Unschool Rules

$Unschooling math$

In our family, we don’t “do” subject areas. We don’t really do tests, quizzes, essays or worksheets.

We’re radical unschoolers, and we believe that learning happens all the time, and for us, it rarely happens in tightly defined areas like “social studies” and “grammar.”

That said, I get a lot of questions from people who are unfamiliar with unschooling and wonder, “But how do you teach math?” (Or any other subject!)

That’s why I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network’s “5 days of…” Hopscotch series this week, in which I’m joining a bunch of my fellow bloggers to share how we “teach” language arts, math, science, history and fine arts.

It’s a little bit of a trick… because I’m not going to talk about teaching at all.

Instead, I’m glad to share how we learn, radical unschooling, eighth-grade-ish daughter style!

If you wonder how our learning happens “beyond the curriculum,” read on. Today, we’re tackling my favorite subject, unschooling math, and sharing some looks at how it happens in our lives.

Unschooling and real-world math

This is actually such a big thing in our lives that I gave it its own five-day series in July 2012!

$Unschooling and real-world math$ I hope you’ll check out five days of real-world math.

In that series, I share posts about the math you need at the grocery store, the math you need in your kitchen, the math you need to manage your money and the math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff.

I also share my list of top real-world math resources you’ll love – our key to unschooling math at a practical level.

Unschooling and algebra

Because my daughter, Ashar, is now a teenager, the question I’m most often asked is about algebra. I admit that this makes me smile sometimes.

To be blunt, Ashar’s arithmetic knowledge (like, 7 times 8) is sometimes not the strongest. HOWEVER. She does algebra for fun, and does it well.

It actually started with science. Ashar decided on her own that she wanted to learn chemistry this year. While we haven’t been working straightforwardly through any particular text or lesson plan for this, she’s hit on something she really seems to enjoy…

Balancing chemical equations. She starting doing this via Uzinggo and moved on to doing some other examples she’s found in a variety of sources.

This is 100% algebra, and somehow Ashar finds it fun – because it has a practical application to a topic she enjoys.

Meanwhile, because there are REALLY only so many chemical reactions you can balance, in our quest to find her something similar, we started playing around with the DragonBox algebra app. I say algebra app, and that’s really what it is, but Ashar treats it like any other app game for her iPod Touch, and she’s enjoyed flying through the first five “worlds” of levels.

One thing I need to be really clear about: We’re not doing these things because we they’re algebra. We’re doing them because Ashar is interested in them, and the fact is, it’s cool that we can ALSO say, “Oh, hey, by the way, did you know that you now know how algebra works?”

Fundamentally, algebra is about sitting a system of equations on top of the real world. DragonBox has helped Ashar see all the ways you can conceive of and manipulate those systems; Uzinggo has shown her an example application of when you might apply such a system and why.

But the thing that fits in with that is that we aren’t trying to have “algebra course” come out of this. We’re not doing algebra worksheets to solve for X. While we’re occasionally diving into the stories in Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology, we’re focused MUCH more on the biology piece of that, actually, as the math is a little simplistic at this point. (And we’re doing this infrequently – just as it catches our interest among our other reading!)

What we are doing is using the things Ashar has already encountered on her own to start conversations that drive us deeper. We might not work out algebra problems even weekly, but we talk about how algebra works in everything from grocery price calculations to our family budget almost daily!

Unschooling and advanced math

“But what if she needs to learn trigonometry or calculus?”

Well, my answer to that is simple – if Ashar wants to or needs to learn those things at any point, I know that she has the skills needed to do so, and I know that I can help her, either directly or by putting resources in her path. (I’m looking at you, Life of Fred college series!)

The bottom line is, as a math major, I learned one thing above all else. Advanced math is NOT about computation or memorization. It’s about knowing how to learn, which is very different.

And I’m confident that my daughter is doing great at learning to learn, which means I’m not worried about advanced math in the slightest, should her need for it arise!

Side note: Since I mentioned Life of Fred, I want to add that while it is described as a Christian series, we are a secular homeschooling family and haven’t had any problems using the fairly few spiritual references we’ve found as talking points about what different people believe, which we like to do anyway.

The rest of the series

Monday: The power of words: Unschooling and “language arts”
Today: It’s not all about numbers: Unschooling and “math”
Wednesday: Exploring the world and how it works: Unschooling and “science”
Thursday: You can’t escape the past: Unschooling and “history”
Friday: There’s beauty in everything: Unschooling and “fine arts”

You can read all the posts here!

More great resources for homeschooling and unschooling math

This post is also part of the iHomeschool Network’s Massive Guide to Homeschooling Math.

Click the image to read many, many more posts full of great math advice!

Also, if you’re into the things we do in our family homeschool, check out my previous “5 days of…” series, 5 days of real-world math.

Finally, this post is part of the How to Teach Without a Curriculum linkup through the iHomeschool Network. Click the image below to read more posts on teaching without formal curriculum!

Unschooling language arts

In our family, we don’t “do” subject areas. We don’t really do tests, quizzes, essays or worksheets.

We’re radical unschoolers, and we believe that learning happens all the time, and for us, it rarely happens in tightly defined areas like “social studies” and “grammar.”

That said, I get a lot of questions from people who are unfamiliar with unschooling and wonder, “But how do you teach math?” (Or any other subject!)

It’s a little bit of a trick… because I’m not going to talk about teaching at all.

Instead, I’m glad to share how we learn, radical unschooling, eighth-grade-ish daughter style!

If you wonder how our learning happens “beyond the curriculum,” read on. Today, we’re tackling unschooling language arts – the ways things like reading, writing, spelling, comprehension, grammar and all that good stuff happen in our lives.

Unschooling and reading

I’m cheating, a little bit. I’m starting with the most obvious example of how learning happens in unschooling, and that’s by reading.

We read constantly. Every night before bed, we all get together in Ashar’s room or mine and read aloud to each other, or read in companionable silence, depending on what’s up.

In fact, this is such a big thing that we have a Family Reading Roundup series of posts that we update most months, sharing our current books.

Unschooling reading is an awful lot like public-school reading, or reading in more formal homeschool methodologies. We read from a variety of genres, both fiction and nonfiction, across all sorts of levels, from “simple” to college textbooks.

The biggest key is that we believe – and have found – that we don’t have to direct or require any particular type of reading in order to achieve this balance. It happens naturally out of Ashar’s own interests when we’re engaged with her in her learning.

Let me say that again, because that’s a key theme throughout this week’s series. Unschooling requires engagement. When I’m not engaged in what Ashar’s interested in, she either doesn’t read at all, or reads the same books for weeks. That’s fine – and it certainly happens – but that isn’t me being an unschooling mom at my best.

How we facilitate and learn reading skills:

By strewing books related to Ashar’s current interests. (Read more about strewing from my friend Aadel here!)
By making reading a family activity, both by reading the same things together and by modeling a love of reading in our own free time.
By going to places that have lots of books! We love used bookstores, new bookstores and libraries.
By talking about the things we read, and using them as a springboard to other types of learning, like movies, TV shows and trips.

Unschooling and writing

Let me be honest here and say that while reading comes naturally in our family, writing is not a passion of Ashar’s.

Or, more accurately, writing in a prescribed format is not.

We write all the time, just like we read. You can see a few of our “writing projects” here. But let’s be clear: When I say that we do not give assignments or require particular projects, it should be easy to guess that Ashar doesn’t just then randomly sit down and write research reports or essays for fun.

Oh, but wait. When a two-page informative paper was required for the 4-H project Ashar chose to participate in, she had no problem coming up with it. Why? Because while we don’t require the “proof of concept” of an essay in day-to-day life, Ashar has read tons, seen me write them for classes, proofread them for me, and generally become familiar enough with the expectations to do as serviceable of a job as I ever did at her age!

How we facilitate and learn writing skills:

By reading. There is NO better way to be sure you know how to write in a particular style (if needed) than to read as many examples of it as possible. This holds for thesis papers, friendly letters, Facebook statuses and emails.
By talking about the writing process. Since Chris and I both write for a living, well, that’s easier for us than in many families, I think! It’s been great to expose Ashar to all parts of the process and to lots of professional writers.
By encouraging the kind of writing that DOES come naturally – especially the kinds that Ashar will be mostly likely to need as an adult, which are digitally focused.

Unschooling and spelling

Remember how much we love video-game learning?

Video games are almost completely responsible for the massive growth in Ashar’s spelling ability in the past two years. Some of it is direct – the need to type in commands, spelled correctly, for instance. In other cases, Skyping while playing Minecraft and talking to friends has led to the natural consequence of better spelling, because Ashar wants to be understood.

Oh, and then there are all the ways in which we encourage and model – but do not force – correct spelling in day-to-day stuff, like grocery lists and texts and emails.

How we facilitate and learn spelling skills:

By reading and writing. Notice how these things build on each other in life learning? I would attribute the fact that I’ve always been a good speller to the matching fact that I’ve always been a heavy reader, and Ashar is no different. Once she’s read a word several times, she adopts the correct spelling!
By using correct spelling in our writing to Sarah. It’s super-easy for me to lapse into textspeak, even in emails and handwritten notes, and that does happen at times. But more often than not, I’m making sure to write clearly and spell well.
By interacting in writing! This means Skype chats, texts, emails, handwritten letters, grocery lists, you name it. In our family, there’s a lot of writing that goes on, and spelling flows naturally from that.
By focusing on words that Ashar most needs. We don’t do spelling lists by a long shot. Sometimes, Ashar still misspells words like February. (Yes, working on that. More next month than this one.) But she can spell lots of crazy words for parts of the alpaca, most of the elements, even the weird ones, and so on. When it matters TO HER, she learns!)

The rest of the series

Today: The power of words: Unschooling and “language arts”
Tuesday: It’s not all about numbers: Unschooling and “math”
Wednesday: Exploring the world and how it works: Unschooling and “science”
Thursday: You can’t escape the past: Unschooling and “history”
Friday: There’s beauty in everything: Unschooling and “fine arts”

You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network’s January 2014 “5 days of…” Hopscotch series.

You can see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their five days here.

Many of us are sharing on how we teach or learn in these subject areas, from a variety of styles and perspectives! We sure are an eclectic group – I hope you’ll check out more!

And if you’re into the things we do in our radical unschooling family, check out my two previous “5 days of…” series, 5 days of real-world math and 5 days of video-game learning.

Finally, this post is part of the How to Teach Without a Curriculum linkup through the iHomeschool Network. Click the image below to read more posts on teaching without formal curriculum!