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We are secular homeschoolers. For us, there is no summer break and when the kids get bored during their free time they come up with the most creative things. Ex: They decided to build their own mud cafe with menu, prep kitchen, seating etc. Every food item was essentially made out of mud. Another ex: my daughter was bored and tinkering around with a snap circuit set. All the sudden I hear a faint sound of sports radio. She had built her own AM radio without any help.

Over-scheduling, scripted play, etc in my mind hampers a childs ability to develop deep imagination and creativity.

Checkout the unschooling or self-directed learning movement.

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my parents are originally from a communist country and when i was young they tried scheduling my free days down to the minute. i still remember the incredible feeling of constraint and frustration.

to anyone reading that has these tendencies, let me just tell you, this is not healthy for children.

if you undermine a child's natural curiosity and propensity to learn undirected, the only thing you are undermining is your own credibility in their eyes.

Do you plan on homeschooling your children for the entirety of their K-12 years?

We plan to make the assessment for each child, each year. I can imagine at least one might want to go to high school. But they will likely be so ahead academically we might just send them directly to college like these people: http://www.thebrainybunchbook.com/meet-the-harding-family/

I was unschooled K-6. Private school in 7, public middle school in 8, public high school 9-11 (did 4 years in 3), straight to work. My brother was public middle school 7-8, public high school 9-11 (4 years in 3), University. And my other brother was no school, GED at 16, start a business. We were far ahead academically when my brother and I joined. We mostly went to socialize, so that was the main goal. If I had to do it all again, I wish my parents pushed me harder to go to University first and skip high school. This is what I will encourage when I unschool my kids.

The trouble is that a 16 year old college student really is going to have trouble fitting in socially if you go from home to college. Academically it could work, but a big part of what I found valuable in attending college was the social aspect, learning to live independently, dealing with bigger problems on my own, balancing academics and social life, those kinds of things.

Take it with a grain of salt because my own child is only 4 right now, but I'm leaning toward encouraging her to take a year off after high school and starting college a little later. If I could do anything over again, it'd be that, as the extra year of maturity would have helped.

The other thing to think about is how quickly do you want your kids to grow up? You don't get a do-over on childhood and assuming a stable family life, that's a time to really enjoy everything going on around you. There's a balance to be had, and you can continue to promote advanced academics without having to sacrifice childhood. I'm from an immigrant family and part of the reason I work hard is the same reason my parents did - so that my kids can just be kids and not have to rush to the workforce, but I do admittedly have a pretty even blend of American and Italian professional and social values.

I would encourage the kid to maybe do an exchange abroad, live in a different culture, work on a farm or something like that then go to college when ready. I don't understand the rush to get to college.

I generally don't understand the rush to "grow up" to be honest. Everyone's in a hurry to get to work. If I can manage it at all financially, I'm not putting that pressure on my kid. I'm not saying I want her to be living at home at age 30, but if she took a year or two off between high school and college, I'd support it as best I could. See some of the world, get some perspective, then head back to school with possibly a greater focus on what she actually wants to do. I'm with you.

I would think that really depends on the school and the person. When I was at University of Chicago, I knew a 16-year-old girl who had been homeschooled, and she had tons of friends and fit in really well. On the other hand, I was 17 and much less social and well-adapted (and I went to 12 years of public school).

I don't know if a 16-year-old would fit in as well at a big party school where they'd never be able to partake in much of the social scene (legally), though.

How do you manage screen time?

We have pretty tight control over their access. They do not have their own phones nor tablets. We have a family iPad. We let them watch educational television in the evenings 2-3 nights a week (Thomas the train, Calliou, Magic Schoolbus, etc). We have a bunch of educational games on the iPad (ex: pettson's inventions) which they can play a couple times a week.

We dont play regular video games whatsoever.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/30/screen-tim... Subsequently: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/06/30

I'd like to add to a personal anecdote.

Sitting outside bored on a stump doing nothing productive was more "harmful" for my development than spending hours on the computer playing an MMO. On the MMO I learned social interactions, supply and demand, how bronze is made, puzzle-solving skills, how to touch type, and even got to delve into some basic statistics (drop rates, DPS calculations).

My father saw it as "wasting time playing some video game" instead of "playing outside". Thankfully my mother had watched me play the game and saw that I was actually learning and benefiting from it in a fun environment and would allow me to play more or less as long as I wanted after my homework was finished. Other benefit: this was the only time in my life I ever did my homework.

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