She’s ready to learn!
**This post has been entered in Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family**
It’s been our intention for quite awhile now to homeschool our kids when they got to the “right” age for it. Of course, this isn’t strictly defined since we’re generally subscribing to an ‘unschooling’ philosophy and not choosing any specific curriculum. Even so, with our oldest now 3.5 years old, it’s undeniably “time” to homeschool…and she’s quite interested.
Why Unschooling?
A few words on this topic. I don’t like strictly defined curriculums, nor do I think they really suit any child’s needs “as is.” Every child is different, has different interests, and works at a different pace. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can adjust what you are doing to suit your child instead of having to deal with something the way it comes. Some people choose to deal with this issue by combining different curriculums, adding or subtracting materials from a given curriculum, or even simply moving slower/faster in any given area, depending on their child’s strengths and weaknesses.
It’s not how we think.
Some say that “strict” unschooling means no direction at all. I don’t take it that way. The way it’s working out in our home (so far) is that I carefully watch my children to see what their interests and abilities are, and I keep a notebook of these. I make some goals and write down project ideas (multi-disciplinary) that are geared towards their interests. Then we use these to learn.
Everything we’re doing is based on their lead, as far as interests and abilities. But once I know what those are, I “guide” them a bit by offering materials and opportunities for them. If any project is met with boredom or otherwise doesn’t go over well, we’d skip it and try something else. My role is simply to bring their interests to life.
Of course, I have in the back of my mind all the things I’d like them to learn. I have a general kindergarten-level curriculum in my head, as well as additional information or skills I’d like them to have. When designing projects, I work with their interests first, and these “bits of knowledge” second to create their projects.
I enjoy being creative in this way, and they seem to enjoy the project-based style of learning. We will continue to do this for as long as it is feasible. I’ll always have “basic skills” in mind that they need to know, but we’ll do it in a fun way that is guided by their interests. Without any formal curriculum, until/if this is really required.
Creating Projects
I was always told when I was studying to be a teacher (I’m a former music teacher, with a degree in music ed), “Just borrow from what’s already out there. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.” But I’d look at what was out there and often think, “But what if they did it wrong the first time?” I was rarely impressed with any curriculum available to my music students. There were a couple of books I’d use at different levels, but I’d always supplement, skip around, and so on. I also ended up writing and self-publishing my own music theory curriculum to use with my students because, especially in the advanced levels, I wasn’t satisfied with anything out there. (Yes…I was one of those ‘mean’ teachers who thought every student should know music theory! I even made my special needs students learn it.)
It’s no surprise I’m approaching homeschooling the same way. I’ve seen all the workbooks and such (well…not all…but you know, a handful) and I haven’t found any that are really appropriate to the way I prefer to teach or my kids seem to prefer to learn. And as much as possible, I want them to learn in a real-world setting anyway.
Choosing projects that are multi-disciplinary is important too. I want them to be involved, interesting, and teach from a number of different angles.
I spent some time creating a list of Bekah’s current interests (money, colors, numbers, letters, etc.) and then writing down what our goals should be in those areas. I looked to this when deciding what projects to create. The projects needed to meet goals in multiple areas.
Projects are not set in stone. If Bekah’s not into it, we don’t do it. The goal is to use her interests to gently guide her through fun activities that happen to involve learning! So far she’s been pretty interested in the projects we’ve done.
Here are a couple examples:
- “Grocery flashcards” (she loves cards) — 3×5 cards with the name and picture of a favorite food with a $ amount on it. We will use these when we go shopping. She’ll get a certain amount of money (a current motivator for her) to spend on snacks. We’ll be working on reading and adding and even budgeting with this. For her it’s just a fun game — “I get to go shopping and pick my own snacks!”
- Alphabet Book — We’re creating her OWN alphabet book (I simply took 7 sheets of 8.5×11 paper, folded them in half, and stapled them together) of words she finds meaningful. I write the letters in an upper corner and the word of her choice at the bottom of the page. Then she will choose a picture for them, either by drawing one or finding one in a magazine or on the internet to illustrate what she’s chosen. When the words are things that are meaningful she’s a lot likely to remember them. She’s known “D for Daddy” for a long time…but “Z for…?” is new to her still.
There are other projects I’m still brewing, both for her alone and for her with friends. I’ll share those projects as we begin to do them!
I’m enjoying this so far. It allows me to be creative, to spend time alone with her, to enjoy learning with her. She loves it, too.
We’re also planning to start studying violin this fall. Even assessing whether a preschooler is ready for music lessons and then how to proceed is a separate post on its own, so…I’ll leave it until later!
How did/will you begin to homeschool?
I just wanted to say that I was home schooled, and in a very similar fashion to this. We focused mostly on what I was interested in especially when I was young. Later on in HS and what not we incorporated more stuff I wasn't interested in (IE math) but never in a structured way. I did what I felt like doing that day, and usually after the age of 9 or 10 worked independently from books, with my parents only checking the answers.
I did on average 3-4 hours of text book work per week, the rest of the time my mom and I went on field trips. Growing up in DC the extra curricular opportunities were endless. We would go to museums, have "stream team" to clean up and study local water ways with other families, science programs with volunteer scientists at NASA, NIST and NIH on the weekends, worked with local farms and farm animals through 4-H, concerts and Shakespeare in the summer, biology, and ecology through the local national park system programs. I even worked categorizing new additions to the museum of natural history geology department with the head of geology for a summer.
It was a very interesting upbringing that fostered my love for learning from every angle, a love that continues to this day, as well as provided me a solid enough base that I was accepted into the honors program at University of Maryland at the age of 14, excelled in college, and now am studying to be an RN(originally wanted to be a doctor, but I met the man of my dreams and decided I didn't want to be in school until 40).
I commend you and anyone else who may be reading this for putting the effort and sacrifice in to your children. Their lives will be better for it, and don't listen to ANYONE else who says differently, even them. There may be times in their life when they want to go to regular school, or hate you because your family is different, but once they grow up and realize how special you were, and how much more they got to learn and do because you cared enough to sacrifice job, social life etc. for them, they will thank you. Lord knows I thank my Mom every day. I even asked her to home school my kids when they come along.
Thanks for listening to my ramble, and keep up the good work!
We don't have little ones yet, but as we plan for the future, we're hoping that finances will allow me to stay home & home school.
I've just started reading up on curriculum, and have been really happy with what I've seen in the Charlotte Mason guides. In order for me to know my children are getting a good, solid, classical, well-rounded education, I need more structure to the day, week, semester & school year. I was not homeschooled – both of my parents are school teachers & I'm a public school brat. I certainly see the flaws there, but know that for how my family will most likely work, a more structured curriculum will be in order.
I've also heard interesting things about the Thomas Jefferson Educational ideas – so I will be looking into that as well.
I'm just starting to look into homeschooling for my kids, who are 2 and 6 months. Unschooling seems like an interesting approach to me, but how does one reconcile that to national standards once your children reach a later age? I'm also a former music teacher with a BMus in Ed, so I feel like I can use a lot of my resources from undergrad to help with lesson planning, but I find the idea of a set curriculum super-appealing, primarily because I'm planning on going back to work part-time. I think I'm going to be more dedicated to home schooling if I'm not doing *all* the work.
I don't think I would ever try to find a preschool curriculum for my kids – I was raised going to Montessori school and I think that's an amazing educational philosophy, particularly for children whose learning is extremely self-motivated (my 2-year-old is OBSESSED with numbers and letters, entirely of his own volition). I think that homeschooling really gives children the opportunity to explore their own interests in a safe setting, and it also provides parents with the ability to *truly* know our children and their own learning styles.
I am also starting to homeschool my 3.5 year old this year, as well as my 2.5 year old in whatever fashion she wants to participate. We will also be very unstructured; we have no set curriculum. I bought both kids the Kumon "Let's Cut/Sticker and Paste/Fold/Color" books to use to strengthen fine motor skills, which is one of my major goals for them for the year. My son may progress from those to the next level books within the next few months, but my daughter will probably work on them for a while. They both think they're fun, and they've both made huge improvements in their skills, so I plan to stick with that series for now. Other than that, we will read a lot, work on counting/numbers/basic math a lot, take trips to the library, local children's museum, etc. Other goals include money, sounding out basic words, and basic geography. Those goals are all based on their current interests. I am sure we will add to the list as the year goes on. We also are memorizing the children's catechism and weekly Bible verses. That probably sounds like a lot, but we just do a little bit each day as time and interests allow. I plan to write down what their skills and abilities are now so that I can compare at the end of the year, but I am not concerned that either kid reach a certain level at this point.
We started doing school right before my daughter turned 3. She loved it. She wanted it more than I did. Now she is 3 and a half and we are still doing preschool and she is still doing great. Next fall when she is 4 we will start Kindergarten.
I am visiting from WFMW. It is nice to "meet" you. Stop by and say hi anytime – LaVonne @ Long Wait For Isabella
To quote Rosie's comment above: "Unschooling seems like an interesting approach to me, but how does one reconcile that to national standards once your children reach a later age?" That is the question I was left wondering too.
I am so lucky to have met Laurette Lynn at http://www.unpluggedmom.com/ She lives in Tulsa, as I do. She does a blog radio every week, and has a lot of great resources for the "unschooler." This will be our 1st year of leaving the public school system behind. My 2 oldest children were literally in the 2 best schools in this city, but even then, I felt that there was a lot lacking. I read the John Holt book "Teaching Your Own" and that was that.