What Unschooling Has Taught Me About the Value of an Experience

There are a lot of things that I like about unschooling and a lot of things about it that I disagree with. Ultimately, it is too dogmatic for me.  Yes, I think unschooling is dogmatic.  But let’s look at what I do like about it. One thing that unschooling has taught me is the importance of seeing value in otherwise unappreciated ventures.  For example, Seneca likes to play an online game called Roblox.  It had nothing to do with our homeschooling.   Anyhow, this year we recently started to implement Written Narrations where she writes a few sentences to a paragraph about what she has been reading.  She asked if she could type her narrations and I was actually glad she had asked to type them. I was worried that since she hadn’t done any practice with her online typing curriculum in about a year that she had lost her typing skills. I was quite wrong.  She sat down to write her narration and I heard that keyboard clicking away.  I asked her where she had learned to type so well, and that was when she told me it was from playing the online game Roblox.  She had learned this great skill, but not in an academic approach or set plan to learn typing.     

With the unschooling approach, simple everyday acts become seen through a new lens.  One of the better presentations on unschooling was a report done from Australia.  In the segment, the reporter states, “Research shows play stimulates problem solving, creativity, and imagination.  It also helps social skills including a child’s ability to compromise and cooperate.  And so, unschoolers place equal value on park days and academic learning.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwqMW3bQDro&t=375s

I would like to step out right now to say that of all the segments on unschooling that have been done in the US by American reporters not once was the issue of play addressed from a positive standpoint. The reporters never mentioned any research of the positive aspects of play.  To me that is very negligent reporting, and it’s unacceptable to be that negligent. 

I have come to see that a day at the beach is not just a recreational activity, but it is a learning activity. I do not turn it into a learning activity.  We don’t stop and study what we are seeing. But I know that the sand and water are providing sensory experiences.  A connection is being formed, so that when my kids do go to an event or pick up a book studying aquatic life they will be able to connect with the topic on a deeper level.

This is not to say that to study any particular subject, one must have some sort of direct personal experience with it.  Our experiences and connections come in all forms.  For my older kids, much of their love of history was initially sparked by movies set in different historical eras. From there, they did research on the people and events of the times. 

Tree climbing can be seen as a lesson in business planning.  You have to steady yourself, plan where to reach for and step next, and then do it.  Establish yourself and get a firm grip of where you are on the tree and reach for the next  branch.  In business, you get to a point, make your impact; and then prepare through market research, budgeting, and networking to go for the next level - and then you do it. 

Tree climbing can also be seen as PE. It is a great physical activity.  It also has a connection to environmental science just as the ocean (or in our case the Gulf) does.  And then there is the emotional component of how time in nature affects our mental health and psychological well being. 

            As a homeschooling parent, the philosophy of unschooling has helped me to be able to relax and to find value at times when I might otherwise have been stressed out that we weren’t doing “enough.”  I’m not suggesting that to learn about business planning the only thing one has to do is to go climb a tree.  I’m also not saying to turn the tree climbing experience into a lesson. What I am suggesting is maybe years later when the student is studying economics or developing an entrepreneurial plan, you might remind them of something like a tree climb in terms of planning and reaching for goals.  Or, you could just let the tree climb sit and if the student has made a connection to that particular endeavor, great – if not, no loss.  The joy and the fun of the climb is what mattered.