I guess I consider us eclectic homeschoolers because I think to be 100% unschooling you'd need to be "on" and "ready" constantly to make everything a learning experience.
I disagree with this description. I'd say that when you unschool you relax into understanding that everything is a learning experience. You don't need to _make_ it that way. Yes, you need to be prepared to help with whatever your child needs help with, and you won't have advance notice to prepare--but don't most parents do that anyway?
Yeah, like I said, many definitions. The definition that kimck and I are discussing there came from someone who calls herself an unschooler. So is she wrong and she isn't an unschooler? Are you wrong? I'd argue you're both right and just coming at it differently. <shrug again> Her model will work for some people, yours for others. No wrong, just different.
That's why I quit trying to define these things. Doing what works for one's own family in practice and not trying to make a philosophy out of it seems the smartest course of action.
I do think unschoolers as a group tend to be relatively unconcerned about making sure the kids are doing at least grade level work. (And that's a generalization, but I think it's a fair one.) I consider myself to be a child-led eclectic homeschooler rather than an unschooler precisely because I want my kids to work at grade level at least in every subject and not to fall behind on anything. I don't think a true unschooler would feel that way because that means I am imposing external constraints on what my child learns.
In practice, however, DS8 is ahead in everything, so what we do winds up looking pretty close to unschooling. I say "What do you want to do today?" and he tells me. Then he does it. That's pretty unschool-y!
