Since we have been on this unschooling journey now for over 2 years , This is what I some up being a unschooling parent as .
Being a super-human.
That might sound strange but if you are a unschooling parent you will understand this.
It means there is no more shrugging of when your child comes and asks a question or asks for your help. You have to have super patience and super truth telling "abilities ", You have to shape shift into a opportunist at any given time and never give in to your villain -( fear) - fear of others judgements and fear from yourself - thinking that you are doing it all wrong! You have to use your x-ray vision and see past the myth that learning can only happen through "a formal education approach "and see the fact that learning is happening all the time, and truly believe it is ! - you have to turn invisible the feeling you have were you want to and have to control and force your child into learning through textbooks and lessons, and trust in them that they are learning without these !- you have to let go and fly onboard with the natural design of unschooling letting it take full force of your child's education path. - hence why you become a superhuman.
That being said before being a unschooling parent
If my child came to me and asked me a question , I now realise I was barely actually paying attention to the question itself and would give a quick easy answer , Yes I know, no best parent awards there ! - like for instance my daughter asked how to spell the word island one time - I spelt it out to her and she didn't understand I became impatient so I had taken the phone from her and I quickly wrote it out. - now that I am a unschooling parent, I realise patience is virtue . Next time she came to me and asked how to spell King island, I slowly spelt out every letter for her to type in, (with patience ) when it came to the " island " part - we discussed how the "is " is a silent letter just like the words ballet and write and a few other silent letter words . We discussed why she needed to spell the word King island
( - she was watching YouTube shipwrecks and apparently wanted to know more about the ones from king island ) - funny thing was I actually knew abit about king island as before we planned to moved to Tasmania I did a whole lot-a research. I thought this was a great learning opportunity - Out came my opportunist abilities so we got discussing how local legends tell of a tale , how it is believed in the early 19th century straw beds washed ashore onto king island from a shipwreck. Seeds from the straw mattresses quickly germinated in the island's rich soils, and now the island is covered with a unique variety of grasses which the cow love to eat, and that's why king island produce some of the best beef and diary in the world I explained how the cows also eat the big seaweed while they roam up and down the beach !.- I explained that unlike most cows they eat a grass fed diet, not grain like other cows elsewhere.
We discussed how there is over 60 shipwrecks around the island and also how great the surf was -world class ! -
I covered about every subject in that one opportunists moment with my daughter by being patient, telling the truth and realising natural learning is about moments like that !
Unschooling is not the easy way of home educating or even parenting it is like - the complete opposite.
You have to be willing to take the time to embrace every moment as a learning opportunity. Let go of trying to force subjects, force planned lessons and un-natural learning, let your child discover new things on their own and be their to guide teach when they need you. Unschooling is about having the messy kitchens -when your child discovers they want to be a chef, having the messy floors -when they discover they want to create Having the messy hair- when they discover they want to be a hairdresser. Its about always being their to help clean that mess up.
