It was the opposition met by unschoolers, even within the homeschooling community, that led me to write this article. As unschoolers tend to be a little scary to those not accustomed to the idea, let's look at exactly what an unschooler is. Unschooling is a term used for a family educating away from the usual means. Children of unschooling families learn from their community, their homes, family, books, games, friends, gardens - basically the world around them. The philosophy of natural learning runs along the same lines as the way in which a baby learns - by doing.
Babies learn to crawl, then walk.
It is a forgone conclusion that they will learn this and we certainly don't need a trained tutor to assure us of their potential to finish this task, they will do so at their own pace with a minimum of interference. This is the attitude applied to all facets of education by unschoolers - all in their own time. When your children ask a question born purely out of interest and curiosity, we are available to them to guide them to the information, or help them practice their chosen task. As parents, we are the biggest influence in our childs' early life. If we are there for them, to pick them up while they stumble learning to walk, help them get their mouth around difficult words, push their bike, involve them in our general lives - we are applying the basic fundamental principles of unschooling in our homes, regardless of the childs future education.