Unschooling

I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about unschooling these past two weeks.  I started reading about it before we moved to Ecuador and I was intrigued, but once getting here I still felt like they needed to know the basics.  They were troopers and did what I asked, although for several weeks Finn gave me a horrible awful time.  We kept threatening school and he finally had an attitude adjustment, but as I look back over those weeks I wonder if we did more harm than good.

Last week I decided to ask them what they wanted to learn.  They made a list.  Some of the things included were swimming, cooking, sewing (for both of them) and learning a musical instrument.  They both said they wanted to continue Spanish lessons and that they enjoyed me teaching Math to them, so we decided to continue that. We dropped the Brain Pop, which they didn't like, but they continue to read books way above grade level on their own.   

There is a new school here starting in the fall that follows the unschooling principles.  Well, as much as a school can.  I have only emailed back and forth with the director a few times as he is in the states right now guiding a hundred or so kids in Yosemite.  I like what he says he is attempting to do, but it is expensive.  I want to meet with him when he gets back and see what his school is offering.  If it gives Finn and Tali a chance to be with other kids and to explore things that they love, then I'm in. 

What led me to this excited search into unschooling this time was a book recommended by the director of this new school called, The Teenage Liberation Handbook.  It is meant to be read by teenagers, but it really opened my eyes to a new way of looking at learning.  As I read I keep thinking about my niece who is miserable in high school right now.  I think that if she let herself become open to this idea of unschooling she would soar. 

Today I have been reading a blog of a radical unschooling mother.  She is one of the experts in radical unschooling and has been on many tv shows, including Oprah.  Nightly News calls her the UnNanny.  She has been to many family's homes helping them to transition into unschooling.  I have been afraid of even looking into radical unschooling. It just seemed too radical!  But, today I read a post about how she handles food in her home.  One of the things she does is give her children $15 and she allows them to pick out whatever food they want at the grocery store.  My immediate thought was, No Way! 

I started to think about how that would look and decided to experiment a little bit with Finn and Tali.  I told them that I would do the same...give them some money at the grocery store and they can pick out what they want.  They were so excited.  In my head I saw grocery carts with heaps of candy and chips. 

At lunch we started talking about what they were going to buy.  Tali said she would probably pick bread, meat and cucumbers.  Finn said he would love to get some peach yogurt.  He was so excited to get that yogurt because Mark always buys blackberry.  I didn't know he was really missing the peach.  He also said he would buy strawberries, bananas and milk to make more smoothies.  I was a bit surprised by their choices.  I wonder what will happen when we actually get to the store.  To be continued...