Unschooling may appear to be merely unused free time to the uninitiated.
To an unschooling family, however, the simplest daily tasks are an opportunity for learning. When children help to cook in the kitchen, for example, they learn practical reading skills (from the recipe), math skills (by using fractions to measure ingredients), and chemistry (understanding what changes happen to the food when heat is applied, etc.).
The unschooling philosophy is built on the proposition that children are naturally curious, intelligent, and eager to learn, and unschooling parents trust this proposition. If a child is daydreaming, then, rather than scolding him for wasting time, the parent trusts him, knowing that the daydreaming may be the precursor to a focused creative project like a painting or a novel. Unguided doodling may evolve into a comic book or a blueprint, and so on.
Unschooling parents are not neglecting or not involved. Quite the opposite, in fact. Unschooling parents use a number of methods to maximize their child’s education. Some of these methods include:
Provide a wide range of resources: Unschooling parents don’t dictate what their children learn at any given time, but they do provide resources which encourage curiosity, exploration, and self-directed learning. An unschooling family’s house will typically be filled with books, games, art supplies, musical instruments, etc., so the child has many possible directions to look into. Most importantly, the parents listen to their children about their interests, and foster growth in those fields of interests.
Travel: Unschoolers aren’t restricted to any set schedule, so they can take trips and travel to new places whenever they want. Travel is a tremendously educational experience by itself, and unschoolers gain a lot of knowledge from the cultures and places they visit.
Spend Time Outside: Children thrive in nature, and unschoolers unsurprisingly show a real fondness for learning outside. They may go playing in the woods and learn about the flora and fauna there. Or they may learn how to build simple forts from the raw materials they find. Unschoolers tend to want to take things apart, put them back together, and find mentors who can show them how to create what they want to create.
Allow Passionate Focus: It’s common for unschooling children to become incredibly focused on and passionate about a particular subject for a while. In traditional schools, the children would be discouraged from pursuing this passion, because the schedule wouldn’t allow for it. Unschooling, however, encourages it, and children will often research a subject with deep commitment, usually far surpassing their grade level in the process.
Use Traditional Resources As Tools: When children become interested in a subject, they may choose to pursue it further. They may even choose to enroll in an online class, find a textbook, or use some educational software to achieve their goals. Traditional resources can be incredibly useful for the unschooling family, but they’re not rigidly enforced.