Bmxbadgirl asks: Is unschooling legal? What about a diploma? or getting into college? How does all that work?

Yes, unschooling is . . . → Read More: Leaping Blog Question – Is Unschooling Legal?]]> Another response to a question I received about unschooling. If you have your own question, click on the “Email Me Today” link on the right sidebar and send me your question.

Yes, unschooling is legal, since homeschooling is legal in all fifty states and unschooling is simply one method of homeschooling.

Your diploma would depend upon your particular state requirements for homeschooling. In Alabama, where I homeschooled our children, they had to be enrolled in a church school and the church school worked with the parents, setting requirements for diplomas. All three of my children were unschooled through high school, all three graduated with a diploma. Two went to college with no problems resulting from the church school diploma. Each state has different homeschooling laws, so you would need to know what those were and talk to unschoolers in your state to find out how they work within those laws.

I have an article I wrote while my children were in high school, describing our experiences unschooling high school:

I hope this helps your further understanding of unschooling. If you have more questions, please feel free to email me with them.

A parent of a 6-year-old may opt out of enrolling the child in public school until age 7 by notifying the local school . . . → Read More: Alabama Lowered the Compulsory School Attendance Age]]> Alabama’s compulsory school attendance age was changed May 2012, lowering the age limit for all students in Alabama from 7 to 6 years old. This was done via Senate Bill 28.

A parent of a 6-year-old may opt out of enrolling the child in public school until age 7 by notifying the local school board in writing that the child will not be enrolled until age 7. This new law went into effect August 1, 2012.

Here is HSLDA’s take on the changes: Compulsory Attendance Age Lowered

You may still find some church school administrators who are not aware of the change, as it was done very quietly, with only a minimum of attention on several of the statewide Alabama homeschooling lists. Also, many websites that include generalized homeschooling information for all fifty states have not made the necessary changes to reflect this new attendance age for Alabama.

It is always best to read the Code of Alabama 1975 for yourself and review it occasionally for changes or just to refresh your knowledge. To find the proper section of the code, visit ALISON (Alabama Legislative Information System Online). On the left side of the page, click on the “Code of Ala” tab. From there, click on the “view” option at the top of that left side tab. Scroll down to Title 16: Education. The Section most pertinent is Chapter 28, but some of the rest is pretty interesting reading also!

As of today’s date (August 20, 2012), the new lowered compulsory attendance age has not been updated in The Code of Alabama 1975.

For more information about homeschooling in Alabama, check out LeapingFromTheBox’s Alabama FAQs and Alabama Homeschooling pages.

You might also be interested in information on the upper age limit of 17 for compulsory attendance for Alabama.

Disclaimer: In no way should any information on this blog be considered legal advice. I urge everyone to familiarize themselves with the homeschool (education) laws of their individual state (read the State of Alabama Education Code) and to seek out other web sites pertaining to homeschooling in their individual state. Do not rely solely upon what you find at any one site!

We have been homeschooling for X time and it is just not working. I read about unschooling and it really sounded like the way I would like my children to learn. We started unschooling X weeks ago and I feel like we are not doing anything. . . . → Read More: What is Deschooling and Why It Is Important]]> I often receive emails like the following:

We have been homeschooling for X time and it is just not working. I read about unschooling and it really sounded like the way I would like my children to learn. We started unschooling X weeks ago and I feel like we are not doing anything. My X year old has not done anything I can call learning. His/her day consists of cartoons, movies, video games, riding bikes, trampoline, roaming our wood, board games, reading fluff novels, comic books, playing on his/her guitar, playing Pokemon (you fill in what you consider to be an inappropriate activity for a “school day”). I have been trying to see learning in what my child does. Can you help? What did your unschooling look like? Are these things really learning?

This is an amalgam of those emails, of course, but you get the idea. And before I go into unschooling with them and what unschooling can look like (because it looks different for every family and even for every child), I take the time to explain about deschooling, a necessary process for those who have spent any amount of time in any formalized school-type setting.

Deschooling is the time given and the process where children who have been in a formal school setting (such as public school) unlearn what the system taught them (often unintentional lessons), recover emotionally from any damage inflicted upon their souls, and essentially rediscover who they are, what they like, and what they are capable of. This process can take quite some time, depending upon the number of years that your child was in the school system and how traumatic/damaging his/her time there was. If you went directly from the formal (public) school setting to “school-at-home,” then your child did not go through this deschooling process. You replaced the structure of the (public) school with the structure of school at home, so your child did not have to think for himself about what he liked, what he wanted to do, and what he wanted to learn. He simply had to follow the routine and schedule provided for him.

The general rule of thumb for deschooling is that it will take one month for every year in the public school system, but this process can take a much longer time if those years in the public school system were particularly traumatic or if your child really lost herself within the (public) school schedule and way of doing things.

When we first began to homeschool, we went directly to school-at-home, which lasted about four months before I burnt out. Then I learned about unschooling and deschooling. Our two younger children had only been in the system for a short time and never really gave themselves up to it (fought it at every turn) and they didn’t require much, if any, deschooling. But our eldest had a rough time the last year of school, had spent six years in the system, and had really lost herself. She took a full six months of deschooling time – time when she did nothing but sleep, read “fluff” books, watch television and sleep some more. I really became quite concerned … but, with the support of some unschooling friends, I held on and let her deschool till *she* was done. And I knew she was done with deschooling one morning announced she needed to go to the library to look up something that she was curious about. She was ready to go, full of ideas and plans and needing this resource and that resource.

Be forewarned, though! When your child renews his/her interest in learning, it may not be in the direction or mode that you would wish him/her to learn or are familiar with. For many years our daughter wanted nothing to do with a textbook, workbook, or any type of formal learning. It wasn’t until she was sixteen and decided to take a college class in Spanish that she was willing to do any type of “regular” or “formal” academic type work. She would learn things, but in her own way and her own time … sometimes through Internet searches, sometimes by reading, sometimes just by trial and error and questions. I could not lead her in any direction whatsoever – in fact, the mere suggestion by me of something she might be interested in would send her quickly in the complete opposite direction. I learned that if there was an idea I wanted to present to her, I had to come to it in a roundabout manner, simply making general observations about a subject, or even just reading about it on my own, leaving my resources lying around, and eventually, usually, she’d pick them up and have a look.

And it is not only our children who must deschool. Because we parents were not homeschooled and we spent years in a formal school system, it will take us much longer to deschool. Until we deschool, though, it will be more difficult to recognize the learning occurring in our children as they continue on their unschooling journey. I found myself panicking many times during our unschooling years, sure that no learning was occurring, trying to implement some sort of schedule or maybe try a new curriculum. My children were very good at humoring me, knowing that within a few days the panic would subside and we could go back into our unschooling routines. Deschooling took years for me, but gradually those panicky times were fewer and further between.

So do yourself a favor and give your children (and yourself) the time to deschool. Once you do, you will be able to see learning occurring at times and places where you never would have thought it possible.

Not . . . → Read More: Homeschooling Can Encourage Socialization]]> Yesterday I wrote about how some non-homeschooling individuals are still worried about homeschooling and socialization. Serendipitously, I just read an article by a Marisa Chow, a Contra Costa Times Teen Correspondent and a homeschooled teen in the Bay Area of California. In Teens: Home schooling aids, rather than inhibits, socialization, Marisa states:

Not only does home schooling include activities outside of the home, it also allows — and even encourages — students to socialize with people of different ages, backgrounds and perspectives.

She then gives many examples of how homeschooling has facilitated socialization in her life.

It is encouraging to read articles written by homeschooled teens, seeing homeschooling from their eyes and experiences.

Do you worry about socialization for your homeschoolers? Do you worry about homeschooling through the teen years? High school can be as fun and interesting to homeschool as were the elementary years. Check out my articles on homeschooling through high school. And if you have a worry, please leave a comment here and let us see if we can alleviate your concern.

In an otherwise spot-on article about . . . → Read More: Worried about Socialization and homeschooling? Get over it!]]> We began homeschooling in 1996 and at that time, the one thing above all else that concerned those who heard we were homeschooling was “socialization.” Over the years, this continues to be THE concern most voiced, even though a generation of homeschoolers have proven it is a non-issue.

In an otherwise spot-on article about homeschooling this week, Why Urban, Educated Parents Are Turning to DIY Education, author Linda Perlstein quotes psychologist Wendy Mogel:

Psychologist Wendy Mogel, the author of the bestselling book The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, admires the way homeschoolers manage to “give their children a childhood” in an ultracompetitive world. Yet she wonders how kids who spend so much time within a deliberately crafted community will learn to work with people from backgrounds nothing like theirs. She worries, too, about eventual teenage rebellion in families that are so enmeshed.

“A deliberately crafted community” sounds like public school to me! Our experience was that our homeschooled children learned to interact with people of all ages, all backgrounds, via community sports, theater, and various other classes. And as for teenage rebellion, it is not always “eventual” but even if it does occur, it is certainly not any more worrisome in a homeschooled family than it is in a non-homeschooled family.

What do you think about the article? Do reporters/authors always have to stick in something about socialization just to “balance out” an article?

And don’t forget to check out the Unschooling articles on LeapingFromTheBox.com, including Unschooling High School and You Might Be An Unschooler If… . . . → Read More: Interest-Led Learning]]> If you are looking for inspiration and information about Interest-Led Learning and Unschooling, check out this list of 50 favorite posts from 2011 on Christina Pilkington’s blog, Interest-Led Learning.

And don’t forget to check out the Unschooling articles on LeapingFromTheBox.com, including Unschooling High School and You Might Be An Unschooler If… .

What do you think?

Here’s a brief except:

Unschooling is like home schooling, except entirely self-directed, with lots of support from my parents. When I got my first allowance of $2.50 a week, I remember calculating how long I’d have to save up to buy my . . . → Read More: Unschooler Interview on NPR]]> All Things Considered on NPR interviewed a 16 year-old unschooler from California.

Here’s a brief except:

Unschooling is like home schooling, except entirely self-directed, with lots of support from my parents. When I got my first allowance of $2.50 a week, I remember calculating how long I’d have to save up to buy my next toy. Everything I’ve ever learned has been for a practical purpose or because I was interested, never for a test or because someone made me.

Read or listen to the full interview: Unschooled: How One Kid Is Grateful He Stayed Home.