Homeschool for Beginners: Unschooling Method

when you're brand new to homeschooling you probably don't know that there are a few main different homeschooling methods that homeschoolers use to guide their homeschooling the one i'm going to introduce to you today is the unschooling method unschooling is a child-led method where parents provide resources and support and encouragement for their kids to pursue what interests them there is no formal curriculum no formal schedule and parents don't tell their kids what they're going to learn it is as far from traditional school as you can get are you intrigued yet then keep watching my name is beth and here at teach from home i share all about how to get started homeschooling for parents who are trying to find a different way to educate their children but have no clue where to start if that is you i suggest that you subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you don't miss any of my future videos so to understand unschooling you need to just completely forget anything that you associate with traditional education teachers choosing what the whole class is going to be learning for the year giving assignments and quizzes every child being told what they're expected to learn and then being graded on it school and learning happening at a certain time of day and then learning just stops at a certain time of day too just forget all of that unschoolers believe what i have come to believe too that children are born with all of the curiosity in the world they want to learn about the world around them they find things that they are interested in without anyone telling them to be interested in it and they spend time studying and learning all that they can about it parents encourage their kids natural interests by giving them resources like books or videos to watch about that certain topic or they will take them places so they can see more about that topic or they will build something if their kids want to with them on that topic the truth is the most effective way for children to learn something is when they choose to learn about it on their own unschoolers trust that their children will learn so much just because of their natural curiosity that is built into them for example children naturally wanting to learn how to read because they see other people do it or naturally being curious about bugs and other creatures that they see when you go out on outside or being naturally interested in art and wanting to create things with your own hands once they choose something that they want to learn about the parents will be there to help them in any way that the child wants now you might think that this is completely backwards normally the parents know what to teach their children right because the kids don't know any better and in unschooling it seems like the parents are kind of out of a job they're like ignoring their kids because they trust that they're going to just teach themselves but that is so far from the truth unschooling parents are actually teaching their children intentionally paying attention to their children the entire time that they're awake so they are going to be observing their kids and what their interests are and whenever their kids are ready for their help they are there to to help support them in that for them there is no school that is done during the day because learning happens anytime that you are awake kids never really stop learning especially when it's learning about something that they are super interested in themselves unschoolers want to instill a passion for learning in their children and they do that by modeling it in their own lives but they are being super intentional in their parenting by letting their kids pursue what they want and then showing them what kinds of things what kinds of resources they could use to learn more about it i agree that if kids are not led to love learning they only see learning as something where they have to check off boxes or complete tasks or pass something and then be done with it what unschoolers want for their kids is to show them that learning is a lifelong never-ending process and there are no boxes to check off when we have finished learning what we want to about a certain topic they're just learning things because they want to did you check off a box when your kids learned how to feed themselves or when they finally learned how to tie their shoes did you just check that off or when they started walking on their own did you have a checklist no of course not those are just natural life skills that we know our kids are gonna learn eventually and we help guide them in those things the ultimate goal of unschoolers is to teach their kids how to teach themselves so that they can be successful in the future and whatever they want to learn this should be a goal of all education when we have students that are dependent on someone higher up always guiding them to learn something they're never going to learn how to guide themselves and so that's why unschoolers are saying i'm not going to tell you what to do about this if you want to learn something i want to guide you to how to learn it on your own we want that internal motivation to help them learn on their own while i don't believe that i would ever go 100 into unschooling myself i have noticed when we've done a little bit of unschooling in my own home school for example my oldest when he was about five years old was super into severe weather and he wanted to study that and so i provided him with a lot of youtube videos where people were documenting severe weather like hurricanes or tornadoes or tsunamis and he was fascinated by it i also found a lot of books at the library about weather and eventually we started talking to him about how the weather people the meteorologists study radars and they follow weather patterns so that they can let us know what the weather's going to be like every day he was fascinated with that and started watching um the radar on our weather app on my ipad eventually i upgraded to a bigger ipad and i gave him my old ipad and now he uses it every single day he has learned so many weather terms and everything that meteorologists study all on his own just by looking at the radar and that app that shows all of these different things that they measure as meteorologists he also has learned a ton about geography because he will look at the whole world and he will study other weather systems in other parts of the world and so he's learned a lot of countries names and just every wherever they are because he studies it on his own we are not telling him to do any of this he also knows things like de ratio he knows all the names of the major hurricanes that have happened he follows rainstorms and snowstorms on the radar and he knows more about meteorology than i do he also really likes to discuss it with me and his dad he gives us daily weather reports or he'll randomly shout out did you know what the heat index is in saudi arabia today so his dad and i have always encouraged his habit of looking at weather and and all the things that go along with meteorology and we have not taught him anything about it he has learned it all completely on his own that's unschooling unschoolers do not believe in any traditional school tools like quizzes and tests and assignments and grades i personally have never thought that grades and homeschooling hold any value they are completely useless unschooling parents model and critical thinking and living a rich well-rounded stimulating life living is learning and their kids quickly pick up on that mindset unschoolers study their own kids and find out what really sparks a fire in their hearts about the world they pay attention to what they want to focus on and give them opportunities and freedom to explore it however long they want to unschooling is child led unschoolers know that given the time and the freedom kids will learn so much about the world around them simply because they are not being forced to they're going to do it with all the joy and desire in their hearts because they want to do it on their own that's that internal motivation they're exploring completely naturally and independently i agree with a lot of the beliefs behind unschooling i do believe that we need to trust our kids that they can lead their own learning sometimes and they are going to learn a whole lot more if it's something they want to learn versus something that they are told to learn about they need lots of space and freedom to pursue their own interests and i try to give my kids that as much as possible i also do believe strongly that kids are born with a natural curiosity about the world and that we should encourage that and let that blossom and if there is a lot of forced instruction and restraint then we're going to kill off that natural curiosity in our children so if you want to learn more about this unschooling method then i have two book recommendations for you the first one is teach your own and the other one is how children learn and they're both by john holt i will leave the links for those books in the description box hit that thumbs up button if you found value in this video also i would love to hear your comments about this topic if you're a brand new homeschooler what do you think about this method do you think that you would consider using it or if you are not a new homeschooler and you are an unschooler i would love to know your comments about this too if you liked this video you should go and watch this playlist where i've shared about other homeschool teaching methods i also suggest my video on how to get started homeschooling in 2020 i'll leave all those links in the description box as well thank you for stopping by today and i look forward to seeing you in the next video

Channel: Teach From Home

Views: 6,566

Rating: 4.9462366 out of 5

Keywords: unschooling, homeschooling, homeschool, unschool, homeschool mom, how to homeschool, what is unschooling, unschoolers, home schooling, stay at home mom, how to unschool, teach from home, homeschool for beginners, homeschooling mom, how to start homeschooling, homeschool teaching methods

Id: MVW9Ux-1XrU

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020