Homeschool Fiction

I recently heard a homeschooling mother say that her family unschooled during the summer and Christmas vacations.  I’ve also heard parents of schooled (public and private) say similarly.  The homeschooling mother’s reasoning was that she believed that nothing can be learned during those times anyway since the kids are distracted by other things, plus she needed a break…

Eeks!  Unschooling is a full-time lifestyle.  It can’t be “done” during weekends and holidays.  It’s an all day and all night, every second of every day thing.

Think of it this way:  Have you ever had a “working vacation”?  You know, where you go to Hawaii for a conference for two weeks, but have to meet with clients for six hours a day, plus plan your conference talks for another three, plus figure out souvenirs for all the office folks who couldn’t go to the conference?  How does this compare to going to Hawaii without a computer or cell phone for two weeks with nobody with you except your lovely family?

Fact is: It doesn’t compare.  How could it?  We can all feel it when work or school is looming over us.  We can’t truly get into the groove of who we are and what we want from life until we have the freedom to do so.  Schooled kids are enjoying this break from school tremendously right now, but they can feel school work looming over them.

“Unschooling during weekends and vacations” is just like going on a business trip with the hopes of having fun outside of the business part.  Sometimes it works for a bit, but it never works 100%.  Unschooling as a lifestyle doesn’t even slightly compare.  It works because of the fact that our children learn what they are interested in — and quite quickly!

Want to think of it one more way?  Well, are you thinking that your kids haven’t learned anything this past week while they celebrated holidays?  Think again!  My guess is they’ve learned more during this time off from school than they have in the whole of school for the past four months…  Just think how much they could learn if they never had to go back to school again!  Try it.

Share/Save

Related Articles:

• What Unschooling is NOT
• “How much time does Unschooling take?”
• Top 10: Reasons Why I’m THANKFUL We Discovered Unschooling
• Answering Questions About Unschooling
• Unschooling: It’s what we DO, rather than what we DON’T DO.

By: Lisa