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I’m interested in hearing from parents who unschool some or any of their children. What does that look like? What makes/made it the right choice for some but not all of your kids? How have your children’s learning journeys evolved?

Hey,

I'm 32 and was unschooled for 1 year as a kid. I kind of unschooled myself for much of my 20s, often seeking adventure, following curiosity, and life experience over college and stable jobs. At the end of my 20s my focus changed to deeply appreciate society and start experimenting with finding my sweet zone, living within society but feeling free and interested in life. I really appreciate the holistic perspective that many Unschoolers have, understanding ourselves as working within society but keeping our values as primal natural beings priority, and using critical thinking to pick and choose what parts are pertinent to us personally, from society's loudest prescriptions.

I don't have kids and haven't considered kids in my lifetime. So I'm curious, what are ways I can find similar communities where people think in Unschooling type ways, but the focus isn't on parenting children?

Thanks for reading :)

Eclectic unschoolers, how do you apply unschooling principles to your methodology?

What are some ideas and tips for adding unschooling principles to other educational models? Do you have resources to share with other parents hoping to do the same?

What are some unschooling methods that the uninitiated might not associate with unschooling or that they do not realize that unschoolers do?

What is some good advice that you have received or read about unschooling?

What are some unschooling practices that have not worked for you and why?

I feel like a failure. I don’t know where to begin, I’m 16 and have been unschooled since 9th grade, I’m in 11th currently. As a matter of fact I don’t even know if I’m in 11th because of the severity of the situation. To start off I started unschooling because of social anxiety, I’ve had it since elementary and has not been fixed. When I got out of school to do unschooling I felt happy because I didn’t have to socialize and wake up early. But stupidly enough of me I didn’t do anything at all these two years, a few months ago I have finally realized and asked myself what am I doing? I want to be something in life but how can I when I slacked off? I started doing khan academy but I’m worried because I want to go to college and I have no idea if they’re going to ask for proof of work of 9-10th grade. I feel lost so lost, I wish my mom had chosen curriculum you know, where you get your classes assigned and do my work. But it’s so complicated because I don’t know where to start off and I can’t tell if I’m behind subjects (clearly I am) and I wish my mom would’ve told me to take it serious or pushed me to work but no she didn’t tell me anything which caused me to be lazy and slack off. I wish I had gotten the discipline to do my work but at this point I don’t know what to do. I have done my research and I still feel so lost. But I don’t blame my mom, I as a person should’ve been responsible for my work. In all honesty I get my mom, she took me out of school because of my mental health and because of hers, she stressed everyday waking up taking me and my siblings to school and that finally ended. But I wish I could go back, at least for my senior year but she will disagree, and I totally understand. What do I do? How can I be successful in life? I’m thinking of dual enrollment but what kind of test will be presented to me? How can I study for it? And the SAT. Please help.

Interested in hearing unschool practitioners’ practical application of strewing—there has been a bit of discussion here lately about “what exactly do unschool parents do,” and strewing is a tangible action that can illustrate that.

So what are some of your strewing successes? What are some flops or funny stories?

What are your tips and tricks or questions for others on best practices?

For those unfamiliar with this unschooling tactic, strewing is the act of deliberately and strategically leaving materials in the path of a child to introduce them to or engage interest in a subject.

This can even be expanded to locations—going places that will spark an interest in your child like scientific or historic sites or other “field trips.”

I have struggled sometimes with concern over being manipulative in making my child think they “discovered” things that were planted, but I eventually came to view strewing as part of an overall orchestration and curation of a learning environment.

I have also found that strewing gets more difficult as children mature and gain cognizance of the “man behind the curtain,” so to speak.

I don't know how I missed this in 2020 but Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life is being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra at the moment. The episode broadcast today (which is available on BBC sounds) included an anecdote in which Merlin expressed an interest as a child about how leaves disappeared in the autumn after they fell to the ground and he and his father did an experiment in a bottle, with layers of earth and leaves and some earthworms. The ideas that arose as the result of this experiment informed the path he took (to condense a much more elegant telling of the story).

It encapsulates the philosophy of unschooling in one anecdote, and his hypnotically listenable voice and the music of his brother Cosmo, is a whole which I think any unschooling family might enjoy. BBC radio programmes are available online for free in many countries except a handful where it is blocked. Some programmes may not be available due to rights issues (mainly sports programmes I think) and i sincerely hope this isn't one of those - it's wonderful.

I was brought up in Canada and unschooled from birth, I didn't have many in person friends growing up but in a lot of ways it made me comfortable being myself, I am creative and confident. I feel like unschooling still has something of a poor reputation to some who think that they're child will end up awkward and insecure, but i don't think that's true for everyone. I think that it has to do with your parents, unschooling make a child completely reliant on their parents/guardians so if they don't know how to effectively support you than It can lead to that malnourished feeling. But unschooling parents can learn to teach and take care of their kids just like any other parent can and should.

I want to share my story as an example of how beneficial unschooling is, so here is the data from my life.
I was taught to eat when I'm hungry which led to me having a quite healthy relationship with food, although I still boredom eat.
I spend a lot of time in nature which has led me to being really fit and strong. Knock on wood
Despite the fact that I may not have had a lot of friends growing up I am incredibly charismatic and confident, if not a little reserved at times. I am an introvert.
I was shown that learning is my own responsibility and right, I have the right to take wisdom from each day that I experience.
And I have a relationship as deep as Egypt with my parents and siblings from spending so much time with them.

To each of these pros there are cons, it doesn't always feel great to have 1 or 2 friends, I didn't learn how to go to bed at a good hour, I have spent many seasons inside glued to my computer, and a lot of the strengths I have now are because I overcame hurdles given to me by life, but I would not change it for the world. Thank you, feel free to ask questions, have a nice day. 🙏

Everyone who unschools their children but does it the right way (as it was intended), what do you think of the people on tiktok who do it horribly. Are they giving unschooling a bad name? Everyone I know who knows nothing about unschooling hears "unschooling", thinks of the TikTok people, and is instantly disgusted. I'm talking about the TikTok people who don't seem to have any interest in helping their children learn and seem to be almost proud that their 8yr old children can't read.

this is a genuine question. i'm coming here to ask yall because i, like a lot of other people, have been seeing a lot of unschooling tiktoks and insta reels recently. and what these influencers are doing is kind of insane. leaving your kids to do nothing all day is simply a terrible idea. so i came on here and i've found a lot of posts that are critical about unschooling are met with a lot of backlash talking about how that's not what unschooling really is and these parents don't actually understand unschooling and are misusing it and just neglecting their kids.

so my question is what is it actually supposed to be and how is it actually supposed to work? how does an unschooled child learn? what do you do if they're uninterested in learning something they'll need to know in the future, like reading or math? how do they learn things their parents don't know? how do they learn things at the advanced level? how do they learn about things they don't know exist yet? how does an unschooled child who wants to become a doctor or engineer or some other specialized profession that requires specialized education do that? to what extent does an unschooling parent follow their child's interests? do they get limits or structure? do they have any kind of schedule they'll need to follow at all (like bedtimes) and if not how do they adapt to a job or university environment where they have to follow a schedule? how do they discover new topics or hobbies if you only teach them stuff they're interested in?

Can someone explain what exactly it is? I'm hoping to homeschool my children eventually. I've heard of unschooling before, but not entirely sure what it means.

Are you a strewer? A collaborator? An experience-creator? Have you stumbled upon great resources or been given helpful advice that you have employed? Have you tweaked your style to incorporate other methods of educating?

I would like to hear stories of implementation of unschooling in practice and create a resource for those who are unschooling, are interested in unschooling, or are trying to get their own unschooling (perhaps failed or faulty) more robust and effective.

i might post this in a few communities to get a wider range of answers but any help would be appreciated :/ I turn 16 next month and have been decided for a while to go back to school in the hopes of getting scholarships for college and pursuing a career hopefully in forensics. the hurdle (other than convincing my parents to actually let me go) is that Ive been "unschooled" since 5th grade (just entered 10th) which basically means ive had absolutely zero education since 4th grade. I know I'm behind where I should be and I'm terrified of going back to school and having to go down or redo school years far below where I should be because my parents neglected me. I really don't want to finish high school at 23 so I plan on catching up on a lot of what I missed this year and then going back junior and senior year of high school. I'm fully aware of how difficult this will be but the main point of this post is asking for help because I have absolutely no idea on where or how to start in catching up on 5 years worth of school plus learning what I should be for this school year on my own. does anyone have any online school resources, advice or any words of wisdom they could share?

Well I'm not exactly homeschooled but given you guys build yourselves a curriculum for your peers I might want to look into that for help. I'm a bit behind my classes and just understanding topics surrounding trigonometry, Alg II, and geometry. They aren't my strong suit so I'm looking for resources to help me out on these subjects in the summer and really make the most of it! Thank you for reading :)

My name is Melissa, and I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Northern Colorado. For my doctoral dissertation, I am conducting a research study on the experiences of unschoolers in college. As a former non-traditionally schooled student, I hope to raise awareness of unschoolers who choose to attend higher education.

I am reaching out today to invite you to review the eligibility criteria outlined below. Those who choose to participate and are selected will be offered a $60 Gift Card. If you or someone you know is interested, please consider completing the form below.

To be eligible, study participants must be both:

• Currently enrolled as an undergraduate student OR, Graduated within the past two years from a four-year university in the United States
• Unschooled for at least two years between middle school and their senior year of high school

 
Participation in the study will involve two recorded individual interviews on Zoom, each lasting between 60-90 minutes. Additionally, you will be asked to share three items that exemplify your experiences in higher education.

If you are interested in participating, please send me a direct message.

Feel free to pass this message on to others you believe may be interested.

I was basically unschooled as a kid and I think it would be really cool to work at an unschooling camp or something like that. I've already contacted Not Back To School. Any other places I should reach out to?

We invite everybody to read our newest book Pearls Before Swing: Nudism, Education, & The High-Trust Society HERE. This free text delves deep into the philosophy of nudism in school and family settings.

Learn more about our college and high school HERE.

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Hello, I have been unschooled since I was born, first let me run over some basic topics. Am I completely stupid, I would like to think not, do I have social anxiety, yes, partly, but doesn’t every teenage boy? do I hate my parents for raising me differently than most parents? Definitely not, I love them more than anything in the whole world and they are genuinely the two smartest people I know, Do I think I am going to be set up for the real world, the real answer is I don’t know, I don’t know what the world is like, will the things I missed in public school have made me be ready for life? maybe, but Ill just have to find a way to make it anyways, so I don’t really mind. I recently found this sub reddit and see a large amount of people that are against unschooling and seem to be very close minded and generally not very nice people, and are doing much more bad than good with their comments, I have been reading them and if those are the people that school creates, I don’t think school is for me.

Also if I completely forget about this post I am sorry, I decided to use a new account for this as I have learned very quickly that sharing personal information on the same reddit account as you use for everything else is not smart. Anyways have a good day :)

Hi there: I’m a reporter with The Guardian working on a feature about unschooling. I’ve spoken to some people who were “unschooled” or “free schooled,” and had quite positive experiences. I’m curious to speak to people who had negative experiences with this mode of learning. If you’d like to chat, feel free to message me on here.

Hope this is OK to post. I need to vent and I'm hoping to hear from people who have experienced anything similar please 🙏

Deregistered 6yo daughter 2 months ago. 7yo son waiting for a SEN placement but I'm only a breath away from deregistering him as well, because I don't know how I can keep fighting for what he is entitled to.

All three of us are PDA profile AuDHD.

I'm solo parenting, and we have little to no support from family. My ex is financially/emotionally abusive, and the kids are not always comfortable to spend time with him. I haven't yet finalised our divorce.

I resonate with and truly believe in the unschooling ethos, and I think that it will be amazing for my kids, who both experience extreme anxiety due to the school system.

Over a year ago, I was reported to social services due to concerns about FII (prior to my daughter's assessment and subsequent diagnosis). This was extremely traumatic and unexpected (and completely unnecessary as proven by her diagnosis). As a result, we have a family support worker. It took a year of let-downs and disdain from children's services before we were allocated this new person. She seems lovely and supportive, but is extremely pro-school and misinformed about the validity and legality of home ed.

I have experienced multiple life-changing traumas in my childhood and over last few years, in addition to those incurred through navigating the social and educational system. When I self-referred for therapy, they too reported my family to social services, despite my explaining what we had already been through with them. Due to this, I did not continue to seek their services. I have approached a somatic therapist, but I cannot afford the sessions.

I've got such a beautiful picture in my mind of how our lives could be, but rather than embracing our newfound freedom and confidently moving forward, I feel shameful, annoyed at myself, betrayed by everyone, unable to offer the kids engaging activities, isolated, anxious and afraid. I expected to feel relieved when I deregistered my daughter, but instead I felt disappointment and terror.

How can I help my children blossom, emotionally and educationally, when I am far from a good model of either skill? How can I get back my confidence and determination? I was an overachiever all of my life, but nowadays, simply functioning to survive feels so hard.

I know I've done the right thing because since deregistering, my daughter hasn't experienced any meltdowns. Not one. Whereas before, she was violently lashing out at me around 3 times every day.

I want so much to give them what they need, but it feels impossible without a support system in place. And I have lost all trust in the systems/services that purportedly exist to help people.

I'd love to hear from you if you've experienced anything remotely similar? Hopefully with a tale of how everything seemed hopeless but eventually worked out(!) or some suggestions of how I can heal, in order to support my kids the way that I know I can, and should.

Sorry for this huge essay of selfishness and woe. For what it's worth, I know that I am the problem here, and I am disgusted by myself. I desperately want to do better.

Hi hello, I’m starting REAL school in September this year (i know so cool) I’m scared out of my mind and have no idea on what I should even be learning to get to the right level. I think imma be in grade 10 or 11 (I’m in Canada btw)

When I was younger my mom would teach me on and off (more often then not off) Ive been trying to work through khan academy but my lap top broke and useing my phone is really really hard. I don’t even Know what people my age would be learning.

Should I just start at grade 9 on khan academy and work my way up? Will that take too long? Will I even learn what i am supposed to? I don’t know anyone in hight school is that I’d be comfortable asking.

My father was abusive, and my mother as much as I love her, wasn’t a good teacher. That is to say she really hasn’t thought me what she should have ://// I just wanna be normal.

I’m not very good at speaking my words kind mash together and I don’t even notice or they are just very slurred I’m also dyslexic

Any advice (I was just gonna do the GED but that is no longer a thing) also I was kinda ranting to get stuff offf my chest

I turned 18 recently, and have been homeschooled since perhaps 8 or 9, and unschooled since perhaps 11. I know nothing. I just recently learned how to do division, am overwhelmed, and I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m expected to just teach myself everything with no guidance and I’m feeling hopeless and at a loss, I want to pursue a career in Nuclear Energy/Physics but I feel as though I’m not good enough and won’t ever be, and being told that it’s my fault for the situation I’m in doesn’t help at all.

I just want to be normal. I live in a tiny hamlet, have no friends and have severe social anxiety. I can’t even go outside without panicking at the idea that someone will see me. I feel like there’s nothing I can do, has anyone ever had this problem? Is there anything I can do to fix it by myself? I need guidance but there’s no one I can turn to. I know I have to do it myself but I don’t know where to start. I feel like my life is over before it’s even started.