Are we unschooling yet? I’m not sure, but I do know that I’m not worried about this. I had previously planned to deschool until the end of 2014 (mostly for me) and that I would have this moment when unschooling would start. I even thought this after reading several other blogs, most notably Pam Laricchia’s books where the transition between deschooling to unschooling is gradual with no definite transition.
What I do know though, is that everyone is happier, but there is still work to be done. Alex seems to realise that Tv and screens in general are available to him at any time. His viewing has actually decreased now, and he’ll often turn the TV off when he has had enough. He’s particularly fond of movies and youtube. We don’t seem to watch much in the way of TV programmes. The other change is that most days Alex asks to go to bed as he is tired, or if I am tired and I suggest bed he doesn’t oppose it. We’ve never had a bedtime anyway, but there were always attempts at taking him to bed. He still needs help getting to sleep. He knows that, as do I and I’m happy to be there for him whilst he needs me. But it’s just generally less stressful. But I guess knowing that we don’t have to get up and get going in the mornings is reassurance that the kids will sleep as and when they need to. And I trust them to do so.
Last weekend Alex asked to go swimming at the MAC. Alex has tried swimming lessons twice, and asked to quit both times. The first time we were reluctant (well before our unschooling days) but we didn’t see the point in forcing him to do it so after a few weeks we agreed to stop. After a rest of about 6 months Alex asked to return to swimming. He pretty much picked up where he left off and then after a month or so deteriorated and eventually asked to leave again. He has never liked water in his face, and I never forced that upon him at lessons (in fact I find it quite distressing to see babies whipped under the water). So asking to go swimming is a big deal! He had heaps of fun and am grateful that he is so cautious of water. Daniel loved it too! Alex asked me to hold out my arm, he went about a metre away from me and swam to me. He was very proud of himself and did this for about 10 minutes, moving away from me more and more to about 2 metres. He then started swimming around by himself. Now he actually started swimming independently at about 3 1/2 yrs old (which is why we were hesitant and confused at his dislike as he was very good at it) but he just didn’t like the structure of lessons it seems and his trust in the instructors was often challenged. I’m just happy he has a desire to swim, no matter what form that takes.
I trialled Skwirk as it was free and to see how Alex found it. He sat there for the first ‘lesson’ and did the ‘test’ with a high accuracy. I asked him if he wanted to do more and he said he didn’t like it. He was just not interested. I am glad we found unschooling when I see him react this way. He has such passion for learning, and such confidence in himself and what he wants that I think school would have been very hard on him. All of his friends have started school so I am very aware of our different lifestyle now. So far so good, and I’m going to cite my new mantra “It’s working for us right now”.