Our Unschooling approach to homeschooling

When I started homeschooling 10 months ago, I really fell in love with the idea of Unschooling and the Montessori approach.  Essentially, it's a very child-led, interest-based concept.  I firmly believe that we learn better when we are genuinely interested in a topic, so it just makes sense to let kids dive deeply into topics they are interested in.

When we first started out, I was worried my kids would never venture from their topics of interest, but I've found that's not the case.  At first, Connor was obsessed with outer space.  When we'd go to the library, he would get 20+ books on Mars, astronauts, the International Space Station, and more.  He watched documentaries, read articles, devoured books - basically lived & breathed space.

A couple months later, I guess he felt like he'd learned pretty much everything he needed to know on the subject, so he moved on.  His current topic?  Micronations.  I didn't even know that was a thing before Connor became interested in it.

If it sounds very restrictive (trust me, it did to me, too - I mean, why would a 10 year old need to deeply research micronations?), it's actually not.  In researching micronations, he has become pretty much an expert on different types of governments around the world.  He has learned so much about geography as well.  We have made our own currency, passports, and stamps.  He's definitely getting his reading in.  And he has his own micronation website so he's gotten in lots of writing.  He's even come up with his own flags.  Certain things come with practice - like spelling - but we're working on that.

Basically, I've been surprised how educational it can be to dive deeply into a topic - any topic - that interests you.  It overlaps into so many other topics & leads to more questions & more research.

One term I've learned since starting Unschooling is the concept of "strewing".  Essentially, what it means is that you intentionally expose your kids to things that might interest them.  This could mean finding magazines on the subjects & leaving them around the house.  It could mean taking them to the library to get books on the subject.  Or perhaps helping them find documentaries on Netflix or videos on YouTube.  Or even something like finding a game or science project that would help them understand the topic better.  The key is to get them interested & learning will naturally follow.

Unschooling sounds super easy, like parents can be lazy about the whole approach.  And I guess theoretically you could be.  But you will have much better results if you are intentional about things, expose your kids to lots of fun learning opportunities, and explore the world together.  One of our favorite things to do is travel.  I think learning is much better when it's hands on.  I would much rather take my kids to Williamsburg to see living history than to simply read about it in a book.  It brings it to life, generates more interest, and makes an impression.

I'll admit, I'm not 100% an Unschooler, though.  While I do believe most things will come up naturally, I do want my kids to be exposed to more math than they would perhaps organically be exposed to.  So I do try to be more intentional with that.  Casey does math for fun, but Connor would probably avoid it like the plague for the rest of his life if given the choice.  I do try to make it fun for them, and their math usually consists of board/card games or online math games, although we occasionally do workbooks as well.
 
This path is definitely not one I expected to take, and I don't think it's a perfect fit for everyone, but it certainly can be an amazing thing if you're intentional about it.  And I haven't mastered it by any means.  I'm constantly learning & growing & coming up with better ways to do things.  But I have been blown away with how well it's worked for my kiddos so far!  If you haven't already, check it out!