Homeschooling / Unschooling a Profoundly Gifted Child

Homeschooling comes in many flavors and styles.  Our style is that we are radically accelerated, radical unschoolers. We may be the only ones that fit into this pigeon holed category and therefore there is very little written about this specific homeschooling choice. Firstly, radical unschooling, which is sometimes referred to as whole life unschooling, is not just about the educational aspect of learning outside of a traditional brick and mortar school environment but is also the entire lifestyle approach to parenting and co habitating with children. Some people also refer to it as permissive parenting or unparenting.  I am anything but an unparent so I will stick to the term radical unschooler.  So, now that we have cleared up some of the terminology let me explain a little more.  Radical unschooling is entirely child led.  We also refer to it as passion driven or delight driven education.  I, as the parent, do not enforce my agenda onto the children.  I do not teach them nor do I tell them what to learn.  My kids have a lot of autonomy in their life.  The kids choose what they want to learn, when they want to learn it, how they want to learn it, where they want to learn and for how long they want to learn.   This provides them with unparalleled freedom to choose their own path and discover their interests.  They have the opportunity to delve as far as they want to go in any given area and then can abandon that course on their own volition.   This is the complete antithesis to school and is also quite different from traditional homeschooling philosophies.  Many homeschooling families, especially those with gifted children, engage in a sort of eclectic homeschooling style which may infuse some aspects of unschooling as well as the myriad learning philosophies out there. Some homeschoolers have a schedule and some use traditional curriculum.   We do not.  We do not follow a prescribed schedule or set of curricla.  We just do not do schedules very well and we certainly do not require a lot of structure.  For some, structure is comforting and necessary.  For us, structure is suffocating and anxiety producing.

Beyond the educational aspect of radical unschooling is the lifestyle element.  My children have unrestricted access to media and technology, they choose what and when they want to eat and they determine when they go to sleep.  We live in a house where freedom of choice reigns over rules, chores and schedules.  It is different from the norm and it is liberating.  My children thrive in this environment and yet they understand the parameters of society.  We choose to challenge the norm and live by our own terms.  We also acknowledge that this path may make others uncomfortable or confused by our choice.  We are okay with how others view us.  We are doing what we feel is best for our kids and we enjoy and embrace pushing the status quo.  My kid is a hacker and we are disrupting education and loving every minute of it.

Now, onto the radically accelerated part of our unschooling lifestyle.  My just turned ten year old, L, is working a few hours a week one-on-one with a brilliant professor from a prominent, prestigious university.  Initially, we thought that L would be in the lecture with the 100+ students at the university but working privately with the prof is turning out to be infinitely better.   My son is working at a very high level in his specialty and requires such depth that is finally getting addressed by the prof.   They work through the course lecture and go off on beautiful, depthful tangents that would never happen inside a lecture hall.  I am privvy to their lessons as I am situated in the next room and can overhear their conversation.  And that is just what it is...a conversation about all things programming and tech. These sessions are invaluable to my child and are integral to his social development as well as the obvious academic development.  Our lifestyle affords us this opportunity which would never have materialized but for our first year of unschooling.   We started this unschooling journey a year ago and in that one year of absolute freedom to satiate his curiosity my son was able to teach himself enough about computer science to rise to the level of intense college material.  This is radically accelerated, radical unschooling at it's finest.  Then again, he could still be in an elementary classroom stuck with the lock step grade level curriculum which doesn't address computer science in any way.

I realize that our situation is unique but the fact is, until we started on the homeschooling / unschooling journey which keeps evolving, I would never have discovered that my kid is a tech prodigy.  When he was eight and in school he showed a facility with technology but nothing astounding.  Unschooling unleashed the prodigy in him which had been laying dormant within the confines of school.

Homeschooling can seem like an overwhelming concept for those newly considering it but it is a journey that allows your child's true personality and intellect to unfold.  No two homeschooling / unschooling families are alike and we all find out what works best by trial and error.  Or, in our case, we have two such strong, independent thinkers that have determined our lifestyle for us and we are just here to support them, love them and nurture them.  I am their guide and their facilitator but they are in the driver's seat of their own education.  When children have the power to choose what they want to learn based on their own interests and not state (or now federal) standards for the one sized fits all mentality, then they actually love learning and are enthusiastic about it.  Unschooling allows for creativity, thinking, problem solving and life learning which are critical skills for the future. 

This blog is part of a blog hop on homeschooling gifted children.

For more information and guidance about alternative learning options, please visit:
http://atypicalminds.com