We have been complete Radical unschoolers for the past year. We actually started our unschooling journey back in 1998 when our oldest son, Kevin, was driving me crazy by his refusal to do the school work *I* thought he should do. He had his own agenda, and it did not include doing what mom wanted him to do.

I basically gave up with him and told him "fine, teach yourself then" and that's what he proceeded to do. He taught himself lots of things over the next few years and has never suffered for my lack of "educating him". We discovered that this "child- led learning" could also be called "unschooling". I began to research and study the whole unschooling concept and realized that it really fit our whole philosophy of homeschooling. Really, who makes up the rules of what children should learn and when? And how relevant is some of the things we force our children to learn in school?

Since deciding we were unschoolers (sometime in 1999) we have gone through many changes in our life. Both my husband and I spent time working in a Christian school. We ended up putting some of our children into the school during this time. I "unschooled" myself in librarianship and learned how to organize and set up a library. My husband "unschooled" himself in the sciences and taught high school physical science, biology, and chemistry. He also did a stint as a history teacher, economics and speech teacher as well as his personal favorite bible. I substituted for high school english and Math. Spending time in a school setting further encouraged us in our unschooling philosophy.

Now we have entered the state of radical unschooling. We provide for our children a rich educational environment. But we don't force our children to write, study, read, learn. And guess what? They do it anyway! Stephanie has been teaching herself French. Adam has educated himself in opera and music appreciation as well as reading classics that have been turned into muscial operettas (Les Miserables, Hunchback of Notre Dame). The little ones, Cassie and Eric, have learned about penguins and foxes. All I have done is provided the necessary learning tools when the interest was shown.

My children are social (in their own way), imaginative, articulate, and amazingly bright for their ages. Unschooling works.