Unschooling and Whole Life Learning
Ranked #5,128 in Education, #116,423 overall
Focus on Whole Life and Happiness
Radical unschooling, or whole life unschooling, extends the philosophy of unschooling to all of life. Whole life unschoolers extend the freedom to follow one's own curiosity and desire in learning to the freedom to follow one's own lead in all of life. The parents in a radical unschooling family approach living and learning with children as a respectful partnership. In other words, radical unschooling philosophy holds that children are not left on their own, but rather are supported as they follow their interests and make choices in life.
Many parents who have practiced attachment parenting with their children consider radical unschooling to be a natural extension of Dr. William Sears' "attachment parenting" or Jean Liedloff's "continuum concept" approaches to living with children. Children continue living in close connection with their parents and parents continue supporting their children and respecting them as individuals. Another compatible philosophy is Alfie Kohn's "unconditional parenting." More About Radical Unschooling...
Everyone's invited to receive my free weekly Unschooling Newsletter. Stay connected: Find out what's going on in the unschooling community and get ideas for fun things to do.
Unschooling News
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byUnschooling on Facebook
- National Unschooling Examiner
- Get updates on news, events, articles, and information about unschooling.
- Pacific Northwest Unschoolers
- Share links and information about unschooling.
- Seattle Unschooling Examiner
- News, info, happenings related to unschooling in the Seattle area.
- Unschooling at Suite101
- Articles about unschooling
Free Online Course
Overview and Introduction to the Unschooling Way of Homeschooling
- Unschooling: Free Online Course
- The unschooling approach to homeschooling is also known as self-directed, child-led, interest-driven, and natural learning. It's not a new method of homeschooling, as you will see, but a flexible approach that has been practiced since before traditional schools were established.
The Unschooling Happiness Project
A Guide to Living A Happy and Fulfilling Life Through Love and Creativity
Unschooling means so much more than a hands-on, child-directed, and experience-based way of learning. It doesn't describe a specific alternative to schooling. It just gets schooling out of the way so various unique dynamic personal creative ways of growing up, living, participating, and contributing to communities can develop.When I say "unschooling," I really mean living cooperatively with children. What began as a way to approach my children's learning/education has evolved into a whole lifestyle characterized by unlimited creative possibilities for our whole family. In other words, we perceive our life as a creative adventure. We're all in it together.
In "The Unschooling Happiness Project," I present my family life as a creative project, share my deeper motivations behind choosing the unschooling lifestyle, and include some practicalities of daily unschooling life.
Available in softcover, Kindle, and eBook download.
Ideas for Online Strewing
Guiding and Supporting Kids in Pursuing their Passions
The following websites show examples of how parents can set up websites in the forms of blogs, wikis, etc., to use as safe portals to the Web, as centralized link collections, or many other creative uses.
- Dragon's Fire Learning Blog
- An example of a children's learning blog. Topics of interest are introduced, shared, and explored via blog posts, buttons, images, embedded videos, and link lists.
- Dragon's Fire Wikispace
- An example of a homeschool wiki used to create pages on topics of interest with links lists, etc. Wikis allow various groups to work collaboratively.
- How To: Homeschool Learning Blog
- An article on using a blog for homeschool learning.
- How To: Cyberschooling and Online Learning
- An article about online learning options.
- How To: Wikispaces for Teachers
- An article about using wikis for homeschool learning.
Call for Submissions: Donate Unschooling Media to Charity
Call to donate unschooling, free learning media for charityEveryone has something to say about unschooling. You're invited to share anything about unschooling, free-schooling, free learning, life without schooling, ect., to submit a contribution (blog post, essay, poem, song, rap, video, audio, photo, game...) for inclusion in the Golden Rainbow book/DVD series unschooling/free learning volume.
The completed book/DVD will be shared online for free. Large color and small black-white printed versions will be available for sale, proceeds to support a charity to be voted on by contributors. Contributors will also be able to buy wholesale and sell copies for their own profit.
Email print submissions & questions: grvunschooling@gmail.com.
Upload photos, video, & audio: One True Media collaborative project (Note: Please put your surname in the file names.)
Unschooling Links
- Sandra Dodd
- Sandra Dodd's website with articles and resources about unschooling.
- Joyfully Rejoycing
- Joyce Fetteroll's website with articles and resources about unschooling.
- Radical Unschoolers Network
- Networking and support for unschooling families.
- John Holt and Growing Without Schooling
- All things John Holt with articles and resources about unschooling.
- Connections e-zine
- An unschooling online magazine.
- Unschooling Lilaguide Group
- A support, discussion group on Lilaguide.
- The ABCs of Unschooling
- Okay, you've tried the prepackaged curriculum and it's just not working. What is wrong here? Where is the joy? Where is the excitement about learning that homeschooling is supposed to bring? The kids are miserable, Mom is frustrated and nobody seems interested in learning or doing much of anything. Face it, studying someone else's topics on someone else's timetable, with someone else's methods is, well...boring. You are ready for a change. . .
- Children did not come here for us to teach them, they are here to teach us!
- I love the quote,"Children are messengers to us from a world we once deeply knew but we have long since forgotten," by Alice Miller. I know for a fact that I have learned more from my children than they have learned from me. I call them my gurus! . . .
- Unschooling Examiner
- Articles and resources on unschooling across the nation.
- Unschooling Lifestyle
- Blog, unschooling books, links.
- Whole Life Learning Tumble
- Family life, attachment parenting, homeschooling, unschooling, life learning, nutrition, rewilding, . . .
A Recordkeeping Journal for Unschoolers
"I love this record keeping book. Great information and easy to use. I recommend it."--lapalapausA spiral-bound journal for documenting the learning activities of unschoolers (life learners, relaxed homeschoolers, etc.), with tips and information on record keeping and legal requirements, as well as inspirational excerpts from Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.
Some parents enjoy keeping records, some don't, and some do it only in order to meet legal requirements. Records can serve as keepsakes for personal recollection, as well as for reference for future college and job applications. In any case, for those homeschoolers who don't categorize learning into subjects: Check out this recordkeeping journal designed especially for unschoolers ยป
About Learning and Education
- Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
- A TED Talks video on creativity.
- Much too Early!
- An article about early learning.
- Homeschool Bookstore
- Homeschooling books for parents, tweens and teens, and children.
- Online homeschooling hub
- Young learners benefit from direct interaction with foundational skills such as reading, math, and creative, artistic concepts. Interactive, multimedia games incorporate visual, auditory, symbolic, and...
- A Classical Education According to John Taylor Gatto
- The classical method of education promotes creativity, independent thought, life experience, and appreciation for great works.
Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning
A practical handbook on unschooling
People who feel drawn to the philosophical ideals of unschooling often ask how to unschool. While acknowledging that each family approaches the unschooling lifestyle from a unique standpoint, I offer the details of my family's experiences, along with specific advice for meeting legal requirements without sacrificing your ideals.In the absence of school, what do children do? They play. That is, they do what brings them joy. They do what calls to them. They do what they need to do to get from point A to point B, learning useful skills along the way.
The unschooling approach to life, in general, describes the way we learn naturally when left to pursue our own personal interests. As unschoolers, we own our interests-our passions, dreams, and goals-and also the responsibility for pursuing and attaining them. We respond to our desires and go after our dreams with enthusiasm.
Unschooling parents and their children live and learn together, helping each other, making discoveries, solving mysteries, and sharing adventures. Ready to have some fun?
Available in softcover, Amazon Kindle, and eBook download versions appropriate format for iPod, mobile, and Adobe Digital.
Unschooling Wins the Race
While Unschooling Sets Them Free
By conventional measurements (mandatory academic testing), my unschooling daughter ranks at least two grade levels ahead of her schooled peers. How did she accomplish that without school lessons? I suggest that unschoolers are on to something.
A new eBooklet for only $3.99. Format for iPod, mobile, and Adobe Digital.
Living With Children
- Authentic Family Living
- We are connecting with other moms, dads and kids to talk about what is on our minds about Non-schooling, De-schooling, Radical Unschooling, Unschooling, Homeschooling, and Schooling... as well as... Natural families, Attachment families, Green families, and Attraction Families.
- Enjoy Parenting
- The greatest gift you can give your children is to enjoy parenting them!
- The Continuum Concept
- Instinctual babyrearing.
- Unconditional Parenting
- Alfie Kohn's website.
- Taking Children Seriously
- Noncoercive parenting.
Homeschool Buyers Co-Op
Save Money, Buy Together
Get in on group buys of popular learning software, products, etc., with Homeschool Buyers Co-Op. 
Homeschool Adventure Books
Picture Book for Children
I Am Learning All The Time explains the differences and similarities between homeschool and schooled children in a positive, loving and fun way! Homeschool Adventure BooksFind this book and more at the Homeschooling Bookstore.
Featured Lenses
Unschooling on Amazon
Questions or Comments?
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NaturalMommys
Apr 14, 2011 @ 6:24 pm | delete
- Thanks for such a great lens! I am new to unschooling and love great places for information & good resources!
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distancelearningcourses
Mar 23, 2011 @ 2:03 am | delete
- Hi Sara, thanks for your effort to writing such a informative lens on Unschooling. I love anything related with Education . I am sure you would have rewarded LOtD from Squidoo. Here after I will keep visiting this page... keep writing Good Lens.. LOL
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Susan52
Sep 21, 2009 @ 5:46 pm | delete
- I guess what people need to understand is that "schooling" and "learning" are not the same. We homeschooled our kids and did a lot of lifestyle learning. I loved the freedom to be able to explore whatever happened to happen or catch our attention on any given day. My kids learned how to learn and learned to love learning. No school burnout and happy, well-adjusted, well-educated young men as a result!
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mukunda22
Sep 21, 2009 @ 3:41 pm | delete
- We are discussing "Unschooling" and we discussed your lens on Giant Squid Open Mike"
Excellent lens!!
Thank you!!
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LindaJM
Jun 24, 2009 @ 5:48 pm | delete
- Welcome to Squidoo! I mentioned this lens on my blog at Unschooling - my favorite type of education!. Also I featured this on my homeschooling lens.
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by msaraann
msaraann
Sara McGrath, author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning and Strange Little Girl, lives near Seattle with her husband and three daughters. She has... more »
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