Bohemian Bowmans
So how does an unschooling child learn all the intricacies of grammar and writing?
Well, the answer might be simpler than you think.
My Ten-Year-Old reads a lot. A whole lot. Since she first learned how to, around kindergarten age, she’s had a book in her hand. She reads in bed, she reads on the couch, she reads over her bowl of cereal, and outside in the hammock. The girl reads.
Because she’s unschooled, she reads whatever she wants. She doesn’t have any assigned reading or required reading. She goes to the library and comes away with stacks of books as high as her knee, everything from juvenile science fiction series, to books about Colonial America.
The funny thing about someone who immerses their mind in story, is that they find themselves pulling from all that stored up information and creating their own stories. The other funny thing about being exposed and saturated in the written word, is that you unconsciously memorize the rules.
It’s just natural to realize that the beginning of sentences are always capitalized, or quotation marks are used when someone is speaking, when you see it right in front of your face every day. Spelling is tackled the same way. After you’ve read the word “tree” a hundred times, you simply remember how it’s spelled.
For years my daughter has written stories and poems and songs in every journal, notebook, or spare scrap of paper she could find. Have they been perfect? From a mother’s point of view, yes. 
Grammatically, no. However, like with all skills, the more she practices the better she gets.
This summer she discovered a tool that has given rise to a huge aid in her creative writing, spelling and grammar. I wish I had thought of it sooner, but she’s the one that first suggested it out of her passion for story telling. Instead of hiding her stories away in spiral bound notebooks, she has begun to draft up her “books” in Word documents.
Now every time she spells a word wrong, or uses the wrong kind of “there”, or creates a ridiculous run on sentence, the helpful grammar prompts in Word let her know. It’s also given her a lot of experience learning her way around a keyboard, as well as some of the more fun design aspects of creating a document like picking different sizes and colors and fonts for chapter titles, etc.
All of this was child initiated. Learning in an unschooling environment is an awesome snowball like that. Reading leads to creating, and writing, and spelling, and grammar, and typing. And because “english” isn’t broken down into lessons that might sometimes seem boring or tedious, she doesn’t resist the process at all. She enjoys writing and learning more about it because she’s passionate. Sure, she may not know terms like “past participle” or “predicate”, but personally I’ve never used words like that outside of a classroom setting. As over simplified as it sounds, grammar is what sounds right. She’s learning how to practically use language and the written word. And that’s good enough for me.
How are you teaching your unschooler grammar?
Join Jessica every 2nd Tuesday of the month to learn more about unschooling! Jessica is the mother of four children. She blogs at Bohemian Bowmans.
Kim Sorgius
Kim is just a girl, crazy in love with Jesus. She's a single mother of 4, a passionate homeschooler and life-long student. After teaching 8 years in public school, she traded her M.A. in Early Childhood for sippy cups and homeschool co-ops. Kim blogs at Not Consumed where she encourages others to rest victoriously in the hands of God, rather than allowing life's difficult circumstances to consume.
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Thanks for sharing this. I can’t call myself a true unschooler because we still use a reading/grammar program and work in math books. The rest of our schooling would be more child-led. But I totally agree with your observation. In fact, I read an article by Ruth Beechick years ago that the best way for a child to learn spelling was by reading and that a formal spelling program on an elementary child was basically a waste of time.
I agree!
We tried for years with spelling books and sentence diagramming- usually everything ended in tears and frustration. Now that we have thrown that out the window- we are getting on to real grammar! My oldest has learned so much from just reading it is amazing!
Yes, tears were one of the big motivations in re-prioritizing and relaxing our method of homeschooling.
I agree, homeschooling has huge advantage in lessening the resistance to creativity. The process almost becomes boring when it’s too structured. Great post!
Agreed!
This is a wonderful post! the best teacher I ever had in college was a professor no one else liked because he “unschooled” the classroom. He didn’t give you page assignments for reading. He gave you the books at the beginning of the year and just expected you to read them…especially since he would incorporate the book info into our discussions. It was amazing how FEW students actually READ the books!
He was determined to “teach” a class the way school should be taught and told us over and over that if you just allow students to learn in their own time with guidance–books to read—life to experience that they will learn more than any other way. He always said that you learn big words and their definitions and how to use them from reading reading reading!
I learned soooo much from this teacher and am trying to pass it along to my son. Yay for “teaching” grammar to your daughter!
Ugh, I wish I had had a teacher like that! I wish all kids could have “teachers” like that.
Agreed! I learnt the traditional way at school, but don’t remember too much. But I READ, and READ and READ voraciously. My vocabulary was big, my spelling good and I remember often doing grammar/spelling by what feels/sounds or looks right. At the moment I’m teaching English in Asia in cram schools (where they learn by dictation, drills and copying over and over). I keep trying to tell the students, do what sounds/looks right? They have NO idea. But found that making grammar/spelling into a story or a picture makes it fun and easier to learn. Then once they understand, they can use it to read and speak. I always say: use what you know, don’t be afraid, just try. And like your daughter, once they get out there and try, they learn. By using what they know, they can improve and expand. Memorisation and drills barely teach anything except how to pass a test.
Amen to that last sentence!
And that’s awesome that you’re teaching overseas. Jealous!
Hi Jessica! Great post. I teach 1st grade, and I call myself a “closet unschooling junkie.”
When I have kids… Anyway, I just wanted to put my two cents of agreement about kids’ writing that isn’t grammatically correct. For some reason, as adults, when we look back on writing in our elementary classrooms, we remember fixing capitalization and spelling and learning not to use “ain’t.” But current research tells us that kids have to become comfortable constructing a MESSAGE first, before they are distracted by all the less important details. That’s how they become enthusiastic writers.
Good teachers don’t do spelling lists and diagramming sentences. Neither do good writers.
I love your blog, BTW!
Dawn
I love your last sentence, btw!
I loved this look into unschooling…
I’ve dabbled into the concepts of unschooling and am pretty sure that, taken to its extreme, it doesn’t fit my parenting style and objectives. It’s been an interesting journey for us to come up with a “child-influenced” educational style of sorts that suits us both, and I’m always fascinated with how unschooling works for others and how I can incorporate aspects of that into our homeschool.
I know grammar came naturally to me as a result of all the reading I did as a kid; my English classes were simply review of what I already knew. I love the flexibility of homeschooling. As you’ve described, it’s a joy to watch my daughter’s learning snowball everyday.
Thanks. Learning IS a fun snowball.
The more I read stuff like this, the more I’m totally leaning toward unschooling at home. There’s so much that just “gets learned” if you just live your family life like a bunch of people loving and liking one another.
Thanks so much!
Can I give your comment a double amen?