Classical Unschooling Education

  I am a believer in a Classical Education.  I also am a believer in Unschooling.  “Wow,” you say, “those are totally opposite philosophies of education.”  You would be correct.  To a point.  Let’s start at the beginning of the journey and I’ll explain.

From the moment that beautiful newborn baby is laid in your arms, you are a teacher.  This is where the unschooling begins.  You live life.  Your child learns to talk, to walk, to obey.  At this point, some parents really want to put their children into preschool or at least pull out some preschool workbooks.  “DON’T DO IT!” I yell.  Preschool, and even early elementary school are great times of learning naturally.  This is the perfect time to follow your kids’ interests.  Go to the library.  Read living books (see below).  Take “field trips.”  Plant a garden.  Cook together.  Clean the house.  Count everything in sight.  Sort everything in every way you can.  Draw or paint pictures - with chalks on the driveway as well as on paper or windows.  Kids’ can learn everything they need with these methods - letters, numbers, phonics, even reading and basic addition and subtraction.  There is no need to formalize things here, it will just squish their natural curiosity.  

Somewhere around 8-10 years old, I think you ought to start formalizing things (some).  This is the grammar stage, as far as I am concerned.  Do I ever think you need to have set school hours or make kids sit at the kitchen table to do their lessons?  NO.  Do I think you need to stop following their interests (unschooling)?  NO.  I just think that, about this age things can be taught that they need to know, but don’t necessarily want to know without any prompting from you.  For many subjects, you still don’t really need textbooks or workbooks, but you need to continue introducing “living books” or books that will draw students into learning about a particular topic.  There are many great history books that aren’t textbooks (I love The Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer for the grammar stage).  Go to the library and explore.  Use books from www.amblesideonline.org which contains a lot of good living book suggestions.  Textbooks can be helpful.  I like Singapore Math, Apologia Science, and Rod and Staff Grammar, for example.  But don’t over do.  

For 11-13 (logic stage), you want to get even more formalized in your children’s education.  I would definitely teach logic.  I didn’t do this with my first three, but my youngest has benefited from it.  The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise has many great suggestions for curriculum for all three stages.  Personally, I think their whole program is a little intense to really cultivate a love of learning, but your kids may love it.  I have used this book as a resource for choosing curriculum and other books for many years, though.

For 14-16 (rhetoric stage), not only do you need to be pretty formalized, but you need to be working towards independent learning.  By the time your child is 16, you need to be pretty much out of the picture in their education.  Why do I think this?  Well, think about adult learning.  How many things have you had to learn as an adult that you just had to figure out yourself?  You may have used YouTube, read a book, asked someone who already knew how to do it, etc.  But you had to facilitate your own learning.  This is a skill that your teen needs to know.  How better to learn it than to experience it?  I would also recommend giving assignments in larger and larger chunks so that they can practice time management skills.  By the time my kids are 16, I am giving them six weeks worth of assignments at one time.  I do not break these down by week, they have to do that.  I just give a list of what they need to accomplish in that time period.  For their “senior year,” whenever that ends up being, I just give them a list for the whole school year.  (This can cause issues.  One of my kids worked just about 24-7 for 3 months and did the whole school year worth of work in order to graduate early.  I’m okay with that, but if you aren’t, you may want to consider this when giving out your list.)  I also think that kids in this stage should have a job, should be paying some of their own bills and budgeting, and taking on other adult responsibilities.  How do kids learn to be adults if we don’t transition them into adulthood?  

So, unschooling all the way with classical education 8-16 years old, too.  Lots of reading, together and, later, alone.  Living life and having responsibilities.  Writing journals, stories, newspapers, etc.  Don’t make school a boring task that removes all enjoyment from learning.  Don’t make it a trial for you as the parent/teacher.  If something isn’t working for you, then do something else.  Just because this is what I think (after years of mistakes and almost being done), that doesn’t make it best for you.  Take it with a grain of salt and figure out what works for your family.  

One final and most important word.  Always keep the end goal in mind.  I do not mean college, career, or responsible adulthood.  I mean eternity with the Lord.  I mean godly living.  I mean obedient, loving submission to the Father.  These are the most important lessons to teach our children.  Make sure they can articulate and even write out the gospel.  Make sure they know how to study Scripture, and love doing it.  Make sure they understand how to make decisions based on Scripture.  Make sure they belong to the Lord.  Yes, this is their decision and only they can make that decision, individually and on their own, but you can give them the tools and train them up in the way they should go so that they have the best foundation possible.  Going to Harvard with a perfect SAT score doesn’t mean much if you aren’t living for the Lord.