Well, it’s January 2023 so I am a little late in writing this since it’s about the Fall of 2022. But, I think it’s still good to share because I know I am always curious about what other unschoolers are doing.
Let’s start with my son (age 15). He continues to be involved in Boy Scouts and was elected to the Order of the Arrow (OA). He is very active in his troop with monthly campouts and other events. In addition to his troop activities, the OA also has their own campouts and philanthropic service. This year he staffed at Winter Camp for five days which was a great new experience.
He plays the drums and the bass and takes weekly lessons. Currently, he is learning how to play the double bass pedal in drums and from what I understand it is really hard. Some weeks he practices a lot and others not so much depending on what else is going on.
He takes Japanese lessons twice a week and has been taking lessons for three years now. He thinks he may want to move to Japan after college and teach English for a few years. Speaking of college, he has decided to do dual enrollment at the local community college in the fall of 2023 so he will get high school credit and college credit. This has led to adding in math and ACT tutoring once a week. I will talk more about this when I do an update about what we are doing in the spring.
He has played soccer for a long time but this was the first season he decided to move from the recreational league to a travel team. It was definitely a more intense experience with two practices a week and multiple games on the weekends. He has mixed feelings about it. I will share more when I talk about what our spring looks like.
He spends a lot of time watching YouTube and is more up to date on world events than most adults I know – definitely more than me! He watches videos on world geography, linguistics, flags, unusual sports (chess boxing for example), random trivia, etc.
My daughter (age 14) decided that she wanted to have a little more formal educational experience this year. We found a small school that meets once a week and offers traditional school subjects. They don’t require you to take a certain number of classes – you can take as many or as few as you like. Right now she is taking English Composition, U.S. History, Biology, Latin, and Home Economics. She likes having someone else guiding her academic interests and she says the homework gives her something to do and makes her feel more productive. This is the beauty of unschooling and educational freedom! It’s all her choice and no one is making her do it. She likes to work with my mom (former teacher and principal) on her homework which gives them a chance to hang out together at least once a week.
She also takes gymnastics lessons twice a week. This fall she learned some new skills – standing back tuck, round off back handspring back tuck, and a back layout.
Her current interests are fashion, makeup, hair, and all things trendy. She spends a lot of time on YouTube and TikTok finding the latest and greatest of all things. She has mentioned that she may want to attend cosmetology school when she is old enough. She has been helping me update my style – clothes, hair, makeup – which has been really fun!
Both kids spend a lot of time with friends as well. My son’s two closest friends are also homeschooled so they can get together any time which is nice. My daughter has a couple friends that are homeschooled but a lot of her friends attend public school and are only available on the weekends. There aren’t many weekends that she doesn’t have at least one sleepover and it’s usually a revolving door – one goes home and the next one comes right after, lol. I absolutely love opening up our home to all of their friends!
As with most teenager, mine want more money, lol! My son pet sits in our neighborhood and has clients with dogs, cats, and birds – pretty cool. He loves playing with all the animals and it’s a great job for him. Additionally, he live streams on Twitch playing various video games. He has built a nice following and is monetized which I think is really cool. Making money doing something you really enjoy – that’s the dream, right!?! To help them each make more money, I signed up to be an Amazon Flex delivery driver. They would come along and help and I would keep money to cover gas and they get to keep the rest. It was a great way to spend time together and was surprisingly fun!
So although we have a routine with regular activities scheduled, we still have a lot of downtime and flexibility. Every day is a little different and everyone is doing what makes them happy. It’s a win-win!