I was contacted recently by a young lady who had created a guide to unschooling for teens. I found her personal story quite interesting and new I had to interview here. Here is part 1 of that interview.
Who was your primary teacher when you were homeschooled?
It was a really fair mix between my parents. It depended on what I was learning about and which of them was personally passionate about it. My mom created a lot of theme units for me during my elementary years, about whatever I was interested in. I remember studying insects for a long time, and moving on to Ancient times, then studying American Government – on and on.
Even though she created a lot of the units, my dad was still very involved. He would ask me about what I learned each day and tell me more about the subjects. He is very interested in both physical and social sciences, and that really fueled my early interest in both of those areas.
What caused the switch from homeschooling to unschooling?
I progressed very quickly through school requirements. At the time, I lived in California and was enrolled in a charter school that lent us textbooks and checked in with us regularly to make sure that I had completed the work required by that state. By time I reached the upper elementary levels, I was tested to have a college-entry reading level. It came to a point where the charter could no longer provide the education I needed. We tried other school programs, and my parents even registered their own through the state, but at the time, there were no real resources for homeschooling middle school and beyond.
My education snowballed into unschooling when we moved to the Midwest, where the laws are a lot more compassionate towards homeschoolers. Gradually, my parents started letting me pursue my interests without completing worksheets and other miscellaneous busywork.
What was the transition from homeschooling to unschooling like?
The transition was very simple and easy. My first year of unschooling, eighth grade, I became very interested in British history. So, I taught myself to read music and play recorder (a woodwind commonly played in English and French royal courts of the Renaissance) and even made a complete chart of the English monarchs and immediate families throughout history. It started with the present ruler and went back to about 600 AD, and included birthdates, death date, length of reign and the way in which they died, if the information was available.
My parents had really instilled in me a love of learning and a wanting to document what I had learned about. I still talked to my parents about what I was learning about. They took me to the library very often, and I simply devoured books.
I am very grateful to my parents for letting me pursue my passions throughout high school. I learned about things that I would never have tried if I had stuck to the textbooks.
Even though I was unschooled, I still took the occasional class – for example, I took a class titled Neurobiology Through The Study of Addiction – a college-level class offered by a local homeschooling mom about the brain and the effects of illegal drugs on the brain. I also took a lot of classes studying various forms of art – screen-printing, pottery, playwriting, etc – from local college professors. Through all of the classes and independent study, it became much easier to figure what I want to do with my life.
Bio:
Andi Enns is a seventeen-year-old unschooler from Kansas City, Missouri. She was accepted into her top-choice college, and will be attending this fall for Nonprofit Leadership and Organizational Communications.
She has created a website at http://squidoo.com/unschoolingteen/ for her tips on unschooling high school.
Read more Homeschool Success stories here:
And this interview with a homeschooling mom: Biking from Alaska to Argentina: A Homeschooling Road Trip