Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves

A friend of mine from Hank's preschool lent me this book awhile ago and even though this book advocates a home schooling style diametrically opposed to the philosophy we plan on adhering to, I was anxious to read it. Its author, Alison McKee, is a home schooling mom from Madison, Wisconsin who has two grown children, both "unschooled" the whole way through.

Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves is not a how-to manual or a list of frequently asked questions; I'd be more apt to liken it to a home schooling journal. Since I don't plan on unschooling I wanted to see how unschooling worked, practically speaking, since I'd always been rather skeptical of its efficacy.

I'm still not a proponent of the philosophy. It all just seems to risky to me, and the friend who lent me the book agrees with me that it is hard trusting your child to the point where you believe that they'll express interest in learning everything they need, even basic skills like reading, adding and everything else. However, through allowing me to see into the McKee family and the children's educational progress from birth through college and beyond, the book helped lend me understanding and while I still don't subscribe to the unschooling philosophy, I can see why some do, and I don't think it's as far out an idea as I once did.