Unschooling Support

providing support to new or struggling unschooling parents

UNSCHOOLING SUPPORT

Michele (“Misha”) is available to help advise new and struggling homeschooling/unschooling parents. Are you stuck in a rut and feeling like “deschooling” will never end? Are you pulling your child out of school and feeling overwhelmed by legal requirements? Is your child at the age where all of your friends' kids are in preschool, but you are feeling pulled to keep your child home? Have anxiety about putting together your child's portfolio, because they do not produce many paper samples of “work”? If any of that sounds like you, Misha can help you sort things out, brainstorm with you (and your children), and regain your homeschooling confidence.

Misha's adult child (2003) never went to school, was always (radically) unschooled, and graduated with an official Pennsylvania diploma. Misha has a younger child (2016) who is so far following in their older sibling's footsteps. Misha has known and worked with hundreds of other unschooling and homeschooling families. They have been to many unschooling conferences; spoken at, taught funshops for, and sat on parent panels at unschooling conferences; and they have been an active member of the greater online unschooling community since 2003. Misha also taught public high school students Senior Literature and Creative Writing for two years, has experience teaching private & charter school students, has experience teaching homeschooled/unschooled children, and they have taught adults in various settings as well.

While Misha understands and respects that unschooling, especially radical/whole life unschooling, is not right for every family, they do speak from the experience of and make suggestions based on radical unschooling, consensual living, non-violent communication, attachment parenting, and anarchist parenting principles and ideas. They also value queer & trans inclusivity; actively work against racism, fascism, & ableism; support neurodiversity; and maintain a sex-positive & body-positive view of human sexuality.

Reach out and see how they can help bring some peace of mind to your homeschooling journey, no matter if you are just starting out, or you have older children and life is in transition. After reviewing the resources here, if you find that you still require some guidance, use the contact form at the bottom of the page or send Misha an email amethystmidwitchery @ gmail . com and you can schedule a time to have a consultation.

askpauline.com is a treasure trove of information regarding homeschooling in PA. The site has generic “objectives” you can submit with your affidavit at the beginning of the year, and you can use the same objectives year after year with minor tweaks between elementary and secondary students. The site may not have been updated with some newer info. So, while exploring, keep in mind:

compulsory age has been lowered to 6 years old and lasts until 18 years old (unless graduated) across the state
you do not need to submit your portfolio to the school district you live in at the end of the school year; you only submit the evaluation letter from your evaluator.
you do not need to submit testing results for 3rd, 5th, & 11th “grade” to your school district; you only need to show them to your evaluator.

Here's a link to the affidavit that Misha's family uses every year:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T3YsJS9fSjbqrE2KO6W79A-v5m69XO35/view

Here are links to all of their past portfolios for both of their children. A link to the portfolio on the children's respective blogs is all that their evaluator gets. There is no huge file folder or crate of stuff for them to sift through. Minimal compliance is the name of the game.

Elijah's http://independentcommunityfreeschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Portfolio

Hazel's https://hazel-wood.blogspot.com/search/label/Portfolio

If you're still having a hard time knowing what/how to record the things you have done and the materials that you've used, have a look at this post of Misha's for inspiration: https://www.midwitchery.net/post/unschooling-curriculum

And if you have questions about adjusting to the lifestyle of (radical/whole life) unschooling, especially if you've already had kids in school, maybe check this post out: https://www.midwitchery.net/post/new-to-unschooling

Finally, it is always a good idea to read the actual Home Education Law for yourself:

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/li/uconsCheck.cfm?yr=2014&sessInd=0&act=196