The Homeschooled Hedgehog: CALLING ALL HOME SCHOOLERS!!

oxoxlydia:

soo for the past few months ive been “home schooled” but it hasnt been working out to well. one because i havent really been motivated, thats on my part. and two because my mom and i havent really found the right program.

we tried to use “khan academy” but that hasnt really…

Hey Lydia! Fellow hedgehog here. My story of homeschooling is kind’ve a crazy one, and not typically what’s done, but if the traditional stuff isn’t working then maybe this’ll help. 

I was homeschooled all up until I hit college, and I’m a sophomore now, so I’ve done fine. :p Basically, I unschooled, which is just homeschooling without any sort of organized curriculum. There’s no sit-down, textbook-and-notes formal learning, but tons and TONS of informal learning, and about whatever you might want to do that day. It’s really liberating, and if you have enough things to keep you busy, I’d argue that it’s just as good or better as any other form of homeschooling. Obviously, sitting around on tumblr and not leaving your room all day isn’t going to get you many places, but if you have a passion or anything else you’re interested in, it lends awesome amounts of time towards doing those. 

I was lucky in that my mother started me off like this from the first day, and we were always going to museums, art shows, plays, et cetera, often with the local homeschooling group, which is a great way to meet similar people in your area. I have no idea if both of your parents work, or if you have other siblings, so it might be a lot different for you, but unschooling worked really well for me as an only child with a stay-at-home mom. 

Looking back at the weaknesses of unschooling, the only ones that I’ve ever noticed in my years of college were a lack of formal, textbook education in maths. If you’re starting way before you want to hit college (think starting early and doing dual credit, s’what I did), then picking up any math textbook at your level of math learning and working that up through so you can deal with college level algebra would be about the only thing I’d do differently. Another thing that’s scary when you hit college is formal essay-writing for english classes (or it was for me, since I’d literally never written any sort of formal essay before I started), but if you’re good with words and read a lot, it’s really nothing to worry about.

Unschooling is great, and I wouldn’t do it any differently if I could. :D You’ll be able to do anything you want, but make sure you fill up your time! Weeks and weeks of nothing planned really got me depressed quick, and I don’t know how it would affect you, but if you keep yourself busy then I think you’ll love it.

Source: pancakesforpresident