New data shows homeschooling is now America’s fastest-growing form of education. What’s behind this growth?
Read More
The emphasis on doing school like we always have during the pandemic has caused childrens’ health and safety to be severely affected. Schools could have helped families by shifting their focus from the needs of the academic schedule to the real-world needs of children to socialize, explore, play, and exercise…
Read More
I think homeschooling is getting a bad rap during the pandemic. Parents are pulling their hair out trying to teach their children at home and cursing homeschooling as a result. However, participating in daily classroom lessons sent from school to do at home is *remote learning*, not homeschooling. This is why many homeschoolers use the word *unschooling* to describe what they do: learning at home doesn’t have to occur only at home nor resemble learning in school.
Read More
There are issues facing us today that are larger than any single educational or regulatory issue homeschoolers face, namely racism and intolerance of people unlike ourselves. These issues need to be called out by all who support a free and just society.
Read More
I spoke at a conference in Calgary, Alberta last month and learned that some school boards there cooperate with homeschoolers and help with reimbursements for educational expenses. It’s an interesting model for schools and homeschoolers.
Read More
Marilyn Rowe wrote this short, sharp book about why you should consider self-directed education for your children, and also provides an update about the changing scene for homeschooling in Quebec.
Read More
From Freedom and Beyond: "In sum, a deschooled society would be a society in which everyone shall have the widest and freest possible choice to learn whatever he wants to learn, whether in school or in some altogether different way . . . . It would be a society in which there were many paths to learning and advancement, instead of one school path as we have now . . . a path far too narrow for everyone, and one too easily and too often blocked off from the poor."
Read More
Montessori’s ideas are being adapted by some to meet the growth of the homeschooling movement and the organizer of the Montessori Homeschool Online Conference asked me to talk about some general principles I’ve learned as a homeschooling advocate . . .
Read More
The movie’s exploration of how children and adults learn and grow together without following conventional school and child-rearing practices is vivid. Indeed, its celebration of childbirth and parenthood at the start of the film sets a beautiful tone for why parents might want to continue this type of holistic family life as opposed to conventional, fractured work/school/family schedules.
Read More
We want ASDE to be a self-sustaining and steady voice in support of self-directed education in this time of intense technological and bureaucratic surveillance and control of our lives and learning. We want self-directed education to be seen as normative, rather than alternative, in the public discourse about education . . .
Read More
Homeschooling and unschooling continue to expand and gain acceptance around the world as conventional schooling ossifies.
Read More
Some thoughts about about unschooling and homeschooling after speaking in Dublin, Ireland and Brooklyn, NY recently, plus an article, "Awakening Ourselves to New Possibilities in Education."
Read More
Twenty-two personal accounts about why and how fathers decide to embrace and support unschooling. Peaceful parenting and thoughtful support for their children's mental, spiritual, and physical development are some of the important themes that get explored by the men in this new collection.
Read More
The questions from parents that Blake responded to at his talk are the same ones myself and others in homeschooling for the past 30+ years also asked when we started—childrearing issues don't differ from previous generations as much as our external circumstances do—and I feel obligated to pass those answers forward . . .
Read More
Over the last few months we created this series of six videos, handouts, and a private member's forum to help you start and continue homeschooling in your own way. I wrote a new book, How to Report Unschooling to School Officials, as a capstone to this project (you can get the book separately). But you can get a special price on the complete package . . .
Read More
Unschooling and self-directed learning are gaining advocates around the globe . . .
Read More
This series of starting to homeschool webinars presents homeschooling as a flexible, vibrant, and social way to learn with children. Homeschooling is an option open to anyone willing to try it. Even if your children are happy in school and you are satisfied with how your home and school work together, it is good to know what your modern educational options are as your family grows up.
Read More
Don't teach the way you were taught: Involve other adults, other kids, and other activities in your children's lives. But most of all, get involved in building an open relationship with your children to best understand what does and doesn't work for them and you . . .
Read More
Fin and Rye drying foraged chokecherries. The boys know where to find wild mushrooms and berries, "and Lord knows what else [they] are eating out there," Hewitt writes on his blog . . .
Read More
". . . Most [unschooled adults surveyed] reported themselves to be at an academic advantage compared with their classmates, because they were not burned out by previous schooling, had learned as unschoolers to be self-directed and self-responsible, perceived it as their own choice to go to college, and were intent on making the most of what the college had to offer . . ."
Read More