I’ve had several conversations recently regarding schooling choices, curriculum, style, learning abilities and disabilities. Our family was urged early on in our learning by those who had gone before – not to sweat these years of grades k-4. To open the possibilities of of exploration, discovery and questions. To have excellent truthful hands on books to answer the questions in. To document, color, create record our findings and favorites. They promised me that my children would learn to read and to figure – to have phonograms and math as parts of our every day speech. To use tools when needed for phonograms and math.

This is a warm fuzzy discussion and works well – until your child is eight or nine and still shows no interest in reading. The child can be a math in social studies, geography and history – but can’t read a book about it. The child might be able to convert all of the math needed to increase or decrease a recipe but not be able to read the ingredients. Slowly, the faith in the ones who have gone before wanes.

But then, the first born son decides that peer pressure has made it necessary to read things in gatherings and makes it easier to play video games and manipulate the computer screens and look up web pages. He is introduced to one of these moms who have gone before who ties together all of the miscellaneous pieces of phonograms and he learns to read in a day. In one day nine and a half years of struggle is over. You start to feel regret over all of the hours of worry and doubt.

So – son number 2 comes along and shows absolutely no interest in reading whatsoever. No desire – at- all. Phonograms are quickly memorized, writing is amazingly simple – simple sight words to memorize are stored away. However, there is no connection to why we are learning these things – and what to do with them. Again, the age creeps up – and you realize you are the only mom that apparently has a son who is not able to read in the second grade. Doubt comes a bit. You step up the ante a bit by making him learn the 100 words that first graders need to know. Maybe that will make it look like he knows how to read. However, he could still care less. Then – one day – he meets a girl, just like son number 1. Only this time, she’s a younger girl – who one day decided to learn how to read. And she did. So – Son number 2 decides he can too. He spends a week in the 100 easy lessons to teach your child to read book – he begs you to read to him at night and insists on reading every other paragraph of a bit harder science book on birds – and then – in one night in the matter of an hour – does 40 pages of work in his second grade learn to read seat work work book. And memorizes it all. Over a months’ worth of lessons in an hour. And now he reads. Shaking your head – you try to remember – and vow – to quit doubting those who have gone before – trust that the Lord has given your child the desire to know Him better – and trust that He has given you the skills to make your home a learning envirnoment

So we stay with the unschooling. Living life. Exploring creation. Seeking. Discovery. Reflection. Pursuit. Passion. Life. – with a little math and a few phonograms thrown in just for fun.