Unschooling, Really School?

On top of a mountain

We didn’t plan on breaking out the Kindergarten so soon by our little is just a sponge like most and just couldn’t wait to get started. I figured we would take it nice and slow and drag Kindergarten out over two school years, but he just gobbled every book and every assignment up like the natural little learner that he is. It was a lot of work, but it passed by so fast because we made it all fun and play and enjoyable.

 

My hope is that he will always enjoy learning has he does right now. I realize to maintain this love for learning it will require some purposeful parenting on our part. I absolutely love that we starting this homeschooling method from the beginning because our little definition of school has been redefined from my own definition.

 



Lego

School for him is every aspect of life. Because he has friends public schooling he will often ask “is this school?”  I do my best to answer him “Yes, but all things are school. We are always learning and growing.”    We celebrated his “kindergarten” year of completion with some of our homeschool friends.  We had a lot of fun and was amazed at how well the event was put together by our homeschool friends.  Although the youths were recognized for their years accomplishments it was done in such a way that it wasn’t forgotten to be fun and enjoyable for all ages.  So I was so happy we were able to be a part of it. I thought it was a great way to wrap up a period of learning although we homeschool year-round it was wonderful to be a part of like-minded people, both in faith, parenting and homeschooling.

Graduation with his witness homeschool group

We went through some amazing curriculum and I love how we didn't "plan" every aspect of everyday out. It amazed me how one simple question each day led to so much learning "What would you like to do today?" I am by no means an expert on all things schooling, but as a child that has was in the public school system and in homeschool myself and now pursuing homeschool for my own family I see what kind of opportunities can open for us if we don't try so hard to do "school" at home. I can see where a teacher would need to select a topic for a class of thirty plus kids, because if you asked 30 plus kids what they wanted to do you would probably get 30 plus different answers and nothing would get accomplished. But, when you are at home with 1 to 6, give or take a few, this question posed to your learners makes a lot more sense doesn't it?   

 

Learning about days of old

  

   History: Cars, Planes, motorcycles

Art/Nature Study













When I stopped saying "today we are going to do this..." and started asking "What would you like to do today?" I noticed a huge shift in his both our attitudes and happiness levels. There was no longer a struggle to do this or that. The interest level in whatever we do is beyond anything I ever imagined and the learning is happening! We both are having so much fun "outside of the box". I love listening to him tell his friends all the things he has been learning and you can tell that he loves learning.

Determined, R/C

Keeping up with the Curriculum

(Above, Found bird nest in our grill. Little loved all the speckles)

When I was pregnant with our little my hubby said: "I want our boy to be home schooled." At first I laughed. I had always had a career and didn't see myself being able to balance working full-time and work a secular job. But the more we talked about it the more I realized it was a good idea, although at the time I had no idea how we would accomplish such a big task.

(Left, Little loves puzzles)

I don't know about you, but I tend to over think things. Sometimes I make life a lot more complicated than it really is. It kind of like when you car breaks down and you don't yet know what is wrong with it, and you think the absolute worse. You've been sitting there waiting on a tow truck for two hours and before you know it you've determine you might as well scarp the car because you just know it's the engine and the tow truck driver says ma'am are you sure it's not just out of gas. And you remember you had been going over your to do list in your head and forgot all about checking the fuel gauge as you drove past five gas stations. Yes, well we have all been there in one scenario or another. At least I hope I am not the only one!?!  Well that is what I did with home school. I spent nearly five years research home education until I figured out that it wasn't about textbooks, schoolrooms, worksheets, test and grades It's about learning. It's about life. It's about happiness.

So what about keeping up with curriculum? Yes, it is hard to keep up with it all. But in a totally different way than I ever thought. My child has so many interest that we are trying to keep up with that sometimes it is difficult to keep up with it all, but it is awesome. I am amazed everyday that this amazing five year old has so much desire to learn and it just keeps growing. I think about all the planning and time that goes into creating textbooks and curriculum when the school could just stop and listen to their students every child would have a love for learner and they would have created lifetime learners. Children have a unique curiosity that is a true and legitimate curriculum.

(Below, Little Finger painting)

Where We Are Now

I think it is pretty easy to see where you have been and sometimes pretty easy to plan out where you want to go, but sometimes it can be a bit daunting to figure out where you are. I feel like we live in a place that is all of our own and don’t 100% identify with any other learners exactly. And the more I realize that the more I am okay with that.

We usually start our day reading. We have a book of the week (from Five In A Row) that we read 5 times, not necessarily 5 days in a row always. We go to the library 1-3 times a week. We play educational games on the computer, we participate in some of the library activities and my son picks books out that he likes and I pick out some that I think will appeal to him on things I know he is currently interested in learning about or that have to do with upcoming activities that we have talked about doing. We do a lot of nature walks and discovery (Charlotte Mason inspired), we collect things we find and draw pictures of things we see. We love to bug hunt. We have a lot of interesting pets too. We also our very involved as Bible students and teaching and preaching, and helping others. On the weekends we usually go on nature hikes and lots of learning play activities.

Learning to listen to a child…

I was the proud owner of a new business, my own boss. I thought it all out, more time at home, more time with my child, more time with my family. Now let me go ahead and bust the bubble. If you have a full-time brick and mortar service or retail oriented business that is successful or requires a certain amount of open hours then every client is your boss, you are not your own boss, you do not set your own hours.  Sure you can do those things, but if it doesn’t suit the clients they will find somewhere else to shop to suit their needs.

I didn’t want to make the same mistakes with my little that I had previous so since he loved his day care I let him still attend, but I got to drop him off usually and sometimes got to pick him up. He loved seeing me more and I felt that we were reconnecting and he was a lot happier. But I learned in my absence he was not as happy as he wants was at his daycare and before long I got a note that another child had bitten my child. It was a small bite and not very noticeable and I felt like the daycare had taken appropriate action, but I kept him out of “school” for a few days until I was sure. He went back to school and everything seemed fine, but before long the same child took a bite out of my sons scalp and all I got was a note. When asked what would be done, they said if it happens again they will place my son in a different classroom (a lower age group of children). Why my son, he didn’t bite anybody. They said they couldn’t put the biter in with younger children. For months my little one stayed with family or went to work with me. We tried to make it fun, but he would get bored be there on long days as my business we open 12 hours a day. It was incredibly stressful on all of us.

Time passed and I was told the daycare had a new owner/director and the biter was no longer there, so I he started to attend again, but my child was incredibly unhappy. I thought it was just because he had gotten used to being with me or with family. He would say he didn’t like the other kids, but I ignored his pleas because he was just acting like a “child” and got spoiled staying with me and family, plus this was normal, right? One day I went to pick him up early and my little was on the playground, but over in the corner and looked sadder then I have ever seen him in his whole life. He looked broken and fearful. I questioned his teachers to find out why he wasn’t playing with the other students. They said your child is really shy. I had seen my child interact with other children within our circle and complete strangers children at jungle gyms, my child was not shy. I told them, my child doesn’t have a shy bone in his body. They just struggled their shoulders. I questioned my child as to what was going on, but he said nothing. But the pleas not to go to school started getting even worse. A couple days later I got a call from one of the teachers at my sons school who said I am family of the owners of the daycare and I work here, but I felt you should know there are some bad things going on at this school that I don’t approve of but I need my job so I don’t say anything, but I your son is too sweet to be here and if it were my child I would get him out of here. I then talked to my son and determined he was being bullied and hurt by other students, but I honestly have no idea what was going on in that daycare/school.  I just know after removing my son, within no time the place was shutdown and I am uncertain why to this day.

I learned a valuable lesson from this. My child had something to say and I needed to work on our communication.