Homeschooling or Unschooling?

Hello all,

My child is a kinisthetic learner, and I find that she gets very bored and restless if there is too much structure. She loses interest almost immediately if I pull out a worksheet or have her work on a computer. The fewer senses involved in her schooling, the more she outright hates it. When I was a kid, I loved to learn for it's own sake. Not my kiddo.

This has created a great challenge for me. When I set her up for school for the day, I have to incorporate as many tactile activities as I can. This is very difficult for certain subjects, and I also work from home and am single. So, I cannot spend hours every day setting up her activities and coaching her through them...

I find Unschooling really appealing as an alternative to a rigid curriculum, simply because my daughter does a whole lot more learning (and retention!). It's not that I have removed structure all together, but I base it on her interests... I do still have her work on math and practice reading and writing in a similar fashion to the curriculums we've used in the past. As she goes through the rest of her day, she finds those tedious things useful occasionally, and is a lot more willing.

Going to an Unschool philosophy has taken nearly all of the fight and stress out of school for us. I am dealing with particular circumstances though (her learning style as well as a very tight schedule and budget), so I don't know if this would be a good solution for every family. I was just hoping to start a discussion about it, and get/ give some feedback.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm not sure how to incorporate the Core Curriculum into this type of schooling, but I guess it will just take some time and effort to balance it all out.

One day at a time Thumbsup

 

Well, I'll have to check with the laws in my state (to see if they've changed) but my understanding is that the Core Curriculum has to be taught by homeschool families. I think that curriculum is ridiculous, personally, and can do a better job teaching my kiddo with the free curriculums online, but if it's required by the law, I should probably address it at some point. People are losing custody of their children for stuff like that...

 

Oh good, I'm pretty overwhelmed with the legalities of it all, and heard repeatedly that Common Core was developed specifically so that homeschool families would have to participate. I guess I'll have to investigate more... sheesh, there aren't enough hours in the day.