There is no way I could have known as a child what I would need for later in life, neither did the adults who cared for me. I DID know perfectly well what I was interested in at that moment.Had they fed my interest, trusted my interest I would have been far better off.Instead, they steered me towards things like math and reading (which I would have picked up anyway) and away from fashion and art and makeup…the very things I have a successful career in today.

Nobody knows what they need for the future. You can pretend you know for your children, but if they don’t even know how in the world can YOU? Only the individual can truly choose that. We choose based on today’s interest and pick up new information as needed. It’s the only way. Your schooled children will do it too…there will just be more roadblocks for them.

**I did, and my children have. At 12 and 16 they write fluently and clearly and each has a very good understanding of grammar. Of course, grammar is of greater interest to some people than others, and some people are naturally more adept at writing than others.

The idea that kids won’t be exposed to the rules of grammar unless they have teachers is an interesting one. My children have learned grammar by reading, talking, and listening. Grammar is all around us, as are math, history, music, science, social studies, art, etc. Active participation in life provides all the exposure my children need.

>>I think there are skills that students need to learn. Some of these skills are social skills. For that reason alone, school is important. It gets children interacting and working with each other. These are social skills that WILL be important in the future.

**Again, these are skills that can very easily be learned by living. What do you imagine would prevent unschooled children from interacting and working with other people?

Thanks for the artcle Leo, I couldn’t agree more.

Just wanted to say I think Guampedia is doing a great thing. With everything zooming forward these days there is a tendency to forget the past. It is important to know where we come from and preserve the rich diversity of cultures. There is a lot of wisdom and innate knowledge in these traditions. I love the sea turtle logo!

Sure, traditional is only a small fraction of the children’s week, but since the children are away at school, the parents then allow the school to do all the work and forget that they are always the children’s primary teacher. Once you, the parent, take on the responsibility educating your children, you begin to pay more attention to what they are learning and how they are learning.

Our first child spoke complete sentances before he was 1, but our last just did not want to talk. We tried sign language, which she took to. It wasn’t long and she was able when whe wanted “more” or was “done”, wanted food or water. Rather than forcing her to speak, or punishing her for not speaking, we worked with her and gave her another route. Now, she’ll talk all day, reports all the family news and is quite the communicator.

If you believe that the children need to learn “core” skills, well, you are correct, but core skill don’t need to be taught for their own sake. As far as reading / writing. That’s easy. Read to your children. Yep, that’s about it.

My daughter, the one that didn’t want to speak, also didn’t want to read. Eventually, at 9 years old, we decided that she had to read the first page of a chapter, before we read the chapter. Now, a year later, she’ll ask if she can stay up and read because she’s not ready for bed.

Math is another easy one, simple baking projects will teach you (and your kids) plenty. Double a recipe or cut it in half. 3 teaspoons are a tablespoon, 2 table spoons are an oz, or a table spoon is 1/16 of a cup. You can see where I’m going, plenty of opportunities. Woodworking or any building projects provide all kinds of opportunities to work with dimensions. 1/2 of 3/16 is 3/32. You can take the time to explain it, or just do the math and eventually, they will pick it up.

Baking, a science project waiting to happen. Did you know you can make your own baking powder? It’s a dry acid and base. They react when wet. Mix 3 teaspoons of cream of tartar (tartaric acid) with 2 teaspoons of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, a base). When they get wet, they produce carbon-di-oxide.

You could bake yeast bread and have a bioligy lesson. Yeast is alive and it is what makes bread rise. You feed it sugar, keep it at the right temprature and it grown, producing carbon-di-oxide, making the bread rise.

Without homeschooling, I wouldn’t know all this. I learned it right along with the kids. When they ask “Dad, how does that work”, I spend the time with them, look it up and help them figure it.

We don’t know what the future will hold and I firmly believe that the next 20 years are going to be unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, so the best thing for children to learn is that learning is fun and then let them do it.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I was taught that there’s such a thing as “core” skills. Reading is a core skill. Writing and communication is a core skill, and putting thoughts toegher clearly is something everyone should know how to do, be it quill to parchment, pen to paper, or keyboard to screen.

Mathematics and logic are a core skills, upon which much of today’s technology is based. In the future, 2+2 will still always equal 4. Basic science and biology are core skills. And dispite what one may think, history and civics are EXTREMELY valuable core skills because history does repeat itself, and one needs to recognize when politicians are playing you for a fool.

Having at least SOME cross-disaplanarian skills and knowledge means that you’re not totally dependent on someone else. Especially iimportant if that someone else doesn’t necessarily have your best interests in mind.

Side note: I learned RPG and COBOL in high school, computer languages long passed by, But that learning carries through with me today, because programming is a way of thinking about problems, regardless of the language ih which they’re expressed.

The second point is that kids are just that. Kids. And kids probably are NOT the best judges of what else they’re going to need to know later in life. They need guidance, both from teachers and from parents.

Think of it as food. We want them to grow healthy and strong, and to do that they need a balanced diet. Heck, left to my own devices, I would have eaten nothing else but chocolate cake and hot dogs, as those were my major “interests”.

Fortunately, my parents knew better.

PS what do you have to say about health care??