This is in response to those who tell me: "I know some unschoolers and they just let their children play video games all day, every day. They do absolutely nothing with their kids..."
I love unschooling and I realize that it is not for everyone. It does take a leap of faith to believe that your children will learn while letting them follow their own interests.
It may look like, to others especially critical ones, that my children do nothing all day. It may look like they play games all day or are on the computer all day. However, they are not with us all day. My four year old does play quite a bit of games but he also tells the most amazing stories from imagination, is learning to read, can recite songs as well as make some up on his own, is learning about different types of bugs, learning to sew, knows how to needle felt as well as wet felt and is learning to crochet. He is learning to read in Japanese, loves to help me cook, plays with the dogs, gardens and collect pieces of wood that he calls swords. This is pretty much on his own without my coaxing, coaching or making him sit at a table for hours on end.
My older son has a wealth of interests although you wouldn't think that with the amount of time he spends on Facebook or texting his friends. He wants to write a book, he is interested in atvs, motorbikes, horses, taking things apart, and music. He does awesome in public speaking and goes out of his way to help people.
Most unschoolers are not doing nothing all day. It may seem like it but there is usually a lot more learning going on than they let on and unless you spend 24/7 with one, you will not know it.
So before a person says: "I know an unschooler and they do absolutely nothing..." Make sure you have your facts straight and hard evidence before you start ranting about how the parents are ruining their children by this method and they are neglectful. It just might stop some animosity from growing.
Oh~I'm sure there are some homeschooling parents out there that do neglect their children and they are the ones that get the most publicity because they are the ones who get in the news. However, they are really few and far between.
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2 comments:
Thanks for writing about this topic. It got me to think about the issue in a new (to me) way. It seems to me that unschooled children learn about what to do with their lives from experiencing what we do with our life. The unschoolers who "do nothing" probably have parents who "do nothing."
School kids sit at desks in classrooms all day every day. So what's the difference between that same everyday activity and computer games? The kid playing is engaged and having fun. Not to mention, no unschooler actually sits at the computer all day every day. We can't say the same of the kid in the classroom.
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