Two things: first of all, we're still shifting things around with our homeschooling to get it to work right. The deal of sitting at the dining room table on a set schedule and doing repetitive work is not going well. It hasn't from the beginning. It's not quite the square peg in a round hole conundrum, but maybe an oval peg in a round hole? Whatever it is, it's not the right fit. Rather uncomfortable.
Second - the term homeschool bugs me. The school part of the word does, anyway. Isn't that why we're keeping our kids home? So they're NOT in school and they can learn with alternate methods rather than sitting at a desk all day? Not that I necessarily know what the alternate methods even are (because I don't), but I'd rather get the word "school" out of our education vernacular. I guess we have to say homeschool when talking to other people about our choice in education but I don't have to like it.
So now what?
I came across this blog - Interest-Led Learning - the other day and started reading it even though I've always said that I disagree with the method of unschooling. What caught my attention was a series of posts in the sidebar titled "unusual ways to explore academic subjects" - math, science, literature, writing, history, geography, PE and health, art, and music. I've gone through every single one of them, picked through the links, and bookmarked a lot. My wish list of books and movies on Amazon has more than tripled (and is over $500).
Before coming across this blog, most of what I've read about unschooling has been laissez-faire to the point of kids not learning to read until they're 10 or so. I'm not okay with that. Kids do need to learn how to read and do math, have legible penmanship, and use correct language verbally and in writing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc). No question about those things, and the sooner the better. How can you learn anything very well if you can't read?
But beyond that, everything is an elective, especially when the kids are still small. My job as the "teacher" in our little non-school (UN-school?) is to put books and activities in front of my children, expose them to every subject and skill we can come up with and/or have access to, and see what they do with it. AC described it as throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks. I can handle that. The term unschooling is not so scary for me when portrayed like this.
INTERESTS SHOWN SO FAR:
literature - they read all the time, and we've tried to make sure our personal library has a wide variety of classic literature, poetry, and nonfiction at their level mixed in with fun stuff like Pinkalicious. Sunny is currently skipping around through the Little House on the Prairie series.
science - nothing specific yet that I can pick out but we have a book of science experiments that they like to get into, and they play with things like a magnifying glass. I get random books from the library about the human body, animals, plants, light, whatever ... and Sunny reads them and remembers a lot.
gardening - we grew a container garden on our patio this past spring/summer (and it's still producing even though it's November), and the girls have spent a lot of time watering and checking "their" tomato bushes. Sunny has eaten literally EVERY tomato that has come off HER bush.
Spanish language - they watch Dora the Explorer and have picked up a small but substantive Spanish vocabulary just from that.
public speaking - no lie. At our church, kids start reciting a scripture or sharing a 2-minute thought on some gospel principle (helped by a parent of course) in front of a group at the age of 3. Sunny actually asks her teacher if she can do the scripture or the thought, instead of waiting to be assigned. Posy doesn't ask to do it, but doesn't shy away from it when it's her turn.
photography - they swipe our digital camera frequently and click away with taking pictures of random things.
dance - they are enrolled in ballet and tap at a studio and LOVE it. At the end of every single class, Posy comes running out to me in the lobby yelling, "I did it!"
playing the piano - they're in a beginning music class that's giving an overview of a number of common instruments, listening to classical music, learning the music staff, etc. It ends at Christmas, and I have beginning piano books to start with in January. Both Sunny and Posy want to play the piano.
art - we do a lot of drawing and painting and cutting and gluing around here.
cooking - they love to help their dad cook, especially baking.
museums - this isn't a subject to learn, but it's certainly an education-related category. We used to live in Washington DC so our girls have been going to museums literally since they were born. And they like them. Granted, we've made sure to go places that are kid-friendly and have lots of hands-on activities, and we have a membership to our local children's activity museum. The word museum doesn't make their eyes glaze over like I've seen with a lot of adults.
With Thanksgiving this week and starting our Christmas holidays, I don't have high expectations for "school time." We haven't gotten anything really going since I crashed and burned with the end of my pregnancy in September anyway. Lots of art projects coming up. And we'll keep going with our routine of getting lots of books from the library in all kinds of subjects, and seeing what catches their attention. I have some ideas to begin in January.
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