This week was relaxed. I took an “unschooling” approach this week and I loved it!
I believe Raisin did too. This morning, at the end of his hour of listening to Mozart, he said, “You know, if I had to go to school, I wouldn’t have time to do this!”
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A few months ago I mentioned I’d be going “full-steam ahead” with schooling during the summer. Hah. My plan for formal learning has fizzled. I have come to realize that Raisin needs a break as much as I do. Given the fact that Raisin is still five, but working on a first grade or above level, I have realized that forcing him to do school should not be a requirement for his summer days.
I’ve learned a lot over the past 12 months to 16 months since I decided for sure to begin homeschooling, versus sending my son away to school. While I believe I’d work best with a clear schedule to follow — complete with boxes to check off — this is not the way my child best learns. He learns when he’s ready. He learns when I’m not forcing him. He learns when we’re driving to a museum and he asks about the signs he sees. Continue reading
When my husband suggested we drive instead of fly across the country for our family vacation to visit family, my first reaction was not pretty. I can’t recall if I laughed at first or yelled my expressions of disbelief, but once I knew my husband was serious, I took a lot of convincing. Despite the much cheaper cost of driving 1300 miles two directions versus flying, I just could not believe it would end well.
It turns out that we could travel for days in the car and it was okay! I panicked and planned like crazy in the weeks before we left, and I ended up with far more than I needed! I hope some of my ideas might help you too in your travels.
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When I joined my homeschooling groups last year to begin this wonderful journey, I found that the first questions from other homeschoolers seems to be “what type of homeschooler are you?” They want to know if I follow a Waldorf or Montessori approach, or maybe a classical approach, a unit study approach, or just an all around eclectic approach. A good number of the people in my group also call themselves “unschoolers.”
From my limited experiences, the only thing I could say for sure was that I was not an unschooler. My understanding was that unschoolers were those who did not subscribe to any partiular curriculum and did not force their children to do any kind of school, but rather let them do whatever they want, letting them learn from those interests. I definitely am someone who believes in sitting down and having formal school.
And yet, as the months have now turned in to a year and we’re planning for the next, I’m finding that “unschool” in a broad sense is definitely what I do with my children for the most part. Continue reading