This is a group for families in the Portland, Oregon area who are UNSCHOOLING (which is quite different from homeschooling - but there are many yahoo groups for Portland area homeschoolers). Everyone is welcome, from those who are just curious about unschooling to long-time and/or radical unschoolers. We also discuss respectful, non-coercive parenting on this list - and there is a local parenting without punishments or rewards group called Unconditional Parenting at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UP-Portland/

Unschooling is a term that the late John Holt coined in the late ‘70's to describe learning that is based on a child's interests and needs. Unschooling does not begin with a parent's notion of what is important to learn and then turn the choices of how to learn the content over to a child. Rather, it begins with the child's natural curiosity and expands from there. Unschooling is not "instruction free" learning. If a child wants to learn to read, an unschooling parent may offer instruction by providing help with decoding, reading to the child, and giving the child ample opportunity to encounter words. If the child is uninterested in these supports, the parent backs off until the child asks for help. The most important thing about the unschooling process is that the child is in charge of the learning, not the adult. Unschoolers often do no traditional school work, yet they DO learn traditional subject matter. They learn it as a natural extension of exploring their own personal interests.