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| Unschooling: A Way of Life |
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African-American Unschooling |
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This web site serves to meet the needs of families striving to raise spiritually whole and healthy African-American children.
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Family Unschoolers Network |
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The Family Unschoolers Network provides support for unschooling, homeschooling, and self-directed learning. Includes newsletter articles, reviews, resources, web sites, books and lots of other information to help your homeschooling or unschooling efforts. |
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Grown Without Schooling |
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Accompany 10 grown homeschoolers from around the country, ranging in age from 19 to 31, as they explore and candidly discuss the lasting influence home education has had on their lives. Produced and edited for the homeschooling community by a lifelong homeschooler, this 107 minute documentary is a frank and often illuminating portrait of the triumphs and struggles homeschoolers face as children, teens and adults. |
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John Holt - Growing Without Schooling |
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This is the official website for John Holt's and Patrick Farenga's work. Includes a short biography of John Holt and numerous articles from Growing Without Schooling magazine. You can also access the speaking schedule for Patrick Farenga, who worked closely with John Holt before his death in 1985. |
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Learn in Freedom |
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This site is about learning in freedom, taking responsibility for your own learning. It shows you how to use your own initiative in learning, so you can use schools and teachers just when they are helpful to you, and voluntarily chosen by you. There's a specific page on this site to show you how to get started in learning in freedom, and there are plenty of other pages on this site about other subjects. |
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Libertarian Unschooling |
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A great starting point for libertarian-minded homeschoolers. Includes articles, quotes, and information. |
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Radical Unschooling |
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Sandra Dodd expounds on how people learn. A great overview of unschooling with everything from real life examples, to chores, to learning math, to peace and harmony in the unschooling household. |
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Unschoolers Online |
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Unschoolers Online is a website dedicated to providing detailed and helpful information on everything related to unschooling and homeschooling. You'll find local support group listings, news, articles, book recommendations, links, and more. |
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Unschooling.com |
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Provides information and support for those who unschool or who have chosen a relaxed, child-led form of learning. Includes stories from experienced unschoolers, message boards, a free monthly email newsletter, and helpful resources. |
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A Comparison of Traditional and Natural Learning |
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Kathleen McCurdy |
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This is a chart that explores the differences between traditional and natural learning. It compares how the child and parent are viewed, how learning occurs, the role of textbooks and curriculum, how learning disabilities fit in, and how various school subjects are viewed. |
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A Conversation with John Holt |
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Marlene Bumgarner |
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In 1980, Marlene Bumgarner, a homeschooling parent, hosted author John Holt in her home while he was in California for a lecture tour. While he played in the garden with her two children, John and Dona Ana, she interviewed him for the bimonthly magazine Mothering. In this article, Holt answered such questions as, "What is your philosophy of learning?", "Why homeschool?", and "What about the child's social life?" |
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A Paradigm Shift |
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Mike Woods |
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Abandoning the institution of school and taking a natural learning approach is really a paradigm shift.
Most people will not understand that natural learning does not involve children following a curriculum, taking exams, being socialised (through peers), using textbooks, etc. At best they will think that you are a bit daring, slightly unusual, experimenters.... at worst they will think that you are dangerous, putting your kids at risk or should be reported....
How can you show them that natural learning is OK?
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Against School |
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John Taylor Gatto |
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This essay was written for the Harper's Magazine forum, "School on a Hill." John Taylor Gatto discusses how public education cripples our kids and why. |
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Balancing in the Middle Ground |
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Sandra Dodd |
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A look at finding balance in your approach to learning and seeking ways to incorporate learning experiences in everyday life. |
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Beware the Curriculum Mentality |
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Sarah Fitz-Claridge |
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One of the most important duties of parents is to help their children to discover and pursue new interests, retaining the love of learning that is almost universal in young children and almost universally extinct in conventionally educated adults. Standardised curricula, and the stultifying educational hoops that schoolchildren have to jump through, sabotage this aim. This can cause trouble for parents who have to satisfy other people ... that they are educating their children properly. Under pressure, they may slide into a "homeschooling" mentality that distorts and damages their children's education. |
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Can a Christian Be an Unschooler? |
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Patrick Farenga |
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Unschooling is an educational approach, an attitude towards learning. It refers to the ways in which we use books, materials, and experiences to learn and grow. The type of underlying structure you have inside yourself, your goals, value system, discipline, whether you watch TV or call parents by their first names, whether you use a patriarchal, democratic, or any other type of family structure, are not unschooling issues; they are parenting issues. Whether unschoolers or not, every parent must deal with these issues. Homeschoolers can agree on matters of how children learn and can even share a similar homeschooling style without agreeing on all of those personal issues; Christians can be unschoolers.
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Can a Single Parent Unschool? |
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Jan Hunt, M.Sc. |
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These days, many parents find themselves alone, whether by choice or by circumstances. Many of these parents assume that homeschooling is not an option for them, but like many other assumptions, this can be self-fulfilling. Happily, homeschooling in single parent families is easier now than it has ever been. With commitment, creativity and support, single parent homeschooling can be not only possible, but very rewarding. Unschooling addresses the needs of both the homeschooling parent and the child in a single parent household. |
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Child-Led Learning |
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Amy Bell |
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The term "unschooling" was coined by John Holt to mean not sending children to school. The term has been stretched and changed since then, and those of us who refuse the entire school model have taken the word "unschooling" for our own. Other terms associated with unschooling are natural learning, child-led learning, discovery learning, and child-directed learning. We don't divide our day into "school" parts and "non-school" parts, because there are no school parts. We live; we learn; we try new things; we go back to things we've loved a long time.
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Deschooling on the Road |
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Meredith G. Warshaw |
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A homeschooling mom travelled 3500 miles cross-country with her son and found educational experiences in some unexpected places. Drives home the point that learning can happen in many different ways and that we cannot always plan how our children will learn. |
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Five Steps to Unschooling |
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Joyce Kurtak Fetteroll |
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Some people understand unschooling as soon as they hear about it. Others wander about in a fog of confusion, wondering how unschoolers can be so certain about something that seems so counterintuitive to everything we've picked up about how kids need to learn. Maybe a few, well-defined steps in the unschooling direction could lead out of at least the very pea-soupiest part of the fog.
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Gracefully Active: A Candid Conversation with Grace Llewellyn |
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No other book on home education has encouraged more teenagers to "rise out" of school than Grace Llewellyn’s Teenage Liberation Handbook. Seven years and many liberated teens later, she has evolved into a recognizable, respected voice that unschoolers embrace. |
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How's School Going? |
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Mary Kenyon |
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Mary Kenyon contrasts her style of relaxed learning with others, including her sister. She addresses letting go of the self-doubt, preconceived ideas of "school" and learning, and fears that face parents when letting children unschool. Uplifting look at the realities of real life learning. |
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I Am What I Am |
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Anne E. Ohman |
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A mother of an exceptional child discusses why homeschooling is the right choice for their family. A personal look at the joys of learning and growing together through an unschooling philosophy of life. |
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Interview with Patrick Farenga |
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Helen Hegener |
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Patrick Farenga lives in Medford, Massachusetts with his wife, Day, and three girls: Lauren (11), Alison (7), and Audrey (4), all of whom are homeschooled. Patrick has worked at Holt Associates since 1981, the year John Holt's landmark book on homeschooling, Teach Your Own, was first published. He started off as a volunteer, packing books, answering phones, filling subscriptions, and typing up John Holt's correspondence off tapes he dictated.
Patrick has been president of Holt Associates Inc. and the publisher of Growing Without Schooling since Holt's death in 1985.
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Is it OK for Christians to Unschool? |
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It has been argued that since John Holt was not a Christian, Christians cannot be unschoolers. A Christian mother discusses her perspective on unschooling. |
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John Holt: Teach Your Own Children...at Home |
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The Mother Earth News |
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An interview with John Holt from 1980 from The Mother Earth News. Holt discussed his own schooling experiences, how he discovered the key to real learning, and how the idea of homeschooling developed. He also discussed some concerns that parents new to the idea of homeschooling have. There is a short description of some of the legal issues that homeschoolers have faced and where the homeschooling movement is headed. |
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Language Arts and Unschooling |
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A former high school English teacher shares some of the ways that reading, writing, and grammar are learned naturally through living. |
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Learning Is Child's Play |
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Ned Vare |
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Traditional schooling operates on a set of beliefs whose errors have long been exposed. Its teaching is based on outmoded and ineffective concepts of the teaching-learning process. The reason for the failure of the traditional education system is, ironically, that uses "schooling." Children learn, not from schooling, but from living. And for them, living means playing.
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Putting Together an Eclectic Curriculum |
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The best way to accomplish an eclectic style of learning is to work together with your children to find topics that interest them and lead to further learning. Author Cafi Cohen discusses how learning from mistakes along the way, and trusting that they were the best judges of what was right for their family, allowed them to develop a learning style that was both eclectic and effective. |
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Ten Signs that You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child |
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Jerry Mintz |
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Because our public school system has now considerably deteriorated, many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon themselves to create public and private alternatives to that traditional system which is definitely failing. It is important for parents to know that they now have choices, alternatives to the neighborhood school. How do you know that it is time to look for another educational approach for your child? Here are some of the signs. |
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The Parent-Teacher Conference |
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Miranda Hughes |
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A homeschooling mother has a one-on-one meeting with herself. You'll chuckle as you read about the ways homeschool learning differs from classroom learning and how kids thrive while learning at home. |
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The Unschooling List FAQ |
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Kathy Wentz |
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This was compiled from many of the wise voices of a great internet list called The Unschooling List. A great basic primer on the concept of unschooling. |
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Unchores |
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Karen Kirkwood |
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A look at an unschooling family's approach to managing chores around the house. Although this approach may not work for everyone, the emphasis on flexibility and respect for each others needs and inclinations is enlightening. |
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Ungraduation |
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One mother's reminiscences about her son's high school years as an unschooler, and his transition to college. |
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Unschooling and The Moore Formula |
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Dorothy Moore |
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The Moore Formula consists of a balance of study and work. It is related to unschooling in that both reject convention or traditional school-type education. |
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Unschooling at the Beach |
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L. S. King |
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A look at how taking a break from the house for a day doesn't mean a break from learning. |
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Unschooling Explained Some More |
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Jeanne Musfeldt |
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Unschooling puts the decisions about what we will study into the hands of the children themselves. They have the desire and drive to learn, and God has filled this world with curriculum.
At the heart of our unschooling journey is the belief that children learn best when I am providing them with options in an environment geared toward learning, rather than force-feeding them information.
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Unschooling or Homeschooling: What's the Difference? |
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Gail S. Withrow |
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Ask around at your next homeschool conference to compare what people answer when this question pops up: "What does it mean to unschool?" Some will answer that unschooling is homeschooling without using a pre-packaged curriculum. Others will say it's simply the degree of freedom that the parents allow the child in his learning. Still others will say that unschooling defies definition because each child is unique and will go at learning in his own way, in his own time. So what's the big difference between homeschooling and unschooling? In homeschooling the parents make decisions on how to best educate the child, while in unschooling the child somehow makes those decisions for herself.
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Unschooling or Homeschooling? |
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Billy Greer |
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What is the difference between unschooling and homeschooling? At one time they were just two terms for the same thing, so the question was like asking what the difference is between a car and an automobile. Today, homeschooling has remained a generic term while unschooling has come to refer to a specific type of homeschooling. So now the question is like asking what the difference is between a Ferrari and a car. Just what is it about unschooling that differentiates it from other types of homeschooling enough to warrant its own term?
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Unschooling Undefined |
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Eric Anderson |
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Unschooling is a word coined by negating the idea of schooling; it starts off with a negative definition. What, specifically, is it about schools that unschoolers want to do without? |
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Unschooling: Learning through Life and Adventure |
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Maisha Khalfani |
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Picture this: It’s Tuesday morning. You and your children get out of bed and eat a hearty breakfast. You all get showered and dress, and prepare to learn. One child pops in the Lord of the Rings – Return of the King for the 5th time, looking to see how closely Peter Jackson has matched the movie to the book of the same title that they’ve just finished reading. Another child has decided to go outside and tend to their garden – they are growing some vegetables that are in season, and want to make sure that all is well in their patch. Yet one more child sits comfortably with you, in your lap, while you read every Dr. Seuss book that there is to find in your home. Welcome to the world of unschooling.
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What is Natural Learning? |
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Mike Woods |
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So what on earth is natural learning? Isn't all learning natural? What would you do different if you were following a natural learning approach? How can I pursue natural learning?
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What is Unschooling? |
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Unschooling.com |
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There are as many different ways of defining unschooling as there are people doing it. Reading through what various people have to say about it may help you to a better understanding, or at least be interesting and make you think. |
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What is Unschooling? |
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Karen M. Gibson |
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Unschooling has many, many definitions - probably a different one for each family that calls themselves unschoolers. To the author, unschooling means interest-led or child-led learning. There are also many different levels of unschooling. Some families require a set amount of Math and English done each day, and then their child is free to explore whatever subjects he would like. Others unschool totally until their child reaches a certain grade level, and then start requiring some structure. And then there are the dyed-in-the-wool, radical unschoolers, who require nothing from their child. They totally trust their child to learn what he needs to know on his own timetable.
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What is Unschooling? |
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Earl Stevens |
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Unschooling isn't a recipe or a method. It is a way of looking at children and at life, based on trust that parents and children will find the paths that work best for them--without depending on educational institutions, publishing companies, or experts to tell them what to do. Unschooling does not mean that parents can never teach anything to their children, or that children should learn about life entirely on their own without the help and guidance of their parents. Unschooling does not mean that parents give up active participation in the education and development of their children and simply hope that something good will happen. Then what is unschooling? Unschooling is following your interests, all the things that have interested people before anybody thought of them as "subjects". A large component of unschooling is grounded in doing real things, not because we hope they will be good for us, but because they are intrinsically fascinating. There is an energy that comes from this that you can't buy with a curriculum. Children do real things all day long, and in a trusting and supportive home environment, "doing real things" invariably brings about healthy mental development and valuable knowledge.
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What is Unschooling? |
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Luz Shosie |
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Unschooling is trusting the learner to be in charge of his or her own learning. It is not a method of instruction we use on our children, but a process we adults go through to unlearn the lessons and undo the effects of our years of schooling.
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Why Natural Learning – Does It Make Sense? |
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Kathleen McCurdy |
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Many experts claim to know how to teach a child, but do they know how to educate him? Perhaps professionalism is a form of religion too. It takes a lot of faith to believe that removing children from their parents and making them serve time under an authoritarian regimen in a formal institution is somehow going to prepare them to love and serve their fellow man and live a peaceful and prosperous life. But mothers know.
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Always Learning |
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Discussion for homeschooling fans of John Holt, whose books Learning All the Time, Never Too Late, and Teach your Own have made unschooling an option for thousands of families.
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Always Unschooled |
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This is a list dedicated to achieving a deeper understanding of a Radical Unschooling lifestyle with young children. It is geared towards thoughtful discussion and exploration of what Radical Unschooling looks like in the early years, from toddlerhood to around age 8 or so. Experienced and new Unschoolers can discuss how they made the transition from peaceful parenting to Unschooling in daily practice, when that transition occurred and what benefits children gain by Unschooling from the beginning.
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Classical Lite Homeschoolers |
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Classical Lite is a group for families that like many parts of Classical or Charlotte Mason methodologies, but choose to have a less restrictive learning environment for their children. This list is for families who see the merits in both, Classical education AND Relaxed-Unschooling methodologies— families who wish to incorporate more of the later methods in their home or have children that learn best with Classical educational methods and the other family members are relaxed-unschoolers. Those who utilize child-led Unit Studies are also encouraged to join. |
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Crunchy Unschoolers |
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A list for unschoolers who are interested in moving towards a sustainable lifestyle. Topics for discussion may include how sustainability and unschooling complement each other, and how we resolve conflicting values. |
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HEM-Unschooling |
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This list is for the broad-ranging discussion of unschooling. It is sponsored by Home Education Magazine. |
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Homeschooling Creatively |
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This list is a place where parents can come to understand and give value to our creative children as we home/unschool with them. The focus will be on discussing alternative ways (versus public school methods) to help our creative children learn which best suits their learning style and respects their complex personality traits, taking a look at creating a success-based learning environment that draws on the strengths of our creative learners while providing support-based opportunities to gently guide their intense natures.
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Live Free Learn Free Email Group |
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This group is an announcement list for the print magazine Live Free Learn Free, a forum for unschoolers and relaxed homeschoolers in which to share ideas and experiences. |
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PA Unschoolers |
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Are you unschooling in Pennsylvania? Are you a relaxed or eclectic homeschooler that would like to unschool? PA-Unschoolers is an inclusive community with unschooling as the focus.
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Radical Christian Unschoolers |
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Feeling like you must be the only radical unschooler in the Christian faith? Tired of hearing those who claim to be Christian unschoolers discuss curriculum or how to make their kids do chores? Tired of hearing secular unschoolers say that you couldn't possibly exist?
Look no farther! On this list there will be no talk of curriculum, spanking, chore charts, coercive limitations, forced respect, or anything else that doesn't jive with radical unschooling. This list is for discussing radical unschooling by people who already "get it" and want to connect with other radically unschooling Christian families.
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Radical Unschoolers List |
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This is the "Radical Unschoolers List". It is for all families, regardless of religious affiliation, choosing to unschool. Unschooling is learning as a part of life. It allows the child to learn naturally, without adult-imposed "lessons", schedules, or timelines. This list is to offer support, information, perspective, and enlightenment to anyone already unschooling or interested in unschooling.
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Rad-PA-Unschoolers |
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Are you radically unschooling in PA? Would you like to meet others who hold the unschooling philosophy and live it while still complying with Act 169? This list is open for all aspects of unschooling families in PA--anything is welcome for discussion as unschooling is living and learning. |
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Secret Society of Unschooling Dads (SSUD) |
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This group is for Unschooling Dads, Granddads, and Dads-to-be who have attended one of the past 3 Live and Learn Conferences OR who have spouses who attended one of these conferences. Other unschooling fathers (et al.) can also join the group through invitation. Our intention is to keep a running dialog and passion for unschooling our children between conferences.
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Shining Children with Radical Unschooling |
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This list is a forum for those either radically unschooling or learning how to radically unschool to discuss our "shining" children (Highly Sensitive, Out of Sync, Asperger’s traits, Explosive) and all the issues that accompany life with them--how we grow and learn ourselves thanks to our non-typical children and how unschooling frees their spirits and allows them to truly "shine."
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Sonlight Unschoolers |
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This email group is for those who use Sonlight curricula but also like the unschooling approach (and other compatable methods). Working out how to mix the two, curricula exchange/sales, and connecting with other eclectic Christian unschoolers is the object. |
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Unschool Grads |
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this list is a forum for former unschoolers and homeschoolers of any religious, philosophical or political persuasion. Discuss your 'unconventional' upbringing and the ways in which it's shaped your life. What was your experience? Do you plan to home/unschool your children? How are you living now? How are you continuing to learn?
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Unschool Sharing for Parents |
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Share successes and ideas and build a helpful, welcoming archive for the new unschoolers, the newly-unschooling, and the nicely unschooling.
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Unschoolers' Circle |
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The Unschoolers' Circle is an inclusive list for anyone interested in home education with unschooling leanings. |
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Unschoolers Coffee Talk |
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A place for unschoolers to come together to discuss our adventures and experiences,share resources and information. |
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Unschoolers Online Community |
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This is a companion list to the website UnSchoolers Online. It is a safe place to openly discuss anything related to unschooling and our children.
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Unschooling Basics |
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A list designed for those new to the philosophy of unschooling. Ask experienced unschoolers all those niggling questions, and find out how unschooling works in real families. If you're familiar with John Holt's work, but unsure of how to begin or what an unschooling day really looks like, this is a place for you to discuss, question, ponder, and become deeply familiar with natural learning and how it affects our entire lives. From parenting issues to learning from the whole wide world and beyond, come explore the issues that unschooling families have dealt with in the past and how to get beyond "school-think" to a joyful unschooling lifestyle.!
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Unschooling Dads |
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This list is a place for unschooling dads. Whether you're an advocate, long-time unschooler, novice, or somewhere in the middle, you're welcome here. This list is for dads only.
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Unschooling Discussion |
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Large traffic email list whose stated purpose is to move out of comfort zones and critically examine beliefs, ideas, and viewpoints about learning, and seek a deeper understanding of unschooling and more respectful relationships with one's children.
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Unschooling Families |
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This list is a friendly place for all to chat about anything you wish to explore. Parenting issues, schooling issues, political issues . . . as unschoolers, we know that nothing is off topic. |
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Unschooling Gamers |
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This group is for unschooling gamers to connect and chat and share tips and tricks and otherwise meet and have fun! The main focus of this group is video games, but on-line game chat is also welcome (like Neopets or Subeta or Runescape). |
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