#unschool

Being given rescue remedy drops or chewy pastilles whenever we were inconsolable.

Homeschool drama class and choir and dance with the Christian kids and we had to sing like Viva La Vida and stuff.

Making faceless gnomes out of felt (and felt and wool crafts in general also beeswax).

Grading my own work.

Secretly reading my mum's posts on her 'Well Trained Mind' Charlotte Mason forum and seeing myself referred to as 'DD14' or whatever (DD stands for dear daughter lol. You could also be DS - dear son or DH - dear husband).

Having playdates set up for me with other homeschool kids that I didn't even like well into my teens, and being told to 'make an effort to talk.'

Pen pals.

My mum volunteering as a phone counsellor for breastfeeding mothers.

Story of the World. Story of the fucking World.

Weird focus on Greek and Roman mythology??

Keeping a nature diary.

Leaf rubbings.

Circle Round by Starhawk, Dianne Baker and Anne Hill with handwritten annotations.

Park playdates with other unschooled kids with names like River and Skye and they never had their hair brushed and didn't know how to interact with other kids (in hindsight, v v clear child neglect). They could always climb trees really high, though.

The sickening feeling of mum being in a bad mood and knowing there was literally no way to escape the house even for a couple hours.

Getting my Celtic mythology poetry published in the homeschool newsletter when I was like 10.

Being invited to someone's Baptist youth group and their weird engaged couple youth group leaders.

The part of your childhood where your signature accessory was a random hat like a fedora or a fez and you wore it everywhere (unschooling unskippable cut scene).

Mum frantically writing a curriculum for the education board lady every three years.

Being taught constantly that public school was useless, boring, inept, abusive, and fascist (probably not wrong). But also all the homeschool mums had suchhh a superiority complex about choosing homeschooling. Like to the point that they thought we were better people for not being tainted by public school.

When my sister decided to go to school and being soooo jealous of her but knowing I couldn't go because my mum would be heartbroken.

Going on "walks" for hours as a teenager because I was so bored and just would walk around the suburb and think about death.

The evangelical Christian family with like 9 kids who ran the homeschool social world.

One of those kids getting pregnant at 16 and her mum tried to spread a rumour that she was SA'd but she literally told everyone "no I just wanted to have sex so I did."

Another one of those kids having "mental health issues" (gay).

Someone trying to organise a homeschool formal.

The sickening realisation that your youngest sibling is getting 0 education because mum had given up.

Realising as an adult that you're trans/queer.

When my mum moved from The Well Trained Mind to Mumsnet (bad timeline).

The CPTSD and/or Autism and/or BPD and/or ADHD and/or psychosis diagnosis in adulthood.

Parent's divorce after we'd all left home.

Dating someone 20+ years older as an adult.

Kids who are unschooled, tend to do school-related things.

If you were or already are unschooled [aka, your parents pulled you out of school one day as a kid and let you figure out the rest.], is this true for you? [I.E: Creating book reports for yourself, doing random bursts of math to try and teach yourself...this literally just amounts to trying to simulate school activities as a means to "fill the void" where education should've been.] so, in short...

No Autism Speaks supporters, no ABA defenders, no neurotypicals, no transphobes, no anti-self diagnosers please. I'm not looking to argue or debate those things right now. Just scroll past if any of those things apply to you, please.