How Parents Learn to Unschool
Ways parents can overcome their own conventional education and the pressures of mainstream culture so they can trust their children and provide the encouragement and environment that allows children to pursue their interests and strengths. How parents deal with their own doubts and criticisms from others.
Foundations of Unschooling: A Discussion of John Holt's Ideas (Alison McKee, Moderator)
Hear an introductory presentation about the life and ideas of Holt, a school reformer who turned to homeschooling in the late 70s and strongly influenced modern homeschooling. Then read quotes from his writing and share your response. What did Holt mean? How do these ideas influence our homeschooling?
5 Steps to Becoming an Unschooler
So you are realizing that unschooling is probably the best thing for your family but are unsure about how to get there. It isn't too hard as long as you keep focused on the basics so you can put them to use immediately as you transition to your unschooled life.
Life After Unschooling
Children who are unschooled take on the responsibility for their learning in significantly different ways than their "schooled" peers. What can this look like? What should we expect? How can we help our children make the final transition to adulthood without having to resort to traditional high school work? Alison has first-hand experience with this final transition and will share her insights with you in this session.
The Value of Developing Self-Motivation
So you don't think your child is a self-motivated learner and you'd like to do something about it. What is self-motivation? How does it really look? How can we become more attuned to the process of helping self-motivation flourish? Alison, a devoted unschooler, will answer these questions and yours in this session.
Self Motivation
Self-motivated learners are individuals who are motivated to learn without regard to the obstacles that may get in their way. We don't usually think this when we think of those who may or may not be self-motivated to learn. Why? Our educational system has co-opted this term and re-defined it for us so that most often we think of self-motivated learners as individuals who want to study school material without having to be reminded to do so. Isn't it sad that this narrow minded definition has come to weigh heavy on us, so heavy that most of us believe children are not self-motivated enough to educate themselves adequately. In this presentation, Alison will discuss self-motivated learning and how we can help foster it in our children so that they will continue being the self-motivated individuals they are.
John Holt? Unschooling? I Thought I was Homeschooling!
"Babies learning to walk, and falling down as they try, or healthy six- and seven-year-olds learning to ride a bike, and falling off, do not think, each time they fall "I failed again." Healthy babies or children, tackling difficult projects of their own choosing, think only when they fall down or off, "Oops, not yet, try again." Nor do they think, when finally they begin to walk or ride, "Oh, boy, I'm suceeding!" They think, "Now I'm walking! Now I'm riding!" The joy is in the act itself. The walking or the riding, not in some idea of success." John Holt, "How Children Fail." Unschoolers often say to themselves, "If it were only that simple..." It can be. John Holt, founding father of the unschooling movement, was a prolific writer who championed the rights of self-directed learning. In his first book, How Children Fail, Holt described how schools fail to meet the needs of children. By the time he wrote Teach Your Own, he had coined the term "unschooling" to describe how we can truly help children learn without relying on school methods. This session will be a presentation and explanation of Holt's ideas, based on the texts he wrote. Alison will share many of her personal unschooling experiences from raising two unschooled children, in an attempt to help you transform your life into an unschooling dream come true.
Finding the Right Structure for Your Homeschool
Keeping the Faith
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