- Sep 26, 2017

Unschooling/Freeschoolin' Myths Debunked

Yes! We Use Books!

I was recently exposed to some misconceptions people have about Unschooling/Freeschoolin'. It was even implied we don't "use books".

Let's dispel some myths!

1. Unschoolers don't use books.

We use all the resources available to us in the world.

Books, video games, field trips, work books, black boards, playgrounds, community...we take advantage of everything we are drawn to delve into.

Hope has quite a few workbooks she is welcome to do at any time she chooses and sometimes, she does work in them. We don't value learning from a workbook above roleplaying with toys about social situations or helping baking a cake.

I also wrote a book .

2. Unschoolers won't be prepared for real life.

I want to state for the record that school in no way prepared me for real life. I know I'm not alone. That aside, we have already witnessed Hope, at 7, more prepared for many things in life than I was in my 30's. No exaggeration.

In letting her choose her day's events, she's learned to Captain her "life ship" at a surprisingly young age. She has confidence that many adults struggle to possess. She is putting her Emotional Intelligence Education first above all and it's paid off.

I have no doubt she will use her learning skills to educate herself in all other subjects she wishes to.

Hope using a Virtual Reality machine for the first time.

3. Unschoolers aren't socialized properly. I think humanity is still figuring out how to connect and relate to one another on the whole so it is unlikely any of us have it all right just yet. I've yet to hear of homeschooled or unschooled kids in our local community of over 700 being bullied. Sadly, it is not the same story in schools as we often read about on the news or from our friends. I learned nothing positive about relationships from school but how to survive them. I think we can do better.