What will unschooled kids do all day if not directed by adults? And will they learn? What do they learn through play? What does a typical unschooling day look like? Scroll way down to see the charts of what unschooled children do and how it fits nicely into schooly definitions of “subjects.”

Excerpted from Unschooling To University, by Judy Arnall

Children miss so many opportunities and discoveries when they are in school. They would get the chance to explore more things in life if their time were not constantly directed by adults. The key is trust. We must develop trust that our children will find things to do when they are bored. So let them be bored. Kids who are not used to people entertaining them, start to own their use of their time and embark on projects and inquiry to satisfy their curiosity. Many homeschoolers know this from practice. There is no way we are going to spend our days entertaining our children. That is their job! All we have to do is ensure they clean up their messes and make sure safety rules are followed.

Unschoolers comprise about 20% of homeschoolers and follow the home education methodology of self-directed education. The learners have free time the whole day. Many learn through the excellent and engaging resources on this list.  The other 80% of homeschoolers do some bookwork every day.  But even that doesn’t take a lot of time:  Grades 1-6 takes 30 minutes a day, Grades 7-9 takes about one hour a day and Grades 10-12 with 2 core subjects and two options can be done in two hours a day. That leaves a lot of free time to seek out information and soak in content.

Unstructured time worries people. They are uncomfortable without evidence of structure, especially externally imposed structure. But consider the following three ideas.

First, children who need structure impose it upon themselves as their executive function grows. My 15-year-old daughter disciplined herself to go for a walk every day. My 17-year-old son hopped on the treadmill every day at 5 p.m. We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at regular times. The children read in the evenings, not during the day; daytime just doesn’t work for them. We take our vitamins and read the newspaper every day. Except for the teens, we go to bed most nights at midnight and get up at 9 a.m. Yet most people consider our day unstructured because we don’t homeschool or school. Just because the government doesn’t impose structure in the form of established school- day hours doesn’t mean that people don’t impose their own internal structure on their time. Ask any retired person and they will tell you that they are busy and that their days and weeks have structure, rhythm, and purpose.

Second, an unstructured day doesn’t mean that children will be up to no good. Children who are used to filling their time with projects and meaningful activities will not spend time loitering around malls, vandalizing, shoplifting, taking drugs, or having sex when adults are not around. The adults in their lives trust them to fill their time productively, and they have had lots of practice doing just that.

Third, understand that learning is non-stop and non-linear.  As my friend Brandie Hadfield states: “When parents begin to fear that their children aren’t learning anything, it is because they are not seeing it. Sit and observe your child playing a video game, ask questions about their interests, and watch how they light up by your appreciation for what they love. Another aspect of earning worth considering is how you learn something. When we are truly passionate about a subject, we usually “binge” it. We do not abruptly stop at 25 minutes and change subjects. During the deep dive, multiple “subjects” naturally present themselves within their adventure.”

One mom explained how they structure their unschooling time:“We do things in four ways—I do things with her that she needs and wants to do (play and projects). She does things with me that I need and want to do (work), then we do things together (chores and errands) and we do things separately (I practice piano while she plays).” (Stephanie J, 2004)

My son Neil went to a high school for eleventh grade. He had more than enough credits to take two spares in school instead of the one spare that the school allotted to Grade 11 students. When he was caught up on homework, he would go to the library during his spares to sit and reflect. The adults were unhinged by this behavior. Why wasn’t he doing an activity instead of just staring into space! No wonder he came home to finish high school his way the following year.

Here are some activities my kids did entirely on their own because they were bored! This list might look very daunting. But there were also many, many days that my kids played video games nonstop! We eventually expressed our need for them to vary their activities, and they agreed to turn off the screens and look for something else to do. (See more on the educational benefits of video games in Chapter 18.) I’ve also indicated the subjects that each activity can teach, to show the reader how simple activities are educational without even trying to be.

Everything children do is educational.  Everything!