Comments on: The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/455/the-journal-of-unschooling-and-alternative-learning/ From the editors and publishers of Home Education Magazine Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:29:32 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Amy Mallison-Austin http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/455/the-journal-of-unschooling-and-alternative-learning/#comment-11453 Amy Mallison-Austin Tue, 12 May 2009 01:53:46 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/?p=455#comment-11453 Since there are no cut and dried standards for the fifty states, some of us have things that we are "required" to do by our states in order to homeschool. We do what is required, but only because we have to. In Pennsylvania, we have to produce a portfolio of material to prove that we have covered at least nine of the eleven subject areas. Again, we do what we have to do, and we do what we want to do the rest of the time. At the same time, we do not replicate school in the home. We sit around the dining room table because that is where there is enough room for three or four children and a mother holding a fussy toddler. We eat and drink at will while we work. We color, draw, laugh and sing. That is our definition of homeschooling. Since there are no cut and dried standards for the fifty states, some of us have things that we are “required” to do by our states in order to homeschool. We do what is required, but only because we have to. In Pennsylvania, we have to produce a portfolio of material to prove that we have covered at least nine of the eleven subject areas. Again, we do what we have to do, and we do what we want to do the rest of the time.

At the same time, we do not replicate school in the home. We sit around the dining room table because that is where there is enough room for three or four children and a mother holding a fussy toddler. We eat and drink at will while we work. We color, draw, laugh and sing.

That is our definition of homeschooling.

]]> By: Helen http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/455/the-journal-of-unschooling-and-alternative-learning/#comment-11452 Helen Tue, 12 May 2009 00:05:18 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/?p=455#comment-11452 I differ with these folks on one very significant point, in which they write: "In terms of unschooling, we view it as a self-directed learning approach to learning outside of the mainstream education rather than homeschooling, which reproduces the learning structures of school in the home." That's one definition of homeschooling, but it's not our definition. I differ with these folks on one very significant point, in which they write: “In terms of unschooling, we view it as a self-directed learning approach to learning outside of the mainstream education rather than homeschooling, which reproduces the learning structures of school in the home.”

That’s one definition of homeschooling, but it’s not our definition.

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