Start here!

If you are thinking about unschooling, you might want to first dive into learning about what it means, as well as reading or listening to other people’s stories in order to picture what life without school looks like.

Second, check out your local legal requirements for withdrawing from school and for homeschooling. Often, local facebook groups or state homeschool organizations are the most helpful with this.*

Once you pull the kids out of school and get the paperwork sorted, you are on vacation. Whether or not you want to unschool in the long term, spend time deschooling: pretending that school doesn’t exist, and just having fun living together. Let go of “what ifs” and “will they ever,” at least for now.

While the kids are deschooling and having fun doing what they want to do with their time, or decompressing and healing, find ways to connect to other unschoolers in person or online. Spend a little time each day reading or listening to podcasts or watching videos on unschooling to deepen your understanding. Share and discuss questions with our group or one of the many other excellent support networks out there.

Over the years our group has found that it’s essential to seek out knowledge from folks with lived experiences who can relate to your child. Neurodivergent adults if your kid is neurodivergent, for example.