The Path....

When two of my older girls were homeschooling, we tried unschooling for a time. I had read everything I could get my hands on. At that time, there were a lot of Radical Unschoolers but almost no Christian unschoolers that were writing. I thought at that time I understood what unschooling was. I told the girls to find something they were interested in and to research it. Hahaha! Needless to say, that stint with unschooling didn't last very long. Even though I was clueless (but trying), my girls did actually gain some important knowledge about themselves, and they remember that time with fondness. A little chaos but also we all learned a bit.

This time when I began to consider venturing into unschooling, I again read everything I could. But this time I looked on facebook. I read books. I checked scripture. I rabiit-trailed all over to blogs by Christians that saw this as a valuable and godly way of life. I asked questions regarding adoption and unschooling. How would this work with kids that were battling attachment issues? For kids that need structure and face huge thoughts of failure and shame, would unschooling make them feel rejected? In short, would this work for me and my kids?

We are learning. It is not exactly what I thought it would look like, but little by little, we are slowly figuring out how this works for us.

I still struggle with them "not doing anything". I wonder most days if learning is happening. I think one will require more guidance on the journey for now.

I am also learning to distance myself from the unschoolers who say "you must", or "if you unschool you can't do xyz". This HAS to be our journey and it HAS to fit us. It's not an easy path so far but I am determined to use this path to watch my children learn, as well as to help heal them.