Unschool Life: What Homeschool Looks Like for My Family

My family officially started our homeschool about three weeks ago. Since then we’ve been very busy! I am of the belief that learning never stops, but September 5th was the first day. We practice the unschool method for homeschool. What is unschooling you ask? It’s a form of child led learning. Unschooling can look very different from one family to the next. It’s about exploring your children’s interests instead of memorizing concepts only to use them to pass a test. We began our first day of unschool visiting a farm for fresh foods. We got to chat with the owners about the cows on the farm and made a few purchases.

We’ve been happy to reconnect with our homeschool community village, where we have a field trip or activity every Thursday. We recently went fishing and visited Sweetwater Creek State Park. 

Sweetwater Creek State Park covers so many lessons. We visited the gift shop and visitors center which also houses a museum as well as animals you may see on the trail. There are also cotton mill ruins along the trail. It was a history, geography and science lesson all in one!

The library is also an integral part of our unschool life. My children love to read all different types of books. I feel like reading is the gateway to education. We actually purchase physical books, and check books out from the library. On our last visit we checked out 40 books! My kids read them all within the three week check out period.

Our library also has a free weekly chess club meetup. All of my children play chess, and they actually need to teach me! I’m not that good at the game, but I’m happy they have the opportunity to perfect their skills and challenge themselves all at once.

Just last week we visited Jaemor Farm for a fun tour and some apple picking! It was awesome for the kids to get a behind the scenes look at running the farm, and the farmers market. We also got to learn about pollinators that are so important to all of the fruits and vegetables that grow on the farm. Notice when I refer to learning, I say “we” because I’m also learning right along with my children! 

We have so much more planned for the fall, and a lot of impromptu field trips and travel usually happen along the way for my family. Unschooling can be as amazing as you make it. We can turn anything into a learning experience. My children continue to do book work and worksheets for the basics like grammar and math skills, but we are mostly about digging deep to explore their interests and real life learning. 

If you homeschool, have you ever considered unschooling for your children? 

Ashley