Thanks to Dawn for addressing my question, and for the kind words about my comment. I’m enjoying reading the conversations, but actually I think I didn’t express my question clearly enough.

What had struck me about the original entry (”A second unschool entry,” regarding The Little Prince and other related media and topics) was that it seemed as if what was being said was, “Here is what homeschooling/unschooling allows us to be able to do.” That’s fine, but in my experience it can be normal for parents and children to do these kinds of projects and investigations, where the topic of interest covers or leads to a wide-range of subjects and approaches. Bedtime reading and discussion of many topics are certainly common. So, this didn’t seem, to me, like something special about homeschooling/unschooling, hence my query. Homeschooling/unschooling might allow for this, but attendance at regular school doesn’t preclude this either.

A more recent entry (”Two good questions & my answers”) describes an experience of seeing a huge bird and going on to research it, as well as the experiences of some other children with their own projects. Again, these good projects don’t seem unique to homeschooling/unschooling, because in my experience children who go to regular school can still have these experiences outside of school.

These teachable moments, these interest-led investigations and projects can happen at any time for the regular school student and parent — during afternoons and evenings, weekends and days off, summer and other vacations. In fact, a younger child, a child not old enough for any kind of school, might have these types of experiences; the child might express an interest in something observed during daily walks, learn in depth about this topic by being read library books concerning the topic, and be taken to places to experience even more about this topic. Isn’t this type of learning what children do, and parents — who are able — facilitate doing, from the very beginning, even simply in the course of daily or weekly happenings at home such as cooking, crafts, and observing holidays? What makes this an “unschooling technique” specifically?

I made sure in my original comment to stress that I wasn’t advocating one or the other (homeschooling/unschooling or regular school) because I really wasn’t, and I didn’t want my comment to sound as if I were saying “children can have regular school as well as these experiences, so that’s the way it should be, and I dismiss that as a reason to homeschool” because I was certainly not trying to insist upon that. I feared that pointing out that regular schooling does not preclude these experiences might make it sound as if I were saying that therefore there is no reason not to choose regular schooling, when that was not my reason for noting that. I see lots of benefits to homeschooling/unschooling and lots of problems with regular schooling (as well as some problems with homeschooling/unschooling and some benefits to regular schooling). The aim of my comment was not to judge or advocate either approach; rather, I was noticing that this particular type of experience is not limited to those who homeschool or unschool, that being in regular school does not preclude having these experiences at home or otherwise outside of school, so I was asking not for explanation behind the choice to homeschool, but for clarification about what specifically about these experiences is special about homeschooling/unschooling, is unique and only available to those who homeschool/unschool and wouldn’t be possible if attendance at regular school were involved. What am I missing?

Now, maybe there is not anything unique to homeschooling/unschooling about these experiences, and Dawn was not trying to say that there were, and was simply describing some good experiences. But if the point were in fact to say that this is a unique benefit to homeschooling/unschooling, or has aspects that are unique, I’d be interested to understand that. So far, I am extrapolating from Dawn’s mention of having more time that perhaps, when regular school is not part of the equation, there is more time for more of these experiences than there would otherwise be, or that the bulk of the curriculum can develop this way instead of having more rigid regular school with these experiences being “extras.” Is that accurate, and what else about these “homeschooling moments,” if anything, is unique to homeschooling/unschooling, and differentiates them from similar experiences a regular school student and parent might constantly have outside of school?

Wow, I went from a short question to a long, verbose, soapbox-stealing monster of a post. I hope I at least still come across as polite and sincere. Thanks!