Unschooling Allows Children to Pick and Choose What and When They learn.

Well that sentence and the headline pretty much sum up how it is done. What YOU may be wondering though, is how is it effective??

Well look, Classical homeschool education wasn't for every child and Literature based education wasn't for every child, and so it stands to reason that unschooling cannot possibly be for every child!

The most important thing to understand about this method is that it IS CHILD FOCUSED.

And what that means is even if YOU the parent feel like unschooling is what your child will do best in and your CHILD feels like this is what they will do best in, you must seriously consider the possibility that your desire to unschool and your child's desire to unschool will never reap benefits.

And let us remember the FIRST Golden Rule of homeschool - YOU MUST TEACH YOUR CHILD WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW.

Translation: If your child sits around and does nothing but sleep all day - guess what?

They aren't able to create their own learning environment.

If your child:

1. Gets up
2. Checks out the bird feeder
3. Meanders out to the barn and watches the geese before collecting eggs to sell on eBay
4. Comes back in and draws a picture
5. Picks up a violin and plays a tune, then
6. Plops down to read a book for the rest of the afternoon

Congratulations! YAY! (Seriously, you've got a gifted and unusual child)

I always wanted to use this method...but my children...while engaging and thoughtful many hours out of the day, would have never learned to read I'm afraid.

So there are many pros and cons to unschool. The cons you can imagine without help, I presume.

But the benefits could be HUGE if you've read your child's style correctly and don't choose this method purely for the "Turn on -Tune in - Drop out" factor.

The pros are that this is truly a natural way to learn and children who really can create their own learning environment will excel with this method.

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