It’s the time of year when parents are anxiously packing into auditoriums and crammed in like canned tuna for a close-up of their child receiving awards and honors. As a Flight Attendant Mom of 3, this will be my first year not cheering, applauding, or obsessively posting to social media my children’s accomplishments and I couldn’t be any merrier!
Flight Attendant Mom: Unschooling The First Year
Since choosing to unschool a year ago, I’ve been asked tons of questions by parents. Most just want to know what we’re doing. Unschool, or Self-Directed learning, is a relatively new concept for many. And just like traditional homeschool, unschool looks different in every family so it can appear to be elusive.
Check out my interview with Akilah S. Richards:
We learn through everyday life and travel. My children use resources in our home and community to access information that interests them. As their parents, we serve as a guide or facilitator. We organically offer ideas and concepts that they naturally digest, such as history and geography from my daughter’s DNA report and our family tree.
We choose not to use a curriculum or anything that’s boxed unless specifically requested by our children. Because of our natural approach to learning, there are no certificates, test scores, or formal measure of our success.
Many of my children’s achievements as unschoolers are immeasurable. We’ve grown closer as a family and enjoy each others company even more. They both learned to cook and take on daily chores with minimum protest. We started a vegetable garden and my children water, weed, and harvest it daily. They enjoy long days at the library and stay up late reading stacks of books to their heart’s content.
Aside from the occasional “Participation Certificates,” they receive no awards or grades, and we like it this way. We want for them to define themselves and not succumb to any fancy labels given to them such as “Scholar of the Year” or “Most Improved in Reading.”
Read the full post here.
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