Natural learning is also known as Unschooling (mainly in America) and Informal Learning (mainly in England). Natural learning is the Australian term. Other terms include ’self-directed learning’ and ‘delight-led learning’.
The terms are often used interchangably although there may be some subtle differences to purists. For example strict ‘unschoolers’ would consider other home educators not to [...]
Links to the blogs are here
Quote:
Unschooling is an alternative education system that supports natural, interest-led learning at home. Whether you want to learn more about unschooling for your own research or child rearing projects, network with other parents who unschool their kids, or adopt some of the alternative learning philosophies to augment your own formal [...]
Authors: Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison
Published by Continuum
ISBN: 9780826479990
Price $54.00
Reviewed by: Susan Wight
“All children learn at home. From birth onwards, they explore the world around them; gradually discovering all sorts of things about their physical and social environment and the culture to which they belong…”
From the moment you read the preface you’ll know that Alan [...]
By Susan Wight
Natural Learning is not ‘Doing Nothing’
Confession time: Sometimes I get ‘the guilts’ and think I’m not really educating my children at all. This feeling usually creeps in following someone’s wide-eyed response when I tell them that I home educate.
“Wow, I could never do that! You must be so organised!”
The overawed responses vary but the words ‘busy’, ‘dedicated’ ‘organised’ and ‘amazing’ crop up fairly often. My guess is you hear this kind of thing too. And then the guilt sets in because these people have entirely the wrong idea about me. They think that I am a super-organised disciplinarian, planning lessons; conscientiously implementing a study routine; supervising progress; correcting work and so on…
I’m not doing any of that stuff! The fact is that most of the time, I’m doing my own thing whilst the kids do theirs. As the clock ticks over 9.00 a.m. here you won’t find me with the dishes and daily washing and cleaning done ready to supervise the day’s school work. In fact it’s quite likely that I am checking my email in my pajamas whilst the kids are still reading in bed. One of them is almost certainly still asleep.
Click on the title to read more…
By Lyn Loxton
At the recent HEN symposium, a member of the audience asked the question, ‘How can I give my child a high level of education when I didn’t do very well at school myself?” This is not only one of the most asked questions, but many adults today assume that, just because they failed [...]
by Alan Thomas
Infants start learning informally from (or before?) birth, mainly through interaction with the mother or other caregivers. Part of this is learning how to behave in culturally appropriate ways, e.g., how to deal with emotions, how to interact with others in the family and wider community, and the acquisition of cultural values and [...]
By John Peacock, New Norfolk, Tas
Jean Lave had a problem.
She knew that the best scholarship said that schools were better than other places of learning because in schools skilled professionals taught general principles that were objective and unbiased because they were not dependent upon particular contexts or situations. That same scholarship said that other sorts [...]
by Ingrid Seger-Woznicki
I read with great interest the article written by Ruthe Friedner Matisky (February 2003 issue) and felt compelled to share my thoughts. The particular paragraph that stood out for me was:
Let’s talk about that stimulating environment. In Utopia a parent wouldn’t have to give this a thought. I’ve pictured Utopia for years – [...]
by Kathy Ward
In recent years there’s been a strong trend for parents to remove their children from school and bring them home to learn because many schools have been failing to provide a positive learning experience for their children. These kids have been bright, personable, competent in many realms, and yet they’ve found themselves existing [...]
This article copied from http://www.ronnieuggie.com/
By Gail S. Withrow
Copyright © 1999 by Gail S. Withrow. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission
Ask around at your next homeschool conference to compare what people answer when this question pops up: “What does it mean to unschool?” Some will answer that unschooling is homeschooling without using a pre-packaged curriculum. Others [...]