Any Unschoolers out there?

[khatty]

I am currently considering the unschooling idea, but I am having difficulties with the leap of faith/trust it takes?

I am hoping to find a few unschoolers who would share their stories. 

How did you come upon/evolve into unschooling? 
What books/websites/documents did you/do you consider important to read to prepare and continue unschooling?
What ages were your children when you began unschooling? 
What type of teaching/schooling were you doing before unschooling?
Do have moments where you lack faith in the process?  If so, how do deal with them?
Anything else you might like to share that might help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[TracyR4]

Not sure if I'll be any  help since I'm not a 100% unschooler. More of an ecclectic homeschooler. I've never been comfortable enough to go completely unschooling.
I find that a mix of things work really well for us. I had read about unschooling and as much as it sounded great I wasn't so sure if it would work for us going completely that way. You need to be a very creative person to do it. I am creative ,but now that I have four children don't have the time to always be creative.

Unschoolers use everyday life to teach concepts. No need for a math book in the early years, just use homemade manipulatives, board games, card games etc to teach math. Reading, just go with the flow, and go to the library and take out good books. Science and History when they are interested. Unschooling from my understanding is child interest lead. If Billy is interested in snakes, then by golly you'll get a book on snakes, have some educational activities about snakes, go to the zoo, maybe find some games that relate to snakes, etc.
Don't get me wrong unschoolers don't use textbooks , they do. Especially in the high school years. But they don't use an exclusive curriculum. They don't follow any standards( which is fine if you live in a state that has lenient homeschool laws).

I live in Pa, and you really won't find many unschoolers in our state. Our state is one of a few strict homeschooling states in the US. So its very hard to prove what it is you do, because  with PA law you have to do standardized testing, portfolios and evaluations. There are some unschoolers here in PA, and they really have to work very hard to prove what it is they do to the state. Not really worth it to me.

But if you live in a state where there are few laws with homeschooling and you feel you can constantly provide the things your child  needs to learn then by all means enjoy   I think if if I lived somewhere ike Texas, or Alaska(where there are no homeschooling laws. I'd be a full fledged unschooler.
http://www.unschooling.com/index.shtml
http://www.sandradodd.com/unschooling
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/earl_stevens.html

[mom2bee]

I'm not there yet. (God, I wish I would be soon though!) But I am leaning heavily toward the idea of un-schooling my children during the elementary years....6-10 or maybe just 1st-3rd grade...At the very least I might want to focus on lots of child lead learning during the typical 1st - 5th grade years. (6-10 years.).

I think that I prefer child-led learning to any thing else, because then I get to "teach" but only what my child is interested in.

I've been looking at Sudbury schools within the country and think that I will keep that option in mind for when my child is elementary aged...There is a lot out there about unschooling and such, but I don't get drawn into it too much. I think that many things about education are pretty self-evident and like to have a firm idea of what I want from the experience before I go looking at what some one else thinks should be my experience. That is, after all, the point of Unschooling and homeschooling, don't you think?

[TmS]

We're there for as long as our boy is there.

We started at birth - he was given all the materials and access to everything he could want, didn't hear the word no from us before his first birthday and since then it has been reserved for emergency only (like the time he picked up a dead crab at the beach and went to eat it)... it's wonderful and we love every second of it.

We have never "taught" him anything but he has learned many many things. We have made use of books and learning materials (YBCR etc) but always following his lead and most things have learned through spontaneous lessons. I would love to take full credit but hubby is actually the primary carer though we're both there all the time while I work mostly from home.

A word of caution though we believe this is what has promoted his incredible sense of self and independence. Independence sounds great (and I could hope for nothing more) but it is difficult with a two year old and requires awareness and energy and loads of imagination. We constantly turn every life experience he has into a controlled environment lesson allowing him to experience fully at the level he can control, joining with us in the level that is just out of his reach and given awareness of the level that we are attending to without him until such a point when he has a level of comprehension and can start joining in with that.

We try to control only the elements of his environment and life that are beyond his ability to comprehend. Once he is able to comprehend instead of taking control we guide.

Our bond with him is incredible and I hope that we have many more years of joined learning before he must move on.

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