I’ve maintained for a while now that unschooling is something that comes naturally to kids, but parents have to learn it.  Or re-learn it after years of school brain programming.    Here are some things unschooling has taught me, in no particular order:

1) Sometimes the best thing a parent can do for a child is to be quiet and leave them alone.

2)   The best lessons are never found in a classroom.

3)  Children learn from everything, including bad sit-coms, Spongebob, Cityville, and the Wii.

4)  “Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd and “The Logical Song” by Supertramp are both pro unschooling (even though they’d probably never heard that term before).

5)  It’s nice to sleep until 9am.

6)  Preaching at your kids is always a useless endeavor.

7)  Saying ‘yes’ as much as possible is great, but you can’t be afraid to say ‘no’.

8)  The only people who care at what age a child learns to read are the parents. (unless the child is in school, of course)

9)  Once a child is reading, nobody ever says ‘yes, but at what age did you learn?’

10)  The one library book you forget to bring with you will always be the one that is overdue.

11)  iMovie is addictive.

12) So is Wii Karaoke.

13)  Most of the time I have little or no idea where my kids learned the things they know.

14)  There is no such thing as the ‘right way’ when it comes to education.   There is only what works and what doesn’t, and it differs for every child.

15)  Many people talk to children as though they are idiots.

16)  Singing in Spanish is fun, even if you don’t know the meaning of the words.

17)  You are never too old to play Chutes and Ladders.

18)  Monopoly is a great way to learn Math.

19)  Sid the Science Kid is really annoying.

20)  There is no such thing as a ‘typical day’.