Other Radical Unschoolers around? page 2

[Tribal Rob]

We were introduced to primal by another Home Ed family, there are a few of us locally, those that arn't primal are normally raw vegan

[Urban Forager]

We don't have any friends that are primal. I gave a free paleo cooking class at the local Grange and some of my homeschooling friends came. They loved the foods but most felt like it would be expensive to feed their families that way, their kids particularly liked the meat I cooked. It also sounded like a lot of the Dads were skeptical of the cholesterol aspects.

Our son isn't 100% primal, he eats raw goat milk, cheese and occasionally bread. All of us are interested in anthropology and sociology so we often have in depth discussions like Tribal Rob.

[TLoRu]

I'm a teacher at a public school in New York.... I learned about various types of education in my master's program, but not unschooling! sounds so interesting. Currently googling it right now!

I commend you all for taking the time to be with your children and educate them!! Amazing!

[isbolick]

We 'unschool' our 16 year old daughter and have off and on her whole life. We live in upstate SC and have a really hard time with the school system. Going primal hasn't been that big an impact on us, probably because she is older and doing her own stuff a lot of the time.

She did tell me that she thinks her skin has cleared up a lot in the past ten days, though. Which, for a sixteen year old girl, is a big deal!

[Urban Forager]

We 'unschool' our 16 year old daughter and have off and on her whole life. We live in upstate SC and have a really hard time with the school system. Going primal hasn't been that big an impact on us, probably because she is older and doing her own stuff a lot of the time.

She did tell me that she thinks her skin has cleared up a lot in the past ten days, though. Which, for a sixteen year old girl, is a big deal!

My son notices the same thing when he eats a more primal diet.

In California all you have to do to legally homeschool is yearly fill out a form on line stating that your home is a private school. There are a some questions you have to answer like how many kids attend, what grades are offered, and where the records are kept. Nothing too invasive. They do say you have to offer the courses taught at public school, but nothing says you have to teach those courses. They do not make homeschool kids take tests or anything like that so you are really free to do what ever you want.

[magicmerl]

Yeah, we unschool our kids.

Dietwise, being primal hasn't really affected us or our kids much (or rather, the kids REALLY miss sandwiches and pizza, but that's about it). I guess we have different conversations over the dinner table about what constitutes healthy food, but that doesn't seem like it's that odd to us....

We have a lot of trees on our section and the kids already did a pretty good job of climbing them, so physically there's not really much difference.

[MamaAdams]

Not trying to ruffle any feathers here but have a few questions. Do your children learn the normal things like math and science? Do you think they will have the same opportunities as children that have finished schooling? Do you think they would score the same if tested as schooled children? I do like the things I have heard about unschooling but I am curious about what you think your childrens futures will be like.

[MamaAdams]

Just wanted to clarify that I do not believe that the American school system is very good because most of the time the children are taught just what is going to get them to pass the standardized tests.

[Crabbcakes]

We are eclectic homeschoolers, but our thing includes stints at the Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering in Sandusky OH. I'll subscribe to this thread and see where this takes us!

[Crabbcakes]

Not trying to ruffle any feathers here but have a few questions. Do your children learn the normal things like math and science? Do you think they will have the same opportunities as children that have finished schooling? Do you think they would score the same if tested as schooled children? I do like the things I have heard about unschooling but I am curious about what you think your childrens futures will be like.

I can only speak for myself and my eclectic homeschool, but here goes:

Unschooling, or eclectic homeschooling, is not about DENYING the children book learning, or any other kind of learning. It is about not artificially LIMITING them to one kind of learning experience, as in public schooling, or perhaps textbook-based homeschools (they exist).

In public school, you only get the math textbook handed to you on the first day of class. If you are a different kind of learner, or faster, or slower, or anything else, that is not relevant to the teacher or the lesson plan or the standardized tests or the state school district ratings. But I can guarantee you, that is most definitely relevant to the learner!!

In public school you are given a set curriculum. Basta - no choice until high school, but even then, that is still a set menu, if expanded somewhat. Unschooling and eclectic homeschooling have a NO LIMITS menu. As far at the term "normal" goes, that is kind of meaningless in our circles. "Normal" is a relative term. Our "normal" is NOT telling Dick and Jane that they have to write essays on subjects they couldn't give two cents about. Notice I didn't eschew essays per se - just essays on subjects they have no real-life relationship to, which is probably 99.9% of the essay topics assigned in schools.

Math and science seem to be the subjects those unfamiliar with homeschooling are worried most about. Even if you never cracked a math book in your entire childhood, math would still be there. Need to bake? Try that without measurement. Want to buy anything? Now we have arithmetic, plus a little more. Got a burning desire to pelt your country neighbors with the homemade spud cannon? Trig helps with the bullseye aim thing with simple geometry for the beginners. If the public schools had a spud cannon war as part of the end-of-year trig course, trig would be passed by absolutely everybody.

It sounds all wishy-washy, but if you really sit back and ask all the young people you humanly can how they feel about school, the various subjects, testing, their textbooks, and everything else you can think of, I think you will find that most, especially the older they get, have completely given up caring about any of this at all - save to get into that all-important college. And that is truly sad.

It has long since been proven that the more senses you engage in learning, the more that learning is retained. These kids have remained passionate about learning and are adept at finding resources and facts, and that is exactly what colleges are looking for and real life demands.

As for my own - their futures will literally be what they choose to make of them. Truly. I have loved them and nutured good character and taught them to read and brought as much of the world's body of knowledge as I possibly can into this home, but at some point they will need to be the architects of their own destinies. Nobody leaves any school knowing everything. Such a thing is not possible. As it is not possible to know the future, for the future is being created every day by the individual choices of just everybody. And they will have a chance to influence it, as well. I have told mine that as long as it is legal, moral, ethical, and pays the bills (with enough left to fund retirement), they have my support.

In this eclectic homeschool, the proper role of "testing" is more of a snapshot of current understanding, nothing more. Unschoolers chuck the whole idea. It carries no more weight in this house other than to possibly diagnose current difficulties.

And as for grades, mine always get an "A". And I will tell you why - when I decide the kiddos need a certain body of information (because this homeschool is eclectic and I get to do that), we simply work at it until the information is retained and understood. Voila - an "A" grade - because the information HAS been learned well. There is no deceit in that. In the public school, when you test and get a "C" for example, you have gotten a "C", that is that, and it is on to the next chapter (and another test).

Thanks for your interest!