Cécile Meyer-ritter


Even though you say you've unschooled for 5 years, what you wrote made me think that you (and possibly your daughters) have not fully deschooled.

Your statement: "they have never gotten interested in life as I thought they would." is indeed harsh. Maybe you had expectations as to what being interested in life would look like, and since they haven't met those expectations (because they were interested in other things, or spent their time otherwise than you think they would) you and they think they somehow failed.

You said that they were interested in watching TV and videos. This is life. You can have access to so many things through TV and videos, it is a huge doorway to real-life things.

Have you watched them with them, trying to find out what was so interesting to them and offering more of that? Sharing, discussing on what they were watching?

I also wonder if what they like in the traditional school work you make them do now could simply be your being involved with them, and your valuing what they do. If they felt that you did not value what they did when you unschooled, then it was probably hard for them to enjoy themselves and trust that they were indeed learning.

It is hard to see learning happening naturally if you do not get interested in what the kids like to do. And if you can't see the learning happening naturally through your kids' interests, it's probably even more difficult for your husband to see it. Do you think he could still be convinced that unschooling works if you show him you daughters' enjoyment of their activities as well as everything they learn? You can't share the value of unschooling with someone if you haven't seen it for yourself first.

Cecile