Unschool Vs Tradition School

I was reading some old posts I had written and looking at the pictures, I don't know if anyone else does that or not. It's seems a little weird to admit to reading my own blog, but hey I wrote this blog mostly for myself anyway so who cares right?  While I was reading I realized how much I miss Unschooling. I don't know what it is about Unschooling that calls to me, speaks to me in such a deep way. I had to put my Unschooling books in storage because if I flip through them I forget why I went back to a more traditional school method. And Lord help me if I get to lurking on Unschooling sites. Maybe I lack the confidence to Unschool? Or the patience? I really like the curriculum we are using now and we are very relaxed about it. Or at least I'm mostly relaxed about it. I definitely think they kids are learning more "school stuff" now.  To help me work through all the Unschool/Homeschool feelings (and because I love making lists) I decided to list all the things I loved about unschool and all the things I love about a more traditional approach.

Things I love about Unschooling:

1. I love being able to sleep as late as I want and stay up as late as I want. I really think I'm actually a nocturnal creature. Getting up early just feels wrong. 
2. I love waking up know that there is absolutely nothing I have to do that day. It's why I love Saturdays. I actually had a conversation with my dad about this not long ago. I told him how I love the freedom and peace of unplanned days, I love waking up knowing I can do whatever I want that day. And he said that he hates waking up not knowing what he is going to do that day.  He likes to have his day all planned out.
3.  I really enjoy being able to play with the kids all day and not worrying about their math scores.
4.  I love the time. Time to scrapbook, time to garden and blog, to live life instead of teaching how to live it. I always feel like I'm waiting. Waiting to start school, waiting to do reading lesson, waiting to finish school, waiting for bedtime.

Things I love about traditional homeschool:

1. I really love that the kids are learning things that I feel are important, things like math and grammar. 
2. I love the curriculum that we are using.
3.  I love doing group work with the kids, I love the conversations it leads to. 
4.  I really, really like that they are learning better behavior.
5.  I love the sense of accomplishment they get from mastering something they had struggled with.
6.  I love the peace I feel knowing that they are learning what they need to know. 
7. I love that my home is more peaceful.

All in all I miss the freedom of Unschooling but I don't really think it's for me. I think something in the middle works best for our family. That's where I am right now trying keep it in the middle- not too unstructured but not so rigid they lose their love of learning and hate school. I need a word for it. Halfschool? Midschool? Hmmm maybe not. Oh well, whatever it is it's working for now.

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