[HSList] "unschooling" ideas

[Jody & Scott Arnold family]

>Return-Path: <RETR...@aol.com>
>From: RETR...@aol.com
>Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 00:43:55 -0400 (EDT)
>To: jo...@efn.org
>Subject: Re: [HSList] "unschooling" ideas
>
>Jody,
>
> Thanks for all the great responses! Alaina is busy putting together her
>ideas about what she wants to do & how. I found a nice little schedule in a
>Charlotte Mason oriented book I picked up last weekend. She's thinking about
>using that as a format and then plugging in the kinds of things she wants to
>do. Interesting process for me to see what & how she is working this out.
>
>Christine
>
>

[Jody & Scott Arnold family]

There's probably as many different definitions as there are
"unschooling" families. What it means for us is that we try to approach
life as a whole, rather than break it up into school-type subject areas. We
try to minimize the use of textbooks and maximize non-traditional means of
learning. We try to make our home a rich learning environment and trust our
kids (as much as our anxiety levels let us) to explore the world and acquire
the information and skills they need to function in adult society. As
parents, we see our role as mentors and facilitators rather than teachers.
This doesn't mean that anything goes in our home. We build
discipline and responsibility through chores and getting along with each
other. We just generally don't make the when and how of learning a point of
discipline.
If you do a web search on "unschooling" you should uncover a lot of
interesting information. If you check the Homeschooling in Lane County web
page (http://www.efn.org/~light) under (I think) "How We Homeschool" there's
the text of a talk I gave 3 or 4 years ago on "Homeschooling with MInimal
Academic Structure." We've changed since then, but the talk gives a lot of
practical examples of what we do.
The ORSIG list recently discussed Christian unschoolers, and someone
posted, "Can a Christian be an Unschooler?" by Patrick Farenga, who is
editor (?) or President of Growing Without Schooling. I saved the
article--maybe I'll post it. It's long, but if you're not interested you
can just delete it.

BTW, could people put a first name and their e-mail at the bottom of
their post? When I hit "reply" I get what you see below. We use Eudora as
our mail program, and if I remember to hit Ctrl, Shift, R then I get "At
09:34 PM 6/19/97 -0700, SSpar...@aol.com wrote:" but I still don't have a
name to address the message to. Unless I put SSparks272, which seems REALLY
impersonal.
It's just a picky thing, and I know *I* don't always put my e-mail
at the bottom, but I just thought I'd ask.

jody
jo...@efn.org

At 09:34 PM 6/19/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Can someone explain the term "unschooling" to me? I am new to homeschooling,
>and I am not sure what the term means.
>
>
>

[SEAD...@aol.com]

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