unschooling

i keep meaning to read john holt, but i never quite get around to it. basically, to me unschooling means that i don't teach unless i'm approached. it's child-triggered rather than teacher triggered. for example, she only reads when she wants, what she wants. (at my end, i leave age appropriate books lying around). science and history are taught when the student asks about it. math comes up (i'm actually shocked at how much math gets done just by her asking for it. obviously telling time and counting money are practical. but even regrouping and carrying and multiplication). she gets parsha when she asks for it.

i'm not 100% unschooling because i offer sometimes. chana currently does not want to learn division, even though i'm pretty sure she'll enjoy it and like the concept. i ask her periodically if she would like to learn it. i may casually introduce it if i'm sitting next to her and she's playing with a bunch of objects and she seems receptive. usually once a day i ask her if she wants to do any work. (i think a purist unschooler wouldn't ask).

i'm planning not to teach the boys to read at all. either they'll figure it out themselves or they'll ask me to teach them.

most of chana's day is spent pursuing her own interests. she often writes on microsoft word or other games, and she asks me to spell words. and we go over spelling and grammar that way.

the question is if or how unschooling can be applied to limudei kodesh. would chumash, specifically text skills, naturally come up? would hebrew reading be something that the child would ask to learn?

unschooling is a scary proposition because what if the child decides never to learn? can we have faith that a human being naturally gravitates towards knowledge, and if you make an educational environment and are receptive to learning moments and make yourself available for questions and for helping in research and providing the materials, that the child will entertain himself with pursuing areas that interest him?

or will the little savages just watch tv and play video games all day? and not learn a thing?

or will they do that a lot, but also learn a lot?

but will they learn chumash?