Natural Learning

A natural approach to home schooling.
Natural learning is the basis of a relaxed, obligation free lifestyle in which children are free to reach their potential and parents are present to enjoy the process.

Natural Learning is not just a style of education, it's a lifestyle! It's about facilitating and supporting your children to make their own life choices, follow their dreams develop their potentialities and enjoy that journey. It's a process of being, discovering, creating, inspiring, sharing, enjoying and appreciating each other...

The control over what, when and how things are learned belongs to the individual child. Parents, siblings and others may provide a source of inspiration but ultimately the individual child makes their own assessments
about themselves and the world around them.

Natural Learning goes hand in hand with a natural parenting style that is based on principles rather than rules. It's almost like an extension of attachment parenting and compassionate parenting techniques...

The ultimate aim of educating and parenting in this way is to grow emotionally healthy adults with a high self esteem and a high regard for all living things.
Adults who;

* explore their passions
* make their own decisions based on a nonbiased evaluation of circumstances
* possess the skills to expand on their skillset, gain new knowledge and pursue goals
* maintain healthy relations with others
* are socially confident
* act from a peaceful place in their hearts.

Home-based education effectiveness research demonstrates that children are usually superior to their school-attending peers in social skills, social maturity, emotional stability, academic achievement, personal confidence, communication skills and other aspects.
"Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory. Whately, Richard"


Natural learning is not compatible with ironhanded classrooms or rigid curriculum. Learning cannot be measured by multiple choice tests. Natural learning is basically an enjoyable thing to do. It is the learning that people do every day of their lives. Natural learning is, and will always remain, the most important form of learning.

People have powerful natural mechanisms for learning that allow them to master an enormous volume and variety of material during their lifetimes. Adults imposing their ideas of curriculum and lesson plans on children and young people is not an effective method of teaching. Learning, that is truly natural, will be the result of the child's own development and own motivations.


Learning implies growth, and growth implies the realization of an inner pattern of design and harmony. It is a natural process that every child experiences in his/her own unique way. Learning to learn is the most fundamental learning of all.

Learning processes can be both planned and opportunistic. Schools fail to educate because they don't leverage the natural learning process. What is the attitude of students towards classroom learning? How do schools fail to ignite the natural learning process? Can we make schools conform more closely to natural learning? How does a fixed curriculum inhibit learning?

Isn't it scary that many school-age children associate learning with fear of failure...
"My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers. "Woody Allen.


Unlike their formal schooling couterparts, natural learners interact with people of all ages, cultures, religions, and race. Natural learning happens every day regardless of school days or terms. Developing a broader view of the world through a variety of social situations encourages creativity, empathy and lateral thinking in kids.

Education for adaptability through 'self-empowerment is 'holistic education'. The wonder is that it has taken so long for society to notice that education is stymied in those institutions. Education and training should be constructed so that learners are confronted with many new useful experiences that will be valuable to recall in the future.

How does formal education differ from childhood learning?

Cramming for an exam or trying to please a teacher ought not to be the goal of those seeking an education. The initial reasons for establishing universal schooling were more about social factors involved in producing a working class for the new industrial world of the 18th and early 19th Century. The kinds of social skills (obedience, deference, and unquestioning behaviour) and the education production function (didactic instruction) needed for factories aren't those needed for the post-industrial age of today. Self-motivation, self-direction and self-instruction are critical along with the broad generic skills of communication, information management, problem solving, team-working, and lateral-thinking that are highly sought after by employers.

"I have never let school interfere with my education."Mark Twain.


Education research demonstrates that the the learning environment of home is a better catalyst of educational success than the learning environment of school. Intrinsic motivation to learn is far more important in the long run than extrinsic motivation (such as through exams). School bears no relation to the real life situations of the workplace or home environment.

"Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself." Holistic education is education for development of human potential. Inthe paradigm of 'holistic education' the function of the effective teacher or 'soul educator' is defined in terms of the 'facilitation of learning'. Individual human development depends on education which provides the right conditions for the facilitation of learning. That which engages the person as a whole and their instinctive motivation for growth is exactly the kind of education neccessary to prepare the leaders of tomorrow for the catastrophic social and problems they face.

Children learn when they are ready, making it very easy to pick up the knowledge. Children will absorb much more because they are learning by their own desire to know. Naturally modelling positive examples set by their parents, is the most natural form of learning, easily observed in young children. It is clear that the interesting action, the stuff that comprises a child's mental life in school, is about interaction with other children in one form or another. Learning, that is truly natural, will be the result of the child's own development and own motivations. This is the way children learn to walk and talk. The environment of the home encourages kids to maintain a higher level of concentration for longer without the pressures of constant social stress.

Natural learning offers unparalleled opportunities to capture learning moments and turn them into meaningful and enduring knowledge. Trusting ourselves as parents and as mothers – our intuition and our personalities are important in our homeschooling adventure.

Each of us should be free to learn in our own way and our own time.


The term 'unschooling' was coined back in the sixties when John Holt, trying to promote school reform, learned about homeschooling. John Holt came up with the word unschooling to describe learning that was diametrically opposed to that usually used in the institutional setting. There has been a lot of debate about unschooling and many heated discussions with people taking sides for and against unschooling. I don’t believe there needs to be such adamant pro and con debate about unschooling. One of the basic premises of unschooling or natural learning is that of letting the child follow his interests. I think of unschooling as tapping into the inner structure of the child rather than imposing an external structure. This varies so much from each individual and family, that it's hard to say "unschooling looks like this", because it will look different in each house or person as they joyfully pursue their passions.

Natural learning is what happens anyway, despite what you do. However, natural learning is so vital to a person's growth and happiness that it should never be taken for granted by educators, by parents or by anyone concerned about the growth and development of young people. If educators are going to be concerned with the development of the whole person, one of their jobs should be to determine how and when natural learning is thwarted, blocked or undermined. Maybe natural learning is kind of a religion because more than anything, it seems to be about trust and acceptance. “Natural learning is invigorating,” says author Ron Dultz, “because the learner feels a strong personal connection to what is being learned, is ripe for it and has selected it. This natural learning is always self directed. I believe that natural learning is what happens before school and after school."

In the modern world of web 2.0 and social networking via the internet, this "Natural Learning" has a new platform. Young people are doing this automatically, this has been described by author Don Tapscott in his book "Grown up Digital". (Danielle, I am new to this, please edit or delete as seems appropriate!-