LivingJoyfully.ca in its current form
More on Stages of Unschooling
When I was deciding how to organize the site I kept thinking about my ongoing journey ... what my questions were when I first started, how my thinking about the concepts evolved, and I realized how each step seemed to build on the previous one. If I read about ideas too far along the path, they seemed very radical and I wasn't sure I'd ever do that! But, a few months later I understood and lived the principles behind them and the seemingly "out there" ideas were just a logical extension.
Breaking the process into stages is of course artificial, but there seems to be a distinct change in focus for each stage, and hence different questions and observations. It is just a way for me to organize the information. Feel free to read through them all! No permission required. But, if you get too far ahead of yourself, don't say I didn't warn you!
At this stage you are in serious information
gathering mode. Something spurred you to investigate unschooling - bad
school or school-at-home experiences, your kid(s) are reaching school age
and you cringe at the thought of sending them to school etc. Whatever it is
doesn't really matter at this point (and will matter less and less as time
goes on). You understand that kids learn best when they are interested in
something but most of the concepts of unschooling are likely new. They may
seem quite radical at first, but there's a good chance they will resonate
with you if you've gotten even this far in your investigation. You may be
looking for the "rules" of unschooling, but you'll soon come to realize -
there aren't any! In this section I try to cover many of the initial
questions and ideas and give you some resources to help you get started.
At this stage you've taken the leap into unschooling with your kid(s).
You've been at it for months, maybe years, and you are convinced it's
working well with your family - though you have your ups and downs! You see
your kids learning and making connections everywhere, and you're no longer
surprised - though you're often amazed. The philosophy seems to be leaking
into other areas of your life that you never before imagined were related to
learning. You live by your principles (with some tweaking here and there),
and have come to realize that rules just get in the way of real learning.
You begin to understand deep in your heart the phrase "living joyfully"!
Okay, *there* is unique to each family (it fits my naming theme!), but what is similar between these experienced unschoolers is a confidence from having "been there, done that". You've seen learning happen anywhere and everywhere. Living and learning is the name of the game and if your kids find classroom-style situations that will serve their purpose they take them without getting caught up in the quest for grades. They choose to be there, know what they want to learn and just do it - with enthusiasm! And if you ever reply to "why?" with "because I said so!", your kids are likely to be found rolling on the floor with laughter (joined shortly thereafter by you) ... or running to medicine chest to find the thermometer - you're obviously running a high fever!
Kelly Lovejoy has written a great article discussing the stages of unschooling in some detail and how they looked in her family. Here's a link if you'd like to read it: The Three Stages of Unschooling
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Note from Sandra: If you're on a computer rather than a phone, and if you want a richer interface, go to the Wayback Machine save of this page, where the section headings go to brief articles.
Pam has revised her site extensively, but I had several links to this page on stages, so I've brought that part without recreating the whole section. You can still see it, but not easily from a phone. |