Unschooling in a Nutshell

I get asked a lot about homeschool curriculum and what that looks like for unschooling.

I prefer to use a method called “strewing”. I offer a variety of books, trinkets, articles, videos, pages, kits, Pinterest finds, extracurricular activities, apps, documentaries, and more.

Sometimes she wants to work from a book.

Sometimes she wants to watch videos all day.

Sometimes she reads fiction nonstop.

Sometimes she researches like crazy.

Sometimes she plays outside.

Sometimes she fills the day with crafts.

Every day is different. Occasionally she spends a week or more focused on one topic. The point is to keep her engaged and learning.

The hardest part is “strewing without expectation” meaning I can have no emotional attachment to anything I offer her. I may LOVE something but she’s not even remotely interested. That’s okay! My only job is to help spark the flame and then help fuel the fire with additional resources once she latches on to something. I can usually manage to cover all of the core subjects – reading, writing, science, history – with that topic.

It seemed overwhelming at first but, now that we’ve been at it a while, it’s SO much easier that what we were doing before. We are both happier and the things she learns really stick!

I do supplement math because my research tells me that’s where unschoolers are lacking. I like Life of Fred because it’s gentle math and funny! But otherwise, I follow her lead on pretty much everything else.

That’s unschooling in a nutshell. Here’s a few items I strewed this week.