When we went to live in Italy, I was the one who could speak Italian. There was a moment where I didn't understand a joke that the kids were sharing in the car with their friends. In that instant I knew that they had surpassed me in their Italian, I knew from then on I would always be keeping up with them. That they are now fluent in two languages is, to me, invaluable. They will always now have that skill. I think that giving kids the opportunity to learn
My husband tells me that according to a book that he has just read that monkeys raise their young not always knowing who is who, they look after each child like it was their child. That years ago before the age of agriculture patriarchy didn’t exist and that the need for one’s own child was irrelevant, that men looked after other children as if they were their own. That children were raised in troupes or flocks and that every child was everyone’s child. I am not entirely sure how I
There is some confusion as what on earth Unschooling actually is. So for clarity here is an excerpt from our book that breaks it down from our persepective. How does unschooling differ from homeschooling?Home schooling is teaching school subjects and following a curriculum outside of a learning institution such as a school, usually at home. Home schooling parents may collaborate with other home-schooling families. A home-schooling family can have widely varying approaches to learning but the core principle is the teaching of children to a curriculum linked to examinations. Many
Is it really possible to learn a subject in a few months as opposed to a few years? The answer is clearly, yes and that goes against everything I thought about learning. I kind of thought you had to slog away for years and years to learn a subject. It is simply not true. If you are truly motivated and love what you are learning then you will learn it. I have seen this with the kids, our girls know that they will need Maths and English if they want
I heard a lovely interview on the radio the other day with a man whom I think is brilliant. He is Sugata Mitra and he won the TED Prize to work on something called S.O.L.E. projects. Which stands for Self-Organised Learning Environments. He believes that children learn very well by themselves, with a computer. Look him up if you can, as he and his project I think are very interesting. The interviewer said something along the lines of ‘Do you know that a lot of people think that what you
Are you taking the kids out of society if they are not in school? Schooling is not the only gateway to social interaction or societal involvement. So yes we are definitely part of society. If you see society as a much bigger all-encompassing picture, which is how we see the word, then no we are not taking them out of society. Do your children have any friends? Yes, our children have a lot of friends. We were very lucky to have had the chance to meet an interesting group of
Three sentences ring out when I think back on our journey of unschooling ‘Just let me live my life’ ‘Mum, the best thing you could do with my reading, is leave me alone’ ‘Mum, we are fine’ I used to lesson plan, I used to day plan, I used to lie awake at night thinking about what I could do with the kids the next day to broaden their learning. I made the perfect classroom, put loads of work up on the walls. I put the subjects in sections, art
We pack the car to go on a family trip, our girls need to go back to the library to renew books. The library is a new thing we haven’t been in English speaking countries for a while, now we are, the library is exciting. Our son says ‘I don’t have a book for the journey’ we say ‘Use the library’ he chooses three books, he marvels that it is a free service. ‘What, for free? A book? Really? Amazing!’ he has three books but I know that he is
‘Please put your shoes on’ were the words that came out of my mouth, we were about to walk to the beach. My son in his pyjama trousers, bare footed, free spirited. There are days when I just want him to put his shoes on, it is simple. But the shoe less days are there to teach me something. ‘Mum, I was born without shoes, shoes were invented after feet were, I don’t want to wear them’ In Spain or Italy, not wearing shoes socially is a thing. In South
Right now one daughter is the computer, on the Khan Academy, my other daughter is cooking, my son is on a new scooter that was kindly donated to him by another very generous worldschooler. The kids choose their activities, we flit in and out trying to assist where we can but mostly we step out of the way. That to me has been one of the hardest parts, the stepping away bit, which we talk about a lot in our book. Here are some self directed things that they are