I've heard the word "unschooling" in relation to homeschooling. What does that mean?

Unschooling is just one of many different approaches to homeschooling. In this one, the focus is on child-centered learning rather than teacher-centered. In other words, the parents/teachers follow the lead of their children in what is learned and how. If a child is crazy for soccer, for example, you focus on that for as long as his passion continues. This means more than playing the game, of course. It means studying the history behind soccer, writing about it, reading fiction or nonfiction books about the game and figuring out the size of the field, the angle of the kicks, etc. Any topic your child is interested in can be explored in ways that bring in all of the basics (reading, writing, math, science, etc.).

Home Education magazine has a great website for learning about unschooling and other forms of homeschooling.