Unschooling Voices # 7: Deschooling

Welcome!! :-)

As you click the links that take you to the different blogs and sites, I encourage you to comment on the ones that you particularly enjoy (tell 'em we sent ya!) or maybe offer some words of wisdom to someone at an unschooling crossroads. As you read, please keep in mind that everyone who participated is at a different place in their unschooling journey.

If you post a link to this months installment on your blog or site, please let me know (by leaving a comment here) so I can thank you with a link back. :-) I'll be creating a blog ring just for participants of Unschooling Voices which will be available when the next edition comes out.

This month's (always optional) question was on deschooling…either yours, your child’s or both. Tell us about it. What is/was it like? Personally, I found that I needed to deschool more than my kids. Do you find that to be true?

This edition of UV had 19 participants and 21 submissions

Let'st start off with our five e-mail submissions. They were from Laura, Raquel, Karen, Sherry and Kim.

Sarah sent in her submission with thoughts about her own deschooling process.

Meredith, (whose posts I enjoy reading on Unschooling Basics) blogs about deschooling along side her 13 year old stepson.

Nancy submitted two (I love it when participants send in more than one) blog posts. The first , she says "reflects my thoughts about all the resources that are available to new and potential homeschoolers and how that ties in with being obsessed about learning". The second "is a collection of random thoughts I recognized after attending my first homeschool convention last summer". Nancy also had this to say "I consider myself to be in the process of deschooling. My
children are still preschool age, so we are exploring many things. I hope to continue this exploration through our entire homeschooling time".

Beth shares her honest thoughts about her deschooling journey.

Sally writes about "how we have de-schooled (and de-universitied) simultaneously with our eldest daughter, who is now in Delhi instead, and how it has strengthened our relationships and our intention to avoid schooling her younger siblings, who have never been to school".

Cher has a "couple of thoughts from the summer about our experiences with deschooling. We found it doesn't follow a hard and fast rule, but like everything else about unschooling, is a completely individual journey"!

Mandy writes about "our journey from public school, to eclectic homeschooling, to charter, to unschooling. And how as a mother the deschooling has been more of an obstacle for me rather than for my children. Deschooling math was the biggest obstacle for my daughter, who I recently heard, after playing with her Bratz laptop, "Mom, this makes learning fun!"

Chris submitted two very thoughtful and interesting blog posts on deschooling. Here is one and the other is here.

Melissa writes very openly about "deschooling me".

Rachel says "this is about our transition from school to feeling comfortable with unschooling with young children. Trusting the process but not seeing the process work. Waiting and changing our approach. Experiencing a new way to parent. Watching peace trickle in. Recovering love."

I'll bring up the rear on this months topic with a post about my deschooling path and how it started.

Now on to the three rebels who didn't post about the topic of the month. :-)

Summer aka Mama Chaos submits an article she wrote titled "Unschooling:What is it and is it Right for You"?

JoVE writes about "paradoxes of unschooling".

Kim blogged about her top ten homeschooling mistakes.

I really enjoyed reading everyone's submissions this month and I think this was a great edition. Thank you to everyone who participated. I hope to see all of you again next month.

Unschooling Voices # 8 will be out March 1st. I've posted two questions, one is something fun and the other is an topic that comes up often. To add your voice (and read past editions), please click here.

To help people find out more about unschooling, I created a Google Co-op and a Squidoo page on Unschooling. You can add the link to your unschooling blog or site to both pages.
Also add the unschooling sites you like visiting. It's brand spanking new and I've added a little bit to both sites for now but I'll be adding more next week. If you see any mistakes or such, please let me know. The Squidoo "lens" (as they're called) is more interactive. If you can, please add a link from your blog or site. Thanks!

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