I wrote a book on Unschooling (with help from the internet and ghost writers – I don’t have that much energy and brain power!). It will soon be available as a Kindle download.
Wondering what Unschooling is? Unschooling is a versatile and flexible approach to homeschooling that can cater to a wide range of family needs and interests. Whether you are seeking a personalized education for your child with special needs, a religious-based curriculum, or a focus on creativity, nature, or entrepreneurship, unschooling provides the freedom and flexibility to create a tailored learning experience that suits your family’s unique needs.
We started home/unschooling Liam when he was 8 years old (he is almost 15!). When we first started I thought I would need to sit him at a desk for 6 hours straight feeding him worksheets and workbooks and testing him every hour.
Boy did that backfire.
I realized quickly there was a reason we pulled him from public school. He is super smart but has trouble learning facts by memorizing them. He still struggles with his multiplication facts and that’s ok. He is a writer and an actor and a history buff. He loves current news and events and the intricacies of international political disputes. He loves to debate, is self-motivated to do research, watches vlogs about everything history without being asked and teaches us daily. He is a geography whiz and can identify flags and maps from all nations and time periods. Not even kidding – we were watching a movie about Anne Frank and he paused it to identify the map on the wall behind a teacher as circa pre-Byzantine empire.
So, basically we decided traditional curriculum was not going to work. We needed to find stuff to keep him excited but not send him out into the world without a basic understanding of the stuff he does not get excited about. And that’s how I started our variation of Unschooling. Like all flavors of homeschooling there are levels of unschooling. What works for us might not work for you. That is the beauty of homeschooling. You can learn as you go and make changes until you find what works best for you and your kids. I use traditional curriculum for math and science (with lots of writing about mathematicians and scientists [especially ancient brilliant minds!]) and we spend as much time as possible visiting history museums, art galleries, science museums and hands-on experiences. We travel as much as possible and explore outside where ever we find ourself.
This can get expensive however there are ways to save money.
- Reserve tickets/get passes with your library card. **NOTE: it is nearly impossible to homeschool without a library card and honestly straight up silly not to.
- Take advantage of AAA, bank or credit union benefits. Ask around!
- Visit on a day with free or reduced admission.
- Look for flexible pricing policies.
- Use military, senior or other discounts. Here is another tip -> get yourself some homeschool student and teacher ID cards. Search etsy.com for ID cards and create a simple one by uploading photos and creating a school name. Keep it simple. PS – I also use mine to get a discount at Michael’s. It’s 15% and it is stacked on top of other discount codes.
Here are some blog posts about Unschooling: