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Unschooling and Time4Learning

Time4Learning is a leading online curriculum provider to homeschoolers. The members of Time4Learning are a diverse group with a variety of different homeschooling philosophies and methods.  Time4Learning has members who are homeschooling one child or six children. Time4Learning is chosen by parents of gifted children and children who have learning challenges – sometimes within one family. Our homeschool members include unschoolers, unit study homeschoolers, and families who, until adding Time4Learning, had relied primarily on one curriculum such as Saxon or A Beka. There are also unschooling families who use Time4Learning. This page is intended as a resource for people who want to know how Time4Learning fits into the unschooling experience.

What is Unschooling?

Contrary to how it sounds, Unschooling is an active learning process, and not the passive, unstructured method that it sounds like. Unschoolers are homeschoolers who are focused more on the experimental process of learning and becoming educated, than with 'doing school.' The focus of unschooling is on the choices made by the individual child, dictated by interests, learning style, and personality type.

John Holt, one of the leaders of the unschooling philosophy said,

“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."

Unschooling is different from deschooling , which refers to the period of time when a student (and family) adjusts after leaving a traditional school setting. This period can range from a few weeks to an entire year, depending upon the student’s needs.

How to "Unschool"

Different families “unschool” in different ways . Some may be somewhat structured, in that they have a daily or weekly schedule, and some may be rather structure-free, but all are focused on the goal of helping children to become lifelong learners. The primary purpose of unschooling is to nurture the natural curiosity that children are born with, without placing artificial time constraints on them such as introduction of certain subjects at certain ages, or filling the day with a myriad of “enriching” activities. For example, if an unschooling child has been heavily involved in reading a novel, then one morning, attempts to some do creative writing herself, she should not be forced to put it down at 11 am because it is time to “do” math. Let the process complete itself.

You may be wondering what unschooling "looks like." It is probably as different as each family is. But in one unschooled house, you might see kids building with Legos, examining a preying mantis in a jar, or watching the Clash of the Titans and discussing the ancient Greek gods. In another house, you might see a young man or woman spending his whole day programming a video game that he or she has envisioned. Another unschooling family may spend their day volunteering at an animal shelter and picking up trash near the highway. What you probably won't see, however, in an unschooled scenario is anything resembling a classroom experience, with specific schedules for learning and the days activities broken into "subject areas".

How Unschoolers Use Time4Learning

Time4Learning can be used by unschoolers as a supplemental program to other experiences, such as regular library use, literature, theater or dance groups, museums, sports, and the important life-learning that unschoolers seem to come across.

Time4Learning appeals to a wide range of learning styles. Our online learning materials are especially well-suited to children who are visual or kinesthetic learners. These children can take advantage of Time4Learning's interactive, multi-media materials, and by shifting from books to computer-based lessons, or discussions to paper-and-pencil exercises, children benefit from different teaching methods and are more likely to stay engaged.

Children like using the computer to learn. It's a convenient, interactive homeschool resource that provides a welcome change from textbook-based lessons, and helps children learn the computer skills so highly prized in this day and age.

Unschooling families sometimes want a structured curriculum for one or more subjects. Parents who appreciate a sequential approach to arithemetic, for instance, like that Time4Learning offers ordered lessons and tracks students progress in each lesson with interactive activities, optional worksheets, and assessments.

Parents like that it tracks progress and helps children advance by clearly presenting and reinforcing the each lesson. This helps with portfolio record-keeping.

Time4Learning's self-paced, modularized lesson plans allow you to move forward and back through the materials whenever you want. You can skip lessons that teach concepts your child has already mastered and repeat those he or she has not. The choice is yours. With Time4Learning, you are always in control.

Time4Learning is proven effective with homeschoolers , has a low monthly price, is easy-to-use , and provides a money-back guarantee so you can make sure that it works for your children, <a href="/program/faq.html#guarantee">satisfaction guaranteed</a>! Sign up for Time4Learning as part of your overall homeschool program.

 If you would like to learn more about how Time4Learning can benefit your homeschool, click here for more information.