my favorite way to annoy sean to the max these days is to mention how much i want to unschool (homeschool) annabelly. why are we moving to arlington? why are we moving into a neighborhood with the best elementary school in northern virginia?, sean will ask.
which is kind of clarence-thomas-y coming from sean, given that he was unschooled in a major way growing up in yogaville.
there was a big homeschool-y component to my childhood as well. i went to traditional schools, but my days were filled with a ton of unstructured play time because there just wasn’t much in the way of soccer practice or girl scouts meetings to get in the way of free form play in saudi arabia, where i grew up. plus, my mom never really told us not to play with anything. so, if my brother wanted to make throwing stars, then he researched different shapes and styles and worked with my dad’s employees to make them. that’s history, design, physics, math, and geometry right there for you.
anyway, all i know from my brief tenure in parenting is that there is no structuring what annabelly will learn - she picks up what she wants when she wants. all i can do, i am learning, is provide a stimulating environment. when i think about all the time kids waste in school being herded like sheep, more and more it makes sense to me to have annabelly hang out with me all day and learn from her environment. i think where homeschooled kids suffer is math and science. i have yet to hear of a homeschooled kid score a 5 on her AP Calculus exam — i’d like to find out how to successfully provide a rigorous math and science component to a homeschool curriculum (ugh, i hate the word “curriculum”).
here’s a good article on a family that unschooled their three children in a very cool way.
