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After teaching for several years John Holt realized that children learn best when the are learning what they want to learn.
He then went on to write many books about Homeschooling, started the magazine Growing Without Schooling and coined the term "unschooling".
Unschooling is learning based on the student's interests, needs, and goals. Parents are facilitators rather than teachers, helping their children to find resources for learning rather than being teaching a canned curriculum.


I am a teacher and an Educational Consultant. I unschooled my daughter until she entered 7th grade.
Homeschooling was the best educational experience my child could ever have. She was able to study exactly what she wanted to study at any moment.
We were able to go in depth into some subjects just because she found it interesting and then go on to another subject when she was ready.
She never needed to be congoled into doing homework or studying subjects that she already knew. She learned to direct her own education.
She made the decision to go to high school starting in 7th grade and will be graduating this year at the top of her class, a member of the National Honor Society, with friends all over the world.
She is completing second year college level calculus and physics (AP) and has been accepted at several colleges.
She was given the Outstanding Senior award and all this began with a solid foundation in homeschooling.
As a homeschooling parent, you work more as a facilitator than a teacher. We used the library, museums, National Parks, friends, the Internet, and many, many other resources to find answers to our questions.
Though I may not know how to do calculus or physics, I certainly know where to find out.
And so when someone asks if one parent can teach a child, I say yes and no, "It take a village to raise a child."
Since making the decision to homeschool the kids n more...1 point
California courts recently banned parents from hom more...1 point
Do you vacillate between child-led, developmentall more...1 point
A teen describes her experiences homeschooling.1 point
...how the unschooling movement is changing how we more...0 points

As a teacher I have always strived to have all the children happily choosing to learn. One day I picked up What Do I Do Monday? by John Holt. I read it cover to cover. I could make one or two children happily focused on what we were learning but never the whole class.
As my oldest neared kindergarten age I looked at overcrowded classrooms of 35+ students and I talked with Betsy Herbert of South Street School, a school for homeschoolers in Boulder Creek, California. I wanted my child to continue to learn naturally.
We moved to Boston and joined the unschoolers there. Though John Holt had died several years before, we met Pat Feranga and the rest of the folks at Holt Associates and felt like we were coming home.
Catherine Hughes taught us about the Daughter of the Bog at the Boston Museum of Science. We held starfish in our hands at the New England Aquarium. My daughter fell in love with acting and making costumes with the Puddlejump Players. She learned to read with Harry Potter.


Additionally, some unschoolers agree with John Holt when he says that "...the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don't know." Proponents assert that individualized, child-led learning is more efficient and respectful of children's time, takes advantage of their interests, and allows deeper exploration of subjects than what is possible in conventional education. 
Squidooers, please feel free to add your homeschooling lenses to this list. You may also grab this plexo to add it to your lens. By adding it to your lens both our lenses will be updated each time someone adds a lens to the plexo.
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This page is offered to honor the unschooling/ hom more...2 points
People, especially educators, who hear me talk abo more...2 points
Unschooling As Philosophy of Life <br />< more...2 points
An Unschooling Life2 points
Public schools perform much worse at edifying stud more...2 points
Real World Learning* Already homeschooling? This p more...1 point
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Everyone has their favorite unschooling book. Please add your own here.
The classic work on teaching children at home, upd more...4 points
When teachers listened to Holt's talks, or wrote h more...4 points
You won't find this book on a school library shelf more...1 point
<p>With over 70,000 copies of the first edit more...0 points
The Unprocessed Child is a work of nonfiction abou more...0 points
A compelling story about one family's journey into more...0 points
In 1993, eleven homeschooled teenagers described t more...0 points

The first picture is of a classroom where the children are seated quietly listening to the teacher. There is no social contact between the children. Many school systems are even eliminating recess. The second picture is of a group of homeschoolers learning together. They are socializing while learning.
Very well meaning family, friends, and even strangers will ask "But what about socialization?" How do you respond? Here is a list to help new families with this looming question:
Although non-homeschoolers worry that homeschooling may turn children into social misfits, we know that the opposite is true and that POSITIVE socialization is one of the best reasons to homeschool your children3 points
Socialization is actually meant to prepare children for the real world, which means learning to interact and deal with people of all ages, races, and backgrounds. In this case, homeschooling actually does a better job of this because homeschoolers spend more actual time out in society.3 points
Home-schooled children are taking part in the daily routines of their communities. Home schooling parents can take much of the credit for this. For, with their children's long-term social development in mind, they actively encourage their children to take advantage of social opportunities outside the family. Home-schooled children are acquiring the rules of behavior and systems of beliefs and attitudes they need. They have good self-esteem and are likely to display fewer behavior problems than d...3 points
Socialization in homeschooling works better because children have more opportunities to be socialized through the modeling of good social behavior by caring adults rather than through peers, who do not know much more than they do. Parents give their kids the skills they need to interact with other people and also have the chance to protect their children.3 points

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 07/25/2008)

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Children who are homeschooled exhibit no disruption in academic or social development, however, to make homeschooling work, parents must make the time commitment, the money commitment, and the lifestyle commitment to provide that academic environment for the child at home.
Homeschooled children have above-average social and psychological development through their exposure to many different age groups and other activities to boost their social development.
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I do homeschool and am dabbling more and more into unschooling. My son is super smart, super headstrong and super capable of educating himself in the areas that interest him. I guess you could say he's deschooling ME :)
Posted June 30, 2008
Absolutely!
My son is 5 and this is what we are facing right NOW. We have just decided to homeschool him.
Isn't funny how you just stopped by my lens today and rated it and said hello and invited me to check out yours on homeschooling Because this is the very information that I would soon be researching! It has also made me feel great aobut our decision. Thanks! You have made my job so much easier and the book by John Holt sounds great! I will pick one up for sure!
Posted April 27, 2008
Unschooling gave me the maturity and confidence to get into the best colleges in the country.
Posted April 26, 2008
I feel the only way to teach our children anymore is by homeschooling. It is not always easy, but at least I know that my children are not being taught a bunch of trash by the school system. I say homeschool is the only way to go!
Posted April 18, 2008
I would LOVE to be able to homeschool my children. A year ago I never would have said that, but after watching my sister begin homeschooling her children, and spending lots of time looking into all the alternatives for homeschooling, I feel that I would love to give it a try.
Posted April 15, 2008
Yes, we homeschool our child as we travel the world. We live life as a happy family field trip because it works for us. We find combining unschooling and world travel makes an ideal world for us and today that is easier ( and cheaper) than it has ever been before. I don't want my child just to read about the world, I want her to experience it fully and understand what it means to be a global citizen.
Posted March 24, 2008
Yes, we homeschool our child as we travel the world. We live life as a happy family field trip because it works for us. We find combining unschooling and world travel makes an ideal world for us and today that is easier ( and cheaper) than it has ever been before. I don't want my child just to read about the world, I want her to experience it fully and understand what it means to be a global citizen.
Posted March 24, 2008
I've thought about it. My sister homeschools and loves it. I substitute teach at the school where my son goes, so he can't get by with much. We do our own field trips in the summer, and I try to put a fun spin on everything.
Posted March 08, 2008
We homeschooled both of ours from day one, all the way through. Scholarships, honor grads, high-achieving successful young adults who know how to learn anything they decide they want to learn is the result. If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't change a thing.
Posted March 03, 2008
I unschooled my daughter until SHE entered seventh grade, just as you did yours. It was a wonderful experience for both of us. Up until this fall, I have been homeschooling my three recently acquired (2004) sons, but they're back in school now, due to health issues my husband is having - I just don't have the time. But what a rewarding thing to do! I'd do it again in a heartbeat!
Posted February 28, 2008
We kind of tailor school I like to call it. The boys learning is tailored to their needs. :D It's sort of an unschooling, eclectic, homeschooling, whatever the day brings sort