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 :)

I wanted to share Learnyx, an AI-powered reading app that enables children to read about any topic at any reading level, resulting in deeply personalized reading experiences.

As a parent you can easily see what your child is reading about, create assignments to guide their learning and track their performance.

Right now Learnyx is offering a free beta for families and is looking for feedback on how to improve the platform.

If you’re interested in trying out a cutting-edge app like this, you should sign up!

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!

My daughter has been unschooling since this school year. She is in 7th grade, and will be returning to in-person school next semester. The school is requesting a transcript and curriculum, they also will be requiring an intake test. Since we don't follow a particular curriculum, thus no transcript exists, what am I supposed to do? We live in Texas, and it is legal to unschool. However, I am worried that she will not be admitted into the school (it is a charter school). Not really sure what to do.

I am having trouble finding the right words to express the fact that I don't have the information they are requesting, and I don't legally have to provide it

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ETA: I already told them that I don't have any transcripts. After I said this, they said they will need her curriculum then.

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FOR ANYONE WHO COMES ACROSS A SIMILAR QUESTION, I FOUND THIS WEBSITE AND IT IS PERFECT FOR CREATING A TRANSCRIPT FOR UNSCHOOLERS: https://unschoolrules.com/unschooling-high-school-transcript/

Hello!

We are organizing an event for unschoolers in Bengaluru, India, in February 2024. If you are one, we would love for you to join us. For more information, visit wayfarers.space/year-zero. Feel free to DM me!

For other members: Please let me know your thoughts about an event like this and how we can make it the best possible experience.

Look, I get that you shouldn't be abused. But what the fuck did you expect? You forcibly imprison people for a quarter of their lives and you expect them not to fight back? You expect them to wholeheartedly embrace and love your indoctrination? Of course they "don't want to learn", you literally forced them under the authority of the state to learn the garbage you regurgitate to them! They're fucking prisoners and you are the guards! You don't fucking get to play the victim be ause your victims are resisting! The fact that you can't "teach" according to your idea of teaching is because the whole damn system is inherently flawed, not because you can't beat the shit out of your students until they obey you out of fear anymore. Maybe the pandemic made them realise how unnatural being crammed into a crowded box for most of their lives was, and now they won't buy into the brainwashing the way they used to.

I don't think most teachers should be abused the way they claim to be abused online. But this is an inevitability of an Industrial Revolution military system. It's not the "fault" of students teachers, admins or parents. It's the system.

And to anyone who wants to say shit, I'm a full grown adult who was a mostly A student and unintentional teacher's pet because I was so naturally academic and well behaved. But I still have long known the evils and ineffectiveness of the 19th century industrialised school system.

Hey y’all, my family and I live in Washington DC. We are looking to sign up for homeschooling taking the Unschooling route finding it hard to find umbrella schools or churches. Wanting ones that have minimum requirements for portfolio reviews, anybody have any knowledge on umbrella schools or churches with portfolio reviews that are lax?

Hello, I'd love to hear from divorced parents who unschool their kids (especially if they do not get on with their co parent)

When my ex wife and I were together, we were both very interested in unschooling, it aligned with our values and are ideas around gentle parenting and child-led development.

Context: Since our separation (child was 5wks old, edit: child is now 2.5yrs) I have had second thoughts about this. My ex wife claims that she wants me to have a relationship with our child but has been adamant that it is traumatic for our child to be away from her for prolonged periods and has requested I restrict access to three 3hr visits each week until he turns 3 years old. I disagree with this and have concerns around her attachment style and any damage it may be causing. The Family Court is now involved and we are working this out through that.

Our communication between us as co parents is dreadful. She is passive aggressive and interprets anything I say in bad faith. And, in fairness to her, she feels I am inconsistent and change my mind about things. I try always to treat her with respect as the parent of my child but do not feel like I am given the same.

Concerns: All this is to say, everything I have read about unschooling and homeschooling with separated parents emphasises communication between parents. I'm also worried about the impact of our child being isolated with their mother.

Has anyone made this work? Does anyone have any advice?

We are in communication counselling but so far it is not very effective. And we are waiting for a report to come back from a child psych on our parenting approaches.

TIA

My 9yo has a very hard time with math just like me. I’m pretty sure we both have dyscalculia. Does anyone know of any resources or curriculums for teaching math to your child who has this issue?

My 7yo taught himself to read at 4. He can read complex words & never needed to be taught. But he can’t spell. Is this a thing anyone else has experienced? Any tips for teaching him in an engaging way? He’s obsessed with video games (pretty sure it’s his special interest).

Both kids seem to be 2E (twice exceptional). They are both Autistic with ADHD just like me. We’ve been told that unschooling is best for 2E kids. But I feel lost.

I’m in a “book” club with my friends where we mostly read critical theory and recently I discovered the book “raising free people” which I’ve loved a lot- especially as an educator who grew up in a home that saw school as the enemy more than anything. We’ve decided to take on school and unschooling as a new topic and I’m just looking to see if anyone has any good articles/essays to read on it! We also listen to podcasts/watch videos together so those are welcome suggestions as well! I specifically am interested in unschooling in marginalized communities, and the connection between school and colonialism and oppression.

Any homeschool families that use Prisma School here? Super curious to hear about your experiences with either parent coach or learning coach options.

Hey!
My name is Andrew, and I am a homeschooler(17) who is building a framework for others to homeschool in their own self-directed way. When convincing my parents to let me homeschool, I had to sacrifice some of the desired self-direction(very much in the vein of unschooling, just letting my curiosity run wild and interconnect) for the expediency of having some of the work done by a platform(my parents both work full-time, they can't be grading the number of assignments I would have desired). I am pretty "techy" by nature, so I decided to tackle this problem.
What I have built is a self-directed, content-based framework that homeschoolers can incorporate as much as they want for content/assignment recommendations that interconnect with each other so that you can both visualize your learning and see new pathways. It is nowhere close to what I am dreaming of it becoming, but if you would give it a shot I would greatly appreciate it - it's completely free so that I can get feedback on how to improve it. Garber.Education is the link :)
If you would prefer to jump on a 10 minute zoom call and I can explain it, even better - just send me a DM.
Apologies to the mods if this crosses some line.