10 Reasons Why I Abandoned Conventional Schooling

Welcome to the Ten Weeks of Top Ten Lists sponsored by Many Little Blessings and the iHomeschoolNetwork.com. Bunches of bloggers will be sharing their Top Ten lists on various topics over the next ten weeks. 

Please be sure to subscribe by email or follow Blog, She Wrote using the sidebar buttons, so you don't miss any of my Top Ten Favorites!

Today's topic is Ten or So Reasons Why I Abandoned Conventional Schooling. In no particular order, here's our path to unit studies with a flare for unschooling:

• We can customize every child's education to best suit his or her needs, abilities, talents, and interests.
• It allows us to pour into our children's passions with abandon!
• Kids can follow an interest and play it out until the fire goes out- instead of having to move on to the next thing all the time. And we encourage them to do so!
• The chance to keep reading one more chapter...then another...then another until we've been reading aloud together for two more hours!
• We can make difficult subjects easier by incorporating the kids' interests and passions into our schooling.
• Allows time to pursue interests at times when others cannot because of conventional schedules- falconry, uncrowded field trips, etc
• Slowing down and leaving margin gives us time for exploration- our best homeschool days happen when we live in those moments. 
• Because I don't have to be conventional just because that is the experience from which I come. 
• Learning is best when our kids own their experience and allowing them time to see what drives them is important.
• Applying skills is the thing- once the kids have mastered a skill it's time to use it, not continue to just practice it. 
• I want my kids to have authentic experiences- not ones that are contrived- whether it's supposedly great homeschool stuff or not. This is very big for me!

The key to engaging your kids to go for their "beyond dreams" is to leave room for being unconventional.