Reader Question: Considering Unschooling, Young Children
I wasn’t going to get back into things until after the New Year, but a reader needs help.
————————————————————————————
Hello, I am new to unschooling and trying to learn all that I can. Some blogs on here seem very informative.
I guess unschooling just varies alot from person to person. I am basically against this system. The school system, the whole thing. My 5 yr ol does half a day kindergarten and I really dont like it. I dont want hime going to first grade but have a hard time envisioning how to avoid it. Here the big joke lol- I am a law school student with a semester and a half left so I have a ton of dept piling up ugh. My wife and I also have 3 year old daughter and a brand new 2 month old son.
Unschooling’s critique of the school system seems very on point to me (It my analysis of this system as a whole and I apply i across the board). I am really just trying to learn about unschooling and more importantly even is to network. Thanks for any help.
Hi there, just to get you started just a grab from my blog, there’s many many more if you click the unschooling label:
http://www.authenticparenting.info/2010/10/no-education-comment-turned-post.html
http://www.authenticparenting.info/2010/09/unschooling-and-interests.html
http://www.authenticparenting.info/2010/09/hierarchical-school-system-and-its.html
Feel free to come over and ask me anything you like.
Then of course other great links are the Radical Unschooling Network, Sandra Dodd and The Natural Child Project
I’m not sure what the question is regarding making it happen. Is it financial, family logistics, removing a child from school, or other? We have some unschooling articles archived and available on the Life Learning Magazine website http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com if that would help.
There are a lot of options for homeschooling parents and a lot of variations on how it is done. My advice would be to first find out the laws and regulations in your state to find out the necessary steps to declare your family a home school. Then I would use the internet to find out the various types of homeschooling including unschooling, radical unschooling, natural learning and more. You may find it necessary to take bits and pieces from various methods and create a hodgepodge of sorts that works best for your family. That’s the sky is the limit and all the choices are yours to make, hope this helps.
That’s quite a difficult situation. I’ll try to give you some tips.
-If you life in a fairly large city, or near a fairly large city, you might be able to find a homeschooling co-op, waldorf homeschooling program, or some friends who homeschool/unschool their children. Some Waldorf homeschooling programs are free, and some are more expensive. The one near where I life is around $500 a year, which is much better than most private schools.
-If you have family members who are home with children, or just home, that you trust, it might work out to do that.
-Is your wife at home? If she is, it might work out to have your son at home.
-If you live near an alternative school that you feel comfortable with, you might be able to qualify for financial aid.
I’d suggest looking up a few of these terms:
“Waldorf homeschooling program” (It’s better than school, I suppose)
“Homeschooling groups near…”
although it does not seem that you are looking into homeschooling, there are lots of groups around for homeschooling families that are closer to unschooling. Worst comes to worst, you might find a place for your child to stay during the day that is tolerant of keeping your child out of school.
“Unschooling groups near…”
Even better than homschooling groups, but they tend to be in large cities.
“Free schools, near…”
It’s not a great, or even good alternative, but it might work.
If you want, you can email me at conradreingols@gmail.com, and I might be able to help you find some more options.