Unschooling on the Homestead

“We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.”

– Voddie Baucham

Most individuals in America today will likely send their kid to public school either part time or full time due to the belief that it’s simply the easiest way to manage your children’s schooling. Now, if you have a good paying job and you’re concerned about the state that the American public school system is currently in, you might consider enrolling your child in a private school. And finally, if you just want to pull your kids away from the government brain washing as much as you can, you select the homeschooling route which gives you control over curriculum. Though most parents don’t know that many curriculums are screened before they are printed so that they are ‘common core compliant’.

Many families know very little about another type of schooling that is known as Unschooling which has a completely different ideology to educating your children. Thankfully, there are numerous groups across the United States that are forming so that these children can find each other so that they don’t feel alone.

Unschooling is a form of education that allows the curriculum to conform to the child’s strengths and avoids the rigidity of a set homeschooling program or plan. Children may share the same DNA from mother and father, but each child is gifted with wonderful strengths that were preprogrammed before they were breathed into existence. While one child may show an aptitude for say carpentry while your other child may show an aptitude for painting. Most unschooling parents start out with a base foundation of reading, writing and arithmetic and add extra activities to build up their knowledge base.

I read just recently that most 5th grade students in one city do not have any proficiency with either reading or math and this is unfortunately the fault of not just the Department of Education, but the woeful state of government approved curriculum found even in private schools. Lest you assume the parents are free from blame, they aren’t because the children are ultimately their responsibility. There are some parents pushing back against common core curriculum and CRT, but there needs to be more rebellion if you are going to keep your kids in public school.

How does unschooling fit into a homesteading life? Children are trained in not only basic schooling such as reading, writing and mathematics but they learn about gardening, animal husbandry, food preparation, survival, archery, hunting, fishing, seed saving, responsibility, cause and effect, common sense and numerous other skill sets. Many of the uncommon skills that children learn in unschooling won’t be allowed to be taught in either public or private schools due to political influence.

In today’s current system, not only do children not know how to produce their own food, but they also can’t identify what plant it even comes from. Unfortunately, the crumbling American school system is either cranking out children who can’t do basic skills or they are creating children for the outdated and obsolete factory production worker that no longer even resides in the United States. If the current production system uses robots or other mechanized systems, then why aren’t we cranking out more techno savvy kids who spend more time learning coding versus doing videos for TikTok?

If your son comes to you and says that he believes he wants to be an EMT, you have the opportunity to research what skills an EMT needs and begin simply by taking him to the local fire department and having a conversation with actual EMT’s who can guide the child. If your daughter comes to you and informs you that she plans on being a veterinarian, then you have the opportunity to call your local vet clinic and see if they would be willing to sit down and talk to your kids about what’s required.

A friend of mine had a daughter who was absolutely convinced that being a veterinarian was in her future, that is until her mother informed her that she would be dealing with fecal matter, urine, blood and that at certain times she would have to put down animals due to illness. That’s all it took for her to change her mind and move towards another occupation.

If your child absolutely hates the current American educational system and can’t wait to get out of high school, how will they begin to handle college? Are they really willing to attend college not because they need it for their career but to “find” themselves while obtaining insurmountable debt? Would your children be better suited to be an electrician, plumber, mason or some other skilled trade?

As you unschool your children on the homestead, you can watch and see the natural beauty of your child’s mind come out and reveal possible careers for their future without the influence of manipulative government or media. If you live in the state of Florida, please check out the website floridaunschoolers.net to get more information about unschooling.

A side quest that your children may be interested in is the ability to raise animals for money, thereby providing not only a source of real world education but

Happy Homestead Schooling! ^_^

“We ask children to do for most of a day what few adults are able to do for even an hour. How many of us, attending, say, a lecture that doesn’t interest us, can keep our minds from wondering? Hardly any.”

– John Holt