I have finally surrendered and I am truly unschooling my children. No more curriculum or schedules. Some days are filled with games, internet and trampoline. Some days are filled with books, DVDs and Tv. Some days are filled with cooking, going places, karate and ballet. Some days we clean, play and cuddle! Some days, we just are!! Hey, that sounds like life.

I worried about what they were learning, but gradually came to understand that they were learning even if I wasn’t measuring it by some standardized test. I came to trust them and let them live with me and learn whatever and however they wanted. That involved a lot of internet and video games and a lot of time outside climbing and running and scooting and skating and playing with the cats. And, of course, a lot of housework and yardwork, because Mom won’t have time to drive you everywhere you want to go if she has to do all the work. Still, I was amazed when my firstborn decided to try high school and ended up with an A+ average for the one semester he completed, with three AP classes, a foreign language (Latin) and a math that was completely new to him (geometry). I was even more amazed the next semester, when he took two classes at the community college, one of which required five research papers, and he had never done a research paper – yet he figured it out and got As on those, too. The prof had no idea he’d never done one; his were some of the best in the class.

His experiences allowed me to trust his five-years-younger brother completely with his learning. He may not know everything they teach in high school, but most of the high schoolers I know forget all those memorized facts as soon as they take the final test too. But he is confident, he can read and write and follow directions, and we his parents see him as a well-rounded, interesting and capable young man.

Let them deschool as long as it takes, and then let them run! Learning is hardwired into their brains. It takes a lot of structure, a lot of mindless drill and worksheets, and a determined system to take it away from them.