Unschooling - how lazy moms home school

Now before anyone gets her panties in a bunch, we were unschoolers! OK, phew, now that I've gotten that out of the way............

Unschooling. Interesting word. Sounds like not schooling which may lead some people to think it also means not getting an education. Who really got an education from school? Raise your hand, I'll wait..... My education from school had more to do with competing with my fellow classmates for the best test scores and grades. Oh and who can forget the "education" by the drug dealers who were on my high school campus? Now I was in high school during the 1970's which was an interesting time period but I doubt very much that things have changed. If your child is in a public high school and I should think even private school and you don't think they KNOW the drug dealers on campus then, well, your head is someplace smelly. Knowing who they are is not the same thing as frequenting the drug dealers services, but simply knowing that your child knows them is kinda creepy.

So we know that unschooling does not mean no education. Good. What does it mean then? To me, unschooling is allowing your child the dignity of choosing his own educational path. With some parental nagging along the way. The nagging part is probably not ideal but when your son plays Diablo II for hours on end, rarely seeing the light of day, there's going to be some nagging. I am not proud of the nagging, but it went more like this: "son, I am worried about you sitting here playing this game all day." "I know Mom. Don't worry." Yeah, ok, telling a Mom "don't worry" is like showing a red flag to a bull. Here is when I would talk about goals and NOT working fast food for the rest of his life. Sigh. I have no idea if the nagging helped or not but he actually likes college and LOVES economics! He was able to take whatever he wanted for Dual Enrollment classes within the requirements for a degree and economics turned out to be his favorite class! Can you hear his parents sigh a quiet, "thank God!?"

We showed our kids dignity and respect and guess what? They show us respect back. Amazing. What is that poem called again? Children Learn What They Live. Exactly!

More on unschooling later. I'll pick on my girl child next time. :)