I feel its totally ridiculous that a parent had to prove themselves to strangers on how they are raising and education there own children. I just seems so wrong.
Thank you guys for this video! I’ve been stressing lately primarily due to outside pressure. I’m used to structured “regime” and so even though I intuitively realize how unschooling is a natural progression for children and just makes soo much sense, it’s hard to feel like you’re..succeeding...or progressing when the primary determination of that comes from a structured box structure of learning. My little one taught herself how to read to a 3rd grade level @ 5, after soo much effort on my end trying to help her, she just wasn’t ready yet. That helped really show me the reality behind unschooling. It’s still hard though because in other areas she would be considered behind. Not very many people understand unschooling and have a first inclination to think it’s just doing nothing or somehow damaging. It’s hard to show the amazing progress that comes from letting life itself be the school and fostering that love for learning for life. It helps soo much hearing from other unschoolers!
I hope your review went well. I’m in SA, and from what I’ve heard in the local HS groups I’m in, the DECD here in SA is very supportive of natural learning/unschooling. It’s just a matter of logging what you do in a way that covers the curriculum. So if the child was doing cooking for example, you could log that: Today W made pancakes with mum. He correctly measured out the right amount of flour using the kitchen scales (math), while reading through each step of the recipe with mum (English), we spoke about how we can change the recipe by adding different flavours, and W suggested we add some blueberries as they are his favourite (life skills, health, critical thinking). So it’s all in the way we formulate our learning objectives, not always how many worksheets they do. I hope to see some more videos from you soon.
That's interesting to hear, I'm a homeschooling mom in the Eastern Cape. I am not using the CAPS curriculum and I always wondered what would they say about that.
That's so funny, the review process illustrates one of the biggest problems with regular education. The teachers have to spend too much time proving they're teaching well, leaving them with far less time to actually teach well.
You guys are just so encouraging !! My hubby and I greatly appreciated this video as we are also going the life-learning/delight-directed learning with our three young sons. We were super inspired by you and we're cheering you on from the same team over here in Canada! We wish we could hang out in person as there's so much we share in common! God bless you guys and keep it up! Character building and life-training is of paramount value. Excited to see where you're at now --November 2020 :)
hey! we are an unschooling family in Argentina....if we´re note the only ones....we´re very close to that....unfortunately.... it makes it a little hard to socializa here being unschoolers..... but we´re still on it!
I find it interesting how the rules are different all over the world I unschool or (self directed learning) as I prefer to call it my daughter, my son was as well but is now at an engineering college I live in the uk and here we can choose if we wish to have visits or just to correspond via letter or email I like to have visits so I can prove this method works but it’s not compulsory I do think we are really lucky to have the opportunity to educate are children in this way as in many countries school is compulsory my daughter and I have decided to start a TH-cam channel to hopefully show how we go about it stay tuned 😊
I understand exactly when you say your son found the approaches challenging, my son has a breakdown and panic attack very easily when it comes to academics
Both my kids would be great with unschooling. I am homeschooling one and one wanted to go back (oldest). My oldest has never deschooled lol. he couldn't handle me being his teacher and also couldn't handle being independent. I have to sit with both of them which i actually enjoy and they do to. My youngest is doing great and makes learning fun in his own. I have tried to do half unschooling and half structured learning. We have only done this 2 years so far so i feel like every year gets easier and feeling comfortable. We do use curriculum for english and math but this year i think i am going to do overview of the social science and science not full curriclum as before. I am teaching spelling because he was having issues and wants to learn. I scribe everything though. He literally tells me the answers to everything and i do not force it. Spelling was literally the only thing i made him write but even lately i have started scribing. It took 1.5 years for my youngest to actually ask to learn something. Our days are simple and I aim for stress free times and take many days of at times if needed. my oldest learns things on his own all the time by watching videos. Because of the possibility of going back to school I do feel the stress of making sure that math and english are caught up but my youngest is ahead in math anyway and actually enjoys it and my oldest wants to do engineering and knows that math is important. Thanks for the video:) good luck.
Homeschooling American mom living in Germany here, who just came across your video. Now I’m concerned about you, seeing no more videos after this! Let us know how you’re doing.
Hi Holly! We've actually kicked off a new channel that will be alllll about our unschooling life, tied to Israel's blog. We passed the review with flying colours, are doing great, and can't wait to post an update on how we navigated the review over here very soon - th-cam.com/channels/2rkgFG6v2VsY6KbULzpTDQ.html We'd love to have you join us there :-)
Hi Ashley, My husband teaches with the Department of Defense, so as civilians we’re under the SOFA agreement and are able to legally homeschool. See if that might be your case.
Ashley Miller Be absolutely sure. There was a case recently of where children were taken from the home due to being homeschooled and parents were jailed for a time. Good luck!
Here in the USA I had to send in a form stating I’m teaching this and that. I have to keep a portfolio of my child’s work then every yr I have to hire an accessor to review my daughters portfolio. We aren’t chosen, everyone who home schools has to hire an accessor. A licensed teacher, preferably a teacher who also Home Schools. 🙂 We have a fb group with Accessors in there which is nice.
I'm curious which state you live in? We live in Indiana and the requirements for homeschooling are not stringent at all, which is a great relief as we dip our toes into the unschooling waters.
Which state is that? As overreaching in most things CA tends to be, thank God it is super hands off when it comes to homeschooling. I would have so much anxiety with that type of pressure
I'm about to start deschooling then unschooling my 14 year old. He is in year 8 and has struggled with school for a long time. He has Autism and ADHD and has always struggled socially but now his grades are almost non existant because he is not submitting any work. I feel he has a decent enough foundation that whatever I teach him outside of school is a bonus. He's incredibly intelligent (as most ASD kids are) but he lacks life skills. And life skills are more important than what the value of X is in my opinion :) I am also in Vic so I look forward to following your journey :)
Interesting! Love how relaxed and reasonable you are 😀 love to see more videos of you guys talking about your unschooling journey! Good luck for the review!
Thank you, Kirsten. We have many more planned, so watch this space!😁 I have a novel of an answer heading your way over on our other video. Have not forgotten about you 😘
You guys are so great! I feel like we truly just has coffee together :D By now you would have had the meeting, I so hope it went as well as could be. I hope the person was able to see how much you love your kids and how passionate you are in giving them an amazing learning life. I will have to prepare our exemption in the next six months for NZ, too. We're six months in homeschooling and we are where I never thought we would be - unschooling! It's taking my husband a wee while to come round to the term, but it fits us so well (and is basically what we have been doing since the kids were born). I'm loving seeing how our son (5) is picking up reading and interests and imagination all on his own. When he asks to do 'math' or say, 'reading eggs', I provide it for him. But I told him (when I decided to take the plunge) that I wanted him to want to learn to read and to want to do things, rather than me push him. He is responding so well to that. I think I am still in the long deschooling period as the parent. I finished Holt's How Children Learn and I'm most of the way through How Children Fail. It's scary to trust our children when we are told, as kids, we can't learn without being taught. But like Holt's friend, Bill Hull once said, if we taught children to speak or walk like we do other things at school, they would never do it! Whoops, way too long a comment! So sorry! You guys are just the best, so enjoy your videos. Glad I am on this journey with you.
Hi Sarah, we would have loved for you to have joined us for a cuppa! John Holt is a favourite of mine too. His words have replaced any fear I had in regards to the thought of my children 'falling behind'. I am already seeing some amazing self-guided learning happening as I sit back and TRUST and offer support when they NEED me. Its contributing to a far more harmonious home too! Your name is so familiar to me, Sarah. Do you have a blog? x Kate
I have had a blog - The Wholehearted Home. I haven't written in so long! And I have been on Instagram too, though having a break from that as well. Doesn't it feel less like pushing against the river and more like enjoy the flow of the current (changing to unschooling)? It's wonderful!
We are not that family either. My oldest likes some structure, but when it's too much she get health issues from being so stressed out. My youngest has some other issues which makes learning very hard for her. So I teach through play and exploration.
Hiya! Slowest reply in the world, sorry :-D We've kicked off a new channel tied to Israel's blog, where we'll be posting alll about our unschooling journey (this channel was always supposed to just be a family one) - it's over here if you'd like to join us: th-cam.com/channels/2rkgFG6v2VsY6KbULzpTDQ.html
wondering how it works if you aren't following standard curriculum homeschooling milestones how do you go on towards tertiary education if the kids choose to head in that direction? there's no evidence of achieving a certain level of schooling? and what about getting used to less structure (deschooling) and then having to work in a work place , they all have structures no matter where you work? even if you work for yourself you need to be extremely self disciplined.
This has been answered many, many, many times. Dr. Peter Gray and Dr. Gina Riley have published papers on a series of social science studies, here's a link to get you started and you can Google several more on your own: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201406/survey-grown-unschoolers-i-overview-findings
Have you considered using learning stories as evidence of learning? You may need physical evidence but that way he's not having to sit down and complete work you can describe the learning and what's happening using photos and videos would be perfect for William.
Learning stories are a fantastic way of recording their learning experiences! Beautiful, visual examples of the process of learning. I treasure the diaries that the boys brought home with them from kindy! Although I keep a diary of our weeks of free/ life-learning because we've chosen to unschool it's kind of hard to assess this against the national curriculum. They would need to see physical evidence of William's work - ie handwriting, projects etc. Recording the process of learning is very important...but providing physical evidence of *his* own work is what the qualifications authority is after and he only leaves a small trail of this as he goes deep on the subjects he's passionate about. If only we could carry Kindergarten's educational approach right through the schooling years, huh!
Hey there RB! We've actually kicked off a new channel that will be alllll about our unschooling life, tied to Israel's blog. We passed the review with flying colours, are doing great, and can't wait to post an update on how we navigated the review over here very soon - th-cam.com/channels/2rkgFG6v2VsY6KbULzpTDQ.html We'd love to have you join us there :-)
I guess it also depends on the parents approach to life...If „happiness“ is your ultimate goal, then this might be for you. I think it’s just a bit delusional for parents who clearly are benefiting from being educated and working in the parameters of the free market to afford good food, medical health, a stay at home mom... etc. - to act like „happiness“ is more important than hard work or self discipline. The ability to regulate yourself. That’s how we evolved. Hard work, clever engineering, being resourceful... That’s how we came up with language in the first place. Cause it was a tool we needed in an environment where resources are scarce. The abundance of the 21st century won’t teach your kids those things.
Hiya! Not sure we follow, sorry :-) Do you mean that you feel our learning approach is 'homeschooling' rather than 'unschooling'? Or just that...all alternative education should be called 'homeschooling'?
I love how on board with the whole unschooling thing you BOTH are, totally on the same page as each other. That is wonderful
I feel its totally ridiculous that a parent had to prove themselves to strangers on how they are raising and education there own children. I just seems so wrong.
I agree. We live in a slavery society. I've realised that more and more as 2200 kept rolling on.
@@Grace-ru9xh Totally. Could no longer deny it
Thank you guys for this video! I’ve been stressing lately primarily due to outside pressure. I’m used to structured “regime” and so even though I intuitively realize how unschooling is a natural progression for children and just makes soo much sense, it’s hard to feel like you’re..succeeding...or progressing when the primary determination of that comes from a structured box structure of learning. My little one taught herself how to read to a 3rd grade level @ 5, after soo much effort on my end trying to help her, she just wasn’t ready yet. That helped really show me the reality behind unschooling. It’s still hard though because in other areas she would be considered behind. Not very many people understand unschooling and have a first inclination to think it’s just doing nothing or somehow damaging. It’s hard to show the amazing progress that comes from letting life itself be the school and fostering that love for learning for life. It helps soo much hearing from other unschoolers!
I hope your review went well.
I’m in SA, and from what I’ve heard in the local HS groups I’m in, the DECD here in SA is very supportive of natural learning/unschooling. It’s just a matter of logging what you do in a way that covers the curriculum.
So if the child was doing cooking for example, you could log that: Today W made pancakes with mum. He correctly measured out the right amount of flour using the kitchen scales (math), while reading through each step of the recipe with mum (English), we spoke about how we can change the recipe by adding different flavours, and W suggested we add some blueberries as they are his favourite (life skills, health, critical thinking).
So it’s all in the way we formulate our learning objectives, not always how many worksheets they do.
I hope to see some more videos from you soon.
That's interesting to hear, I'm a homeschooling mom in the Eastern Cape. I am not using the CAPS curriculum and I always wondered what would they say about that.
That's so funny, the review process illustrates one of the biggest problems with regular education. The teachers have to spend too much time proving they're teaching well, leaving them with far less time to actually teach well.
You guys are just so encouraging !! My hubby and I greatly appreciated this video as we are also going the life-learning/delight-directed learning with our three young sons. We were super inspired by you and we're cheering you on from the same team over here in Canada! We wish we could hang out in person as there's so much we share in common! God bless you guys and keep it up! Character building and life-training is of paramount value. Excited to see where you're at now --November 2020 :)
hey! we are an unschooling family in Argentina....if we´re note the only ones....we´re very close to that....unfortunately.... it makes it a little hard to socializa here being unschoolers..... but we´re still on it!
I find it interesting how the rules are different all over the world I unschool or (self directed learning) as I prefer to call it my daughter, my son was as well but is now at an engineering college I live in the uk and here we can choose if we wish to have visits or just to correspond via letter or email I like to have visits so I can prove this method works but it’s not compulsory I do think we are really lucky to have the opportunity to educate are children in this way as in many countries school is compulsory my daughter and I have decided to start a TH-cam channel to hopefully show how we go about it stay tuned 😊
Hello !! 👋👋👋 Have you started your TH-cam channel yet?
It's odd that this was the last video they did......
Where are you? I hope you are all ok!
I hope so too. I assume they are just very very busy, like all working/unschooling families :)
How did this all go?
I understand exactly when you say your son found the approaches challenging, my son has a breakdown and panic attack very easily when it comes to academics
Whatever officially means. Exactly. Education is a personal thing.
Just realized watching again.. you never did an update 😂. Hope all went well
Both my kids would be great with unschooling. I am homeschooling one and one wanted to go back (oldest). My oldest has never deschooled lol. he couldn't handle me being his teacher and also couldn't handle being independent. I have to sit with both of them which i actually enjoy and they do to. My youngest is doing great and makes learning fun in his own. I have tried to do half unschooling and half structured learning. We have only done this 2 years so far so i feel like every year gets easier and feeling comfortable. We do use curriculum for english and math but this year i think i am going to do overview of the social science and science not full curriclum as before. I am teaching spelling because he was having issues and wants to learn. I scribe everything though. He literally tells me the answers to everything and i do not force it. Spelling was literally the only thing i made him write but even lately i have started scribing. It took 1.5 years for my youngest to actually ask to learn something. Our days are simple and I aim for stress free times and take many days of at times if needed. my oldest learns things on his own all the time by watching videos. Because of the possibility of going back to school I do feel the stress of making sure that math and english are caught up but my youngest is ahead in math anyway and actually enjoys it and my oldest wants to do engineering and knows that math is important. Thanks for the video:) good luck.
Homeschooling American mom living in Germany here, who just came across your video. Now I’m concerned about you, seeing no more videos after this! Let us know how you’re doing.
Hi Holly! We've actually kicked off a new channel that will be alllll about our unschooling life, tied to Israel's blog. We passed the review with flying colours, are doing great, and can't wait to post an update on how we navigated the review over here very soon - th-cam.com/channels/2rkgFG6v2VsY6KbULzpTDQ.html
We'd love to have you join us there :-)
Holly my husband has been offered a job in Germany but I don’t want to go because I’ve seen that homeschooling is illegal there.
Hi Ashley,
My husband teaches with the Department of Defense, so as civilians we’re under the SOFA agreement and are able to legally homeschool. See if that might be your case.
Ashley Miller Be absolutely sure. There was a case recently of where children were taken from the home due to being homeschooled and parents were jailed for a time. Good luck!
Yeah, in Germany they will ironically destroy a household in order to 'help' the children.
Omg this was two years ago? And no update of any kind since then? I hope everything went ok!
I've asked if they still home educate. Hoping for a reply but I'm sadly assuming it went against them.
@@mrsflynns6383 oh gosh thats terrible I really hope that isn't the case
@@realityobserver7521 no it isn't. They're still going 😃 he has a pod cast, website. He is stark raving dad ❤
Here in the USA I had to send in a form stating I’m teaching this and that. I have to keep a portfolio of my child’s work then every yr I have to hire an accessor to review my daughters portfolio. We aren’t chosen, everyone who home schools has to hire an accessor. A licensed teacher, preferably a teacher who also Home Schools. 🙂 We have a fb group with Accessors in there which is nice.
Depending on the state. Texas is very hands off with homeschooling requirements.
I'm curious which state you live in? We live in Indiana and the requirements for homeschooling are not stringent at all, which is a great relief as we dip our toes into the unschooling waters.
Which state is that? As overreaching in most things CA tends to be, thank God it is super hands off when it comes to homeschooling. I would have so much anxiety with that type of pressure
How did the review go? Are you planning any new videos?
Hey guys, I’ve seen you comment on lots of Family Fizz videos so I decided to look at your channel, and omg I love it! I’ve subscribed xx
Hi Sarah, that's pretty cool! Welcome to our family! So lovely to meet another Family Fizz fan. 💖
I'm about to start deschooling then unschooling my 14 year old. He is in year 8 and has struggled with school for a long time. He has Autism and ADHD and has always struggled socially but now his grades are almost non existant because he is not submitting any work. I feel he has a decent enough foundation that whatever I teach him outside of school is a bonus. He's incredibly intelligent (as most ASD kids are) but he lacks life skills. And life skills are more important than what the value of X is in my opinion :)
I am also in Vic so I look forward to following your journey :)
How did it all turn out?
Interesting! Love how relaxed and reasonable you are 😀 love to see more videos of you guys talking about your unschooling journey! Good luck for the review!
Thank you, Kirsten. We have many more planned, so watch this space!😁 I have a novel of an answer heading your way over on our other video. Have not forgotten about you 😘
You guys are so great! I feel like we truly just has coffee together :D
By now you would have had the meeting, I so hope it went as well as could be. I hope the person was able to see how much you love your kids and how passionate you are in giving them an amazing learning life. I will have to prepare our exemption in the next six months for NZ, too.
We're six months in homeschooling and we are where I never thought we would be - unschooling! It's taking my husband a wee while to come round to the term, but it fits us so well (and is basically what we have been doing since the kids were born). I'm loving seeing how our son (5) is picking up reading and interests and imagination all on his own. When he asks to do 'math' or say, 'reading eggs', I provide it for him. But I told him (when I decided to take the plunge) that I wanted him to want to learn to read and to want to do things, rather than me push him. He is responding so well to that.
I think I am still in the long deschooling period as the parent. I finished Holt's How Children Learn and I'm most of the way through How Children Fail. It's scary to trust our children when we are told, as kids, we can't learn without being taught. But like Holt's friend, Bill Hull once said, if we taught children to speak or walk like we do other things at school, they would never do it!
Whoops, way too long a comment! So sorry! You guys are just the best, so enjoy your videos. Glad I am on this journey with you.
Hi Sarah, we would have loved for you to have joined us for a cuppa! John Holt is a favourite of mine too. His words have replaced any fear I had in regards to the thought of my children 'falling behind'. I am already seeing some amazing self-guided learning happening as I sit back and TRUST and offer support when they NEED me. Its contributing to a far more harmonious home too! Your name is so familiar to me, Sarah. Do you have a blog? x Kate
I have had a blog - The Wholehearted Home. I haven't written in so long! And I have been on Instagram too, though having a break from that as well.
Doesn't it feel less like pushing against the river and more like enjoy the flow of the current (changing to unschooling)? It's wonderful!
I am so happy to have found your channel! I am a new subscriber and I just love you guys!
Such Interesting ideas! Keen to follow your journey! 👍🏻👍🏻
We are not that family either. My oldest likes some structure, but when it's too much she get health issues from being so stressed out. My youngest has some other issues which makes learning very hard for her. So I teach through play and exploration.
Your process of finding self directed learning is similar to ours. Thanks for sharing!
Please share on how your eval went. I love the approach. We would have to use an umbrella school to pull it off.
Hiya! Slowest reply in the world, sorry :-D We've kicked off a new channel tied to Israel's blog, where we'll be posting alll about our unschooling journey (this channel was always supposed to just be a family one) - it's over here if you'd like to join us: th-cam.com/channels/2rkgFG6v2VsY6KbULzpTDQ.html
wondering how it works if you aren't following standard curriculum homeschooling milestones how do you go on towards tertiary education if the kids choose to head in that direction? there's no evidence of achieving a certain level of schooling? and what about getting used to less structure (deschooling) and then having to work in a work place , they all have structures no matter where you work? even if you work for yourself you need to be extremely self disciplined.
This has been answered many, many, many times. Dr. Peter Gray and Dr. Gina Riley have published papers on a series of social science studies, here's a link to get you started and you can Google several more on your own: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201406/survey-grown-unschoolers-i-overview-findings
Have you checked out the work of John Taylor Gatto?
Do you still home educate?
Any new videos?
Have you considered using learning stories as evidence of learning? You may need physical evidence but that way he's not having to sit down and complete work you can describe the learning and what's happening using photos and videos would be perfect for William.
Learning stories are a fantastic way of recording their learning experiences! Beautiful, visual examples of the process of learning. I treasure the diaries that the boys brought home with them from kindy!
Although I keep a diary of our weeks of free/ life-learning because we've chosen to unschool it's kind of hard to assess this against the national curriculum. They would need to see physical evidence of William's work - ie handwriting, projects etc. Recording the process of learning is very important...but providing physical evidence of *his* own work is what the qualifications authority is after and he only leaves a small trail of this as he goes deep on the subjects he's passionate about. If only we could carry Kindergarten's educational approach right through the schooling years, huh!
As They Roam In NZ primary curriculum is starting to focus on ece curriculum and assessment so here's hoping for the future! Xx
Could you let us know if the review went well and of you are still home educating. I hope it went well and you've just stopped the channel.
You guys haven't uploaded in 6 months... did the review go OK??
Hey there RB! We've actually kicked off a new channel that will be alllll about our unschooling life, tied to Israel's blog. We passed the review with flying colours, are doing great, and can't wait to post an update on how we navigated the review over here very soon - th-cam.com/channels/2rkgFG6v2VsY6KbULzpTDQ.html
We'd love to have you join us there :-)
I love the idea of unschooling. Fascinating!
It's going to be an incredible journey! 💖
But everything else is completely correct! 👍😽
Are you stark raving dad?
Hi mummy hi daddy.that bit about me liking the naplan is NOT true btw.
I guess it also depends on the parents approach to life...If „happiness“ is your ultimate goal, then this might be for you. I think it’s just a bit delusional for parents who clearly are benefiting from being educated and working in the parameters of the free market to afford good food, medical health, a stay at home mom... etc. - to act like „happiness“ is more important than hard work or self discipline. The ability to regulate yourself. That’s how we evolved. Hard work, clever engineering, being resourceful... That’s how we came up with language in the first place. Cause it was a tool we needed in an environment where resources are scarce. The abundance of the 21st century won’t teach your kids those things.
Just subscribed!😉
Wow you guys have some accents on ya! Good on ya :)
It's called ''Homeschooling'' not ''Unschooling''Just so you know
Hiya! Not sure we follow, sorry :-) Do you mean that you feel our learning approach is 'homeschooling' rather than 'unschooling'? Or just that...all alternative education should be called 'homeschooling'?
Ohhh wait I just read the description okay sorry I just thought you didn't know what it's called sorry
Ohhh, right! Haha, all good :-)