Perhaps I Shouldn't Have Told You about Our Typical Unschooling Day

In my last podcast, I spoke about our typical unschooling day.

Every day we get up early, do our chores as a team, and then say prayers together before getting on with the work of the day. We eat regular meals, sitting around the same table at the same time. At the end of the day, none of us is reluctant to slip into bed and go to sleep. Many nights my two youngest girls are ready to turn out their light by 8.30 pm. And occasionally, I head off to bed even earlier than that.

I wonder if I should have told you about our days. You might now think our life is rather ordinary. Perhaps we don’t sound much like your idea of a family who has let unschooling spill over into all parts of life. Could we just be pretending to live an amazing unschooling life when we are in fact conventional homeschoolers?What does a typical unschooling life actually look like? Is it more exciting than the one we’re leading?

I’ve heard of radical unschoolers staying up to all hours of the night and then sleeping in late the next day. They don’t move to anyone’s timetable except their own. They eat what they like when they feel hungry, and not when the clock or someone tells them it’s time for a meal. They listen to the needs of their own bodies and respond accordingly. Yes, they do what they like when they want to, because there are no rules. They are as free as the wind, not constrained by anything,And our life doesn’t look like theirs at all. Or does it?

I don’t think unschooling can be identified by such things as what time a child goes to bed or when and what she eats or even by the kind of activities she is involved with. Unschooling isn’t about doing particular agreed-upon things. It’s about giving children the freedom to choose.

Do some children choose to get up early? Could they want to say prayers and be part of the chore team? Perhaps they like eating family meals around the table with their siblings and parents. Is it possible they might choose to live what looks like a conventional life?

But why would kids choose to do this? Why would they want to fit in with their family and live on the same timetable? I asked my children this question:

“Because we value our family life.”

“Our family life is important to us.”

“We like doing things together.”

“We want to be part of the team.”

“We contribute to the family and want to do things together because we love each other and want to help out.”

“When our life has some rhythm to it we achieve more.”

So in many ways, it might seem like we’re living a conventional life. But we’re not. Appearances are deceiving. We are as free as the wind.

Why do we live the way we do?

Charlotte: “Because we want to!”

And so we do. Because we can.