How will they learn English and maths?
My 2nd biggest passion after holistic and natural health is unschooling and deconditioning. As a home educating mama of 3, I've got over a decade of my own experiences with this, plus another 2 decades from observing extended family unschooling. I have 2 teens and a 9 year old.
We have never done formal learning of any kind except for the odd workbook at their individual requests over the years.
The things I have learned over the years as a home ed mum are surprising to many, empowering to all and can completely shake up how young people get to learn in all ways.
All of the basic skills of maths and English, up to pre GCSE stage, can be learned through supportive life learning. They don't need to be taught these things as they are in schools. There's many reasons schools need to operate the way they do, but individual learning within a family home educating has so many opportunities for the basics of academics just through every day life.
Young ones will learn to read by doing what interests them and wanting to know more. Their natural thirst for information will grow into them wanting to learn.
The average age to learn to read fluently is around age 7-8, this is because the brain is formed into the level that makes this easiest for them. In fact there is evidence that the way mainstream education pushed reading from such a young age can create resistance and a dislike for reading that causes more issues later on.
With regards to maths, so much of life also provides opportunity to do that. Shopping, baking, creative skills.
Another thing that causes so much anxiety within home educating families. Screens!
Screen use feels like such a worry for many, and a wide variety of choices are made among those who choose home education. With all levels of use from unobservant, disconnection, to total limits of 1 hour a day or none.
I want to share something that I hope will reassure some people with concerns over screen time.
We are a long-time unschooling family. My daughters are 15, 13 and 9. We have little to no limits on screens beyond everyday situations of battery life, availability, and we do turn off WiFi in the house overnight (midnight to 6am) to allow for the best sleep time.
Aside from my 15 year-old self learning many art modalities, my 13 year old teaching herself to play ukulele and learn Spanish.
One experience was actually shown to me just today with my 9 year old daughter. who to outside appearances may be seen to 'spend all day on Roblox'. Today she turned that into an English writing experience.
She loves Kaiju Paradise particularly and has seen a need that she has taken upon herself to fill.
She spent at least 3 hours, possibly 4, writing up character descriptions for the game where the characters had nothing available within the game. Her level of writing and comprehension skill is much more like I'd expect from 11+.
To give some background. She learned to read at age 5, from in-game chats. She has played Minecraft since she could hold a tablet and negotiate game play in game chat. She's never been taught to read or write in any way. None of my girls have, but they all do, and a lot more than I voluntarily did at any age before I was 40.
In my decade of unschooling my girls, I've watched them follow their own interests at their own timings to learn everything from English and maths to geography and history to music and life skills.
Everything they do is because they enjoy it or because it moves them closer to a goal they wish to reach. Hope this reassures or inspires. Trust your young people to know what and how they learn best. Observe and connect, and see them flourish.
The world is your oyster when you home ed, and once the deconditioning and deprogramming from how school is occurs for us as mums, dads and caregivers we can see so much wider the spectrum of how life is full of education :)