Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!

Ask any radical unschooler and you'll get a different answer, but here's mine...

Radical Unschooling is living without school- as though there is no such thing.  It's trusting your children will learn everything they need to know for their lives, in their own time, and in their own way.  And, it works of course- because children are vitally interested in their world...they are "wired to learn".

I like to tell people it's sort of like how they learn as babies and toddlers- there's no reason for that inate curiosity and joy to leave because they turn 5, or 6 or 8...or any age.  If noone squashes a child's natural love of learning (of *being*), they won't lose it.

So, the way you and I like to learn about things that interest us- our children are given that same freedom...and when I say "given", that's not accurate- it was always theirs- I just didn't take it away.

The difference, as I understand it, between radical unschooling and unschooling- is that unschooling is trusting a child will learn everything he academically needs to know without school.  Radical unschooling differs in that we trust our children will learn *everything* they need...that is, for example- we don't tell them it is time to go to bed- they go when their bodies feel tired.  They are, as much as anyone is, in charge of their own bodies, their own lives.

"Birds fly, fish swim, man thinks and learns. Therefore, we do not need to motivate children into learning by wheedling, bribing or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do, and all we need to do, is bring as much of the world as we can into the school and classroom (in our case, into their lives); give children as much help and guidance as they ask for; listen respectfully when they feel like talking; and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest."  John Holt, "How Children Learn"

What an annoying sort of a word…and yet I hear it all the time, and maybe once upon a time I used the word myself.  It really grates me to hear now about how much (or little usually) “screen-time” a child is allowed.  Imagine if a parent decided to limit a child’s “print-time” (time spent reading books…I’m reasonably certain you could increase the desire to read in a heartbeat if you were to say it was not allowed, or only allowed for 30 minutes a day, every other day.

Anyway, when I first heard of radical unschooling (as opposed to unschooling which I totally loved), and some of what that entailed… I thought the radicals were crazy.  The whole idea seemed ludicrous.

You mean you actually let a child watch as much TV, as many DVD’s, as he likes…and let him play as long as he wants on the PS2 or computer?

Honestly?

Don’t you know what those things do kids???

(Yes…they generally completely engage a child, or adult, and therefore anything learned is likely to be retained).

A year or so after I quit the radical unschooling lists, imagining myself to be so much better-informed than the crazies…I started to wonder about the logic of denying a child something he particularly wanted, and whether that might possibly make him want it all the more. 

I decided to do an experiment…I would not limit the tv/dvd player/computer or Playstation at all.  I did a bit of a dozy thing, which seasoned unschoolers advise against- I notified my DS (then 6) that I had changed the rules, and he could now play Playstation as often as he liked.  Previously, it had bugged me- I didn’t like the cords running across the lounge, and making it look messy (we lived in a smaller house), and I didn’t like that he got so frustrated with the game, and then wanted me to get him past this level, or that bad-guy. 

I expected binging, but I was still shocked at the extent of it.

DS6 played that Playstation all day…people say noone does that, but he did. He woke up and went straight to the Playstation. He literally only got up to go to the toilet, or if we were going somewhere away from home (though he was generally unhappy about doing so).  I started to take him snacks, since he rarely got up to come to the table.  He left the Playstation when he went to bed, too tired to play any longer.

After a week, I was wondering about the logic of my “experiment”.  After 2 weeks, I was getting a little antsy.  After 3 weeks, I was starting to panic, but wondered if I called it a day…what would happen next time (if there was one) I tried this same experiment?  Would it take him twice as long to believe me that I really meant he was free to choose to play the Playstation all day?

After 4 weeks, I spoke to a friend who doesn’t own a TV, and believes computers are for research and learning typing.  Her children are intelligent, animated, creative…wonderful, in short- and I thought I was stuffing everything up for my DS.  But I persevered, because I didn’t want the last month to have been a waste of time.

At 4 weeks and 3 days…he got up, and didn’t go to the Playstation.  He went to the Lego box, and made Lego creations.  Throughout the day he did many other things, as well as play a bit of Playstation…it was like the fog finally lifted…or more probably, he realised I meant what I said…that the Playstation was as available as the library books, or the Lego ,or the felts, or any other thing in the house.

The experiment had been a success…

Nearly 3 years on, I see things differently again.  At that time I was still hoping that he would choose Tolkien over television, puzzles over Playstation.

Now I see there is value in whatever my children choose to do, however they want to spend their time.  There are days, I’ll admit, when I wonder about my own philosophies, where I think what I would be doing if I enjoyed the same freedom at that age, or if I had it now…but mostly, I am thrilled that they have the whole world in front of them, everything is on offer, and they are free to choose.  Learning is everywhere, even in places half of society seems determined to keep children from.

I was at a baby shower a while ago, where a mother was complaining about how long she was being made to wait for her boys to get in to the best private school.  She was lamenting the time they were spending in front of screens, and commented “I just want them to get back to learning. A Great-Grandma quietly stated, “They never stop learning.”  I don’t think anyone else noticed, but it sure made me smile :0)

These are my favourite two websites...there will be little you want to know about Radical Unschooling that aren't answered here...

http://www.sandradodd.com/unschooling

http://www.joyfullyrejoycing.com/

These are good books to get...

Parenting a Free Child: An Unschooled Life http://www.freechild.info/

http://sandradodd.com/puddlebook

There are a number of Unschooling Yahoo Groups you can join for support, and friendship.

DDA5 would probably have started school today, were it not for unschooling.

I can't say how glad I am that she has not gone :0)

I have heard far too many stories of mums crying in their cars, or at friends' homes, to imagine I would have been any different, had I lost my baby today.

It's funny how the 5 year old birthday is such big deal...and for us, it's not at all, and then it is- it is always a big deal to be one year older, or "a new number" as the kids say, and to never ever be your "old number" again. 

But, nothing's changed.

We haven't rushed out to buy her workbooks, or "educational toys", or anything of the sort.  No program has been designed, or schedule imposed...she's living her life as she always has.

I could (tongue-in-cheek) say she is using the "Fairy Curriculum"...she has watched a fairy movie, played a fairy role-playing game with her brother and little figurines of the fairies from the movie, had some of a Daisy Meadows Fairy book read to her, is wearing a fairy top (dressing up), has worn fairy wings, made a fairy with her Bindeez, counted her fairy books, read a simple fairy book (memorised), and been singing fairy songs with her new fairy wand-microphone.

I don't feel the need to categorise our lives, but if anyone asks- it looks like she did a bit of Reading, Physical Education, Drama, Art, Maths, and Music.  She's had lots of fun besides, and covered Science while DSJ8 and her played with a lighter- burning (and observing) candles, and other things they could find.

I love having my baby girl here, and wouldn't be without her for the world.

This question popped in my head yesterday, and I realised the answer is not what I expected!

I had been thinking about how I have watched my children learn various things over the years...the different ways they learn, the vastly different things they learn...and all of it self-initiated. 

Is there anything they couldn't learn without school?  So far, it seems the answer is "no".

Now, my children are brilliant, but they are still children like everybody else's...they are unique, and they are extraordinary to me- but they are not different to any other children...I'm saying it badly, but I mean there is nothing (and everything) spectacular about them...they can learn anything and everything without school...so can your kids.

OK...so then, who is school for?  If a child can learn everything he needs to know, he has therefore, no need of school.

So, school is for his parents...particularly for his Mum...she can clean her house while he's gone- she will most likely get a job so the family can have more income.  If she doesn't, she will give of her free-time to the PTA, or fundraising, or teacher-help.  She can have her lunch in peace, and maybe even read her book.  She can have a "reward" for all the years she put in when he was tiny.

I won't go on about all the things a mum misses out on by having her child gone for 6+ hours a day...but I know now, that school is not for children.

By far the most common question we get asked when people hear of our educational/life philosophy is this one...and it baffles me!

Why wouldn't they learn to read? 

The assumption is that, while a child might very well when they are little, he couldn't possibly teach himself to read- he will require a teacher.  This completely ignores the fact that he has already completed a much harder task- speaking!

However, for DS8, he did teach himself to read, and far earlier than we ever expected.  He was nearly 4 the first time he read a word.  We weren't aware that he knew letters.  We had spent 5 minutes (on a trip to Playgroup) listening to a tape we just got which had songs about letter sounds.  We hadn't got through the whole alphabet, but he got out of the car and read "MADBUG" on a car, and got the giggles because it was a v-dub. 

He knew all the sounds of the letters, some of which he must have just heard for the first time on the tape...but the amazing thing (to me) is that he also knew which ones were which- which was impossible to have gleaned from the tape.  How did he work it out?   I really have no idea, I must have told him at some point- I'm pretty sure I had answered the odd question about "which letter is this?"....but he did indeed teach himself to read. 

DD4 learned all the letters and their phonetic sounds by the time she was 17 months.  Given DS8's road to reading, I  thought she would probably be reading before age 2.  She wasn't, and still isn't.  She was *able* to read words before age 2, but she usually didn't.  We didn't ask her to either, sometimes she would just let us know what something said.

She will occasionally read a word now, and every time- she is amazed she can do it.  It is like she just discovered she is able to, but that still doesn't extend to her believing she could read books.  Where DS8 had to read every word he saw, once he realised he could...DD4 is so much more cautious...he seemed to have all the confidence in the world that he *could* do it, where she seems to have none.

More likely though, right now DD4 prefers to be read to- when that changes she will read, we are certain.  Meanwhile, she *loves* books of all types, and seems wholly unable to leave the library with less than 30 books (the number she is allowed on her own card).

On the other hand, DS8 probably reads at an adult level, but almost never chooses to read anything except on World of Warcraft, or a website/magazine or forum abut WoW.  It was almost as though it was a mountain to climb, and he was bursting to do it- but once he did...it was not necessary to bother with any longer.  However, though he was not made to read, and rarely did (apart from on games), his reading did improve along the way...completely disproving the old "practice makes perfect" line.

Last week, DSJ8 decided it would be cool to bury something for someone else to find "19 years from now".  He got a special figurine, and wrapped it carefully in Gladwrap (or Gladiator as DDA4 calls it).  He didn't want it to be dirty when the person in the future unwraps it.  Next he wrapped it in tinfoil, then placed it in a plastic container.  He told me he dug is 2 feet, but then realised it may have only been 1 foot deep.

This proved so much fun. he decided it would be cool to dig a big hole.  He proceeded to dig his big hole in the front lawn.  On the first day, he spent all-up around 6 hours digging that hole.

This is really cool for loads of obvious reasons, but even more so because DSJ8 is an indoorsy boy.

The next day, he enlisted DDA4 as a helper in the digging, and agreed to pay her 50c a day...only she was having so much fun (with her little trowel) that she decided she didn't need to be paid.  They spent hours out there, and have done since. 

They've taken DST9mo to play in the hole, and spent many, many happy hours in that hole in the front of our lawn.  Yesterday they scored the neighbour's inorganic rubbish (die for collection next week), fo goodies for the hole.  They found a broken cane coffee table at one neighbour's, and the top of a plastic table at another's.  They also found an old wooden blind, which is now serving as an entrance-way to the hole.  They found an old beer crate for a stool, and an old computer keyboard to use for typing in the password (to enter the hole).

The more I think of it, the more I am sure school is damaging to kids not because of the bullies (teachers as well as other students), boredom or tests- but because of the lack of time.  I can't imagine how restricting it would be for my children to spend 6-7 hours there in a day...where would be the time to just be?  The idea of children waiting for weekends, or holidays for those carefree times seems so sad.  I am so glad we have chosen this life!

DSJ8 was good with numbers when he was little...we didn't realise it.  In fact, dh was *concerned* he didn't seem to really understand place-value when he turned 4.

DDA4 seemed really interested in maths- to the point, that when she noticed a maths workbook on one of our shelves- she fell in love with it, doing sometimes up to 16 pages at a time when she was 2 years old.  It wasn't hard stuff- we had bought it for DS when he was 4, thinking he might need some more stimulation...when we decided to home-educate, and he seemed to be craving something extra (he kept asking to "do something for his brain")- I got it out.  It was for Year 1 children in Australia (age 6), and was a joke actually- it really was 2 year old stuff.

Anyway, we have been determined not to compare the children- they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and are wonderful, unique individuals.  But, I did start to get a bit concerned this week, when I realised that DD will be 5 in a very short time, and still can't count to 20, when DS could do so before age 2.

For the longest time (years), she has counted "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,30,40,50,60,70,80,90".  I thought, now she will get this in her own time- I do trust my children, and their own paths.  But, I wondered if maybe, just maybe, the reason for the mis-counting was purely because she had never *heard* anyone count to 20, or *seen* how those numbers work.

So, when we painted together that day....and I can never think of what to paint...I drew the numbers 1-20 in black vivid.  Then, I coloured each one very differently.  Before long, as I expected, she became curious about what I was doing.

I explained I had drawn all these numbers, and she pointed to the "11" and asked ,"what number is one-one?"...I "read" all the numbers for her, pointing as I went.  She didn't want to hear any more about it after that, and we happily painted again.

That night, she began counting "gems" for her treasure-pouch, and I heard her perfectly, and very clearly (with no pause whatsoever) count to 20 for the first time ever.  Hooray!

Since then, she has liked to write all the numbers, or paint them as I did, and I can see things beginning to click for her.  I don't feel I deviated from our purpose in unschooling, but introduced something new (for DD), a little seed...and it grew just when the time was right.

We waited for the latest Harry Potter book- not very long at all.  We had it 9 minutes after the release, primarily because our (as DSJ8 says) "people in our area don't read".  That's not entirely true of course, but certainly it would have been one of the smallest Harry Potter queues around.

We planned to get their early, but with one thing and another, only got their 20 minutes before "kick-off"...we were around 15th in the queue.  It was very exciting- this was the first time we had queued for a book.

We only started reading Harry Potter last June, completing Book 6 (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) in January.  That was the only book we had bought new, having bought the rest off Trade Me.

DDA4 had given up listening to the books around Book 3 (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), but still listened occasionally...she was very keen to pick the book up, but not so interested in hearing it beyond the first chapter.  (Hooray- I might get to read them again in a few years).

We finished on August 22nd...the plan was to read a chapter a night, because DS did not want it all to end too quickly.  The first night we were both tempted just to read all night, but stopped at chapter 3.  I'm glad we lingered over it, because now we (especially me) are sad it is over.

We'll look forward to movie releases, and the encyclopedia and all...but something really special, completely wonderful, is now gone from our lives...and every time I think of it, I wish it wasn't so... I wish it could go on forever, even while I know it can't- and it was superb.

The real treasure was that it was something DS and I loved doing together...something we both thoroughly enjoyed, and looked forward to...something that was just "ours"- Daddy and DD joined in on the odd Sunday over pancakes, but really it was our "thing".

It was whilst reading Harry Potter that my waters broke, 2 hours before DS9mo was born...

http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Hole-in-the-Wall.htm

This is the best example I have seen about how unschooling works.

Basically, a scientist left a computer with high speed internet connection in a ghetto in India.  The article is well worth a read.  But this snippet gives a good idea of his findings.

"What he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net. Some of the other things they learned, Mitra says, astonished him."

Actually, it's the best example I have seen in an article...the best example really is a baby, who grows in to a toddler, who grows in to a child...and there isn't anyone around who couldn't see how much that newborn absorbs in his first 5 years.

Funny that people suppose turning 5 will mean the child's natural curiosity about his world will suddenly mean he requires a teacher.  Actually, more and more, people are supposing a child needs a teacher earlier and earlier.  In our country, I have even read about the low uptake of children to pre-schools in some areas, and how the children are disadvantaged!

"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience." -- Anne Sullivan (teacher and friend of Helen Keller)

The best bit about Radical Unschooling for me is the relationships.

It's logical (to me) that a child who spends all day with his chronological-age peers, will not really want to be with his (much) younger sibling after school.

I have heard so many people complain about how the little one is desperate to see his older sibling after school, but is rejected...I don't see why people don't *get* that this is how it will be.

School has a whole lot of stuff that is inadvertently taught- and one of the things is, "Big kids are too cool to be with little ones."  The sibling your child played happily with for hours each day, prior to school, will not be happy with that same sibling after school begins.  At least that seems to be the way it works.  It's not until they are together for big chunks of time again, that they might start to get along really well.

I worried with my first two children that the gap (3yrs 7 months) would be too big for them to be friends...it wasn't.  With nearly 8 years between DS#1 and DS#2, I have observed wonderful things.  They adore each other.  DSJ8 was at his brother's birth...both kids were, but DSJ8 was with me when my waters broke!  He was with me in the (rather empty) birth pool, pouring hot water over me, and taking frightful photos and videos of me!  He is so kind to his baby brother, and is rewarded by the biggest smiles and giggles.  DSJ8 likes to carry his baby brother on his shoulders, and they have played together eveyr day since we was born.

DDA5 adores him too...she is quick to his defense after he yanks her hair and I call him a "wee bully-baby"...she gets excited about every new thing he does (even weeks after it is a new thing).  She likes to play Peekaboo with him, and build block towers for him to crash. 

DSJ8 and DDA5 are rarely apart...there was one time this year when DSJ8 went to the museum for a home-school trip without us- they were apart for 3 hours.  They occasionally have that much time apart when I take DDA5 shopping, while her big brother gets to play video games with Dad.

They spent nearly a week apart earlier this year...they both cried after hte "goodbye"...DDA5 wrote al lour names on a piece of paper for him "to remember us", and gave him her Glo-E-Bear to hug when he was lonely.

He e-mailed and phoned us every day...they missed each other terribly, and DDA5 still tells me that "sometimes when people spend a bit of time away from each other- it makes their love grow stronger...just not *too* much time away."

In some ways their relationship seems like a marriage...they love each other very deeply, and for the most part tick along nicely...but when inevitable fights occur, they work it out (usually with help) because they don't want to fight, and they want to get things back to how they were.

They make compromises too- only they're more like win:wins...like in movie-watching, DSJ8 will watch a pony movie (again), because he knows that after that DDA5 will watch something he prefers.  DDA5 will play PS2 even though it is not her favourite thing, because she knows it is important to her brother.  He knows this, and is subsequently very patient with her as she learns.  Watching them brings back memories for me of my brother and I in the school holdiays- when we played cricket on the lawn for hours (we had "one Dayers" with 50 overs each), we played cards (boy, did we play cards!), and board games, and had "drawing competitions", rode bikes looking for new parks, went swimming, picked raspberries together to earn money for Christmas presents, played basketball, and "Sticky Glue Pot" with the neighbourhood kids.

Tonight, Daddy is away...DSJ8 offered to take DST 10 months for a while so I could "do woman stuff for a while, you know, stuff women like to do."  He watched his little brother, on his (top) bunk, watching a movie, with their sister as well...and I got to work on the computer, for 5 moinutes anyway!

The first day of the School Holidays here, and I told DSJ8 his cousins will be free for two weeks (so he can call them whenever he likes)...

He said, "Oh, Man!  I've been free for 8 years!"

John Holt (the father of Modern Un/Homeschooling says...Young people should have the right to control and direct their own learning, that is, to decide what they want to learn, and when, where, how, how much, how fast, and with what help they want to learn it. To be still more specific, I want them to have the right to decide if, when, how much, and by whom they want to be taught and the right to decide whether they want to learn in a school and if so which one and for how much of the time.

No human right, except the right to life itself, is more fundamental than this. A person’s freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take from someone his right to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We say, in effect, you must think not about what interests and concerns you, but about what interests and concerns us.

1.                  My kids are great friends!  You know how girls have to go to the toilet together…these kids do too!  When DSJ8 knows he might be a while, DDA5 goes with him- when most everyone else I know would prefer to stay well away…they head off there together, so they can carry on playing their game! 

2.                  DH and I enjoy great relationships with them.  There is noone I would rather be with, seriously.

3.                  As Charles Morris said in his article (Living for the Future) from Life Learning Magazine “My kids don't have to question if they know "enough" yet.  Instead they live with the constant knowledge that whatever they know is always enough.  They live in the knowledge that the moment is all we have and that is enough."

4.                  We can go to the Park, Pools, Museum (anywhere!) when they are not over-run with people…sometimes we can have huge areas all to ourselves.

5.                  My kids aren’t used to being teased…they haven’t developed hardened exteriors to cope with “normal” teasing, and they don’t feel any need to tease others.

6.                  They can go to bed whenever they are tired, or stay up if they’d rather…they can still be on the trampoline when most kids have to be “in bed, ready for school in the morning.”

7.                  My “school-aged” kids get to see everything their baby brother does, and may even be the first to see him do something new.

8.                  Nothing is separated…learning is everywhere…they couldn’t tell you what they learned today (you know how people love to ask *that*, and how hard it is if you need to think of it yourself!)…everything they learned was while they were having fun doing what they wanted…they’re barely even aware they *are* learning.

9.                  Freedom…to be, and make, and do what you want…freedom to create what you want, without anyone telling you it’s not right, or not good enough.

10.              It might be possible to get through to adulthood with the minimum if stress, and minimum (zero?) bullying, and minimum (zero?) boredom!

DSJ8 says “Unschooling is awesome- you get to do what you want to do all the time, and you’re learning while you have fun.  I can stay in my jammies all day if I want.  I’m done with talking- I need to carry on playing my game (Dragonfable).” Sept 2007

DDA5 says, ‘Unschooling is all about staying home, and doing fun things with your family, and learning all the time…I love it soooo much!”   Sept 2007

From the original article http://www.tulsakids.com/editors-choice/2007/oct-1.html

“Is Unschooling Right for You and Your Family?”

Leslie Moyer offers the following list to help determine if unschooling is right for your family:
• Willingness to invest time in your child
•Willingness to research resources for learning experiences
•Cooperation from partner or spouse
•An appreciation of your child’s unique strengths
•Willingness to develop and explore your own passionate interests (be a role model of learning)
•Willingness to rely on direct observation for “proof” of learning
•Have respectful, two-way communication about learning
•Commitment to put your relationship with your child before any educational matter
•Willingness to let go of your own expectations about your child’s adult life
•Ability to let go of  pre-conceived notions about what constitutes “education”
•Acceptance of the idea that we don’t have control over what happens in someone else’s brain

 From the article http://www.tulsakids.com/editors-choice/2007/oct-1.html

************* BOOKS *************

Learning All the Time
by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0201550911

How Children Learn
by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0201484048

How Children Fail
by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0201484021

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling
by John Holt and Patrick Farenga
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0738206946

Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better
by John Caldwell Holt
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0525134379

Moving a Puddle and Other Essays
by Sandra Dodd
http://sandradodd.com/puddlebook

Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves: Transforming Parent-child Relationships from Reaction And Struggle to Freedom, Power And Joy by Naomi Aldort
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1887542329

The Relaxed Home School: A Family Production
by Mary Hood
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0963974009

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How To Quit School and Get a Real Life & Education
by Grace Llewellyn
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0962959170

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go To School
by Grace Llewellyn
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0962959138

The Homeschooling Handbook
by Mary Griffith
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0761501924

The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child's Classroom
by Mary Griffith
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0761512764

The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community and Self
by Linda Dobson
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0913677140

The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 101 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voices
by Linda Dobson
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0761535705

Homeschooling Our Children; Unschooling Ourselves
by Alison McKee
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0965780627

Deschooling Our Lives
by Matt Hern
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0865713421

Parenting a Free Child: An Unschooled Life
by Rue Kream
http://www.freechild.info/

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
by John Taylor Gatto
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0865714487

A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls
by Susanna Sheffer
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0867094052

In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child's Multiple Intelligences
by Thomas Armstrong
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1585420514

Seven Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple Intelligences
by Thomas Armstrong
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0452281377

You're Smarter Than You Think: A Kid's Guide to Multiple Intelligences
by Thomas Armstrong
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1575421135

For the Children's Sake
by Susan Schaeffer MacAulay
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/089107290X
        
Learning At Home: A Mother's Guide To Homeschooling
by Marty Layne
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0968293824

Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow.: Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love
by David H. Albert
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1567513700

Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery
by David Albert
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1567512321

Better Late Than Early
by Raymond & Dorothy Moore
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0883490498

School Can Wait
by Raymond & Dorothy Moore
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0842513140

Coloring Outside the Lines
by Roger Schank
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0060930772
(sort of anti-homeschooling, but its message was pro-homeschooling in my opinion!)

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, As, Praise & Other Bribes
by Alfie Kohn
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0618001816

The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School
by Valerie Fitzenreiter
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0972941606

Growing Without Schooling: A Record of a Grassroots Movement
by John Holt, Susannah Sheffer
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0913677108

The Day I Became an Autodidact
by Kendall Hailey
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0440550130

The Book of Learning and Forgetting
by Frank Smith
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/080773750X

Better Than School: One Family's Declaration of Independence
by Nancy Wallace
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0943914051

Child's Work: Taking Children's Choices Seriously
by Nancy Wallace
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/091367706X

And the Children Played
by Patricia Joudry
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0912766166

With Consent: Parenting for All to Win
by Jan Fortune-Wood
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1900219247

Deschooling Society
by Ivan Illich
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0714508799

************* PERIODICALS *************

Home Education Magazine:  http://www.homeedmag.com/index.html

Live Free, Learn Free:
http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/

Life Learning:  http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com

************* WEBSITES *************

Unschooling Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling

Unschooling.com:
http://www.unschooling.com (See "Library" & "Message Boards")

Car Talk Guys:
Education: The Learning of Skills We Will Never Need?
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/
The Education Forum
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/Education/
The New Theory of Learning
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/Education/r-rlast15.html
The Education Forum II
http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/ATC/Education/index2.html

Autodidactic Press:
http://www.autodidactic.com

Libertarian Unschooling:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6529/index1.html

Unschooling Undefined:
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/UnschoolingUndefined.html

Home's Cool A to Z:
http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/methods/Unschooling.htm

Sandra Dodd:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling.html

Child-led Natural Learning:
http://www.alternative-learning.org

Delight-Driven Learning:
http://home-educate.com/unschooling/index.shtml

Family Unschoolers Network:
http://www.fun-books.com

The Natural Child Project:
http://www.naturalchild.com/guest/earl_stevens.html

AHA Information Page:
http://www.americanhomeschoolassociation.org/info.html

Amy Bell's Natural Learning:
http://home.rmci.net/abell/

Alfie Kohn:
http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm

Search Google for thousands more unschooling resources!

http://www.google.com