'Funschooling' is what we call the style of education we have chosen for our family.
It means that our two children don't attend a 'school' and do their learning in real life instead. It is not just 'homeschooling', as the kids learn and practice this knowledge all over the place! At the library, the shops, the skatepark, friend's houses, museums, galleries....you get the picture. After spending time at a lovely 'independant' school and a great public school, we decided to give this style of education a go. And so far, it's absolutely wonderful! The kids are really happy, we all get to enjoy each other and have our relationships as a priority. We have organised our schedules so one parent can be with the boys, while the other works/runs our businesses and somehow we still have enough time to spend together as a family and pursue our individual passions as well!
Now before you think 'that sounds smug and impossible', let me tell you, it hasn't always been like this. We 'rode the treadmill' for years, juggling financial struggles with family obligations, social pressures with school anxieties, inner lives with outer 'stuff'. School never really 'fit' our eldest boy and there were LOTS of tears, tantrums, fights and furious fears - and that's just from mum! In 2009 we moved to 'the farm' - a family property where the boy's grandparents live in their retirement. The house hadn't been 'lived in' for 37 years, there was no internet, one phone line, mosquitoes and various other challenges...but the move has been fantastic, with the compromise of living 45 minutes drive from pretty much anything, being outweighed by the blessings of being in paradise and out of the race. This move prompted a more holistic, simple and joyful style of living which eventually led a year ago, to us home schooling/unschooling/funschooling full time. Haven't. Looked. Back. |
 "There is no difference between living and learning... it is impossible and misleading and harmful to think of them as being separate.” ~ John Holt  "Life is learning, learning is life. Unschoolers simply do not think there are times for learning and times for not learning. They don't divide life into school time or lesson time versus play time or recreation time. There is no such thing as "extracurricular" to an unschooler - all of life, every minute of every day, counts as learning time, and there is no separate time set aside for "education." ~ Pam Sorooshian |
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“Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” ~ John Dewey
“When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.” ~ Paul Simon “Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi “I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” ~ Eartha Kitt "Today for Show and Tell, I've brought a tiny marvel of nature: a single snowflake. I think we might all learn a lesson from how this utterly unique and exquisite crystal turns into an ordinary, boring molecule of water, just like every other one, when you bring it in the classroom. And now, while the analogy sinks in, I'll be leaving you drips and going outside." ~ Calvin, from Calvin & Hobbes comic |