The Unschooling Experiment

A fun day today...Still experimenting with unschooling. It "worked" today. My ds did a math program on the computer, asked to play a letter bingo game, got me to read aloud from a historical fiction book, listened to The Long Winter on cd, caught a frog, took a nature hike with me and his ds, listened to a Bible story, did some writing practice....on his own!

During the nature hike we did something called letterboxing. It involves finding boxes hidden all over the U.S., stamping the box owner's notebook with your stamp, and using their stamp to stamp your's. I am probably not explaining it in the greatest way, but check it out.
Letterboxing...a fun new adventure. Check it out at www.letterboxing.org

Fresh Air

Today we took a little field trip to a river nearby. While hiking a nature trail, we came upon a creek. Of course the kids had to get in and play. As I watched them, it made me think, "Why don't my kids have more of these days? You know meandering through the woods, playing in the creek days." It is really my fault. I get busy doing life, school, church, coop, small group, family time, my time, etc. It seems that I have to be so purposeful about times like today. Kinda sad to me.
I chose hsing so my kids could have carefree days. But, I get sucked into the pace of society. (Go, go, go!) Todays like today make me reevaluate my time spent daily with my kids. A good thing, ya know?

It Happened Again

Staying up until midnight does not make for a chipper mommy...Today, I didn't want to get it out of bed.... Getting up late, I thought we won't have "school" today, we'll just be off. (Yes, I am still having my mind renewed about when learning actually takes place) Again, I was proven wrong.... We made it until 3 pm without any learning activities. Then, the mail came. I had ordered my ds a Star Wars spelling workbook, that he requested. So, in the excitement, he dove right in. (Reading, writing, and spelling) I also got a card game I ordered. (Geography) So, we played that. Then, I had someone forward me a free online typing program. He spent about 30 minutes on that. ( His choice) Then we did a little piano review. (My choice). Then we went outside after dinner and jumped on the trampoline. (PE) The day is still not over, I am sure we will be doing some reading outloud, Bible devotion, and who knows what....

Reptiles and Amphibians

As I said in a previous entry, my ds expressed interest in reptiles and amphibians. Yesterday, we accompanied my dh to fly his rc airplane. He is a member of a rc field out in the middle of nowwhere. Beside the flying field, there is a great patch of woods with a long trail running through it. When we go with my husband, we always take a nature hike. During this hike, we happened upon a puddle. My ds spotted a glob of what he thought were frog eggs. My dd who had been collecting rocks in a ziplock bag, dumped her rocks and said, "Let's take them home." My ds scooped them up and they made it home with us. Today, they (to my suprise) were still alive. We made a trip to Walmart to purchase a small tank w/ a filter. Now we get to watch the tadpoles (which hatched overnight) grow into frogs. Isn't God cool? I told my son that God knew his desire to learn about rep. and amphib., and that God let him find them, because He cares about everything we do....

Unschooling?

In our family, Saturday is known as a non-school day, as well as, Sunday. But today proved me wrong. My son and I awoke at the around the same time with him wanting to watch TV. We found an educational program about the life of cats. (science) Then my son picked up a book and did some independent reading (reading practice). He then wrote his name inside and the date he completed it. (writing practice) Then he asked me if he could "do piano". So, we reviewed note values and he began working on a new song introducing the note "D" on the piano. (music theory) He then got on his favorite Star Wars sight and played a game where you match music scores with the correct scene pictures. (more music and logic) Later, he picked up a storytime kit that he checked out from the library. It came with little cloth figures and a felt belt. (A story telling kit) He began to use the cloth figures to make his own cute story to tell me. (Langauge arts) This all happened before 12 noon.

My whole point to this is that I started out the day thinking, "No school today." But my son proved me wrong. He wasn't doing "school", but he was learning (gasp!) and learning what he wanted to learn (big gasp) , when he wanted to learn it. (even bigger gasp!) That makes me smile!

Ahhhh!

I made it to the iVillage home school message board yesterday. I was able to post one of my concerns with my ds. I got a lot of great advice. It was definitely an answer to my prayer. I also decided today to get my son involved in planning this school year. After asking what he would enjoy doing, he said science experiments and learning about amphibians and reptiles. Wow! That gives me a great place to start. Thank you Lord for my children!

Another day

Here we are another day of hsing. My son hasn't doesn't anything really schoolish today. He is watching a Magic School Bus DVD again. (Does that count?) Anyway, no paper and pencil time yet. Played "The Allowance Game" with DD5. I have no motivation to do school today. Dealing with heart issues with DD5. There has been constant whining, yelling and lying on her part recently. We sat down this morning and prayed, then talked about what the Bible said about those issues. I asked her to pray at the end. She prayed for God to help her stop whining and complaining. Oh God, here my prayers to make me the mom you want me to be!


Okay, so this day isn't going how I planned...today is one of those days when I am thinking, why am I hsing? What was I thinking? It seems that my kids and I are just butting our heads together today. I am having to hold the screams of frustration inside. I need you Lord.

Today

Today is my first to blog...Blog, what an interesting word. Here in Georgia, it is a rainy day. My kids are watching a Magic School Bus DVD. I am doing laundry and catching up on other things, while they watch school. I don't know how often I will blog, but it could be theraputic.