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.

If your children decide they want to do 10 GCSEs and then 3-4 A levels would you let them go to school/ college or would you fund them privately or persuade them not to.

I'm also wondering how you fund this lifestyle. I know we couldn't.

Whats stopping all of you right now from eating chocolate all day every day?

Sadly nothing... I am fat and weak.

What about future qualifications for your children, will they do A levels will they do a degree and further studies, if not which career will they pursue without qualifications?

My marine biology loving daughter had an annual membership to the aquarium, is currently trying to grow algae in a petrie dish on the window sill, swims twice a week, enjoys watching documentaries, attends beach clean ups, is on a crusade to stop plastic entering the ocean and endangering wildlife, is constantly reading and subscribes to YouTube channels that follow turtle breeding programmes and whale watching and how narwhales are being affected by climate change. Thats only the tip of the iceberg!

how involved is your DH?

When you allow your children to stay up until 2am do you they have to be out of bed by a certain time in the morning, if not are they allowed to lay in bed all day?
How do you think they will adjust to a full working day? Or if they want to study at university level, meeting deadlines etc?

No questions really but I’d love to do this. I haven’t worked up the courage to do it other than find a flexi friendly school nearby that now isn’t an option :( I am about to send my 4 year old to reception part time (something that is very frowned upon in our school).

For the record, I understand what you’re saying about being present. By the time my kids get home from school (or the music, sports or art clubs we have chosen to pay for, now that these subjects don’t feature in our school’s curriculum) they are absolutely knackered and just want to chill. I am so excited about this summer - there’s so much we’ve been wanting to explore and it just feels like there’s no time. I’ve watched the love of learning dwindle in my 10 year old but luckily, he’s off to an amazing secondary school that values critical thinking, enquiring minds and a broad curriculum.

I also work at the school (not a teacher. Mental health, which is how my dissatisfaction with the system started. It in no way fits with any theory of child development or theories regarding how children learn best.) and have seen first hand how even the best teachers (and we have amazing ones) simply don’t have the time to be present and engaged when trying to deliver a ridiculous curriculum to 33 children.

We are basically programming our children with data that they can subsequently be tested on in order to rank them. From a professional point of view, I fear that the mental health of our youth is being seriously negatively affected by our education system.

Do you think home educating could ever become mainstream/what the majority do? Would you think this would be a good thing for our country if it did come about?

What kind of background do you come from?

What jobs do you and DH do?

I think it sounds lovely.

Same questions as someone upthread - do you and/or another adult in your household work? Are you on benefits?

Also, do they socialise with children in full time education?

What about getting qualifications? One of my best friends wasn't schooled, and as a highly intelligent girl she got seriously frustrated by the lack of 3rd level options open to her. Her dad had been a university lecturer and she deeply resented him for cutting off that opportunity for her

I have a son in year 9. His physics, maths and computing courses are extremely difficult! I may just have been able to help him with the maths myself had I Home schooled him because I have A-level maths (forgotten it all though) but I never took physics GCSE and computers were only just available in schools when I went never mind there being qualifications in them.

It’s the technical subjects which really need a subject specialist that I think would be difficult for you to help them with, surely? Geography, English, history, even languages, plenty easy to help someone with if you have a decent education yourself.

The crusade on plastics, can I ask what exactly that entails? I take it jt’s Not just sharing FB posts and writing to companies?

How do we fund this lifestyle? DH works fulltime, I pick up the odd part time contract here and there. We live modestly, budget well, the children are well aware of the finances which has helped them with their financial literacy. I just asked my 12 year old why he doesn't insist on spending the grocery budget on junk food for a month. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said "because I'd feel like shit, thats why!"

Re: the supermarket. So you do have clear boundaries, and act as I have done (and I suspect most parents in here) at a supermarket. Engaging them, getting them to weigh produce, taking them outside to calm down if necessary etc. That's not radical.

Why can’t they do these things and go to school as well?
Do you feel guilty depriving them of a normal cultural experience?

Oh, and are they well behaved? I don’t ask that to be goady, I ask because a lot of the kids I’ve met who haven’t been traditionally schooled (home schooling or Montessori) have been a right pain at that age, because they feel more entitled to freedoms than bound to any responsibilities.

I don't think I'd be brave enough to give your lifestyle a go but it does sound kind of cool. Good for you.

You seem to be cherry picking the questions here OP I have to say....

I’m dying for you to tell us whether you or your DH work.

I can see this set-up working where you each do half work, half home-educating the children.

But if I had to do all the home-educating while he went out to work, that wouldn’t do for me at all.

Also, do you not see the value in having negative experiences and not being allowed to do what you want at times?

She has, SuburbanRhonda ^

How do your children learn about the things they’re not interested in?
My DS, who’s 8, would only learn reading, writing and science if he could. He excels at these subjects. However, he doesn’t like maths and tries to avoid it like the plague! Consequently, he lacks confidence in school and has fallen a little behind. He wants to study zoology eventually (nature nut), so I am making him do maths at home for his own good! (Maths A level is probably needed).
Have you ever had a problem with them not wanting to study an important subject?

You seem to be cherry picking the questions here OP I have to say....

Everyone does on these threads. The topic should be renamed ‘ask me anything, and I’ll choose the questions I want to answer’