Thoughts on Unschooling

We started this school year early, in July because Aaron was born in September. I was SO organized at that point. I went over the whole week's lessons every Thursday night and wrote up a schedule for each week. I picked out worksheets for each day and changed them out once a week., etc, etc, etc. I have to admit, I would probably still be doing this if I had the time. I LOVE being organized, knowing exactly where we're going to end up at the end of the week/year. Unfortunately, the boys did not love it. I could sense their excitment waning, and it was frusterating for me to go through so much effort and then have to drag them along too.

So when Aaron was born, naturally everything that wasn't completely necessary went right out the window. I took a few months off, but when I tried to get back into it--even easing myself into our former schedule--it just didn't work. I don't have time to do even 1 to 2 hours of advance preparation a week. But I was feeling guilty for not having "school" so we started to do more spontanious educational activities.

That's where we are at now and I'm amazed at how responsive the boys are to it. As I've embraced this style, I'm forced to accept "unschooling" as my method of choice, at least for the moment.

Unschooling is a method of education where you don't use a curriculum, or any method or organization. I know homeschoolers who use this method exclusively all the way through high school. You simply learn through everyday experiences. I am still a bit skeptical of unschooling because, how can you learn everything you need to know through your everyday experiences? For instance Math: I went all the way through Calculus BC in high school, and yet I can't imagine a situation where I would actually need differential equations, much less be motivated to learn it on my own. I suppose the rationale is that if you don't use it, why do you need it? Still not on board with that... But I can see how everyday experiences can be a springboard for higher learning. If the kids are curious about something, I can provide materials and activities that use thier own motivation to propel them further than simple everyday learning.

While I used to think Unschooling was the lazy way of teaching, I'm starting to see that it actually might be harder. Sure, there is a lot less day to day preparation, but it takes more mental and creative effort. In order for this to work, I've got to know the kindergarten curriculum backwards and forwards and be ready to jump into any subject at any time. Any interest Ethan has in anything, I've got to be able to recognize and quickly come up with creative activities that will fuel that interest and not kill it. I've got to be able to support his motivation rather than forcing or pushing.

As with anything, balance is key. I'm still not convinced this method is good enough to rely on exclusively, but whenever I use it, it's successful. Here are some examples of the ways we've used this recently: Writing Practice, Counting Money, Vocabluary.

A Well-Trained Mind

In the Book A Well Trained Mind, Jesse Wise talks about these younger grades being information sponges. From first grade to I think fifth grade, she suggests just filling your kids heads with fact after fact while they are able to soak in so much. (This by the way is contrary to EVERYTHING I was taught at BYU as an El Ed Major).

Today we were reading a book about maps called There's a Map in my Lap. It's in the style of Dr Suess and gives a basic, yet extensive introduction to maps and their uses. It mentioned puzzle maps and I told Ethan that we had a puzzle map of the U.S. downstairs. (I hadn't gotten it out because I figured he wasn't ready for it.) He begged me to get it out and spent the following hour using his basic phonics skills to figure out the names of all the states. He now can place and name 18 states all by himself. We wrote that number on the whiteboard so he can work on it later and improve.

It amazes me how well both the boys soak up the information I give them, especially Ethan. It doesn't matter how advanced the information, they truly have a gift for language at this age which translates into vocabulary as well. The premise of dA Well-Trained Mind is to fill their heads with facts and then in sixth grade start to sort out, apply and make sense of those facts. If they have all that knowledge already at their disposal, they can more easily understand and make use of it at a later age.

So basically, all those worksheets and rote memorization that was part of a classical education actually has some merit, contrary to popular education today. Our Elementary schools emphasize creativity and tactile learning. Wise argues that has a place, but in the later grades, when they have a basic vocabulary and a general understanding of the subjects. It's a must read for any homeschooler and public school parent alike.

I'm inclined to believe that both tactile and rote learning are valuable at this age, unfortunately our current learning trends vastly under emphasize rote learning, which is probably why our children test so poorly against other countries.

Money Madness

I've been trying to teach the concept of money to Ethan and Sean, but it's not sticking. Also, lately they have been resisting the sit-down/workbook type of lesson, so I had to come up with something more relevant (aka, unschooling). I posted this list on the fridge and directed them toward a jar of pennies on the counter. They loved it!

Ethan and Sean are learning what "cent" means and the concept of buying something.
By and by, Jenna is learning to count.
(Sorry about the nakedness, I can't keep clothes on her to save my life!)

After a day or two of just pennies, I'll throw in a couple of nickels and slowly work our way through all the coins.

Goin' to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

We go to the zoo a lot, so I figured I better make it educational. I wrote up a little Animal Worksheet with generic questions about animals (i.e. what does it eat, what does it look like, etc.). Now Ethan and Sean take this worksheet to the zoo and pick an animal. Sometimes we can get some of the information from the zoo, but it usually happens that we write the name of the animal down, then check out books at the library to learn more. (This is how the Stingray Report came about as well.)

So this time, Ethan chose Orangutans and Sean found a Bengal Tiger. After choosing the Tiger, Sean is now obsessed with them, especially the white ones. The Orangutan was fun; we sat and watched him for a while. At first Ethan wrote down that he eats paper, but then he realized the orangutan was just playing with the phone book.

Ethan's Stingray Report

The sound isn't very good, turn your volume up.

Slowly working our way up to speed

I've started school back up this week, but our expectations are much lower. We have been pretty successful at doing a math and reading lesson each day, and I'm happy with that. We started out with Saxon Math 1, but I've moved on to a workbook series that my mom gave me (from her kindergarten teacher friend) called Harcourt Math. I've loved it so far, it's actually a bit challenging and includes games and activities that are engaging. And it's shorter than our daily Saxon lessons, which the kids are appreciating. Always better to have lessons be too short than too long.

We still keep part of the Saxon Math lesson: the Meeting book. This has been at the beginning of each math lesson we write out the date, make a weather graph for each month, count to 100 in various ways and someone leads the group in "left and right." I like how this part of the lesson incorporates science and writing.

Jenna has been participating too. Through our math lessons she has picked up her basic shapes and a few colors. Play-doh is also a great way to practice naming the colors.

Hiatus

We're on a bit of a break from schooling since Junior #4 (Aaron) was born two weeks ago. I've been trying to at least do our five minute reading lesson each day, but even that gets swept under the rug occasionally. Our Math lesson is next priority and only happens about once a week. The last one we tried to do only got half finished. But an unexpected bonus has emerged: the last two days the boys have been completely engaged in entertaining themselves all day long. They have fully discovered "pretend play" which has never been a huge part of our day before. Now they spend all day building forts, putting action figures in train cars, playing "family," etc. I often will hear the a call of "Mommy!" only to get a confused look when I answer. Oh! The big truck is the Mommy truck.

At times I feel a twinge of guilt knowing that most other kids Ethan's age are getting a whole days worth of stimulating structured activities in their kindergarten class. But I have to remind myself that free play is just as important as any other activity at this age (if not more), and we will make up for it later when I am more able to predict our daily routine.