Just a comment on unschooling (which has been described very well above)...
I know several families who unschool. Only one of them has children that has reached college age thus far. They have three girls and one son (who is the youngest). Two of their girls chose not to go to college but have great jobs and do missionary work also (around the world), the other daughter did go to college.
Their son wants to go to college and has aspirations of a hard degree that requires higher math and other classes.
My friend is now, literally, in tears because their son isn't prepared to enter college due to his not having had the higher math courses and some other specific classes. He was not properly prepared through their unschooling.
Their daughter that attended college also found herself struggling due to the lack of preparation in certain areas.
So- what I am personally seeing (remember I only know a few families personally that unschool so my insight may be biased due to the lack of a larger subject pool) is that, if you want your child to attend college unschooling may not be the way to go; or, at least be prepared to use some books for certain subjects so that your child is properly prepared to enter a college level classroom.
If you read my post in the other Home School thread you know that my son has been accepted to a highly sought after university in a highly sought after major. There is no way that he would have gotten here if we had unschooled him. But, he wants to be a rocket scientist so we had to plan his education accordingly as he entered High School.
Having said the above -- my friends that have older children and have unschooled have absolutely wonderful, responsible, highly mature children. When they have gotten jobs they have always been promoted quickly and to high levels in the company they've worked for because their work ethic is so high and they are so smart. These young adults are respected by their elders and their peers. They were the ones I called when I needed a babysitter for four kids under the age of six!
The above is just food for thought.
I know several families who unschool. Only one of them has children that has reached college age thus far. They have three girls and one son (who is the youngest). Two of their girls chose not to go to college but have great jobs and do missionary work also (around the world), the other daughter did go to college.
Their son wants to go to college and has aspirations of a hard degree that requires higher math and other classes.
My friend is now, literally, in tears because their son isn't prepared to enter college due to his not having had the higher math courses and some other specific classes. He was not properly prepared through their unschooling.
Their daughter that attended college also found herself struggling due to the lack of preparation in certain areas.
So- what I am personally seeing (remember I only know a few families personally that unschool so my insight may be biased due to the lack of a larger subject pool) is that, if you want your child to attend college unschooling may not be the way to go; or, at least be prepared to use some books for certain subjects so that your child is properly prepared to enter a college level classroom.
If you read my post in the other Home School thread you know that my son has been accepted to a highly sought after university in a highly sought after major. There is no way that he would have gotten here if we had unschooled him. But, he wants to be a rocket scientist so we had to plan his education accordingly as he entered High School.
Having said the above -- my friends that have older children and have unschooled have absolutely wonderful, responsible, highly mature children. When they have gotten jobs they have always been promoted quickly and to high levels in the company they've worked for because their work ethic is so high and they are so smart. These young adults are respected by their elders and their peers. They were the ones I called when I needed a babysitter for four kids under the age of six!
The above is just food for thought.
