Don’t Skip School - Have an Unschooling Day!

There are days when I just don’t feel like following through with our regular schoolwork, but calling a “snow” day would cause too much guilt (I know, it’s self-imposed guilt, but it’s still guilt nonetheless!). For those days, I call an “unschooling day”.

We’re pretty relaxed, eclectic homeschoolers, but I do like the idea of unschooling. I just can’t quite bring myself to let go of structured education, plus my husband is fairly uncomfortable with the idea. So, calling an occasional unschooling day works very well for us. The kids think it’s wonderful and act as if they’re getting a day off!

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Basically, an unschooling day for us means the children can do whatever they want all day long, as long as it’s educational. They may still have chores to do, but otherwise, they have free reign over their leisure activities, with a few minor exceptions. I won’t monitor their time on the computer, and I won’t bug them to do anything structured.

We have a number of computer games, tons of board games and a dozen or so documentaries that we consider educational. Any reading, creative play, or playing outside are perfect activities for unschooling days. The main thing the kids are not allowed to do is play the Game Cube (it was a gift that I personally could have lived without). They can’t watch “regular” movies, unless they watch them in French. Our kids don’t watch TV, so that’s not an issue. They can do science experiments, art projects, bake cookies or ask me to take them to the skate park. One of these days, we’d all like to build a Rube Goldberg machine.

By calling the occasional unschooling day, I can feel good knowing they are spending their day learning and they have a blast, feeling more in control of their day. Perhaps the day will come when my husband and I can let go of structured education, but for now, this will have to do.