Karen Lee discovers the answer to one of the most common questions asked by home-educating parents: how much should I do?
During my years of de-schooling, as I journeyed towards really understanding unschooling, I struggled with one main question: How much should I do? How much should I suggest and offer ideas and activities? I couldn’t get my head around it. I was learning to trust that my children would learn from living life.
I was learning to set them free but I wasn’t sure how much to “let them be”, and how much I needed to suggest ideas for activities and outings, etc. How active should my role be? When I heard about the concept of strewing (or scattering of useful educational resources around the home) I realised I had found my answer. The problem was how to go about doing it.
Unsuccessful Strewing
I would take my children to the library and get frustrated if all they wanted to borrow was the comics instead of “all those interesting books”. We would come home with piles of borrowed material anyway. Lots of it would not be looked at and I would feel sad at what a waste it was.
I would leave an interesting library book open on the coffee table and it would often stay untouched. I would suggest an outing or activity and the response would often be, “No thanks, I’m not really interested,” or “Maybe” and my heart would sink. I was hoping for something more like, “Yeah, Mum, that’s an awesome idea!”
