Who Me? An Unschooler!?
Homeschooling — By admin on October 15, 2009 at 10:00 pmI have been looking for some new ways to engage my kiddos. We use a classical homeschool approach to learning and I absolutely love it but I think that tend to get bogged down in worksheets and lesson plans. Part of that is because we made a commitment this year to put homeschooling first. All you homeschool Moms know how easy it can be to let things slide because there are so many great learning opportunities outside of the home. There are field trips, co-ops, music lessons, museums…..you could find something great to do every day of the week! I am determined this year to not let our school work slide. I have been very focused on the children’s math and english lessons and making sure we stay on track to finish our curricula by the end of our school year. Now we are a quarter of the way into our year and I realized I have been not-so focused on nurturing their love of learning. I felt convicted that I wasn’t making their learning environment “fun” enough, interesting enough or hands- on enough. I started to read about the unschooling approach to homeschool and I envy their fun and unique approach to learning. Yet, I am a little too scheduled and honestly too much of a control freak to actually be an unschooler. I am a unschooler-wannabe though. Maybe one of these days…
Much like the unschoolers, I have always encouraged my children to learn about the things that have piqued their interest. I have been trying to find a little more hands- on project type lessons. If they show interest in a specific topic, I do all I can to help them find out as much as we can about it.
For science, we are studying the planet Earth and built models with play-doh just for the fun of it.
My wiggly 5 year old boy who can spell his name but doesn’t want to learn to read was thrilled to make play-doh words. He even spelled the word “bat” all by himself!
He got bored with building words very quickly and moved on to his own creations. He was especially proud of this:
Here we are sitting at the table working on History. We love History. The girls especially love their history time line notebooks, which is a new thing for us this year. They adore finding, coloring, cutting and pasting those little timeline figures into their own “scrapbook”. They even drag it out to work on when they have a few spare minutes.
( and yes, this is what our dining room table looks like most of the day! We eat in the kitchen. )
Look at these precious hands working so hard.
My baby even wants in on the fun. Serious fun.
See? Loving it!
I love to learn. I want to make sure my children never lose their love of learning. All children are naturally inquisitive, they are born with the desire to learn. From the moment they are born, children have the natural instinct to learn and parents have the natural instinct to teach. As toddlers we sing them little songs, to walk, to tie their shoes. We introduce them to plah-doh, sand, books, games and all sorts of other types of fun stuff. As they get older we replace their fun stuff with books and worksheets and tests and reports and somehow if we are not careful, we start to squash their love of learning. It happens in schools every day. Children are fighting the system, they want to learn but they hate the way they are made to learn. They are failing miserably because their natural love of learning has been killed.
I refuse to do that to my children. Making sure they never lose their love of learning is more important to me than what or how much or what pace they learn.
When you love to learn you have fun and it is easy!
Because it is natural.
So take that. “school”
When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could
A boring ready region upon anything we did exposing every weakness how the kid did bye the kid
Out in the middle of nowhere they were home at night with friends, psychopathic wads would flash down with a inches of their lives
We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the class room
Teachers leave those kids alone
Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone!
- Pink Floyd
p.s- I would love to hear from some of you unschoolers, and learn more about how and what you do with your kids!
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64 Comments
You used Another Brick in the Wall! You’re officially cool. I too have been curious about unschooling. I probably wouldn’t do it, but I like the idea of allowing the kids to study the things that interest them most. I haven’t met any unschoolers yet. I really want to know their process.
During a study of the earth we made Around-the-World Cookies. We made sugar cookie dough and colored approx. 80% of it blue and the rest green. After making blue circles, we used the green to make the land on top. Bake and eat! Oh, you can also add white icing to the ends to make polar ice caps! They’re really fun.
Yet another awesome homeschool post. Love you babe and all that you do! Your an awesome wife, mother, teacher and my bff!!!
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The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
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The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
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Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
I’ll gear this review to 2 types of people: current Zune owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a Zune and an iPod. (There are other players worth considering out there, like the Sony Walkman X, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision of the Zune vs players other than the iPod line as well.)
Zune and iPod: Most people compare the Zune to the Touch, but after seeing how slim and surprisingly small and light it is, I consider it to be a rather unique hybrid that combines qualities of both the Touch and the Nano. It’s very colorful and lovely OLED screen is slightly smaller than the touch screen, but the player itself feels quite a bit smaller and lighter. It weighs about 2/3 as much, and is noticeably smaller in width and height, while being just a hair thicker.
This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
Cool post, you get a free iPad: http://ow.ly/2jKqJ
Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
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Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.
Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
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Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
If you’re still on the fence: grab your favorite earphones, head down to a Best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one sounds better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you’ll know which is right for you.
Zune and iPod: Most people compare the Zune to the Touch, but after seeing how slim and surprisingly small and light it is, I consider it to be a rather unique hybrid that combines qualities of both the Touch and the Nano. It’s very colorful and lovely OLED screen is slightly smaller than the touch screen, but the player itself feels quite a bit smaller and lighter. It weighs about 2/3 as much, and is noticeably smaller in width and height, while being just a hair thicker.
If you’re still on the fence: grab your favorite earphones, head down to a Best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one sounds better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you’ll know which is right for you.
Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.
Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.
Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
Zune and iPod: Most people compare the Zune to the Touch, but after seeing how slim and surprisingly small and light it is, I consider it to be a rather unique hybrid that combines qualities of both the Touch and the Nano. It’s very colorful and lovely OLED screen is slightly smaller than the touch screen, but the player itself feels quite a bit smaller and lighter. It weighs about 2/3 as much, and is noticeably smaller in width and height, while being just a hair thicker.
Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.