My Little Education Plan

Check out Owlet for her awesome Unschool Monday posts. So many cool ideas on how to work with your kids so that they can learn for themselves.

-large lot in town with a great yard and a nice old house. lots of space for a food garden, some fruit trees, a natural playscape and some animals.

-rotating roster of tutors and mentors for the students to ask questions and get inspiration from.

-sort of a waldorf style unschooling headquarters...

-i want my children to be able to follow the things that intrest them but have the guidance they need to get a well rounded view on whatever topic it is that they chose.

The thing I worry about with going all full out unschool style is what happens when the kids want to study something specific like, I dunno, solar rocket space powered energy time booster science or astrophysics? I can't help them learn that... and I don't really know where to point them to find it. Or what if they want to study something abstract like interpretive greek theater or philosophy. What happens when the knowledge they seek surpasses my own understanding? 

That is why I like the idea of having a place, a central location, to go to when they need guidance. A place where mentors and other kids can come together and share the projects they are working on and see other kids who are leading their own education. I love the ideas of mentors and tutors. Mentors to help in a specific skill like growing food, raising animals, solar rocket space powered energy time booster science. Tutors to help them follow the path in and out of subjects, to keep the flow from one interest to the next smooth and fun. Say Little A wants to learn about preserving food and all she knows about is how to make blackberry jam (mmm i can't wait to make jam with the kids). I would love someone who can help her delve into how the proccess works in jarring/canning (you know, the science behind the pectin and whatnot). Then maybe flows into dried food and salt perserving and I dunno... other ways to preserve food. Maybe that leads to an interest in mummification which leads to egyptian studies. I have no idea how to help her follow that path. I would love a person who can follow that lead with help finding resources, people, you know- learning type stuff.

I feel like if I were my kids sole source of information they might get a bit of a skewed world view.