Radical Unschooling?

An old post to clear up some questions.  

Recently, a Facebook friend asked if I am "an unschooler or a radical unschooler?" I'll admit, I didn't know the difference! But having read this, I can say that I am definitely a radical unschooler. 

Here is my response to my friend:

Thanks for asking - this is all very new to us (started this spring 2009). So it feels good to think about and articulate the whys.

I read John Holt's first book, "How Children Fail" and I really loved it. I saw myself and my kids in it all over! I read snippets here and there to my husband. And we both completely changed our ideas about homeschooling and schooling in general.

We do have set bedtimes for the kids, and they have chores, etc. Also, what we serve for dinner is what is available. They can choose to eat it or not. But that's all that is available. I think these things are for me - because I am the mom, and I get to have some say in how I run my house. Otherwise, I would not enjoy it, and would not want to do homeschool or even have kids for that matter.

So I think we are radical in that we have changed our mindset about schooling completely. We have no expectations of the kids to "do school". Outside of their responsibilities to do their chores and obey mom and dad, they are free to do as they wish throughout the day. We find they are learning constantly. In fact, I started yesterday to write about it, and I gave up. It was too much to type and I wanted to do other things!! :)

Hope this answers your questions. Thanks for the opportunity.

By the way, we are in the midst of stripping wallpaper and painting at my house.  So if you notice that there are strange colors on the walls (trying to decide. . .) or that the wallpaper looks atrocious - it is!  But not for long.

Wish you were here!