When I joined my homeschooling groups last year to begin this wonderful journey, I found that the first questions from other homeschoolers seems to be “what type of homeschooler are you?” They want to know if I follow a Waldorf or Montessori approach, or maybe a classical approach, a unit study approach, or just an all around eclectic approach. A good number of the people in my group also call themselves “unschoolers.”
From my limited experiences, the only thing I could say for sure was that I was not an unschooler. My understanding was that unschoolers were those who did not subscribe to any partiular curriculum and did not force their children to do any kind of school, but rather let them do whatever they want, letting them learn from those interests. I definitely am someone who believes in sitting down and having formal school.
And yet, as the months have now turned in to a year and we’re planning for the next, I’m finding that “unschool” in a broad sense is definitely what I do with my children for the most part.  Continue reading →