CommentsDisplaying unschooling's 10 most recent comments.

• Study: Home-Schooled Kids Beat Public School Kids in Math, Reading

  September 27, 2011 at 1:56pm

  In reply to unschooling.

  Thank you, Chipmunk. I came to this article through a link posted on a Yahoo homeschooling group. Never heard of The Blaze before then. As an atheist and Green Party member, I can’t say that The Blaze speaks to me, but it is nice that you extended your kind words to someone “like” myself. When parents love their children and make those children the number one priority in life, then we have something huge in common.

• Study: Home-Schooled Kids Beat Public School Kids in Math, Reading

  September 27, 2011 at 1:46pm

  In reply to Carl McPherson.

  Your definition of unschooling is way off base. Pat Ferenga, co-author of Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling, writes: “Unschooling is not unparenting; freedom to learn is not license to do whatever you want. People find different ways and means to get comfortable with John Holt’s ideas about children and learning and no one style of unschooling or parenting defines unschooling.”

  We took our son out of public school in third grade. He was offered a chance to “skip” a grade but we decided to unschool him instead. The many unschooling parents I’ve met are as busy as I am when it comes to helping our children educate themselves. I take my responsibilities as a parent very seriously and I‘ve never met an unschooler who doesn’t. My husband and I have advanced degrees and offer our child the world as his classroom. Our home is filled with books and I am always looking for learning opportunities that will excite my son.

  Some weed would be nice but, until it is legal, I’ll have to muddle along with an occasional beer.

• Study: Home-Schooled Kids Beat Public School Kids in Math, Reading

  September 27, 2011 at 1:17pm

  In reply to Lone Ranger.

  We will not be “blowing away” any time soon. There are more of us every year. My 12-year-old unschooling son sits at the kitchen table only for family meals, but he often uses his own desk to make his way through his current math book–high school algebra–or to draw. He doesn’t have to take tests (which really only teach you how to take tests) so he is free to learn beyond a curriculum. His current self-chosen interests are WWII and computer science. Currently, he is taking classes in fencing, art history, studio art, and theater. He belongs to an anime club, sits on a library advisory board, enjoys a writing club, is active with another library’s teen activities, and plays Dagorhir.

  I’d say that my husband and I are more nerd than hippy. We both have master’s degrees and combined undergrad degrees in math, environmental science, and English. We could easily buy into the curriculum scene and force our son to “school” at home, but have seen that he has become the smart, kind, funny, curious kid that he is through our “letting him” unschool. That isn’t to say that unschooling is for every child or that one needs to unschool every aspect of an education. I know eclectic homeschoolers who use a curriculum for one or two things or create their own studies and then unschool the rest.

  Too bad that “studies” like this are pitting the may varieties of homeschool experience against each other and creating a “hippy” image of unschooling.

• Study: Home-Schooled Kids Beat Public School Kids in Math, Reading

  September 16, 2011 at 9:16am

  My 12-year-old is unschooling and spends a lot of time zoning out with “non-educational” movies and cartoons. He plays with Legos and his cats. He reads whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He stays up late chatting with Dad and playing computer games. He doesn’t get out of bed until 8 or 9 or even 10 AM. Sometimes he makes himself a milkshake for breakfast. Many of his days are spent on the beach or at parks.

  He is currently making his way through high school algebra and has always been years “ahead” in reading. His current self-chosen projects are learning about WWII and doing computer programming and graphics. He is currently taking classes in fencing, studio art, art history, and theater. He is active with two area libraries and is on one of the library’s teen advisory boards. He does a bit of blacksmithing. He plays Dagorhir weekly and loves the Anime Club he attends monthly. He knows how to comparison shop, pay bills, clean a bathroom, do his own laundry, shovel snow, vacuum the carpets, and make his own simple meals and has been doing these things since a much younger age. Because he is not obligated to follow a school-homework schedule, he is able to attend conferences, gallery openings (we have two museum memberships), films, lectures and workshops where he is often the only child in attendance.

  He has never taken a test or memorized state capitols so I’ll bet this study would declare him “behind grade level.”