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!
Tweet This
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
DandyID
Facebook
Flickr
YouTube
Copy and Paste Code
64 Comments
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.
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.
Hiya guys, I have a excellent way to make shed loads of money online creating blogs. I expect this is mainly for the website bloggers but there are probably alot more bloggers reading this. I’ve made thousands using the techniques detailed in the product and it’s only been 2 months. Free Money Making Blog By Blogging To The Bank
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.
Hey , I have found a excellent way to make shed loads of money online blogging. I presume this is primaraly for the website administrator but there are probably more bloggers reading this. I’ve made thousands using the techniques described in the product and its only been two months. Free Money Making Blog By Blogging To The Bank
Why did you remove my post… My post was actually useful unlike most of these comments. Ill post it again. Heya guys, I’ve a brilliant way to make lots and lots of money online posting blogs. I expect this is probably for the website administrator but there are probably lots more bloggers reading this. I’ve made thousands using the techniques detailed in the product and its only been two months. Free Money Making Blog By Blogging To The Bank
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.
I typically don’t leave observations on web sites but you have some good information material.
Hello dude,i like Your New blog very much. achieve u allow suggestion for my website? thanks as A New attention
I just like it! Awesome article. I just wish you updated it regularly. I keep your blog in my favorites. Do you think that I could do a guest post at some point?