I loved "Does Unschooling Mean Leaving Kids Alone?" in GWS #106 because this is something I used to struggle with a lot. People would comment on how much effort it takes to homeschool or how much work it takes to make up all those lesson plans. I would tell them that no, not really, we don't do lesson plans; in fact, we don't really do any schooling at all. I'd get blank stares, or worse, in response. And just imagine their faces when they ask what my kids have been learning lately and I say I don't know! I don't know, exactly, because it doesn't really matter; they're always busy learning something, and that is enough

What I am using lately, as an answer, has worked for me. I tell them that we don't do anything special for learning purposes; we just live our daily lives. However, our daily lives may be different from what a lot of people are used to. It's hard for me to realize that so many homes don't have books, don't have discussions of interesting topics- in short, in many homes, parents don't value learning, so it isn't part of everyday lives. Well, it still is in one sense, but learning that your parents don't care what you do is far different from learning that your parents won't interfere in what you do. And parents who don't help when asked teach a far different lesson about life and learning. Same goes for parents who do not put a priority on their own learning.

I think that people who panic about homeschoolers "not doing anything" are picturing a reality that is so foreign to those of us who are actively learning that we forget it exists. Our "nothing" and their "nothing" are very different things. I think they picture the "watching soap operas and eating bon-bons" sort of nothing.

Yes, I leave my kids alone, in that I don't impose a schedule or certain topics on them. But they are extremely rarely actually alone. I'm there, doing what I'm doing, and they're doing whatever they're doing, and sometimes it's the same thing and sometimes not. If they have questions, I can respond (not always with the answers, though). If not, I can keep an eye on things and make sure they're safe, if need be. And if I'm in another part of the house, I still have ears. It feels to me like the respect that any people who live together should have for each other. We live our interconnected lives, and share the parts we see fit.

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