You’re here because you are considering homeschooling or unschooling and want to know how to begin unschooling. I would guess you are fed up with the school system, had a teacher that you butted heads with or you child just didn’t get along, or (like me) you were working long hours and coming home and felt like you were the one teaching your child. I was doing all the projects for my kids because they were to hard, I was teaching them how to read, spell and explaining math, so I figured since I am teaching them anyway I might as well do it 100%.
My Uncle, who was a teacher and principle talked me into trying unschooling. Basically unschooling is self-directed learning, free learning, free range learning, learning what you want when you want and how you want.
Here is how to begin unschooling:
- Turn the TV off for 2 weeks or even 2 months…. why to start to deschool yourself, find out what your kids interest are.. whatever, art, science, reading, history, etc
- Your kids will find something to do – encourage them to do it, if you can buy some items to encourage, go library, get books and video on it, google it on the internet
- Get a library card – I take my kids once a week, we get 2 educational book (whatever they want) and 2 fun books to read and I pick out several fun movies and several educational movies
- join a yahoo group for a local homeschool group – this is the hard part, but worth it. Google and find out if there are any groups and join just to get ideas, go on the trips – some are pricy some are free. It is a great way to get play dates with other homeschoolers
- Get an Apple iPad 2– if you can afford it get one – we do 99% of our homeschooling on the iPad, there are so many free games that are educational.
- Educational websites are another great resource, the girls love playing on the computer
- I do lots of research on the computer and get ideas from teachers and other homeschoolers/unschoolers and my 2 favorite website are pinterest.com and doitandhow.com – they have great craft ideas and tons of educational stuff
I think our biggest nemesis is the television. My oldest (asd) is obsessed. I have a 9am rule. It has to be turned off after 9 am unless its raining. Even then I encourage them to find something to occupy their minds, and not just their eye balls
I agree with you 100% it’s hard on rainy days to get the kids motivated when all I want is to sit and veg also, like today. Thanks for the comments glad to know that I am not alone on this 🙂