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How Do I Start Unschooling or Homeschooling?
A lot of inquiries that come to Aarohi nowadays ask, “How do I start unschooling or homeschooling?”
Invariably, my reply to all of them is: BY STARTING IT.
Package Tours vs. Self-Charted Journeys
You see, conventional education—schooling and college—is very much like a package tour. If you are traveling somewhere, the package itinerary decides how much time you spend where, which places you visit, and pretty much everything else. Even your food is taken care of.
When you start unschooling or homeschooling, you are no longer on a package tour—you are on your own trip. You are on your own journey.
And starting that self-charted journey comes down to just two simple things:
1. Plan the Day Together
When you go on your own trip to a place, you do your own research. In the same way, here we look inside and ask: “What do I like doing?” That becomes the first, and perhaps the most important, part of the whole journey.
The entire journey revolves around planning the day. So I tell parents: start planning, and plan every single day.
Parents often ask: “Ratnesh, are you talking about me planning my day, or me planning my child’s day?”
My answer: “No, no, no, no, no. Don’t plan the child’s day. You start planning your day, but do it with the child.”
Start planning your day together with your child. Soon, the child will observe this, understand it, and slowly start incorporating their own planning for their day.
2. Reflect Back
In the same way, start reflecting back on what happened—if not daily, at least on a weekly basis:
- How was my week?
- What all did I do?
- What all did I like?
- What all did I miss?
A self-charted journey is still charted. It is charted by coming up with what I want to do, and then reflecting back on what happened.
Life Education
If we keep doing these two things—planning and reflecting—that’s it. We can live our whole life this way. In that sense, this journey (whether you call it unschooling, homeschooling, open learning, or child-based education) becomes a life education. It is there to last a lifetime.
It doesn’t matter what the child does or what you do. It doesn’t matter how well you do it. What’s important is that we think about what we want to do, and then we reflect back saying, “How was it?”
Do this, and you will enjoy your journey. The rest will evolve.
Thank you. This is Ratnesh from Aarohi Life Education. We are there to support you—but the most important support is you to the child, and the child to you.
You and your child become Co-Passengers, and you do this journey together!
Thank you.
Whatsapp Ratnesh from Aarohi Life Education
if you have any question or comment.