Learning about unschooling

In my quest to make homeschooling easier and more efficient for both me and my son, I have been learning more and more about unschooling. The more I learn, the more I realize it really fits my lifestyle. Frankly, it's the style of homeschooling I've been using, but just haven't been able to put a name to it until now.

What is unschooling?
To try to define unschooling and put rules and labels on it undermines what unschooling is all about.

At it's most basic, unschooling is child-directed learning. That's the only "rule". 

But the concept of "child-directed learning" is left up to interpretation by the families who are practicing it. If you asked 20 unschooling families what unschooling is, you would get 20 different answers, though they would all be focused around letting the children decide their education. 

The many definitions of unschooling
Listed below are a few ideas of what unschooling is. They are quite philosophical, but all part and parcel of what it means to live the unschooling lifestyle.

• Unschooling is taking away the brick walls that public schools force on our children, allowing them not to be tethered to other people's assumptions of what they should know.

• Unschooling is allowing the children to free their thinking so they may learn more and more rapidly without the restrictions of a conventional education holding them back.

• Unschooling is not about content, plans or a curriculum. It is about the process of learning. Learning happens whether it's part of a plan or not. 

• Unschooling is letting a child's natural curiosity lead him or her on a path of learning. Bring as much of the world as we can into their lives, then get out of the way.

Is unschooling right for you?
If a public-school type of education is ingrained in your mind, getting the hang of unschooling might be difficult for you. You would need to let go of conventions and trust that your child will want to explore and learn on his or her own. You can make a plan to ensure your child gets the most out of unschooling by constantly introducing him or her to new subjects, but in the end the idea is to let your child take the lead. 

If you feel you absolutely need structure and lesson plans, then unschooling would not work for you. However, if you like the idea of letting your children explore their own paths and learn according to their own terms and in their own ways, unschooling is definitely a fit for you.

Unschooling is a very good fit for parents teaching children with learning disabilities using multi-sensory methods. Because multi-sensory teaching uses visual, auditory and hands-on elements in the lessons, children are more engaged in their education and more open to learning new subjects and topics. Allowing children to choose their own multi-sensory lessons is just the next step needed to practice unschooling. This could mean signing up for a service like BrainPOP and allowing children to choose which videos they want to watch. Or it could mean going outside and allowing your children to observe nature very closely by picking up rocks, leaves or bugs and discussing where they come from and what they do.

Mixing unschooling in with a schedule
If you like the idea of unschooling but would still prefer to stick to a loose curriculum or teach certain basics, then you can set a schedule to allow you to teach according to a curriculum for part of the day and allow your kids to explore freely for the rest of the day. This is the eclectic homeschooling style where you take ideas from a variety of teaching methods and mix them to create your own. You may find that something you are teaching your kids really interests them and you might consider letting them go off on that tangent rather than stick to your schedule. 

Because unschooling has no rigid structure or rules, you can make it what you want (or need) it to be. If your children simply want to play video games all day, then adding a little more restrictions to the school day (like no TV between certain hours) may be in order. If you are having a hard time getting them to want to explore new subjects, you may consider building more structure into their school day (before you do though, check out Developing an Unschooling Plan). However, the more restrictions you place on your children and their education, the less you are unschooling and the more you are boxing them in, metaphorically.

Offer plenty of opportunity to explore
The idea of unschooling is to provide your children with plenty of opportunity to explore and hopefully they will lead their own education in a positive way. If they are getting bored or acting like they don't want to learn, then you simply need to fill their lives with more to explore, rather than trying to place more restrictions on them. This can be remedied by going on a field trip, watching the National Geographic channel, going to the library, doing an art project, cooking together, or simply studying the bugs you find in the backyard. Be sure to ask your child what he or she would like to learn. If they say they really just want to play video games, maybe you can research how video games work on the Internet together. It might actually interest them to know what's behind the games they play. Be creative and together you and your children will have fun and learn a lot along the way.

Benefits of unschooling
Children learn best when they are allowed to ask questions and explore. That is why unschooling is so appealing to many home-schoolers. You are not sticking to a rigid schedule set by state and federal standards which may or may not apply to what your child needs and wants to know.

And imagine not having to deal with the constant arguments and struggles associated with the typical school setting. Because unschooling allows your children to determine their own education, they will be having fun and will be very interested in what they are learning because it is what they want to learn. Also spending more time on hands-on learning rather than filling out workbook pages or tests will increase retention of what is studied. When you consider the ultimate goal of an education, that is to make sure your child actually learns something useful, then unschooling will get you there with the proper plan.

How to make your teaching style multi-sensory

Studies have shown that children who are taught using multi-sensory methods learn better and retain the information for longer. This teaching style applies to all children, not just those with learning disabilities.

But what does it mean to use multi-sensory methods and how can you incorporate it into your teaching style?

What is multi-sensory teaching?
We learn about the world through our senses. We use sight, sound, taste, touch and smell to make our discoveries. 

Consider trying to learn karate through reading alone. Could you do it without someone showing you how to move your arms and legs; how to move your feet; how high to hold your hand and which direction to hold it? Even having a few pictures of poses and moves would help significantly. But with just words, it simply can't be done.

The same is true of all learning. Multi-sensory teaching is more than adding pictures to books. We need visuals as well as sounds and other elements to make us truly understand what we are trying to learn. And while a picture speaks 1,000 words, imagine what adding sound, touch, taste and smell can do. By allowing children to use multiple senses to learn, you open up the world to them.

How beneficial is multi-sensory teaching?
If all people learned the same way, public school would be much more successful and there would be no such thing as learning disabilities. The only reason learning disabilities are called disabilities is because the learning style doesn't match the teaching style used and the student has a harder time learning.

You may have heard of the visual learner or the kinesthetic (hands-on) learner. These are different learning styles. For example, a visual learner retains more of the information taught through visuals such as pictures in books or videos. When you match the teaching style to the learning style of the child, he or she gets more out of the lesson.

However studies have shown that using multiple teaching styles help children learn even more than if they were taught with just their strongest learning style. For example, a visual learner would learn better if taught visually, but would learn even more if taught through visuals, sounds and touch.*

Examples of multi-sensory teaching
Physically planting a seed and watching it send out roots and shoots teaches children so much more than reading about how a plant grows in a book (especially for children who have dyslexia and have a hard time reading). 

Poetry is much more meaningful when read with full emotion. The inflections in your voice when reading sad parts or joyful parts are heard and understood by children.

Science is much better understood through experimenting with it. Floating raisins in soda water and watching the bubbles lift and drop them or putting salt in water to see if it will light up a bulb -- these are all things kids can do with their hands, see with their eyes and remember forever because they took part in it.

How do you incorporate multi-sensory lessons in all subjects?
Let's face it, some subjects make it easy to use multiple senses. Art and science are obvious. But what about history or government? For those subjects, you need to get creative.

In the book A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, author Roger Von Oech was making a point for one of his methods to learn to be more creative. He said imagine what school would be like if Walt Disney (who had dyslexia) were in charge. Kids might act out historical scenes and characters or learn physics and engineering by building the playground rides.

It gave me an idea: Famous battles or historical figures really come to life in a play. You can have your children come up with the script or just do an impromptu act. Go outside if the scene warrants it. The scenes and plays don't have to be exactly accurate as long as the main facts are established. If you don't have time to put on a play, you can always ask your child to imagine what the scenery of an event might be like or how people would feel at the time (for example, at the Gettysburg address people may have felt humbled, proud and invigorated all at the same time). You could have your child draw out the scene to make it come to life. Recite a small section of a famous speech with some vigor in your voice. These are all wonderful ways to turn static history lessons into fun, memorable ones.

Depending on the topic, there are many other ways to make a history lesson multi-sensory. There's always maps that can be incorporated into the lesson (these are great for geography lessons too). If you have blackline maps, kids can color them in, add routes, forts or geographical features. 

If you are studying colonial times, you could have your children draw pictures of the kinds of clothes people of the time and area might wear or what their town might look like. Are there chickens running around in the road or horses and buggies? For the Age of Invention, you could have your child come up with a new invention, draw it up and explain what it does and how it is helpful. 

With some creative thinking, any subject can be multi-sensory and fun. Math comes to life when your child has real objects to hold and use like a base ten kit, a spinner, dice, buttons, measuring spoons, a clock, or whatever helps teach the lesson at hand. Literature is more fun if you act out scenes or dress up like the characters. Government can be understood better if you set up your own home government and start writing up bills you'd like to have passed.

A little thinking and preparation ahead of time can lead to a wonderful learning experience for you and your children.

• • •
* This information is taken from the All About Spelling program. I use All About Spelling with my son not only to help him with his spelling but to help him conquer reading as well. The program uses multi-sensory methods to teach the rules and practices in spelling. Each lesson is given in an orderly fashion and helps make sense of the sometimes senseless rules in spelling. The lessons build on each other so that he never forgets a previous lesson because he's continuing to use it. The program makes learning fun and helps my son read and write better. He's constantly telling me how much better his spelling is getting and he's really proud of himself. He also has more confidence now to try to write more. The letter tiles help make reading easier for him because letters and letter combinations are separated out and put together like a puzzle. When his dyslexic mind sees the letters as puzzle pieces, they stay put when he places the pieces together. To learn more about the All About Spelling program, click here.

Christmas in June

My son Nick loves his video games and I don't mind them either as long as I know he's getting everything else he needs in life (food, outdoor time, sleep, etc.).

The one thing I do like about his love of video games is all the research he puts into finding good ones, or getting through certain sections of some. For a boy who absolutely hates reading, nothing can stop him when he's on the trail of a good game. He's signed onto several YouTube sites, blogs, forums and other sites that help him learn more about the games he plays, the games he wants, and new titles he may be interested in.

A game he's recently decided is a must-have is only available for the PlayStation and PSP (the portable version). We only have Nintendo products in our house (the Wii and DSi). But once Nick latches onto something, he will NOT give it up. His stubborn nature can only be matched by mine.

Nick really loves building games, games where he can create his own levels, characters, and more. It seems a natural extension of his love of LEGOs and other building toys.

Shocking
So this new infatuation with the Little Big Planet game didn't surprise me much. The fact that he kept talking about it despite the fact that we don't have any PlayStation devices didn't surprise me much either. When he started pricing the PSP and requesting one for Christmas, I felt that was pretty much on target too.

What did shock the living daylights out of me was how Nick decided he couldn't wait until Christmas and actually did something about getting the system and game he so dearly wanted.

There's a gaming store down the road a bit that will give cash or store credit for old games and systems. Nick had asked them how much they were selling a PSP for. Then when we got home, he gathered up a bunch of his old games and his GameBoy and we took them down to the store. He decided he'd get at least $100 or more for all of it. The whole way to the store I kept telling him not to get his hopes up because I really didn't want him to be disappointed when it all didn't add up to much. That happens sometimes and I just wanted him to be prepared. But he based his estimate on how much he got previously for games he had turned in and it turned out to be a pretty accurate (if not low) estimate. We walked out of the store with a new PSP system, the Little Big Planet game and various accessories AND still had $18 store credit left.

That's my boy!



What about Christmas?
Now I have to find something else to get Nick for Christmas. He told me there's plenty of games he'll want. He's always planning ahead.

• • •

I saw the new Toy Story 3 movie with Nick this week and loved it! I cried at least three times, laughed about 100 or more times and had a lot of fun. The 3-D effects weren't overpowering but could have been used a bit more I think. I guess there's a fine line between gratuitous 3-D and not enough, so it's hard for me to say. But still, it was a great movie. My son immediately came home and located his old Toy Story toys from the first two movies to create elaborate scenes for them to act out. I think he actually felt guilty for having stuffed them away.

Raising caterpillars

An education can be found under every bush or running along the desert ground. I love learning about nature and using nature as an education. It's not just about how plants and animals live but about connecting it all and applying it to our own human natures. So...

At lunch every day I take a walk on the public lands nearby to enjoy nature's majesty. One day a couple of weeks ago I saw this hairy little caterpillar running quickly along the ground. I didn't hesitate to pick him up and take him home. I knew my son would find him fascinating and while we did raise a caterpillar once before, it couldn't hurt to see the magic again. It would be a wonderful educational experience, I thought.

Apparently we got lucky with the last caterpillar we raised. He was easy to find food for even though I didn't know what he was. He ate, he pooped, he cocooned, he emerged and we marveled at his wonder.

This new little guy I found – we named him George – refused be so easy to care for.

After much Internet searching (finally found something close on What's That Bug), I discovered George was in the Buck Moth family. I probably shouldn't have picked him up because he supposedly stings. I didn't discover that first hand thankfully.

I also learned (for future reference) that I should wait for caterpillars to find a plant to munch on if they are just running about because they are very picky about their diets. Specific caterpillar species desire specific plants for various reasons. The monarch prefers plants from the milkweed family because it makes them poisonous. Buck moths are a very large family and different ones prefer different plants. I assumed George is a Nevada Buck Moth only because I live in Nevada. I gathered a bunch of stems from plants I found on my walk, but he never really ate any of it. I later learned Nevada Buck Moths prefer cottonwood and willow, which can't be found anywhere on the lands I usually walk on. I gave him cottonwood leaves but he didn't seem interested. I thought maybe George isn't a Nevada Buck Moth but some other Buck Moth. I saw him chewing on a branch of the sage brush I picked once, so I gave him more of that.

I also learned caterpillars should NEVER go without food at all or it will weaken their immune systems. George had gone days without eating and I felt sure I doomed the little guy. I felt really, really bad. However, the sage brush was with him the whole time, so it was his own fault for not eating, not mine.

Luckily, I learned his lack of eating and his running laps in the enclosure meant he was in the "getting ready to pupate" stage and he was looking for a place to hide. I found out that Buck Moths prefer to dig a little indent in the dirt rather than hook themselves to a tree branch and make a cocoon. So I put some desert dirt in his enclosure and George immediately started digging. I felt extremely relieved that maybe I hadn't doomed him after all. I still felt guilty for taking so long to figure that out.

After a few days of just laying on the dirt, not moving (unless I poked him) and not eating, I was really starting to worry. I didn't want George to die due to my caterpillar ignorance, and I especially didn't want to tell my son he had died because I wasn't being a responsible caterpillar caretaker. I admit, that's selfish of me, but that's what I was feeling.

I checked on him every day and waited and hoped. It was all I could do. At long last George molted and became a pupa. I was so excited. My son was excited. My friends and co-workers were excited. Success!



And now we wait some more. Apparently Buck Moths stay in the pupa stage until fall. But at least George got to that stage without dying. I'm very happy about that.

I also told my son everything I learned along the way. I may have been a horrible caterpillar caretaker, but now we know what we are supposed to do next time we decide to foster a critter: Learn before you leap.

And then we found Larry.



I don't know what kind of caterpillar he is, but I do know what he likes to eat.
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Help your children learn more about caterpillars with the National Geographic book Face to Face with Caterpillars.