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Homeschooling is virtually outlawed in Sweden (except if you have a disease or condition that prevents you from attending school) and I would rather abstain from having children than see them forced to attend school, robbing them of some 9-12 years of their formative years. Even if I would never have children of my own I would still like to be part of an as-voluntary-as-possible community. Because of this I've decided to relocate to another country that allows homeschooling (unschooling) and preferably a country that have a sizeable community of unschoolers (other factors of voluntaryism/freedom would be greatly appreciated as well). Where can I find such a community? Do you know of any websites or forums (besides this one) that might be helpful? I would like to travel to other countries, get to know people and find my new tribe and place to call home. What countries/regions/places would you recommend? I've been thinking about the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Also which regions/locations within the country in particular would you like to recommend? Other laws that I would like to avoid would be a military draft/conscription and curfew laws. As a side point or secondary factor I would like to move somewhere where sunlight is more evenly spread over the year. We might have x number of hours of sunlight in Sweden but they are very concentrated in the summers and we have very dark winters.

Came across this guy (Jeff Till) on a School Sucks podcast... He has an amazingly concise and wonderful case for keeping children out of government school, in the form of 54 arguments. It is probably the best source I've found as an introductory offer to people unaware of the importance of keeping children out of these destructive institutions. The page below has links for streaming the 1 hour audio presentation, an audio download link, and a downloadable and printable PDF version: http://fivehundredyears.org/a-complete-case-for-home-education-54-arguments/ Spread the good word!

Hi FDRers! I've just released a podcast/mini-book (20-pages)/blog on a comprehensive case for home education. It contains 54 cases for why people should shun public compulsory schooling and embrace homeschooling. Please check it out when you have time: http://fivehundredyears.org/?p=77 Thanks so much in advance! Jeff (tasmlab) ____________ 1. The argument for knowledge 2. The argument against conformity 3. The argument for better learning, a love of learning and engagement 4. The argument for exposure 5. The argument for powerful subjects 6. The argument for useful subjects 7. The argument for modernity 8. The argument against instructor-led, time-fixed training 9. The argument against testing and grades, and rewards and punishments 10. The argument for doing vs. observing 11. The argument for free play 12. The argument for history 13. The argument for alternative political views 14. The argument for religion or atheism 15. The argument for leaders over followers and entrepreneurs over workers 16. The argument for opportunity 17. The argument for happiness and for empathy 18. The argument for family 19. The argument of efficiency and time 20. The argument for convenience 21. The argument for sleep, sleeping in and staying up 22. The argument against exhaustion 23. The argument for vacation 24. The argument for having kids around (to benefit adults) 25. The argument against boredom 26. The argument against peer pressure 27. The argument against stress and unneeded pressure 28. The argument for caring and thinking about it 29. The case against useless credentialing 30. The argument for accelerating, or even skipping, college 31. The argument for real experience and income 32. The argument for job or career preparedness 33. The argument for creating a diverse network 34. The argument against extending childhood or postponing adulthood 35. Arguments for socialization and individuation 36. The argument against bullying 37. The argument for mixed age groups 38. The argument for adult interaction (to benefit children) 39. The argument for health and safety 40. The argument against drug abuse 41. The argument for the environment 42. The argument for self-rule, self-control, self-ownership and treating children as free humans 43. The argument for libertarian morality (or the argument against coercion and the initiation of violence) 44. The consequentialist libertarian argument against government effectiveness (i.e., the government is bad at doing things) 45. The argument for thrift 46. The argument against human capital 47. The argument against school and its true function 48. The argument against poverty and prison 49. The argument against the military, war and soldiering 50. The argument for ending public education 51. The argument for limitless, flourishing education options 52. The argument for ending government 53. The argument for a better society 54. The final personal argument from experimentation and low risk

Hi, FDR I am in the planning stages of creating a curriculum for homeschooling, and it would be great if my product could fulfill the needs of people like the ones here. I am looking for secular homeschoolers. I would like to know about the textbooks and classroom resources you use. Ubiquitous topics like algebra, chemistry, and music have been done very well. I would like to fill niche areas, instead. Does your homeschooled child have access to courses such as: engineering, hydrology, thermodynamics, ecology, mycology, nutrition, food chemistry, quantum mechanics and do any of these courses resonate with you? Would you purchase course materials for these or other course topics? I appreciate your feedback. When my product goes to market, I will give generous discounts to anyone who provides honest feedback. Best, Tibor

In case anyone is interested I wanted to post a link to my blog, where I often write about self-reliance, homesteading, conspiracy theory, revolution, and what not. I'd love to hear from you if you can relate! big love & cheers Mishelle http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/homesteading/2013/10/25/self-reliance-kills-the-corporatocracy/

Im new to the forum, I live in Sweden and I would like to have some input on this if possible. First I will explain the Swedish school system briefly: It is so statist like everything else here in this country I dont think people in other countries have any idea of how bad it is, The school is so in detailed steered by the government it dictates everything you learn in the Swedish school plan from 2011 with the exact amounts of lessons in the decided subjects and what exactly you should learn within them and how to run the school. (but of course you are "free" to choose your school) It is designed for everyone to be the same (not clever nor too stupid, and for everyone to be conformed), which of course isnt working. If you see the most recent PISA-result you will see that Sweden is at the bottom. The government thinks they are solving the problem with making it even stricter now, so now they will most likely make it mandatory to go to school at age 6 instead of age 7 (which all parties are for and its election this year) and if the socialdemocrats win they might make it mandatory to go to kindergarden from age 2! And they want to make it mandatory also to go to school until age 18/19! Sweden has got a lot of "free schools" which are often praised, but actually its all bull shit as there is almost nothing free about them. They have to follow the government curriculum whether its montessori, steiner, or whatever. The school form "Sudbury" is also banned here. And homeschooling is banned. (you can only homeschool if you child is dying or is severely handicapped and similar and then you have to follow the curriculum also!) This result is that there are a lot of children that dont get their needs met either because they have problems learning or they are too smart, so if you dont fit it you will still be forced to go, and even if the government promises in the school law that they care for every students need and to give them challenges appropriate for their own levels and be suited for each individual student these are very nice ideas but seldom happens. Children that has different psychological disorders of course have trouble in school and are suppose to get extra help which they usually dont because the schools dont have financing for that (The parents are never blamed of course..for the kids having these disorders which im quite sure comes from being stuck full time in kindergarden and then ignored by the parents for the hour they have with them before bedtime which is the case for the majority of 1 year olds which is because 99% of parents - everyone that isnt a slacker works and women and men are "equal" according to Sweden)) And the children that are clever gets forced to do the same as their peers although they already know that stuff which might make them naughty and of course bored and sap their enthusiasm.. because they dont get challenges. The dream of the Swedish school is "a school for all" which means everyone to conform to the same, so really this country doesnt want people to be better than other. You see that in the whole Swedish culture. If somebody is better off people get jealous. So Im really stuck in a bit of a situation. We found out you can teach your baby to read and maths when our eldest son was 8 months old, so we did that and by the time he was 20 months he could read anything in english and swedish, and he reads books himself now, knows how to use a computer, and is very good at numbers. He is soon 4 years old and we kind of dont really see the point of going to a school where he will do the same as other kids when he is 7 as he already did when he was 1 and where knows the stuff i had to learn when i was 8/9 years old.. We have also been receiving a lot of negative feed back.. a lot of people think we have destroyed our children with the reading thing, and that the children should only play until they are 7, but they dont understand that learning comes from play and that we have never forced our kids to learn stuff, we are just encouraging them to do things they like and the result of that is they get good at it. The government is insisting that they will give my sons challenges and that school is necessary but I hear from other parents about the horrible stuff that is going on, especially in the local school where I even has seen kids being beaten and the parents had to interfere because there was no staff around. I remember myself how the enthusiasm got sapped out, and how I had so easy to learn but nobody wanted to encourage that, and that because my parents where shit and my clothes were shit and most other kids didnt have those shit clothes and parents excluded me and my parents did nothing and I just had to suffer through it until I got older, i really dont want this for my kids. Me and my husband have been looking into homeschooling or finding a real montessorischool or sudburyschool or cooperative. None of this is allowed here, If you dont go to school (and the school has to be following the government curriculum otherwise it gets shut) then the government gives you hefty fines which is enough so you wont be able to pay, and if you ignore that they take your kids. Yes this has happened - just google Domenic Johansson. So the few people that really believe in homeschooling have fled Sweden. And homeschooling is such a radical idea anyway that almost noone knows about it so its not really a great chance of a law change since almost nobody is supporting this. I just cant get my head over that these stupid parents that have kids that get mistreated in school just keep sending them as they are forced to by the government. Bullys cant get suspended as they have the duty to go to school, not even if they seriously hurt somebody. Im just so annoyed about this having to be a problem.. I dont really want to have to leave the country as it has many good sides and that if we move we might not be able to have such a good standard of living in other ways that we have here. or we might not be able to move everywhere, like we have been looking at australia, nz, usa, and canada is the closest we can think to a good living standard and having a homeschooling culture. Does anyone know if we can seek asylum for being educational refugees?

I know that having one parent stay at home and teach their children full time is best for the first few years of life, but I was wondering about a model where a group of several unschooling families shares the teaching load with their older children. The idea being that each family teaches a small group of children one day a week or so, enabling this group of parents with older children to work while continuing to provide these children with guided learning until they are ready for completely self-directed learning. This model of unschooling could have the additional benefit of specialization in teaching, as you could have parents with different backgrounds (the sciences, the arts, the skilled trades, etc.) available as specialty resources to children with more specific interests.Does anyone know of any unschooling groups or families that operate in this way?