Unschooling: Are We Willing to Give Up Our Own Ideas?

Educating our kids can sometimes feel like a huge responsibility, can’t it? There are so many choices. We have to make lots of decisions. What is the best way to homeschool?

We read books and blogs, listen to the experts, ponder different ideas, think about our own experiences and preferences. Then we find a method that excites us, we buy the associated resources, and put it into action. And everything goes well, at least for a short while.

But then the magic wears off, and we find ourselves back where we started: we still haven’t found the perfect method to educate our kids.

A few turns around the circle, trying out all the methods, one by one, multiple times, we might wonder: perhaps we have to accept that homeschooling is difficult. There’s no perfect solution. We have to stop searching and just get on with the job. Knuckle down. It’s our duty to keep pushing our kids to learn even if no one is happy.

But wait. What if we stop looking beyond our family for answers? What if we ignore the experts, the overwhelming flood of curricula, the various homeschooling methods? What if we look at our kids instead? Listen to them. Respond to their needs. Encourage their inbuilt curiosity. Recognise that our kids don’t need an artificial system for them to learn. Rediscover our own awe of the world. Love and respect and enjoy our children. Trust.

But could doing all that be too simple? Is abandoning other people’s ideas risky? Oh no! Our kids will be fine. In an atmosphere of love and acceptance, one where their curiosity is encouraged, they’ll learn and develop and become the people they were created to be.

The only question is this: are we willing to give up our own ideas about what our kids need, and what they should do, and who they should be?