I often get asked this question, and though the person asking usually has no interest in actually unschooling their own children, I am happy to share some specific examples from my own children's learning experiences to give them an idea. I also tell them that it really is hard to understand, nearly impossible for some, unless you've done it yourself for a while because it is so much more than an education style, it is a LIFEstyle. Unschooling does not equal un-educating or un-parenting, but quite the opposite!
Sorry this is so long, but if you are really interested in how unschooling works, I think you'll enjoy the read. :)
The main "subjects" that most people are concerned about in the early years are science, math and reading. My two "school-aged" kids are 6 and 8, which would be 1st and 3rd grade, so I will give examples for the two of them. Most preschoolers are unschooled already! I think it's kind of funny that when children turn the magical age of 5, they suddenly have to "do school" to learn!
Science:Well, the science is easy because my kids explore everything all the time. They love anything and everything in nature, so it all just comes naturally. We sometimes do "unnatural" things though, like experiments with vinegar and baking soda, for example. (I just say that is unnatural because you probably won't find the two mixing in nature!) We have in the past (I need to do this again and post the recipes) made the most awesome play-do and floam! We get experiments off the internet too, like the
mentos and diet soda. That was a blast! Literally! LOL! Messy, but fun! (Check out that site for tons of awesome experiments!)
Other "sciency" things include taking care of our pets. Jonathan has a toad right now that he is taking care of. He is supposed to be taking notes about it every day to closely monitor his health (one of the compromises for letting him keep it as a pet), but he is not doing so well with that, so we may have to let it go soon. We don't want a wild little creature dying in our care just because of neglect! :( But they have also watched a dog and a cat give birth to new puppies and kittens, caught numerous snakes in our yard over the last three years (Jonathan can easily identify the venomous ones now, and I'm not scared of snakes anymore!), and use field guides to identify birds, wild edible plants (and poisonous ones), reptiles, trees and other things. This is just part of my kids' science that they do in an unschooling fashion. I don't think we've ever really done any kind of structured science unless you count the experiments, but they don't know it is "science", they just think it's great fun!
Math:Math is easy too. My kids count everything! When Jayla was three/four years old, they would lay in bed at night and count to 100 out loud in funny voices! LOL! She was probably four before she could get to 100 without skipping numbers, but she picked up on it fairly quickly just be "playing" with her brother. They also play games in the van where you get points for certain things. This teaches addition, subtraction and often times multiplication and division. A specific example is one game called the "Mustang game". For every mustang they call, they get one point. Also there are two points for Corvettes, three for Hummers and ten for Mustang Cobras! So sometimes they may see two Corvettes and add the 2 + 2 or sometimes they multiply 2 x 2....you get the idea. They have been playing this game for a very long time now, like since Jayla could barely speak! Well, I guess we started it with Jonathan when he was very young. :) They play other similar games and are very good at basic math. Jonathan was even doing some multiplication and division when he was 6 years old, and now Jayla is doing some on her own. If they need to use it for something, they can usually figure it out on their own! It's pretty cool watching them as they learn how to calculate different things on their own.
Oh, I have a funny story relating to math. Since we don't really do any written work, they don't always know what the different signs look like. We were at the doctor's office the other day. They had to read an eye chart and all three of them called the plus sign an "X". LOL! Now some of you may be thinking "There! That's the reason you should do seated, written work!" Well, what other times in life do they need to know what a plus sign is though? The nurse knew what they meant. They didn't fail the test. As far as when they go to college, well, they'll know it all by then just by seeing it from time to time, and whatever they don't know, they can pick up in about 5 minutes if they *need* to know it. Does that make sense? Like I was telling someone a few days ago, I don't want to torture my kids for hours or days just to teach them how to make an outline and write a report because they *might* need it for college someday and then have to reteach it next year because they have forgotten, but instead, I will let them pick it up much faster when they are actually ready to use that skill. It really makes my life easier as the "teacher", and the kids all love to learn and learn from everything they do!
Reading:Okay, this is easy to give examples for too. :) Jonathan taught himself to read starting at age 3. Seriously, I didn't help him hardly at all! The only thing I did would be to occasionally ask him "Can you tell me what that sign says?" or something like that, or I would help him sound out a word if he asked me, but honestly, he completely taught himself. How? Those
Leap Frog DVDs are wonderful! He didn't even have to watch them very many times. He picked up on the "rules" from watching each episode just a couple of times each! (You can get them at Toys R Us and Wal-Mart....places like that for around $10 each.) He would read the warning signs on all kinds of products and then he would inform me of the "rules" for a particular item. He read street and store signs constantly. One time we were driving by a pharmacy that had Rx on the building when he asked me. "Mommy, what does (sounded it out) 'Rrrrr-x' mean?" LOL! The DVDs helped Jayla as well, but she didn't have the "need" to read, therefore it wasn't as important for her to pick up on so quickly. Jonathan reads everything to her, so if something comes up on TV or a sign while driving down the road, she just has him read it to her. Smart girl, if you ask me! She is reading now, but she is still slowly sounding out small words. And she really loves more structured activities, so I will sit down with her sometimes and help her sound out words and read books, or she will sometimes do Wal-Mart type workbooks. There are also lots of computer games online that she loves. One of her favorites is
Starfall. She was just playing that this evening. :)
We were at Toys R Us earlier today for the Thomas the Train playdate. While there, Jayla and Jacob both played on the Smart Cycle. I am thinking about getting one for Christmas! Jayla is almost too old for it (if you go by the age on the box, she is too old already), but she's definitely still small enough for it. She loved it and did really well! Jacob though, being much younger and on the lower end of the age level, really was learning. He had to tag the letters of the alphabet while pedaling down the track, and sometimes he had to skip letters because they were not the right ones. He was really catching on and doing well!
So these are just a few of the ways my children learn in these various "subjects". We don't really divide everything into subjects because it is all intertwined in real life. For example, when they spot a Mustang Cobra, it is usually because they read the word "Cobra" on the back of the car and/or they identify the snake on the side or front.....math, science and reading all at the same time! Another example is when they make a recipe. There is reading involved by looking at the written recipe, math by measuring and even includes fractions, multiplying (to double or triple the recipe) or dividing, and science by mixing everything together and see what comes out! Spelling comes through reading and by Myles and I setting a good example. Some children are just better spellers than others too, so even with great examples and a lot of reading, some kids just don't get it, and that's okay! Jonathan still can't spell our last name (LOL!), but he is really good at spelling most things. Problem solving happens every day, when they have to decide which shoes would be most appropriate for certain activities, while they build with Legos or when they are having a disagreement and need to come up with a compromise. This is a good example of how unschooling is a lifestyle. We let them (for the most part....there may be a few exceptions) decide what to wear, solve conflicts on their own and strategize to come up with the best solution for something they are creating. I think it is safe to say that most attentive parents do these things a lot, but it is a lifestyle because we make a conscious effort to do these type of things on a regular basis, not just when we think about it or when we don't really care what they look like when we go out. (They are often wearing stained play clothes and are dirty from playing outside!)
Other things off the top of my head.
Penmanship. The kids both like to scrapbook, and they do their own journaling. Granted, at their ages, they don't really journal a lot, but they do get their own handwriting down in history and their own memories. :) I love it! They also write thank you letters (not nearly enough because Mommy is terrible about that!) and will sometimes make lists of things, like a Christmas or birthday wish list. Jonathan will write super-hero stories or jot down the names and powers of various super-heroes he has created. Honestly, they probably write more than I do! I mostly type on the computer! LOL!
Geography. Jonathan has recently started collecting world maps. He loves them! We play a fun little game where one of us will look at the map (or globe) and pick out a place then the other has to find it. Now, we may not remember where certain places are the next day, but they are getting an idea of how big the world is. When they *need* to know where a place is, they look it up! They don't need to memorize the state capitols (for example) at this point in their lives. I learned them all at one point but only remember a few, so what's the point unless they are going to use them?
Language. Again, they learn proper use of language (such as no double negatives!!!) by proper examples. For foreign language, they already know almost as much Spanish as I do just from watching Spanish-speaking cartoons, and I had three years of it in high school! I just don't remember much of it because I almost never use it. Jayla surprised Myles the other day when she counted to 10 in Spanish. We went out to CiCi's Pizza, and they will spurt out "Uno! Dos! Tres!" and then something else, I think whenever a pizza is ready. I'm not really sure why they do that! LOL! But Jayla continued on after tres and went all the way to diez! Yea!!! All this from those little kid cartoons like Dora. Oh, and there are lots of Spanish-speaking toys out now too!
So there you have it. I would be here several more hours if I wrote down everything that came to mind. Some final thoughts, if you are still reading....unschooling really is a lifestyle. It teaches (naturally) the child self-discipline and self-directed learning. If we as parents tried to step in and make decisions for them or stop them from making mistakes or experimenting with certain things on their own because it is "too messy", it would hinder their learning. As stated previously (above), preschool-aged children are almost always unschooled without the parents even realizing it; babies figure out on their own how to sit, crawl and walk, they learn to talk by listening to others and imitating, etc. Even if there is some structured activity, it is usually PLAY of some sort, whether it is sorting colored bears into cups, coloring all the circles green or sorting out various types of beads according to size, shape and/or color, if it is something the child wants to do and enjoys doing or something they use regularly, they will retain what they are learning. That's really the basis of unschooling. The child is allowed to follow their interests and therefore they retain more. They also will retain the things that they use daily, such as how to brush their teeth or put away laundry. The things that they do not use regularly or are not interested in, such as learning all the presidents' names or memorizing the Preamble of the Constitution, they will not retain usually, so why waste their time, and mine!
So now hopefully you can understand why it is so hard to sum up unschooling in one or two sentences. If I could do that, I would have to say it is "helping my kids to learn through everyday life the things they WANT to know about and the things they NEED to know about." I'm not sure if that is adequate, but it's the best I can do in one sentence. :)
