LEARNING WITHOUT SCHOOL
The internet is full of information about homeschooling, unschooling and child development/learning. The experts describe it best! This space is meant to share some of our family values with respect to our own children's education, and to highlight some of the concerns we have with many school programs.
Essentially we want our children to CONTINUE TO HAVE A NATURAL LOVE OF LEARNING - ideally for their entire life. We want them to experience joy in exploring and realizing the world and know that learning comes from this joy.
We want our children to grow and develop in a learning environment that is:
Integrated with everyday life: Learning happens all the time and "subjects" are interrelated.
Open and Unlimited: Our children should be free to follow their interests without time constraints or external goals. We hope they follow their curiosities until they are satisfied. We will continue to expose them to as many ideas as we can and realize that there is not enough time to learn/do "everything".
Focused on intrinsic motivation: We want our children to love learning without the need for praise or rewards. Motivation to master a task or idea should not come from obtaining a good grade or conditional acceptance from the teacher.
Flexible: As varied as they are by nature, as focused as they want, at the time of day that works for all of us, and in conjunction with natures own seasons.
Family Oriented: We want to share in our children's learning and living and we want them to continue to delight in each others presence. This will maintain family bonds and ensure our children are with loving people all the time.
Free of Competition: Children learn and grow on their own schedule and we do not want them exposed to comparison amongst their peers. Again, their motivation for learning should be intrinsic and not competitive.
Free of Judgment: Comments and criticisms of teachers, other adults, and peers are often manipulative and can result in "pigeon-holing". Learning should happen in an environment where mistakes can be made, failure is not feared but rejoiced, and results are not required or evaluated.
Safe from emotional and physical harm: In the absence of name calling, taunting, bullying, fighting, cliques, exclusion, conditional acceptance, and peer pressure to name a few.
Social: Meaning that our children should learn about our society and their participation in it. Our children will continue to interact in our local community, far-away places we visit, and eventually, the virtual world. They will continue to learn how to be social by observing society.
Connected to nature: Our children (and probably most everyone else) feel grounded and comfortable in the natural environment. Our home life is deeply connected to the forest outside our doors, nature and the seasons. We intend to nurture this connection and learn in the real world as much as possible.
Full of play: We have seen our children flourish in their own imaginative, independent and unstructured play. It is our desire that they continue to have lots of spontaneous time to nourish this part of themselves as well as time to play with their peers.
Slow, relaxed and congruent with the natural pace of our family: Free of over scheduling and scheduling in general. With minimal rushing and stressing about time. Focused on living simply, "being" more and "doing" less.
Books in our library about learning without school.
