Unlocking Learning - Unschooling Explained

And if you’re really afraid, they know you’ll cough up even more cash for this confidence they promise.

But I’m here to tell you that you don’t need them. I was no rocket scientist with unending patience and creativity.

What I DID have, was a willingness to learn.

And now, luckily there are so many ways for you to get the information you need.

If you fall asleep reading blogposts or PDFs? Don’t worry, there are podcasts or videos for you. 

You still PERSONALLY like checklists and worksheets?
We can get you those too without you being led by the nose - and then forcing your kids along with you - through 12 years of scope and sequence designed by people who don’t know your kid.

What unschooling does, from a learning standpoint, is start with the Learner. 

Start with the interests. 

Then ripple out from there.

That way you’re never pushing and prodding to get them interested in something kind of blah.
Because, for those of us who have tried that... that IS exhausting!
And they still don’t retain what you were going on and on about!

And here’s the good news, because I know SO MANY grown unschoolers, I can tell you with 100% confidence that starting with their interests is the BEST way to go. Yes, there will be gaps. But not UNFILLABLE gaps! As soon as they have a need for the information, they can hop online and get it. And, truth be told, kids who were run through the ringer of 12 years of school - they have a ton of gaps too! And maybe not so proficient at searching through resources. They’re waiting for someone to teach it to them. Your kids will have the the time and space and opportunity to improve this skill.

At the heart of our gap worries, we’re thinking they need to know certain things to be successful.
Interestingly, I’ve seen a lot of parents move the goalposts on themselves and their kids when they’re thinking,
“We’ll just learn the basics, and then they can do what they want.”
But then the kids become teens and we panic a little...
"well, maybe diagramming sentences or that quadratic equation...but that’s it."

Fear makes us add on and on... and then the kid resists or thinks that their interests don’t matter as much as these other things you’ve told them REALLY matters more.

We took a different approach with my own kids. We dove into their interests, and worked out from there. The school way - the way that most of us are familiar with - wants us to focus on keeping them interested (somehow) in things that really don’t interest them now… because, maybe someday they’ll need it. Research and our own experience shows that we don’t retain those things very well. So all that effort and time, just rolls off. 

What we DO retain, are the things that are relevant. Things that interest us. That has proven to be a much better starting place. Then as kids move around in their interests, they inevitably develop new vocabulary, read or hear how stories are written, learn about science topics or historical events, or have to make some kind of calculation to figure out the answers they’re looking for. And when they bump into something unfamiliar, THAT becomes the catalyst to learn something they didn’t know. The true Basics. The things they need to go deeper. Think about that. That’s what the “Learning the Basics” is supposed to provide. The scaffolding for those more advanced ideas that we bump into as we move forward.

THink about your real life. Your day to day life. The things that you do whether you’re a delivery person or a waitress, a city worker or a homemaker…. What do you need to know? Then, if you’re an engineer or a nurse or a lawyer or an architect… you move in that direction because you LIKE diving deeper into these areas. And as older teens, we see kids take community college classes as they transition toward these kinds of higher level educational paths.

Another interesting thing, When my daughter took some pre-college credit classes at community college - she noticed that her classrooms were filled with students who had already spent 12 years in school! They had diplomas. And they were NO FURTHER along academically than she was. She had spent her teen years doing community theatre, voice lessons, dance classes. She wrote some fan fiction, understood the math involved in working at Barnes and Noble, doing her taxes, budgeting and buying what she needed. We traveled and explored various places and their historical and cultural impacts. 

But no curriculum. 

No times table memorization. 

No research papers.

She did fine in those classes, using them as a transition from a play-based… life - to college classes and a degree. And those classmates who had jumped through all those school hoops… were in exactly the same place she was. Only they hadn’t had the kind of childhood she had had.

My son filled his teenage years with travel, work, community service projects, and World of Warcraft (among other games) - but notably no academic pursuits until college. He ended up with a degree in Journalism (Magna Cum Laude even) and an MBA.
My youngest skipped all the higher academia, became a hair stylist and now owns a successful salon where people work for HER. She runs payroll, pays mortgages, keeps inventories… she didn’t need 12 years of school to do it.

My kids are not unique. Thousands of unschooled teens are enjoying this same path. Yours can too. I have resources at the website to help you wrap your brain around all this. Because certainly we were conditioned to believe that EVERYONE needs the same 12 years of starting - whether it’s in school or in a traditional homeschooling setting. And that’s not even the truth. 

I’ve created a pdf to go with that free mini-course - helping you see that Real life offers what you need. We ust have to shift our thinking so we can notice all the learning and opportunities that are happening all around us. That should be ready in a week or two. 

But I have Guides and ebooks I’d love to show you - when you tap into these, you discover examples of subjects weaving through our days. The Everything Counts Ebook and the Deschooling Guide are great for this. And if it’s math that bugging you a little more than the other subjects, I have a course (Learning Math WiTHOUT Curriculum )that will help you see how everyone can learn all the math they need - without buying curriculum. I’ll put links to all these resources in the show notes. 

This is the path to developing confidence.
Accessing the information that’s available will help you clean off the lens so you can see more clearly.

Then, after you’ve created a little space between what you USED to believe about learning and where you are now, I have a tool to help you brainstorm with the kids about their interests. They may not even know what to tell you. Not only do they have less life experience, but they may have been told to squash down their own curiosities to fulfill the requirements of the adults around them. Think of it as tiny fire that needs a little more kindling. A little protection from the wind.

As you continue to expose them to interesting things in your home, your community and the world, their learning will occur naturally.

I’ve added a page for you to write some  things down - or you can get  the Unschooling Guide to really brainstorm with the kids about what else is out there.  I have ideas for everyone to explore at home or out in the community. Solo activities or things that would be fun with the family. Get those wheels turning. And if you need another tool to help the kids SEE some of the things they could be opting for, grab the Unschooling Guide about Brainstorming. It’s more in depth, giving you some ideas to help the conversation go smoothly as well as suggestion for 20 different categories that might be fun to explore! Remember, you’re going to think like a tourist!