While we won’t “officially” homeschool until the next school year we have been dipping our feet just a bit here and there. Truly, the way we see homeschooling it is really just an extension of real life, something we as parents do all the time. We just don’t call it “homeschooling” when it’s not deliberate.
My little Mr. would like to create his own video game one day. With that knowledge, I have been researching different sites like Scratch, Khan Academy, and Youth Digital. We will certainly check them all out at some point but for now we have begun with Khan Academy.
Yesterday was my little mr.’s first attempt at beginner programming. I watched him a little and realized I needed to walk away. I found myself wanting to “help” him navigate through the exercise. Yet, I realized how he learns and what steps he might take to get to the end result may be very different from me. In fact, I know it would be different. So I walked away to let him do his thing. He created his first small project and I was a proud mama bear. He not only figured things out on his own but was able to look at what others had created, find an aspect he liked and then replicated it onto his project.
That my friends is self-directed learning and what “unschooling” is all about.
Unschooling Stripped 