I'm a radical unschooler AMA

[OutOfControlSpirals]

I'm a radical unschooling mum, which basically means I've taken the principals of unschooling, where a child is free to learn what they want, when they want, and applied it to every aspect of our lives. So my children have the same freedoms that I do when it comes to eating/sleeping/learning etc.

Internet, tv, adverts, local business’, friends, family, provide exposure for different topics and one topic tends to lead to another, my son taught himself Japanese, is engineering and coding a robot/model and made a stop motion animation film. Because he likes pokemon lol

do you foresee any issues later when they leave the home and go out into the world?

However much we dislike it, the rules and structures of society exist. There’s a definite trend towards extreme individualism that I personally dont think is healthy.

Do you think they may struggle with situations which need them to put their individuality aside?

The replies to this have been fascinating 😁.
Much defensiveness, much suspicion. The OP’s choice for her family doesn’t reflect badly on anyone else!
I think it’s an interesting insight and you come across as very thoughtful in your approach.

If i was the OP i would refuse to answer some of these questions, so judgemental.

Bowlofbabelfish. They are already out in the world. If their was a situation that required them to put their individuality aside, I imagine they would be fine as they would have chosen to put themselves in that situation.

I'd look beyond the childhood stage

Will they have jobs to support themselves while at uni etc? Because THATS when they will need to have the wherewithal to get themselves to places on time and organised, go on structured courses and structure their day around the workplace,breaks,lunch etc

All this plodding through childhood at a leisurely pace doing what they like when they like will likely backfire a bit

Staydazzling, they sure are! "Ask me anything" seems to have been interpreted as "attack me because my choices are causing you to feel insecure"

I don’t understand what is ‘radical’ about it?

My dd was given the freedom and she pursued her dream and would work at it night and day, I tried to get her involved with what was considered as a broad education, and she wasn't bothered after a while. She said that all she needed to learn was to sign her name for autographs, Geography to know how to get to her concerts, and how to check she'd been paid correctly.
Anything else was getting in the way of her career, she was 8 and begged to be brought out of school, after seeing a programme on cbbc.

She lives for music and has done since being very little, would sneak into students lessons and hide under the piano, to get a freebie.
I was going to be structured and work with her up to GCSE's, allowing her more time at home and more opportunities to travel further. Not just locally but nationally and internationally.
Very few working parents can tell their boss they aren't coming in tomorrow as they are chaperoning their child. Annual leave wouldn't have covered a quarter of her commitments.

Then at 11 she decided the best thing was to audition for a specialist school, where the music comes first and academic second. She gained a place and apart from not wanting to do the academics, (not due to H.ed but the fact she doesn't need to gain many GCSE's/ A levels for her chosen colleges,) is happy and thriving.
No way could she have done what she has and attended a normal school.
Oh, and she went to bed and got up when she wanted, worked at the best time for her, not what was prescribed.
She's the first up and in a practice room too, sometimes way before breakfast at 7.15am

I think just in time education is a very good thing.

In the future, in the fast developing internet culture in which we live now, just in time training (of the right size for the need) is going to become more necessary if we are to progress as a nation in line with others.

unachooling isn’t letting your child do whatever they want, they know not to break laws or rules, it’s not like you have a child and tell them to get on with it.
They show an interest, you talk about the interest and depending on age either help them research it or let them research it, you then plan together or let them plan how to take it further. They can spend as much or as little time on it as they want, if they don’t understand it they can go over and over it until they do, they can put it to one side and go back to it later. Educationally unschooling just means freedom for kids to take their own journey at their own pace

I think you e experienced some bristling because you've made several negative assumptions about parenting from those who you regard as conventional.

Greenyogagirl, exactly. Radical unschooling is just taking those and applying it to the rest of your life. I wouldn't dream of telling my DH what he was going to think/learn/wear/eat/do with his life, so why would I assume I had the right to do that to my children?

And as for jobs they’ll do great unless it’s a job where you sit in silence at a desk for 8 hours a day doing what you’re told and not questioning authority the world thrives on all different people, no-one has the same education, they’ll be home ed/radical unschooled/mainstream/boarding school doctors/lawyers/teachers

You might not be telling your kids, but someone else will do

They will be made to conform eventually

How do you think they will make their own way in life without having a batch of qualifications?

runmummy who? I don’t know a single person who goes up to an adult and says ‘you can’t have blue hair/tattoos/those clothes’ unless it’s an employer in which case knowing the rules the adult wouldn’t be in that situation anyway

Yes green.... but they might not end up in a role where they are able to 'question authority'

@RunMummyRun68 I can't speak for the op, but part of what my children are learning with me is about honouring commitments, being where we said we'd be when we said we'd be there etc. Part of it is as life skills training, and part of it is about basic courtesy.

this isn't something that is any different from people who send their children to school.

There ARE home educators who are completely flaky. You plan something with them and then little Jimmy doesn't feel very well, or just "sorry can't make it after all". I give people about 3 strikes and then I stop arranging things with them and spend my time with people who are reliable. It would be fair to say that their children might struggle with regular commitments when they get older (though it is just as likely to be that we were very low down on their list of priorities, and they can perfectly well honour commitments when they actually care about them).

AssasinatedBeauty, no I'd say my observations were fairly accurate. Put your kid in a school uniform today? Thats you as a parent enforcing what your child wears, not me making an assumption about your parenting.

frazzled you can get qualifications at any age, also you can do apprenticeships, work your way up the ladder, start a business.
I know a few people without GCSEs that have fantastic careers. There are lots of routes to getting where you want to be

Those aren't the assumptions I was referring to.

runmummy and if they do that’s their choice to accept the rules that come with the job. Just like as children they accept they can’t go shop naked or practice the drums in the garden at 2am

“ I'm often approached by parents at my childrens extra curricular activities, who, upon learning my children dont go to school, want to know what curriculum we use, how we do it, as the kids are doing so well.”

But how do they know this from the extra-curricular activity? When mine had swimming lessons and jujitsu, I never talked about their academic ability to anyone, and no-one else did about their child either. The children themselves were all just concerned with the extra-curricular activity itself. Maybe asking the others if they played Minecraft or what Pokémon they had. At the time mine were both excelling academically. No-one at any extra-curricular activity had any clue.

So I am trying to understand in what situation other parents would recognise that your children were “doing well.”

Don't they wear a uniform at cadets?