Unschooling the older child

[Cindy Henry]

Hi all,
I am new to this network, so bear with me -- I've never blogged before, either!

Question: In my perusal of various "unschooling" sites, I see a lot geared toward the preschool and elementary-age child, but where is the info regarding unschooling older children, specifically, teenagers? I am a veteran home schooler, but after nineteen years I burned out and put my two youngest sons in public school (big mistake). After three years of struggle, we are ready to home school again, but this time with a new focus. Unschooling sounds intriguing to me because I think my sons need some "decompression" time. I would like to give them a year "off", (they are 12 and 13) -- and I think they need time just to breathe, to dream, to create, to read, to explore . . . my family is horrified at this idea (although my husband is close to agreeing to it).

Can I hear from some of you out there with older kids, some of you moms who are actively non-directing their teenagers' education, and how does that work? What does it look like on a day-to-day basis? What about preparing for college and all? I have an open mind and will consider all angles. Thanks!

[Frank Maier]

You should certainly check Sandra's site(http://sandradodd.com/teen/). For a look at one particular family, my wife blogs about our life at http://www.zombieprincess.blogspot.com/ and you can use the tags unschooling or unschoolingtoday. Our girls are 15 and almost-17.

I would definitley recommend a decompression period.