Today's musings about unschooling

A response on my The Educating Parents Facebook group to a query about how to ensure kids learn about things that are in the curriculum, such as the periodic table or high school maths.

With an unschooling (aka life learning or natural learning) approach to education you need to trust that following an interest or passion (aka child-led learning) will lead to understandings and abilities across a range of areas of knowledge. Most people only dip briefly into an area of interest, satisfy a question or curiosity and then move onto the next thing. Some people delve deeper (hence, passion). The deeper ones goes the more ones learns across many disciplines.

This fosters an attitude about and understanding of the nature of learning that is open-ended, curious, engaging, unlimited, far and free ranging. It isn't restricted by needing to learn anything at any particular point in time in order to learn other things - it's nebulous. That doesn't mean that we don't do things or learn things in sequence, it means we can if we want to or we can jump around here, there and everywhere, come back to something when we need to, or not. It's a playful attitude to learning. An open-mind attitude to learning.

Maths is a tool. We pick it up and use it when we need to. Like most tools in our lives we often learn how to use new tools when we need to - and they usually come with instructions, or instructions can be found (from people experienced with using that particular tool, from a manual, video, etc). We make space and time to learn how to use the tool to help us do what or understand what it is we need to. Basic maths - calculating - is a tool that we use every day. Other maths tools we can learn as we need them.

The one things I will say that I have found with learning this way is that most people retain what they learn: they aren't learning something because they have to pass a test or get a good grade, they're learning it because it is immediately meaningful and has relevance and purpose in their lives.