"I decided to let it unfold and take a back seat and let her take the lead," Browning said.
On a recent morning at the family's tidy Torrance home, the girls arose late. By the time they were eating breakfast, their peers in traditional schools had already been in class for more than an hour. During the meal, Madison led visitors to the backyard to meet her pet rabbit, Holly. Makenzie, sleepy from a late night of ballet practice, cuddled on her mother's lap.
Shortly before 10 a.m., they set off for a Redondo Beach community center for a twice-a-month geography lesson with other home schoolers. Children participated if they were interested in the day's topic, Mexico and Central America. Some were not and instead listened to iPods or text-messaged their friends.
The children gathered in a semicircle to hear about their peers' vacations to the region. Lily Diaz-Brown, 9, described touring a cathedral in bustling Mexico City.
"What's it like inside?" Madison asked.
Lily replied, "It looked a little dusty because it's really old."
The co-op class was started by fellow "unschooler" Loren Mavromati of Redondo Beach because of her son's interest in geography. Eighteen families take part. But this organization does not conflict with unschooling because the girls were given the option to participate, Browning said.
After the lesson, the girls took part in a dance class at a friend's home.
Though Browning doesn't follow a curriculum, she is familiar with state standards. In a traditional school, Madison would be learning about California missions, so the family plans to visit a mission.
"I know what the state standards are, but they don't govern our lives," she said.
Just as a child doesn't need to be taught to walk, she said, the girls' natural curiosity has led them to read and write.
They "just had a desire to communicate and it unfolded," she said.
The freewheeling nature of the Brownings' day is a sharp contrast with a day at the Curtos' home.
A thick blue plastic binder contains detailed lesson plans in Bible study, math, grammar, spelling, history, reading, science and art that mother Kym Curto creates every two weeks for Caedyn and his sister Chamberlain, 9.
Curto has two other children, 3-year-old McKeayn and 20-month-old McConaughey, whom she tends as she teaches her older children.
"It has its rough days. It's not all peaches and cream," said the slim 41-year-old. "Then there are days where you think, 'Wow, it was a good day! It worked!' "
