On September 21, I spent the day with my oldest daughter at her college. She turned 21 on Sept. 21. We had homeschooled until she started 7th grade and I remember all those times that I worried that we might not be doing the right thing. Should she have been in school? Should she have had more structure or been required to do more conventional textbook based learning?
Our days involved going to the public library, local museums, and historical sites. We read on the subway, in the parks and at the beach. We looked in tidepools, made snow forts and raised tadpoles. We joined other homeschoolers to learn Spanish, Shakespeare, and to put on plays. We learned Algebra using Cuisenaire Rods and Chemestry in the bathtub. We very rarely spent a day in the house and we were learning all the time.
Was socialization a problem? Yes, it was tough to decide between all the social activities available to us. When our daughter chose to attend public school it was difficult to give up all that positive socialization to be constrained by the public school bureaucracy and overburdening homework.
Well, we unschooled for all those years and the results have been that she graduated high school Outstanding Senior from a class of 850+ students and is at the top of her classes at a very prestigious school. Majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Theatrical Costume Design, her doors are wide open. She has been offered internships both here in the USA as well as in Italy.
I spent September 21 celebrating her birthday knowing that she is where she is because she was given the opportunity to unschool.
Lessons from the Frog Pond 
Posted by evelynsaenz on September 22, 2009 at 1:33 PM
The picture was taken in front of Arenal, a volcano in Costa Rica. You can see the sun rising behind the volcano and the lake that formed in front of it.
Because we unschooled we were able to visit a volcano rather than just reading about it.