What exactly is unschooling?

It's 10PM...do you know where your children are?

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"You unschool, so is that like, you don't do school?" 
The biblical definition for education is that it is not separate from life.

Education is a way of life for the family.

THIS is why we unschool or lifeschool as we like to call it.  Yes we use textbooks, the kids read (sometimes all day), heck, we even do Algebra!!  However,
we are not limited to a 8am-3pm day in a classroom and our motivation is not for an A+...rather, we are allowed the freedom to learn through sight, smell, touch and action as well and KNOWLEDGE is our motivation!
Gabrielle loves to quote Jordan Taylor,
"You spend 8 hours a day at a specific classroom at a specific time and I'M the one who has no life?"
When I first began homeschooling, we created a classroom...and where I think this can be fun, our desire is to make the world our classroom!!  We no longer try to make a specific structure nor the classroom feel to our day.  We are able to go where the Lord leads!!  
Gypsy style.  ;)

We don't just learn about cars, we work on them.  We don't just study plants, we grow them, visit them, photograph and smell them.  We don't see pictures of animals and their habitats...we seek out every opportunity to enter their world. 

 My sister, Katy, and Gabrielle found an owl dying on the side of the road and Gabrielle was able to doctor it up.  We spent the day studying this beautiful creature!

 I am married to a mechanic and don't know how to change a tire.  A couple days ago...we all learned how to change a tire on the gypsy bus!!

 We share farm with my sister and the kids are always experiencing something there.  This day was the day to sheer sheep!!

 We try to do Nature studies often and they are always fun and very easy.  You draw what you see, describe what you smell, trace leaves, define clouds, pick a scripture verse and search for animals.  We now have binoculars with us wherever we go...just in case! 
A sweet friend recently gave us a fabulous idea!!  We are photographing every flower we see and are categorizing and doing a spreadsheet with photos and facts on each flower!

 Many times, we want to do things ourselves...maybe it's easier or we think the kids aren't old enough.  I didn't even touch this kitty, who was having issues with birthing.  Gabrielle and Isabelle handled it like bosses!!

 The beauty of living in Montana is that we get to experience things that most never will.  Cattle drives and brandings are wonderful times to learn and fascinating to be a part of.  We do not take any opportunity for granted!

Gabrielle, right this very moment is at an arena with a man who performs pressure point and acupuncture medicine on horses.  She is able to ask questions and participate....last week she helped flush embryos and AI (artificially inseminate) recipient mares!!  She wants to be a vet, specializing in horses and because of our unschooling lifestyle, we are able to gear her education towards her field.  She is now prep testing and clep testing for college courses at 14!
I often times hear her explain, "I am able to do what I love right now and it is preparing me for what I want to do in the future.  I pray that God provides a family...I want to be a wife and a mom, but until then, it's horses.  And even then, this field is something that my family can be a part of."

Abraham, 13, wants to be a professional hunter or hunting guide and we are able to cater to his field as well.  Living in Montana has provided the perfect opportunities to learn alongside him...especially with his dad, which is priceless.  He has been able to spend countless hours with dear friends who have a fabulous hunting show "Shoot Straight with Chad Schearer"!!  He is living and breathing hunting as we speak!

Today, the kids built a rocket at the Schearer Ranch, and I love to say that "Unschooling is not rocket science!"...today, however, Aerospace Engineering was exactly what they were learning!!

Our main goal in our family when it comes to education, and probably the one we get the most negative response to, is to train them up in fear and love of the Lord.

God's word is the focus of our education.  Everything we learn, we try to tie into scripture...as we study the stars, we study how God made them.  As we walk and run, feeling our hearts pounding, we study the human body and all the detail that went into God's design.  We even study evolution, knowing that our kids need to know the oppositions to God's word, and then study all the creatures that defy evolution!  

Some days...it is enough to simply dig in the word together.

There are many days that have passed us by and God has not been at the heart and we are convicted.

We built this cross for our yard during our Resurrection study...you will often times find the kids out there studying or like here, spending special time praying.

It should be our main goal...it is a command.

To train up our children according to their "bent" (the way God designed them to learn) so that education saturates their life.  They love to learn...and if they do not, we teach them to love to learn.

If we lose their hearts in effort to have a perfect day or a perfect score, then we have failed our children.

My dear friend, Bridget (she blogs at Don't Blink), said it perfectly when she said, 

"You only have to be one day smarter than your kids. Always keep an eternal perspective! Remember they grow up fast, it's a season you will miss someday! Capture their hearts ❤ have fun!  It's not about knowing facts and keeping up with the worlds standards on education, it's disciplining them up in the ways of The Lord and teaching them to defend the faith. That takes time. There are no school hours, it's a way of life. Don't try and model the classroom. As we saw last night on the #creationdebate the enemy is out to get your children and your family. The schools have an agenda. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" Prov 1:7 We are commanded by God as parents to teach our children the things of God “when they lie down, when they rise up, when the walk by the way” Deuteronomy 6 When God gives us a job to do I’m not comfortable delegating it to someone else. When you're obedient to Gods word, He will give you strength and equip you with all you need. It's hard, but it's so worth it! I suspect The Lord may have told us as parents to be the ones to teach our children, because one thing you can’t delegate is learning. It's not just for our kids! Parents learn a great deal through the process of teaching. The Lord used "homeschooling" to draw my husband and I to him. We, the parents, more faithfully remember the Lordship of Christ as we more faithfully teach the same to our children. Oh, how we learn about God's true sacrificial love through the process. True Love, love that has meaning behind it. Be encouraged today as you train your children."

The best gift we can offer our children is to get to know them, study them, see what makes them tick, learn the gifts God has given them and apply that knowledge to the way we train them.  To see our children fall in love with the Lord and crave knowledge and wisdom, seeking God in His Word...THIS is the greatest gift we will receive as parents. 
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John 1:4

 The second comment we get from others about the way we educate is more a statement than a question,
"You can't always shelter your children."
To which Gabrielle would once again quote, 
"If being protected from sex, drugs and alcohol means I am sheltered, then YES, I am sheltered."


It's 10PM...have you prayed with your children yet?

With Love,

Rossie and Gabrielle
Gypsies for Jesus