern it is the fact that they are learning that should make their parents proud.
One thing that both parents and educators often forget is that our children are learning from the instant of their birth. They learn how to send signals that mean they are hungry or want to be changed out of a wet diaper. They learn how to crawl, stand and walk all without being educated on what to do. This is all done at their own pace, with the freedom to make mistakes and progress as they choose. This is the essence of the philosophy of unschooling. The child progresses at their own pace, learning what they want to in an environment without limits while their parents watch them with pride at their achievements.
