Our Unschooling Update: Two Years Later

I've been rereading old blog posts and stumbled on this gem.....Unschooling, A-H .  Written exactly two years ago, I hit the nail on the head about our current homeschool status.

Or lack of.

Or exactly like we like it.

I'm not a huge fan of the term "unschooling".  It seems irresponsible.  Like I don't care what my kids are learning or as though I am not invested in their future of little people growing into big people.  

And that obviously isn't the case.  If I didn't care, I wouldn't be biting my tongue, taming my temper and constantly examining my behavior to make sure I am modeling the behavior I want to see mirrored.

However it is safe to say I am utterly disenfranchised with mainstream education.  Been there.  Done that.  I was unimpressed as a teacher peering from the inside and I am equally unimpressed as a parent peering from the outside.

As I said two years ago, I don't claim to know what the future holds.  But right now my kids are amazing little sponges and impress me to no end with their knowledge of the natural world and developments in their literacy and math skills with only tiny amounts of direct instruction and none of the cute little activities I pin onto my homeschool Pinterest board.  

Much like when I felt protective over the very big decision to switch to a homebirth midwife at 35 weeks pregnant with Liza, I am a bit sensitive over our decision to defy the norm and allow our kids to learn in a no expectations and unstructured kind of way.

So if we run into each other at the grocery story and you ask about our first year of homeschooling, I will probably laugh a nervous little laugh and say that nothing has really changed in our day and my kids just play all day.  A couple of months ago, I might have even said that we will start "real" homeschool next year when Henry is six.

I lied.

That much I know for sure.