Day-to-Day Unschooling

I'm often asked what my family does day in and day out as Unschoolers. I always pause before answering this question in order to determine what the questioner is actually asking. The thing is, there is no "typical day" in the life of this Unschooling family (or any that we've met). We don't wake up or go to sleep at a regular time, we don't sit at the kitchen table and "do school work" -- ever. We have weekly activities that we are involved in, but we don't require our children to go to those if they choose not to, either (they always do attend though, unless we are going out of town). Our children have very flexible lives and we all highly enjoy the freedom of unscheduled learning.

When a friend or family member asks me this question, I know that what they really want to know is what we've been up to lately, what we do for fun, what interests us, etc. So, I share all the fun things we've been doing. I tell them about the activities we've done, the science experiments, the art projects, the hiking, the outings, the important aspects of our lives. I share the fun of what it is like to be us. I enjoy telling people about this!

When a potential future Unschooling family asks me the "typical day" question, I like to refer them to Sandra Dodd's website, my own Do Life Right site, or a place like Unschooling Voices. As every child learns differently, every family has a different dynamic. When I was new to Unschooling, I highly enjoyed reading about the day-to-day living of other families. It helped me realize that we needed to follow our own rhythm. Thus, I encourage others to do the same.

Enjoy finding your own beat!