Hello,

My son just turned 3 and I very recently started researching Home Schooling / Unschooling / Learning through life experiences etc. I am glad to have found this group.

Erin - what do you think about Teach Your Own? I am thinking of reading it - would you recommend it?

Anyone else have books or reference to recommend?

Rae

Since I don't really know anything about your situation, I didn't chime in before but since you asked twice I couldn't resist! You have probably done this, but you might just try sitting down and looking at how much you are both actually earning, how much you are spending on work related things (like transportation, lattes, take out food cause you're so tired from working that you can't cook, work clothes, etc.) and think about whether you might be able to live on one income if you had to (what if one of you lost a job, what would you do?). If you are thinking of trying to pay tuition at a private school then unless you're both making high level professional salaries, it seems like you might as well pare down your working hours and give unschooling a try. Private school is hugely expensive and at least from my perspective and what I'm learning about unschooling, can't compare in overall benefit to what unschooling offers the whole family. I wish more long time unschoolers posted here so you could here this from someone with more experience. If you are interested in hearing from other people, there are a lot of wonderful unschooling email lists that are more active than this tribe. My favorite is alwaysunschooled at yahoo groups.

Anyway, can you tag team work schedules so one works days and one nights? Can either of you work from home? Is your partner close to finishing school? At that point is there the potential for a one income family? Maybe the thought of one working days and one nights and all that seems overwhelming, but if you're really struggling with public school and its effects on your children, think if you subtracted that from your lives, would not the account balance in your energy bank skyrocket? No struggles over bedtimes, no struggles over waking up, getting dressed, getting out of the house, homework, pent up frustrations from school, unreleased boredom, etc. Your children seem like the perfect ages to give this a try, though I don't know anything about them and their energy levels or needs. But 6 and 7 is when they are about starting to be able to do a lot of things on their own (that is not need to be constantly supervised, not that they can drive down to the minimart for a snack). Have some faith that if you're all in this together, you can make it work. Sometimes it's just the voice of fear whispering in your ear telling you that this won't work, you must have two incomes, the children need too much supervision and all these things.

In your case these things might actually be true, I don't know, but these are the thoughts that occurred to me. If you want to make this happen for your family I'm hoping you can find a way. Good luck to you!

(It's funny to me to go back and read the beginning of this thread. Since I first posted here I have studied and read and talked about unschooling so much and I have learned so much. I feel so excited about parenting and family life now I can not even put it into words.)

Sorry Eric - I may not have understood your question. I though you were wondering how we work and teach our kids with out public school.

Are you looking for alternative schooling information, i.e. private schools etc that are affordable?

I am planning to homeschool/unschool my son. Teaching him myself unless he chooses different once he gets older. I am creating my own "homegrown" plan and sordive curriculum. Where I live we have to adhere to some rules that the school superintendent puts on us so I have to meet some basic requirements there, but otherwise I am letting freedom guide us.

There are some small private schools that are rather inexpensive out here (2,000 per year or so). Which may be out of the affordable range for some folks. They are okay - but most are Religious based and not exactly what I am looking for.

Anyhow - hope that helps somehow?

Rae