Encore Presentation No School for kids, eating candy when they want and sleeping in parents beds?

Unschooling, aka self design, open source learning, or free range education, is not something that we do to our children but largely a process of unlearning, or rethinking, for us parents. Most adults are products of the traditional school system which convinced us that learning only happens when people with power over us - teachers, parents - force, coerce or otherwise "motivate" us to absorb information that people with power over teachers - education and developmental experts - decided that we should know. We were all born with a drive to learn that is more compelling than almost any other instinct. If we step back from the power struggles we can be allies with our children in learning, solving problems and creating what John Holt called "a life worth living and work worth doing." Unschooling is deprogramming, healing, regenerating. It is remembering to relax and trust our own and our children's innate ability to choose ideas and activities that promote lifelong learning and growth. At the heart of the unschooling process is a depth of shared meaning, trust and respect between child and parent. In infancy this shared meaning is called bonding. The deeper the bond the greater the trust and respect. The majority of conflicts many families experience simply don’t occur when mutual trust and respect expressed through compassionate listening and action is carried forward and expanded throughout the child’s and the adult’s continuing development.