Hi everyone!

I am curious if there are people who do art appreciation lessons as a part of their curriculum. I’m interested in what resources you use and what difficulties you have with those resources.

I am about to launch an online art appreciation tool and looking for a feedback.
Hello from downunder 🙃
Cheers!

English is my 2nd language I struggle with reading, writing, and grammar. My math skills are poor. I am incapable of unschooling or homeschooling my kids. How did you do it? How did you teach to read? how did you teach writing? how did you teach grammar? In math, I can see how someone would teach adding and subtracting. How did you teach multiplication, division, and fractions? order of operations. If you teach science and history only based on their interests wouldn't you miss out on a lot? what the process of getting into college

I would never homeschool or unschooling. I personally feel I am not smart enough to provide that.

The concept sounds amazing . Topics are tailored to the interest of the child. My concern is implementing this concept. Can anyone share successful stories and the process for them to continue on to college. How did you teach them to read. Did you teach them to write. You taught grammar and math. What do history and science lessons look like. How did you implement this idea. How do asses there learning. Are there any studies and or scientific research. No method is perfect anyone want to give reviews on what might not work or become obstacles

I was pulled out of school in 2nd grade due to my anxiety and stubbornness. I homeschooled on and off from then on but I haven’t finished a grade since probably elementary school. I’m 18 now and all of my friends are graduating and going off to college and all I wanna do is graduate and set myself up for success. Any advice? Are there dropout recovery programs I can do? I’m naturally very intelligent but my mental health completely compromised my education and now I’m dealing with the years of guilt and laziness

My 8yo wants to pass her GED by 12 and some CLEP by 14 but might still want to go to HS for the experience. She's in a mental competition with her 4 year older half-sister (Both live with their dads, Older sis has always bullied the younger and still does). She's doing interest-led project-based learning and already looking toward having her own business(es) starting now. But she feels like she might want the peer experience. Has anyone done this (gone to school while basically already testing out of it)? How did it work out for your family?

What do you guys do with your unschooled kids after 17? How do you ensure they get a good job with no educational degree? Are you allowed to keep your children home from school as well? Or is this kind of a stay under the radar thing

I have a three year old and 1 year old and absolutely love this approach to learning. What are some outside resources you all have turned to? We live a relatively active life and in a weekly parent preschool program. I just want to make sure I am appropriately challenging her in the right way. And introducing the right concepts.

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https://reddit.com/link/1c2khqk/video/zvyomazw54uc1/player

Hello friends! I'm hosting a few free community painting classes for creative kids. Many of us can't get to an art center as much as we might like because of schedules or it just being too far away. My hope is that these community classes can be a way for creative kids to connect and explore in a safe space that's convenient for mom and dad. If your family loves to paint or draw, drop on by!

Details

🥳 Homeschoolers age 7-14, totally free

🖼️ We'll be painting... Picasso Portraits with Watercolor!

📆 Tuesdays and Wednesdays

📍 At Home (virtual)

🌈 Event Link: https://www.artwithlauren.com/pages/community-classes

💛 Take care friends

https://preview.redd.it/0z1na7be74uc1.png?width=1346&format=png&auto=webp&s=c173ce8a2af9f620dbac1e04bfb3d08af12f0b34

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What are some invitation to learn set ups you have around your house? For example, I have a bunch of learning placemats for my preschooler including one to practice writing. I set out a dry erase marker and leave the placemat there all day so it’s easily available if she’s interested in learning to write

Hey all! Trying to understand how something like math, mathematical thinking, which is useful in adult life (we all have to do our taxes and need some financial literacy) is picked up by unschoolers. Would love to hear from anyone with personal experience. What triggered an interest? Any anecdotes about aversion or apathy flipping to interest based on some incident or episode. Thanks!

17f

Hey guys so all together I've spent just a little under a year in school. 11 months in 2nd grade and two days in 7th (yes laughable I know.)

Story time about my pathetic life. I spent most of my tween and teen years not studying at all, playing video games and doing drugs. Not really fully realizing that I need to prepare for my future and not just fuck off. My parents did the drugs w me so I didn't have a parental figure telling me to shoot for success and study. They were actually more than happy to take me out of school. I'm not mad at them anymore because I know that I should've tried harder. I dropped out of 7th grade because of the stress of not understanding the math and I had a UTI. The whole UTI thing is stupid. I lied about my age to a 17 year old when I was 12 and did gross stuff online w them. At least a few times my mom walked in and saw, I told her his age. So many red flags and she didn't do anything, made it feel like she didn't care about me. She never gave me any advice except to get high when I'm upset.

Any flipping way, my question is; is it still possible to get my GED and handle community college? Anyone here with similar experiences that put their adult pants on and educated themselves? I keep stressing that I fucked up my life and won't get far. All I wanna do is get my licence and GED so I can get a job, save up and help out my family and pets the best way I can. I have 20 pets so it's hard to afford to keep all of them that why I want to have money to make sure they're all happy. I keep thinking maybe I should try and get a degree by transferring to a uni after cc but is that even possible? Will anyone accept me after knowing I've been "homeschooled" my entire life? Or will they just take one look and think I'm a total dumbass who isn't worthy of classes.

Please please please. I really need advice right now

I want to know can you unschool yourself? I don't have kids or anything but when I do I want to do that for them, but I want to learn more things like that myself but idk how and I was wondering if anyone could help.

Hey everyone!
I have made posts here semi-regularly about a tool I have been working on to try and make education more personalized, as this was the biggest thing I felt was missing when I started homeschooling(with a very strong unschooling vibe) about 3 years ago. I felt like I had just left the public school system just to get a knock-off of the same curriculum, rebadged as 'homeschooling'. I think technology, and the unrestricted paradigm of homeschooling/unschooling, can do so much more for students in how they learn than has been done so far. If TikTok and YouTube can personalize dumb videos to each user, why can't we personalize the most impactful thing in a student's life--their education, to exactly what their goals and personal interests are. All without losing sight of fundamentals, just changing how they are taught.

So, I built HomeScholar.XYZ, a platform that lets students learn what they want, how they want, and when they want, and lets parents guide, support, and collaborate with their children in their learning. V2 just launched, and I would appreciate it(so much!) if you could check it out and spare one sentence of feedback/first impressions/thoughts on it.
Here is the link - you can try it totally free. If you have any questions, ideas, or feedback, dm me here, leave a comment, or you can me email me personally at andrew@homescholar.xyz.
Really appreciate it :)

Hi! I am about to give birth to my first child and I am looking for some books to read during maternity leave. Drop your favorites or the ones you have found most helpful below!

Hi all! I'm Ben, I'm a 19 year old grown unschooler and filmmaker. I'm writing here because I attended Not Back To School Camp last year and it was a truly wonderful, and dare I say, life changing experience. It brought a wonderful community of people and a new range of new experiences into my life! I would sincerely recommend it other unschoolers. They're in the early bird state of sign-ups right now, so I would definitely check it out if you may be interested. Happy to answer any questions based on my personal experience : )

Hey Everyone!
I am a 17-year-old homeschooled student working on making a tool for homeschoolers. I am trying to drill down on what is most important to be working on to improve the tool: What's the biggest hurdle with your homeschooling/unschooling experience as it relates to shaping your kids' intellectual/character development? This is a reoccurring theme when talking to both parents and kids, a disconnect here, so is there anything that would be useful to help solve this?
If you can spare a sentence of feedback, I would GREATLY appreciate it :)

So I am a neurodiveregent mother of a n adult neurodiveregent child. I unschooled for kindergarten and first grade, and homeschooled for 2-7, and my son then decided to go to public highschool and graduated with his peer group. I let my son have a say in all of the curriculum we choose, although it was like pulling teeth trying to align his interests with the core curriculum requirements in at least a couple of subjects each year. I want to create lessons and curriculum that is so hands on, so exciting, so fun, that kids will want to do it. I think that developing lifelong love of learning is the seed of a good education. And having a son who had an inability to engage with content that wasn't meaningful or exciting to him, I really started to appreciate the fact that having kids that are playing, passionate, and curious about whatever they are doing means that you've got smart little sprouts growing and learning. It's all about supplying them the tools and supplies for their pursuits, and the answers to their questions, because a child who loves learning and learns as they play will eventually ask just about every question known to man. I believe unschooling is the ideal option for most if not all kids, especially in the early years. But I know it is not an option for many of us who begrudgingly accept homeschooling as a way to shelter our family from the oppression of institutionalized learning. And if you were like me, then you also might have cried and thrown your hands up in exhaspiration upon realizing how narrow a variety of curriculum there is to choose from that meets the states core standards.

So I have a mission. To make math and reading and writing so awesome that kids will ask to do it. That they will choose to meet the standards because those are some bit of information that's inconsequential in comparison to the vast plethora of enjoyable activities suited to children of different learning styles.engaging and exciting to children with different interests and motivations.

I'm not sure it's possible. And if you are sure it's not please don't break my heart. But if you have any advice or ideas, any wisdom that could help this pipe dream become an available resource... Please let me know...

LOL. I know, it's a weird question since unschoolers are everywhere.

HOWEVER, we must certainly admit - there are more in some places than others. We happen to live in an area where we are very isolated and lonely. We are looking for places (in the US) where there are small (or dare I wish for medium?!) unschooling communities. Likely going to be centered around a Sudbury or SDE school/program and that would be great! We are hungry for community and LOVE those school models and would be open to that! Please tell me, where can we go where there won't just be 5 unschoolers and my kids can actually have friends!? (Oh, and Cali, NY, WV, CT, and Maine are out b/c of vax laws). Thanks! <3

My sister told me you guys would have the best advice. I'm applying for an apprenticeship which specifies it does not require a degree, and even has a whole section in their FAQ about understanding diverse education backgrounds, and I do technically meet every single requirement laid out...but it is also very high paying--a whopping $60 an hour full time--at a huge game development company, and I didn't finish high school and never got a GED.

My grandpa suggested I leave my education out of the resume entirely, but sources online are telling me that this will get my application thrown out. What should I do? If I do include an education section, how would I describe it?

EDIT: For clarity, I am a high school dropout and this would be my first job.

Hi, my name is Amy and I'm completing a research project (Personal Interest Project or PIP) for my year 12 Society and Culture class. I would love to learn more about the impacts of homeschooling first-hand from homeschooled students. The questions are asked in an interview style and require short-response answers, therefore this survey may be somewhat time-consuming. All the responses collected remain anonymous and the data will not be published, only used for closed marking by NESA. I would appreciate it if you completed my survey and please be as detailed as possible in your responses!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/177sOt_uAmWHk7TInNTsMtYQXMyP0OMuRgR9YXHUNq2E/edit

So im trying to start unschooling in texas but can't find out which is the actual way to register or start. How do I withdraw from my current online school and register for unschooling? Are certain subjects required? Are there yearly exams or evaluations? If so how do I do that?

I feel pretty confused with the amount of different things said online.. some people say I need to contact the texas education agency, notify them of my plans, and then withdraw, some say I need to register and do paperwork to start homeschooling or something like that, and others say I can simply just withdraw and get started. I've also heard many people say you need to have a yearly evaluation while others say you don't have to any of that. Anyways yes my parents are on board and im currently in 9th.

Hey Everyone!
I am a 17-year-old homeschooled student working on making a tool for homeschoolers. I am trying to drill down on what is most important: What's the biggest hurdle you're facing with your homeschooling experience, curriculum, or tools right now?

In its current state, HomeScholar.XYZ is cool and useful but not killer. Trying to make homeschooling/unschooling "push-button" easy and personalized to every student's interest, but between a few ideas as to what is the highest leverage here.

Even one sentence of feedback would be amazing, and GREATLY appreciated.

Hi, long time lurker. I'm an adult who was homeschooled, and I've found a good amount of solidarity on a certain sub for that demographic. But the dominant attitude among ex-homeschoolers there seems to be that they never would ever think about homeschooling their kids because of the trauma they experienced homeschooling. Even among ex-unschoolers; they feel unschooling is inherently neglectful, and "well your parents did it the wrong way!" doesn't cut it for them. That whole sub seems to worship public school.

My homeschooling experience was incredibly negative and traumatic, but I never experienced educational neglect like many of them did. I did Classical Conversations, homeschool forensics, and took concurrent college classes; I was always up to speed on math/science/English, got great standardized test scores, and transitioned just fine to college. This was true of many of my homeschooled classmates, too.

That's not to say I think my education was good; It was still toxically indoctrinating (Young Earth Creationism, right-wing religion and politics, etc), and I think I was really failed in history. But the greater barrier for me was what my education did to my motivation/drive: I felt like I was in a lowkey prep school, developed crippling perfectionism and procrastination very young, and burned out halfway through college (the pandemic didn't help).

Plus, I was absolutely steeped in the homeschool world's authoritarianism. So my response, both to 1) the arbitrary elitism and "hard work for its own sake" attitude of my education, and 2) the authoritarianism and indoctrination of homeschool curriculum and culture, was to become really attracted to free-range parenting and unschooling philosophies. I envied my public schooled friends for the small amounts of autonomy they had in their educations, but I envied my unschooled friend even more - she lived so freely, and still does, and she had and has a great relationship with her mom, whereas I felt, and still feel, so stilted, and my relationship with my parents will definitely never recover.

That friend is struggling academically now, though, and she believes, like the ex-unschoolers on that other sub, that she was educationally neglected. I think she wishes she'd been public schooled.

I'm far from ever having kids, but I guess I just wanted to open these thoughts to this community. On that other sub, I've started to wonder if my value system is an extremist trauma response, and might not be best for kids, if I ever have any. Just wondered if anyone, specifically unschooled children or adults who were unschooled as children, had thoughts/stories.

School was always very traumatic for me, as I learned very quickly for my age and was actually reprimanded for going ahead. After my third year in public school, my mom pulled me out. My other sibling are unschooled as well, the only things they are required to learn are reading, writing, and math up to pre-algebra. (These are very useful as an adult.) Other than those subjects I was able to choose my interests, which happened be writing and history. (Big History on khan academy is great btw, I’m always surprised when people say they’ve never heard of it, khan academy that is) My mom supplemented my, distaste for biology, by taking me to National Parks where I could see the caste diversity of life and grow interested. As for other science, I mostly learned through amazing documentaries that would lead me to research. I am 19 and currently writing my first novel, have had short stories and poems published, and grew up being allowed to be me, with all my quirks. When I got my diagnosis of level two autism at age seventeen (my mom also has traits and so thought they were normal until meeting another kid just like me, diagnosed) the doctor said that I barely met requirements for level two, but only because I grew up in such a supportive household where my needs where met. She said that I would have needed much more help had I continued to go to public school.

I think the most important thing that helped me with unschooling was honestly my mom’s strict stance on technology and internet usage. I only was allowed to have social media after completing an internet safety course at age 13 (and reading the terms and conditions so I understood what I was doing) and only got unfettered access to to the internet at 17 after confirming that I would not watch any shows with my siblings that where not approved (anything with gore, explicit sex scenes, extreme profanity).

And the whole time my mom would regularly check to see if I was managing my time and ask if I saw anything I would want to talk about or if anything bad happened. This safe net to communicate was one reason I deleted Snapchat (after one hour of use I had three porn bots and one adult sending explicit images) and felt safe discussing my concerns. I learned to avoid scammy sites, and turn off when I saw things I didn’t like. I was taught how to find factual resources and check the validity of studies.

Overall, I grew up feeling safe and valued, and being able to form my own sense of self with the knowledge that my mom would love me, whoever I turned out to be. I am truly grateful for the privilege to be unschooled, and my mom having the ability to stay home and raise me and my siblings, even after my dad died. (I would like to add that my dad also played a big hand in supporting us and being present and would have loved to be a stay at home dad. And even with work he always made time for us and took over when he got home.)

Hi all! I work in an sde/unschooling environment and look forward to introducing some electronics, but need advice on the equipment. One project they've shown interest for is making a playable recording (eg. "close the door"). Does anyone have experience with that kind of equipment? We really don't need anything complicated and the recording itself can be done through a phone as long as it can then be transferred to the speaker. I'm essentially looking for which parts (probably up to £20ish) would be needed for this kind of activity as I seem to have no luck finding basic parts online.

Besides the speaker/memory, I'm also planning to use copper tape and coin cell batteries, but happy to change that plan if more power or equipment is necessary.

Thanks so much for any help!