Writing on Unschooling - a Series of Insights into Unschooling

Part I : Journey to Unschooling

Some people find unschooling and immediately mesh with it. Some people take a while to comprehend and embrace it. This is my journey, the things I've learned and the obstacles I've encountered. I hope it will help others on their own journeys.

When I first heard the term "homeschooling", unschooling was far off in the future, as were my children. In fact, I was horrified at the thought of children being "trapped" at home with a parent all day. It wasn't until years later, when a friend of mine was pregnant and was discussing the possibility of her homeschooling her child that I would rethink my initial reaction.

Several minor reasons helped further the thought in my head when I was pregnant with my first. The stories I heard from parents with children in our local school system. The things a friend's child needed to know before kindergarten admittance (they were things I and my husband had learned in kindergarten). The idea of sitting cosily at home, sharing my knowledge with my child, after all, for a time I had seriously considered becoming a teacher.

After the birth of my first child, the thought of homeschooling drifted to the back of my mind as I was dealing with learning how to be a parent. As he grew and his personality emerged and customs of schools started becoming clear to us, we wondered if our child would be labeled "hyper" or ADHD, simply because he had a healthy amount of energy and rarely sat or stood still.

In the passing years, my husband and I decided to homeschool our oldest for kindergarten at 5, then we would start him in public school kindergarten at 6. We talked about the possibility of homeschooling and the advantages it would have, talked to friends who homeschooled. Suddenly, our son was nearing 4 and family was talking to us about preschool. I hadn't done much research on homeschooling and I wasn't yet confident with the idea, so we enrolled him in preschool near the end of the "school year" for about 3 months.