New waters ....part 1

Our unconventional schoolhouse has functioned differently through the years.  Early in our parenting we assumed our children would go to school. As we met more families who homeschooled it didn't take long before we thought we would give homeschooling a "try" during the year Seamus would have been in Junior Kindergarten.  Before that year came and went we knew that we would not pursue institutional schooling for the boys.

There were moments that we tried curriculum based learning but more than not we just lived.  I have bucked the term unschooling for a long time but in terms of a style that is what we have chosen.  WARNING: if you feel strongly about children learning in a structured setting and needing to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic......AND if those strong feelings will get you all worked up to the point of bashing us LOOK AWAY NOW.   

The boys have had no formal teaching other than the odd worksheet here and there.  We do not take natural learning opportunities and craft them into school lessons. They learned to read, count, add, multiply in their own time.  I am hesitant to say *on their own* because each may have been done with the support of a mentor or peer, but it was done in their own time within their life experiences. 

They are exposed to a variety of tools to explore the world but are not forced to use them.  We provide instruments: guitars, drums, ukuleles, keyboard and a mentor to guide them. We provide art supplies: sketch books, pens, pencils, clay, paint, cavnas, sewing supplies.  We provide mulit media tools: computers, gaming systems, cameras, movie making programs. We provide them books: fiction books, reference books, art books, comic books, audio books. And our unschooling lifestyle gives them the gift of time to use them.

We are not unique. There are a whole bunch of other families making this choice world wide.  It is not even new.  Before you wonder if you should pick up the phone and call Children's Aid because we are doing wrong by our children, who will never learn to live in the real world, how to take instruction from a boss or take a critique from a peer, CAS knows about us and in fact have entrusted us with a child to parent on their behalf and *GASP* are advocating our adoption of the child.

We have approached learning differently than most, that does not mean it is less or more, just different.  I have struggled with the difference, worried about the difference, and finally embraced the difference. We were prepared and excited to unschool the boys into their teen years and looked forward to seeing where that would take them.  Imagine my surprise when Seamus announced he was going to attend highschool in the fall.............