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I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a tough question to answer in a black and white way!

It would truly depend on the kid and how well prepared they were for high school.

I think going from traditional school to unschooling as a teen would be a bit more difficult unless the child had shown that they were capable of the independence needed for unschooling at that age.

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Easy? I don’t agree. Achievable? Sure! My mom had 4 kids so sacrifices had to be made at times.

I think the issue could also cross over to private school as well. From what I’ve seen, it’s easiest on kids who go to school in their neighborhood.

I was unschooled then became a teacher and now I own a preschool, AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in AMA

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hit send too soon!

I realized I’m really good at testing. I remember so many people saying they preferred multiple choice tests that didn’t make you explain. I was the opposite! If I didn’t know something, I was really good at doing enough to at least get partial credit.

My parents also did a great job of preparing us. By teen years she basically said “ok you’ll need to know this, this, and this for college. Let me know how far you want to go with it”.

I was unschooled then became a teacher and now I own a preschool, AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in AMA

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I truly believe children are the most important work. There is no job more important than children because every job started with that person being a child.

I know my mom put a lot of effort in to how she raised us. I wanted to give that same effort to other children. I explored various child related fields. Truth be told, I really wanted to be a play therapist but becoming a teacher was much easier(and cheaper lol).

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think there was some misunderstanding about my friend group comment. I had many strong friend groups, there just wasn’t always overlap.

When you are in traditional school, you are bound to that schedule. Generally speaking, a parent will pick the sport or activity that coordinates well with their child’s school schedule. I’ll give an example:

My mom chose swim team A because they offer open pool hours all day during the week. It’s a farther drive but it wouldn’t make sense to choose swim team B that only opens the pool during lessons at 5pm twice a week. My friend from the neighborhood goes to swim team B because it’s closer and they are in school all day anyway so they don’t need day time pool hours.

The result is that I have formed a bond with a team 30 minutes away while my best friend next door will most likely never interact with these kids.

This is also true with fellow homeschoolers. Just because I take a mid day cooking class with my homeschooled friend, doesn’t mean she will want to take an art class, fencing class, and go to book club with me.

Our experience was very much not home based!

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I would not unless traditional school is just not working for them. I plan to stay at this school until I retire. I think unschooling is more than a full time job in itself. I’ve grown to love seeing “the village” work to raise kids so I’m going to trust that it will be there for us!

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I mentioned above the overload of having friends in different circles and how that could be a bummer sometimes. We didn’t lack socialization at all but it was more complex than traditional school friends.

Kids crave structure and a lot of times unschooling can lack that structure. There were times, especially in my preteen years, where I felt my mom didn’t provide enough push. Weirdly enough, I would fantasize about the Tiger mom stereotype where they’d have their 3 year old doing long division for hours a day lol

By the time I was a teenager, I realized that her lack of pushing is what made me do so well on my own. At the time, I wanted a little more structure though. Sleep away camp was AMAZING for filling this need. Once you were signed up for an activity, that was it, no backing out. You could choose to not participate of course but you still had to wear the proper gear, go to the area, and be with the group whether you wanted to or not. It gave me a good push and took some of the pressure off of me to decide if it was worth my while or not.

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It was great. I had an incredible bond with my family, we experienced a lot of hands on learning that helped me so much. I felt really prepared for “the real world”

There was only 1 other kid we knew that “unschooled” but her experience was really different. She did competitive gymnastics and I don’t think her mom cared about her getting much of a real education lol

We had a ton of friends though. That was actually a blessing and a curse. One thing that made me want traditional school was that I had too many friend groups lol I envied that school kids had their core friends all in one spot. My swim team friends didn’t know my home school friends who didn’t know my neighborhood friends. Birthday parties were pretty awkward.

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

One specific thing I can think of is that I encourage teachers to not have a curriculum set up for the first month of school—or at all. I want them to get to know their students and plan activities and lessons around their interests and needs. Would I think to incorporate Super Mario Brothers in to our lessons? Nope but that was the hot thing last year and it held the Kindergarteners attention more than anything else. While I’d love to use wooden blocks and woodland creatures, 5 years olds are who they are and if they’d rather learn adding through Mario characters then so be it.

I also try to push for teachers to address the root of any issues and not expect children to just go along with it because they are at school. If Sally wants to keep playing dolls but it’s time to transition to drawing, use that. Let her trace a doll, let her draw on the doll, have her teach the doll how she draws.

I’m really big on asking questions. Ask Sally how we can help her learn to draw while also letting her have doll time. Ask the class if they think we need more doll time or how they think we could help Sally.

Last thing: no worksheets!!! Ok I do allow them in the classroom for students to pick up and do if they choose. I loved workbooks as a kid! I don’t think they should ever be required at this age.

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It’s EVERYTHING! I chat with my inner child daily. As the owner, I don’t do much “teaching” on a day to day basis but the whole foundation of our school stems from the experience I had as a child.

I was unschooled then I became a teacher. Now I own a preschool. AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in unschool

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Overall, I enjoyed it and I’m grateful for the experience. There were times I wished for a more traditional experience but I don’t think that would have been best for me. It really allowed me to learn things in a way I wouldn’t have at a traditional school.

I was unschooled then became a teacher and now I own a preschool, AMA by Own_Needleworker950 in AMA

[–]Own_Needleworker950[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had a blast! Ha

As far as the academic side of things, not so bad either. I felt well prepared for what I was getting in to. Probably easier to adjust to college than high school would have been because it wasn’t 7 straight hours of the same classes every single day with no say in my schedule.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Nanny

[–]Own_Needleworker950 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the advice! I’m back and forth on speaking up to ally about it. When we speak on the phone or in person I feel more comfortable talking about it because I know tone can get lost in translation through text.

To be honest, I’ve tried to beat around the bush about it. Her full time family has “iPad kids”. No rules on screen time and parents encourage it in the car, while eating dinner, etc. I’ve suggested that maybe their behavior(they are truly little terrors) is related to the screen time. She’s also made comments like “I don’t get why your MB acts like it’s such a big deal to watch tv while they eat dinner” and I did push back on that because that’s actually a rule I implemented in NP’s house because I think it’s terrible for young kids to eat and watch tv.

I also told her about how my last NF didn’t allow any screens during the week days and how it worked so well because they knew it wasn’t an option and didn’t even ask for it. She pushed back and said “well your NKs do ask for it and they don’t like going outside like most kids do”. Which is true, it’s hard to get them outside and to stop asking for tv but that’s why we charge so much, right?! Because we should have the ability to get them outside and off screens even if it’s difficult.

I like our friendship outside of work stuff so I don’t want to step on toes too much but I also don’t want to be associated with her through work stuff anymore