Unschooling or Autodidacticism???

I just finished reading this blog entry -- http://journeytoself-sufficiency.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-unschooling-means-to-me.html -- this sounds a lot like how we do things in our home.  Funny thing is when I first started our home education journey back in 2005 I thought unschoolers were crazy and now I think I might fit the label (the unschooling part and the crazy part... LOL!)  I just have to say that I do not like using the word school for what we do.  A school is a place with teachers, classrooms and large groups of children.  We do not do that.  We learn, we are self-educated (isn't the word for that autodidacticism? Yep -->   Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a full-time tutor or mentor.)

You Can Say That Again!

 

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.

 

George Bernard Shaw

We are not going back to school

Well, actually we are going to a NOT BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY today, hosted by our local support group.  Lots of fun.  Then on Monday, I promise we will start our home education season (semester).  I like the word season because we definitely live our lives by seasons.  Our biggest chunk of time for focused book learning, classes and such is from September to November.  Not much bookwork gets done in December because of all the extra activities associated with that month.  Then we have January and February for more focused learning.  Then there is calving season for March and April, so there is lots of Ranch experience.  In May the weather is beautiful, so we have a hard time focusing on bookwork.  But the great thing is just because we aren't doing bookwork learning does not mean we are not learning, not being educated.  Life teaches us all the time.  So we definitely have different seasons of what we are doing and how and what we are learning.