August 7, 2009, Newsletter Issue #291: Unschooling - Nuts-n-Bolts

Tip of the Week

Boston educator John Holt first came up with the ideas behind unchooling in the 1960´s. His approach was basically "don't do what the schools do - stifle natural learning impulses, force intellectual activity to be subject to a rigid timetable, and so on." Today, many parents simply take this to mean "Don't do anything academic unless your child initiates the interest."

Most families that follow the unschooling approach do not allow television, video games, or other activities prevalent today in their homes or in their children's lives. To create an unschooling environment in your home, have lots of stimulating books around and read them as a family. Whatever your kids show interest in is what you should teach them, albeit in an academic way! Take a cooking class together. Listen to all different kinds of music. Learn to play an instrument yourself. Play board games ( like Scrabble, Uno, chess and Set). Put things in front of your children that will stimulate their interest in the three R´s. Then you can teach them –without sitting in a classroom at a desk.

This method has no absolute hoops to jump through, but be sure to check the laws of your state before heading down this road. Many states require certain curricular items to be taught and ask for evidence of such items.

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Thanks so much for reading the the Homeschool Tips Newsletter.

The new 2006-2007 Sonlight catalog is hot off the presses! In addition to new educational resources, we've also made some significant improvements to our curriculum, such as expanded flexibility in Reader choices for Levels K through 2.

The catalog also provides several articles with helpful homeschool tips. For example, check out the "Top Ten Goals" article (pp. 146-147) which can help you think through your personal philosophy when it comes to homeschooling. And "Why we use certain books that some homeschoolers won't touch" (pp. 144-145), that gets into some pretty important issues about the content of books. And you won’t want to miss “27 Reasons NOT to Buy Sonlight”—a perennial favorite (beginning on page 148).

To take a look at our catalog online go to:
https://www.sonlight.com/request-catalog.html?am=06catonln

To request a copy of the catalog go to:
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Sincerely

Sarita Holzmann
President
Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.