What a beautiful testimoney, Vikki! Well said. Sounds like you did/are doing, something right! Bravo for stinking to your heart and allowign your children to succeed!

Once your son was brought home, I assume he knew basics from being in 'school.' What did you decide to 'do' as far as uncschooling? Did you set any guidlines or just allow him to get up and go about his day and enjoy life learning?

We've been schooling since day 1 -- my 5 children have never been in a school and Lord willing, they will never be. We do not refer to our homeschool as school at all, we have taken that out of vocabular -- we learn through life. If we do not open our read alouds or draw in our journals, we still learned something --- baking zucchini bread from the garden or making viking swords & hats -- that is learning. :)
Of course like you, we did the 'box curriculum/sit at a table for hours' thing for the first few years. It did not work for us just as it didn't for you.........

anyway, I'm sorry to keep asking, I hope it's not burdensome to you. I just see that you have paved a way, you are doing something right in whatever you did and I strive to continue to learn as my children learn; perhaps making our learning time even better year by year.
Thanks!!

my son learned nothing in school except the silliness of stupid rules that have no meaning and the meanness of bullies. He learned that you can't trust teachers to mean what they say nor protect him from abuse. He learned that to ask for help would only bring more pain.

Educationally, my son learned nothing via school. We knew he had a high IQ just by watching him develop from an infant to a young child. At two, he could explain Bernoulli's Principle, name off tons of military aircraft, and was learning to use a flight simulator.

We read to him since birth, so reading came naturally. Since I was still in the mode of thinking that one could be 'taught', we purchased the Hooked on Phonics program. My young son really took a liking to the computer part of the program and loved marking the path of his progress on the HOP charts we taped on the wall.

Doing calculations is just a normal everyday thing around our home and since we live on a farm, life is always changing so learning is everywhere.

My son only attended half of kindergarten before the teacher terrorized him and we withdrew him from the school.

The following year, we tried the first grade gifted. That lasted 15 days. Since I was working, I insisted on trying a private school that used the Abeka program. My spouse just wanted to go to homeschooling. The rest of first grade went reasonably well so we signed him up for second.

Second grade was a disaster. He was stabbed, kick, kicked in the head, called names.....his joy in living was removed... I pulled him out after the first months and it became clear that the school wasn't going to correct the problems.

When I demanded his records, I learned that they had tested him and not informed me. In first grade, he tested in math above a fourth grade level and in reading, he was above a high school level. I demanded the books I had paid for and we attempted to stick with the Abeka program at home. My son found the lessons tediously boring so I went looking for other ways.

I came across unschooling and started researching it. Four years later, I will tell you, unschooling really works. You get to explore everywhere! No limits! There are far too many ways learning happens to give details here. I have tons of posts in my blog and tons of links. Give me a bit of time, and I'll pull another list together. I've been needing to update my blogs anyway, so no problem. =)