Sometimes #unschooling gets a bad rap. It’s time to set the record straight.
Tag: interest-led learning
Every Day’s a School Day (Supporting Self-Directed Learning)
In today’s video, I’m hoping to clear up the misconception that #homeschooling always has to look like school at home by sharing some tips on how to support self-directed learning.
Homeschooling 101 | My Child Has No Interests
There can be fewer things more frustrating for a #homeschooling parent than to excitedly allow our children time for self-directed learning only to discover that they don’t seem to be interested in ANYTHING. While I don’t have a foolproof solution to this, I am going to share some wisdom I gained during our #unschooling years.
Self-Directed Learning: It’s Time to Clear Something Up…
Ah, self-directed learning. It’s one of my absolute favorite advantages of relaxed homeschooling. There can be no more effective way for children to learn, in my opinion.
In fact, its efficacy is what has enabled me to embrace a simpler homeschool approach for my children. Out of all the “fool-proof” tricks I’ve tried and well-intentioned advice I’ve received, there is no denying the fact that kids (at least, my kids) learn far more successfully and enthusiastically when they themselves are the ones who are given the reins on their education.
However, over the past few months I have realized that there are some who don’t quite understand what self-directed learning actually is, and I’ve found that the most confusion stems from one faulty idea: that self-directed learning is just another name for independent learning.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Continue reading “Self-Directed Learning: It’s Time to Clear Something Up…”
12 Ways to Incorporate Shopkins into Your Homeschool
I don’t know about your house, but Shopkins™ are a huge hit at ours. Every single birthday, every single holiday, all my littles and middles ask for are Shopkins. I’m certainly not going to complain about this. They’re inexpensive, they don’t take batteries, and they actually require an imagination to play with them.
Watching their delight as they play with these little collectibles sparked a question in me:
Can I find a way to incorporate them into our homeschool routine?
As it turns out, the answer was a big, fat, yes, and they’re a much more valuable tool than I ever thought they’d be! Not only are they a great tool for my younger children, but I came up with several ways to use them with my upper elementary and middle school age kids, too. Continue reading “12 Ways to Incorporate Shopkins into Your Homeschool”
Lazy Day Links- 7/1/16
I can’t believe it’s July 4th weekend already. It seems like only yesterday I was thanking my lucky stars that winter was over!
I’m so excited right now because I just came back from shopping for our school supplies. 🙂 The only thing we need are the copy paper and ink we ordered off of eBay. Once those come in, we’re ready to go!
On with the links… Continue reading “Lazy Day Links- 7/1/16”
How to Joyfully Transition from Home to Homeschool
“My concern is not to improve “education” but to do away with it, to end the ugly and antihuman business of people-shaping and let people shape themselves.”
– John Holt, Instead of Education
At first glance, the title of this post may seem redundant. If my children have never been in school, why would we need to transition into homeschooling? It may, indeed, seem a silly proposal, but hear me out…..
Children are natural learners. Just watch any child that is pre-school age, and you’re bound to see someone who is itching to find out as much as she can about the world and wants to do it independently and immediately. Your child has been learning since birth. Naturally. Spontaneously. Voluntarily. Continue reading “How to Joyfully Transition from Home to Homeschool”
Why Should We Homeschool?- Part 11- More Time to Pursue Interests
Well, here we are at the second-last post in this series. To be honest, I had so many reasons listed that I thought I’d be writing these until Christmas. 🙂 I can only pray that they have helped you to solidify your decision and have been an encouragement to you.
As I’ve stated in many previous posts, children learn best when they have an interest in what they are doing. While we can certainly take that statement to mean we should get their input on what subjects they will be taking, we can also take it one step further.
Kids who have time to learn about themselves and what they like often find that they have developed a consuming passion for one area or another. Whether it is trains, snakes, karate, or dance, in the right environment, children can take these ‘hobbies’ and turn them into so much more.
Does this mean that your budding ballerina will be the next Anna Pavlova? Maybe…maybe not. While there are a great many people who have pursued careers borne of childhood delights, there are just as many who have not.
Does this mean that the time invested in these pasttimes were a waste? Certainly not. In fact, the more time children are able to spend on those things they love, the more they will learn. These passions that your children have discovered are often the gateway to learning about oodles and oodles of other things.
I wrote in the past about my daughter’s obsession with anime and my son’s love for wildlife photography. These interests have led to so many amazing rabbit trails that, frankly, I would never have even thought of introducing them on my own.
Who would have thought that anime would lead to a determination to master not only the Japanese language, but also the Japanese writing characters?
Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that my son taking pictures at the creek would inspire him to become an authority on identifying the wildlife in our area.
Those two examples are just a tiny synopsis of the type of learning that occurred while my children were simply doing what they loved to do.
But what about children in school? Although they, like all children, will find hobbies that pique their interest, just how much time do they get to spend doing them?
Admittedly, when I was in school, I was still able to go to dance class 3-4 times a week and participate in a dance company, but times have changed. I graduated in the nineties- before the incessant after-school programs and the introduction of social media. Kids in ‘those days’ (boy, I feel old) were actually able to be kids in the after-school hours.
It just isn’t so anymore.
Between the after-school programs, social media, overscheduling, and- let’s face it- the endless drilling and testing in institutionalized education, kids today are just too tired to do anything worthwhile in their spare time anymore– a truth disclosed to me by my daughter recently.
What we, as parents, need to think about is what will be the ultimate repercussions of this?
One consequence is pretty clear from the get-go…children who have no interests will usually end up settling for a job they’d rather not have but have been ‘bred’ to do.
Instead of this nation being filled to the brim with ardent artists, impassioned musicians, and inspiring entrepreneurs, we’ve raised a population of mediocre ‘factory employees’ who do what they have to do to pay their bills and put food on the table, but have no zest for life and certainly no incentive to ever try to better themselves because this is what school has taught them to do.
What would happen if we would give our children the time they need to pursue the dreams they so desire? In truth, the answer to that isn’t a given.
But would it hurt to try?
A Tale of Ten Homeschoolers- Summer Fun!
Another week has flown by, and I’m telling you, I am already so antsy to begin our new homeschool year! There’s a reason for this…after years of doing lapbooking, I finally decided to look into notebooking, and I am wondering why I never checked it out before. It looks like so much fun and will be a great way to transition some of my kids into writing more often. Yay for Jimmie Lanley!
I’ve also been trying to come up with a plan for my soon-to-be 11th grader for history. He’s very hands-on and doesn’t like to read, so I’m thinking of writing a study of World Folklore for him to do for the year. (I can see a beautiful notebook for this!) We’ll see where this takes us, but for now I’m really psyched about it. I’m such a nerd. 🙂
This past Saturday I went to Family Day at my oldest son’s Military Police Reserve unit. It was fairly relaxing since the only “child” I brought with me was my 16-yr-old. It was bittersweet, though, because there was a bounce house, dart games, bubbles, and Batman! (I didn’t tell my younger kids that they missed out on Batman. Ssh!)
Dillon playing the pop the balloon game
It’s Batman! (And the little boy of a woman I was talking to)
Sunday was a washout, so we weren’t able to inflate the pool, but we got it up on Monday. Boy, did the kids have fun with that! There was also quite a bit of playing in the dirt this past week, and we found a ladybug larva- I never knew there was such a thing.
We also made some butterflies with paint- thanks for the idea, Mother of 3!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
My oldest daughter is in Atlantic City as I write this, getting ready for an anime convention this weekend. She’s particularly excited about this one because, other than it being in Atlantic City, it’s also the first convention she’s been to in 10 months. Believe me, she was more than ready.
As for me, I just received the book With My Eyes Wide Open from UPS yesterday and have already finished it because it.was.amazing. I don’t want to give away too much, but suffice it to say, the faith of this rock star made me take a second look at my relationship with Jesus. Let’s just say that it made me pull my devotional off the shelf and dust it off with tears in my eyes. Look for a review of it in the next couple of days.
Tomorrow my hubby is planning on taking several of the kids to see the World of Warcraft movie. They’re so excited.
That’s about it for this fun-filled week. Leave a comment and tell me how yours has been!
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Looking at the Bright Side of Unschooling
Finding balance within your homeschool is the key to superior learning, and some unschooling philosophies can play a key role in that.
After writing yesterday’s post about our experience with unschooling, I began to wonder if I was able to adequately convey our good experiences with it. I fear that there was a bit of negativity at the end, and I felt the need to clarify myself.
I am not against unschooling. I feel that some of its philosophies about allowing children to pursue their own interests and using life as a curriculum hit the nail right on the head. I have seen first-hand how much children learn when they have a vested interest in something. In fact, our family still uses natural learning as an important part of our homeschooling routine. Our structured learning normally takes only about two hours a day, while the rest of the day is open for my children to engage in anything they find useful and interesting.
What this has looked like this past week has been my son deciding that he would like to become a wildlife photographer after spending hours at the creek every day taking photos like these:
Spending six hours a day doing structured school work would have prevented him from committing the time he did towards this project. Is this as valuable as book work? I’d have to say that this holds even more value because this is something he initiated on his own and will, therefore, remember all the better.
Before our unschool experiment, I would have scoffed if he had asked me to go to the creek during the school day every single day for an entire week. I would have lectured him about the importance of getting an education. Unschooling taught me to recognize that this is an education.
It also gave me the ability to see the worth in seemingly mundane things that many parents overlook. Caring for a sick baby bird. Making homemade paint out of sidewalk chalk. Helping the neighbor in her garden. These are all things I would happily set aside school work for in order to pursue.
Does this mean I do not assign value to book learning? Absolutely not. I am a self-professed nerd, and I realize that there are some things that are better learned with some structure- usually some sort of book, but not always.
It all comes down to balance. At the end of the day- at least with my children- there are some things which are best learned when they are taught, and there are other things best left to experience in real life. This is what homeschooling is all about. Finding the balance that is right for your family and allowing the joy that follows to shine through.
For more photos like these, you can follow my son on Instagram!
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