Thinking of trying unschooling the rest of the year

[Stella]

I'd love to hear other people's unschooling experiences. I am now in my third trimester and we have so many things going on right now that adding formal schooling seems a bit overwhelming. The more I think about it, the more I think unschooling may be the way to go for the rest of the year.

My older kids are in first and second grade and totally proficient (or ahead) for their age range at reading, writing and math. My oldest, Cheyenne, is really into math and is always doing math stuff on her own, unsolicited. My second kid, Isabella, is a total bookworm. We've covered a wide range of topics this year for science, history and geography including travels to 15 states.

I have strict limits on TV and we have no videogame system or anything like that, so pretty much everything they do in a day has some kind of learning value.

They love to cook, build things, read books, write stories, write e-mails, draw, play outside, teach their little siblings things and indulge their many curiosities.

For example, they wanted to know about babies and how they grow in the womb and are born so they (supervised) looked up videos on YouTube and found some from babycenter.com that showed the growth of a baby from fertilization to birth in a totally child-friendly way.

Cheyenne wants to learn more about Japan so she has struck up a friendship with a retired couple in the neighborhood. The husband is from Japan and the wife is from France. The husband was a perfumer from Aveda, which has sparked an interest in that. She also made friends with a mom in the neighborhood with a biology degree who has been showing her stuff from her anatomy books and answering her questions.

Isabella wants to learn to cook, so she shadows me in the kitchen. Yesterday she helped me make laundry soap and we talked about how we shred the soap because the more surface area that is exposed to the heat, the faster it will melt. We shredded some soap with a cheese grater and some with a microplane grater.

Isabella is also the one who really likes to read books to the younger kids. She made them "sight word" cards too, and is trying to teach them. She decided to use words they use frequently, like diaper and fun. In the process she had to find out how to spell some words and she got writing practice by writing it all down on notecards for them.

The girls are planning some gardening for the summer too, making lists of things they want to grow, narrowing the list down by what we could reasonably grow and finding the best varieties for our space and climate. They were inspired when we visited the Dervaes' of Path to Freedom on our trip to California and want to grow food plants. They are also going to build some planter boxes with their Dad and they looked up books on garden crafts at the library. They want to make some mosaic garden art and a few other decorative crafts. I'm involving them in the budgeting of the project too.

Maybe I just need reassurance that letting go of formal "school" is OK for a while. It just seems silly, as variable as my energy is these days, to force myself to work on anything formal when there is so much going on in our regular life.

[herbgeek]

I don't have kids, but I think you are on to a wonderful plan. What a great thing to encourage their love of learning!

[leslieann]

Stella, you don't take summer vacation from school with your kids....you guys are always doing fun and educational things. So why wouldn't the family take a break from the formal structure to enjoy and appreciate the learning that comes with adding another sibling? You've got the kids on a road where they follow their curiosity and you and all of the adults you provide them with help them to locate resources to explore. The groundwork you have created means that they are self-directed learners as much as they can be at their ages, and so "unschooling" probably wouldn't be too much different from the homeschooling you do...at least that's what I infer from reading your posts here.

What a great time to focus on family history and of course the biology of human reproduction and cool stuff that just flows from what is going on in the house.

I wonder if you know what an inspiration it is to me to know that you and Zach are out there raising these little people in this intentional, thoughtful way? I appreciate that you are so willing to share about your lives with readers like me. Yes, unschool, but it won't keep them from learning.

[Float On]

Its a wonderful plan since your kids express an interest in learning. We did that for awhile as well. I just needed a break between working for our church 20 hours a week, working for my husband 30+ hours a week, and trying to homeschool. I went nuts. Everyday they kept blogs and wrote about the things they were studying on their own.
The next year the oldest one asked to try public school and we thought it was a good time to give that a go because my schedule wasn't letting up. I was very well pleased that everything they did in 7th grade public school.....they had already done either when I formally taught them or they self-studied. I was so worried about them being behind the curve due to their self-study year. I had nothing to worry about (except that due to 'no child left behind' the public schools don't push students very well anymore).
They are both freshmen now and even just yesterday the principle stopped me in the parking lot and mentioned what a joy the boys were - good mature students. Both boys are on-track to do great things; one is applying to the local college's new prep school, the other is applying to one of the state college's Academy program which let's them do their Jr/Sr year while getting an associates degree.

I say 'go for it!'.

[Mighty Frugal]

Go for it! I know some homeschooling moms and they are not like you at all. They rush through the lessons just so they have more 'down' time. Their spelling is atrocious (eek), and they don't teach any more than what is required. They love all the time off the kids get and pretty much do NOTHING during the summer.

In my next life I want to come back as your daughter!!!!

[Anne Lee]

A few things to think about:

1. I would keep a diary of learning and a portfolio of work for each girl. Just in case.
2. I would also put in expectations of some daily work - journaling, math, reading, partly to ease transition to a more formal schooling situation some day, partly because that is just the way the world works.

[lhamo]

In my next life I want to come back as your daughter!!!!

+10,000

You have already established a great pattern and your kids are natural, self-driven learners. Give yourself a little break. I'm guessing you will be surprised at how much they do with a less structured approach.

lhamo

[Zoebird]

sounds great.

we would unschool the DS if we weren't so self absorbed. and he weren't so social.

[CathyA]

I didn't even know you were pregnant again. How do you handle so much?
As you were talking about all the things you do with your kids, I thought "that's so much better than the usual school!
Like Mighty Frugal said.........I'd like to be your daughter too!
Good luck with everything.

[sweetana3]

I think you will find that your kids will "school" themselves simply to keep their brains occupied. Have access to the books and some directions in your mind when they hit a bump and they should run themselves. Self motivated students dont need a lot of direction since they push themselves to learn.