school-at-home or unschooling?

Question:
I am a new homeschooler and for the last three weeks have been experimenting with various homeschooling methods to get a feel for what might work best for us.

I have not purchased a pre-packaged curriculum, because they are really expensive. I did purchase the Core Knowledge Series by E.D. Hirsch, a ton of used text-books, lots of magazines and books on varying topics and made a few trips to the library.

My children were in public school up until this year, and are now in 4th and 5th grade. These boys, before public school, taught themselves to read with Sesame Street, and seemed to be constantly reading and learning before school. And they enjoyed it. And they did it on their own, when they wanted to and how they wanted to.

They did really well in school as far as grades and standardized testing, but they hated it there. They moaned every day before school. They pouted and dawdled for hours before doing homework. The writing of spelling words (that they could already spell) 20 times each week was a horrible, pointless chore to them. And socially, it seemed to do more harm than good for them.

Now, after 5 years in the public school system, they hate anything that has to do with learning. They won't read any non-fiction of their own free-will that is not video game related. They couldn't care less what a preposition is. And they can see no practical use for fractions.

I've tried having some days where our entire day is planned, with assignments from the varying textbooks. They moan and whine and I feel like I'm pulling teeth. It's like I'm a mean old dictator. It's no fun for me and even less for them. And I have the sneaking suspician that they'll forget what they learned in a week anyway.

I've tried some days that are sort of a some-schooling approach. We'll cover math from the text, maybe a bit of grammar. The other topics they pursue without me. No playstation, no computer games. You have be doing something where you're learning. Maybe a science experiment or reading or watching the Discovery Channel.

This is slightly less painful than the scheduled days. They moan at the Math and Grammar, and may not cover every subject every day. They still treat it all like a chore this way, though not quite as much. There are whole days that they don't have any kind of history or spelling.

Then, we've had days where I've just said to take the day off. They don't miraculously start to pursue any interests like the unschoolers claim they will, but I've heard this takes time.

I would love for them to be able to just relax and pursue things on their own like the unschooling philosophy, but I fear that they won't. What if they never start to care what a preposition is? What if they never find the practical uses of fractions? What if they sit on my living room floor playing playstation until they are forty?

Has that happened? Does anyone know any unschoolers who just never seemed to pursue anything?

I don't mind if they don't go to college because they choose another path, but I do mind if they don't go to college because they lack the skills to do so.

So, basically, I'm torn between the choices here, with unschooling sounding the most attractive when on paper, but I'm unsure of how well it will work when put into practice.

Do any of you have unschooled children that are older? Does this way really work? Any input would be greatly appreciated, because I feel like I'm jumping off a cliff when I consider this option.

Answer:
Maybe you need to make the instruction more practical? We use maths a lot in everyday life. Take them shopping and get them to see how much things cost and which is cheaper - a 6-pack of something or buying 6 individual, for example. Or get them to help you make cookies - but halve the recipe. There are a LOT of practical ways to learn maths. Also, try making (Excel is great for that - print on thick photo-paper for durability) or buying flash-cards for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. You have an advantage in having 2 students - let them compete, make a game of it.

There are tons of educational quizzes and games (for free!) on the internet. Here's some of the links I use: http://www.visionlearning.com/ http://www.aplusmath.com/Flashcards/addition.html http://www.aplusmath.com/Games/index.html http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/freeexercises.htm#FIRST LEVEL - INTERACTIVE http://a4esl.org/ http://english-zone.com/grammar/index.html http://members.learningplanet.com/directory/index.asp http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/js/ http://www.collegeem.qc.ca/cemdept/anglais/trouble3.htm http://a4esl.org/a/v.html http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/grammar.html http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/#grammar http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/quizzes/index.htm http://a4esl.org/a/g.html Give them a day-plan - you have to learn something - and if they haven't learned ANYthing, then no play-station. Remember - you are the boss!

I'm not sure what you mean by unschooling. Personally, I am trying to get a 14-year-old to seriously improve his reading skills and work-attitude and habits. He came to me this summer. We get lesson plans from his teacher back at school and our goal is that he learns the same as his class-mates - but with a reading skill closer to 4th than 8th grade, this isn't easy!

From what I gather, unschooling is to just let the kids do their own thing. I doubt that will get them going anytime soon. My student responds very well to being able to use the computer and games to learn. There are tons of board-games and computer games that teach important skills in maths, english and other subjects. I would suggest play games with the kids - to get their enjoyment of learning back. Scrabble and card-games like Casino http://www.pagat.com/fishing/casino.html.

As I said earlier, you are blessed by having 2 students. They can play the games together at relatively the same level, and thus have a real competition going between them.

Remember also things like biology - take them for walks and just talk about the different plants. Take them to the zoo and just ask them where the animals usually live - that gets them into geography too.

Curiosity is the best teacher in the world!