Unschooling Post Reply

[Doman]

Hi there

We are based in Clapham and are considering unschooling our daughters (the elder one is two, so it's a while off yet!).
Has anyone any experience of doing this?
My main reservation is that they won't socialise as much as if they were at school. Are there any particular groups/clubs locally that you would recommend for, for example, music or sports where they could mix with other children in their peer group?
Any thoughts or advice much appreciated.
Thanks.

[juliantenniscoach]

What's 'unschooling'? Is it like 'home schooling'?

[Doman]

It's like home schooling but less structured. You don't follow a formal curriculum.

[tooposhtopush]

I would be more worried about the potential lack of education.

In all seriousness I'd question why you want to do this?

I had some friends who went down this route. They were left-of-centre and although the whole thing was presented as a 'choice" and about "freedom" it was actually more about the parents fear of losing control of their children and separation anxiety on the parents side.

The whole thing didnt end well.

For almost all kids (and I do preface this with almost) a carefully chosen school will be by far and away the best choice for them.

I know you didn't ask for suggestions on the suitability of unschooling but I hope you don't mind me mentioning my concerns, no disrespect intended.

[mum2babyboy]

This concept doesn't seem to be as popular in the UK as it does in the US. There seem to be some good and bad points to unschooling and I can certainly see the attraction. The reasons for unschooling are based on the fact that each child is unique and an individual and the traditional classroom setting doesn't cater for this. Unschooling gives each child the opportunity to learn through their own initiative and creativity. Check out this site..http://whyunschool.info.

However, I'd be worried that I wouldn't be able to provide my child with the tools they need for university and work. After all, we can't all go through life following our own rules and not working in a structure set by others.

In saying that, I do follow some 'unschooling' FB groups and pages to see what they are saying.

https://www.facebook.com/freeyourkids?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unschool ... 76?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/unschoolinglifestyle?fref=ts

I saw a TED talk by a kid called Logan LePlante about a concept called Hackschooling, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY. It's been a while since I watched it but it was something along the lines of, taking control of your education and using your community and resources in addition to traditional education. I think a combination of the both could possibly work.

Good luck with whichever method you choose.

[mommyg]

Would something like this not be a better alternative? Its formal schooling,but with the curriculum customised for each child. http://www.curiouserandco.co.uk/

[mum2babyboy]

Would something like this not be a better alternative? Its formal schooling,but with the curriculum customised for each child. http://www.curiouserandco.co.uk/

This sounds brilliant! We're moving to Surbiton so I'm going to check out this school or try and find a similar one close by.
Thanks for posting!

[KJ2012]

Unfortunately curiouser&co's application to be a free school recently got rejected.

OP, I assume you have done research into this and have made an informed decision. I don't think this is the right forum to get support as people who don't understand the concept do tend to think it's a silly idea!
Are you part of any of the home ed groups on Facebook? There's the london preschoolers one, SWL home ed, and I think there is a specific unschooling one. You might get some more useful replies on there

[Doman]

Thanks, everyone.
No offence taken at the stronger opinions on here!
I care deeply about my daughters' development and education, so clearly there would be an element of structure to this. There are fundamentals that they need to learn, and it would be extraordinarily arrogant of us not to have a clear understanding of the curriculum and use it as a base.
Thanks for your points of view and the links. I'll carry on investigating!

[fionapm]

Just out of curiosity, as this isn't something I would consider myself, what is the legal situation in the UK with home schooling? Do you need to register with the Department of Education and be assessed, etc?

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/educatio ... -1.1891594

Also, would you need to have full time home help to get all of the house / personal admin stuff done while you are teaching 9am - 2pm (or whatever?)

[fionapm]

PS this article is written by a religious loony, so some of what is in it is complete tripe. The interesting point is that the parents refused to be assessed by the Irish National Educational Welfare Board to make sure their child's needs (rather than the parents' religious preferences) were being met by home schooling and I was wondering what the equivalent is over her.

[Earlsfield_mummy]

I was home-schooled (not following any strict curriculum) until the age of 8.

It's a good idea if you have the time and energy to do it properly - by which I don't mean you need to replicate the school day, but you should be doing at least one thing each day to expand the children's horizons in some way, be it reading books, visiting museums or a farm, or making things.

I was lucky that my mother was a stay-at-home mum and my father worked from home, so I had a lot of interaction. The social thing was not a problem, as we did plenty of after-school activities, which I was usually much more motivated for than all the exhausted children coming from a long school day. As another poster has hinted, there are also groups etc for other homeschoolers that you could join if you are worried about this aspect.

Anyway, upshot was that the one thing I *definitely* didn't miss out on was an education. When I started school at age 8, I was miles ahead of the rest of the class academically (and ended up moving up a year and still getting one of the highest 11+ results in London and winning a full scholarship to secondary school - I mention this not to blow my own trumpet but purely to show that the initial homeschooling definitely wasn't a hindrance academically).

I can imagine that if you continued to keep your children at home beyond roughly primary school age, they might start to miss out on more of a social life - but clearly that is not for many years to come, and in the meantime I would whole-heartedly recommend your idea!