Unschooling is a way of life which is rooted in freedom of choice, natural learning, unconditional love, respect, connection, and finding ways to always say “YES”. We all have a natural born curiousity about our world around us and we all learn in different ways. Some require structure while others require the freedom to daydream and paint. Unschooling allows the child to learn what they want to learn when and how they choose to learn it. There is no curriculum unless the child chooses one. When they are ready to read then they will read whether it be at 2 or 9 years of age, there is never any have to’s in unschooling unless the child decides there are. My son, now age 4,chooses his bedtime, what he wants to eat, when he will bathe, what he wears, and what he wants to do every day. For example, now his passion is transformers, he plays with them, makes them out of legos, draws them, watches them on T.V, and we read a comic book nightly about them. He is obsessed! Which is the exact way I am about my ecotravelers project now. It is my belief that by following your heart and doing only what we desire to do in every moment we are aligned with our divine purpose. He will find out much more about his self and his abilities by doing what he chooses instead of me controlling him and telling him what to do and how to think. I love finding ways to say yes! YES! YES! By saying yes to Zarek, I am finding ways to say yes to myself.
We love attending an unschooling conference yearly in Dallas, tx called Rethinking Education, www.rethinkingeducation.com, there are so many freedom loving parents, awesome out of the box workshops, and funtastic activities for kids of all ages we barely sleep during our 5 day stay!
Here are some other great unschooling links
www.holtgws.com Holt’s Growing Without Schooling Website with questions and answers.
www.johntaylorgatto.com I was able to hear John Gatto speak last year at the Rethinking Education conference and it was life transforming and opened my eyes even wider for myself and my mother!
www.nbtsc.com The Not Back to School Camp for unschooled kids
Ecotravelers's Blog 