A Little on Unschooling

I see daily that “unschooling” or child-led learning works! For example, I recently introduced Madison and Morgan to the old Oregon Trail computer game that I was so fond of as a child. They absolutely LOVED it and kept saying they were hooked on it. One weekend, they were going through a bunch of books that I keep out for them and they found a ton of information about traveling west in a covered wagon and info about the Oregon Trail. They were so excited to find information relating to the game that they loved and were reading all about it together. Wow, reading and learning something that they weren’t asked or “forced” to read – and on a weekend at that! ;)

They are constantly doing things like that
– picking up books or magazines on what many people would consider “school” or “educational” topics and learning about them
– playing “educational” board games and computer games
– drawing and writing journal-type entries in notebooks
– creating their own artwork
– playing library and organizing the books by theme or alphabetically
– counting and keeping track of their money and occasionally saving it – lol
– writing poems or songs

I could go on and on. I bought Madison a book about the body – something she was interested in. We got it in the mail this past Saturday and she couldn’t put it down all weekend. A few more pages and she will have it finished. There are so many times when the girls will answer a question or point out something that they know and I will know that “I” didn’t teach it to them. You see, they remembered it because it was something that they wanted to learn themselves. So, I have evidence right in front of me that the concept of unschooling works. Now, if I could just let go and give in even more. It is really hard for me having been a public school teacher in the past. I guess for now baby-steps will have to do…