An Experiment in Unschooling
Every time I post a blog, when I think I am spot on, it seems I am immediately put to the test.
Earlier this week I posted A Peek At Our Homeschool, which showed the typical schedule we have been following for the first 4 weeks of school. At least 4 days a week. We have been hitting the books hard!
For some reason, after I posted that blog, my health began to go blah. Blahdee Blah Blaaaah.
With the change in weather, let's just say my body is rebelling. The lupus fatigue has kicked in and I'm having headaches daily due to the change in barometric pressure.
What I want to do least when I'm having an "off day" is to direct a highly structured school schedule. Mostly, I want to curl up on the couch and wait until I feel better.
Hmm...I have been reading up on "unschooling" this week and thought it would be fun to try it out. The most convincing blog I read on unschooling this week was: How to Learn All Subjects through Unschooling. (from www.weedemandreap.com)
So, yesterday, I had each of the children show me the 3 games they are best at on PBS Kids. They showed me some of their favorite "Fizzy's Lunch Lab" games. They demonstrated how to count up money to give change, and solved various logic puzzles. Okay - so they are learning something. Math and logic. That's good -and by their own choosing - even better! Then we had lunch and read a chapter in our book about Pilgrims. We all enjoy a good read-aloud.
In the afternoon, we curled up on the couch together to watch something educational on Netflix (not that I call it that when talking to my children. Something "interesting," of course). My 4-year-old chose an episode of Reading Rainbow. My 5-year-old picked, "Zin, Zin, Zin - A Violin!" and my 8-year-old vowed she hated the show and she wouldn't watch it.
It turned out to be a really interesting episode featuring kids who play in the "pre-college" orchestra at Julliard. We learned they practice about 3 hours a day. That was an eye-opener! We learned the names of the instruments and what a maestro is. We listened to beautiful classical music together. The second half of the episode featured STOMP! Do you remember STOMP? All 3 of the kids were dancing and getting into it. (In fact, they asked to watch it again today. Win!)
When that was done, we watched a Forecast: Disaster episode about Earthquakes. My oldest daughter has an insatiable interest in natural disasters, so why not pursue it?
Last week, we watched an episode about Tornadoes, then we constructed a little paper and cardboard town (yes, even mom joins in on the fun). My 4-year-old brought a box fan so he could be in charge of the tornado's winds (he turned it up to "3!"). After a few runs, my kids decided the fan didn't destroy enough. They became the twirling tornadoes and knocked the entire town down. They destroyed and rebuilt the town countless times. We videotaped these "storms" and the kids were thrilled. Then my oldest daughter did a weather report using a U.S.A. map in the background. It was fantastic!
So, I thought, why not try this with earthquakes? As we watched the video, I thought up some ways we could reenact earthquakes. Then I thought better of it and waited to see what the kids would come up with.
Turns out, my 8-year-old was thinking up her own reconstruction methods. She decided to construct tall buildings out of some of our building toys and make them fall down. The kids pulled out some cardboard squares to use as platforms/city blocks. They could shake the entire city block and make it collapse whenever "earthquakes" hit.
They worked on their towns for at least 1/2 hour, then we took turns knocking our towns down. While waiting for everyone to finish building, I read aloud Judy Moody, a new favorite at our house. They had the most fun trying to build houses that would collapse the fastest, but we also talked about what makes a building "earthquake-proof." We also reviewed what the video instructed us to do during an earthquake - safety procedures, etc. We finished our discussion with "but we don't live near a fault zone, so earthquakes don't happen much in Pennsylvania." Always reassuring to know we're not in much danger here.
Turns out, we learned more, and remembered better when I put less effort into it (being formal) and let the kids take the lead (natural discovery). Interesting, eh?
I am so glad that, despite my feeling under the weather, learning didn't stop. Instead, (mom's) "hands off" approach has fueled my kids' imaginations and their thirst for learning - just by allowing them to follow their interests!
We covered math, logic, history, music, gym class, science, reading, engineering, and health/safety.
Not bad for a first try!
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