"What unschooling really is" can't easily be defined, because some people use it vaguely, admitting they don't understand.
Parents need to understand their own unschooling clearly enough to defend it. It might take a while, and discussions can help people see it better, but discussions are about information and resources, so read everything you can find, and hold every piece of info up to the light, overlay the ideas on your own family and beliefs, and adopt slowly and carefully, any changes you make.
What's above was adapted from a recent facebook post. I was referencing that particular discussion, and by "read everything you can find," I meant the links left there, which are mostly from
my site and from
Joyce Fetteroll's.
Reading everying you can find would work well with
Just Add Light and Stir. If you're reading e-mail on a phone, click under "You can read this post online." There will be a randomizer, at the bottom.
Better yet,
open the blog from a computer and use the randomizer or the image tags. Tags will let you see many of whatever you've chosen—posts good enough to repeat or re-run; gates; waterfalls; paths; cats doing cool things; kids doing cool things; dads; playgrounds.... The tags are a beautiful and soothing randomizing feature.
My favorite definition of unschooling is:
Unschooling is creating and maintaining an atmosphere in which natural learning can flourish.
SandraDodd.com/readalittle
photo by Cara Jones
