==Can anyone explain to me the difference between unschooling and homeschooling==

In terms of legalities, unschooling is a form of homeschooling.

In practice, homeschooling can refer to any number of methods that recreate, in some way, school at home. This can vary from a strict, full timetable of lessons, to a more relaxed approach where kids do a couple of worksheets and spend the rest of the day doing more of their own thing. So, names can vary from school-at-home, relaxed homeschooling, eclectic homeschooling, etc..some people following different schooling methods in their homeschool - Steiner, Montessori.

In practice, unschooling is nothing at all like any of those kinds of homeschooling. Unschooling does not recreate school in the home, in any way.?

Jo

To me, unschooling is the way adults learn. College or classes aside, for a minute. We, as adults, tend to seek out what we enjoy and get curious about. If we want a new career path, we follow it. If we want to add new elements to a current career or hobby we do that. Children do the same, but since they have less life experience, an unschooling environment is opening the world to our children. But we, the adult, are also limited to our own bias and experiences, so unschooling is actually opening the door for everyone in the home to learn. Kids are always asking questions about life, we’re mentors, we share with our children our knowledge, but there is SO much we also don’t know. I think unschooling is opening up yourself to the freedom that you don’t have all the answers and even after all those years of classes and schooling, you still don’t have all the answers. You still only liked a few classes. You have even changed over time and may like things now that you could not stand as a child. It’s allowing yourself the freedom to be vulnerable to learning rather than controlling learning. I guess we say “no” less often, and I don’t just mean to the kids, I mean to ourselves. It’s kind of a forgiving path. To me it’s freedom and acceptance that we have no control over learning, because learning just happens. And control suggests we KNOW, when we really don’t. No one knows what someone else will truly learn, we can assume and we can think we know, but we don’t KNOW. And through this experience we, kids and adults, learn how to truly learn something, because it is not spelled out in some pre-determined manner. It may even turn in unexpected directions.

Through unschooling you get to be there to help your children navigate what you know, and explore what you have no clue about. Whether it’s finding something we find cool and sharing that with our kids or whether it comes from the kids sharing stuff with us. It may be going to new things together that opens the door to discussions and learning more about new topics. As simple as hiking and getting curious to more conforming in the form of museums. Learning becomes limitless. Schooling homeschoolers use these methods as well, but the “should be” learning this or that, the timeline, is lost in unschooling.?

College and classes adults take, come in various forms. Some are curriculum based, others are simply exposure and thought exercise. Some adults learn from curriculum because maybe that’s what they have been taught to think is the only way to learn. Some get stuck there. Some professors are also stuck there. Others attend college seeking knowledge and question their environment and are open for new experience as a way to satiate their brains. Question how you learn.

My 2 cents and I still don’t actually know, this is just where I am after 14 years into this experience.

Steph

PS We still follow the law in our states. Whatever that means, we find various ways to ensure we are performing whatever that standard is. It may just look different than schooling at home.