So we’re a week into this unschooling thing, and I love it already. No pressure about learning objectives, covering a specified number of pages or reviewing particular subjects. Instead, we’ve been spending more time together and talking more freely about a variety of things. In the last week, we’ve had the following educational opportunities:
* Discussing synonyms, antonyms, homonyms and homophones while shopping at the grocery store (really)
* How to play basketball – Roo spends his free time now throwing a rubber ball and shouting Bah-be-dall! We did the Chuck E. Cheese thing as a family last Thursday and Roo watched as Daddy, me, Tigger and Pooh played the Sure Shot game. I guess he picked up a few techniques from watching us.
* Leaves, acorns, trees and fall – We walked around our front yard and looked at the natural objects in it. We discovered that the garden rocks near the house were cold while the garden rocks in the yard were hot. Tigger asked why that was and Daddy told her it was because the rocks near the house were in the shade. That led to a discussion about how the sun keeps things warm. We also discovered that acorns ripen after they fall, starting out green and gradually turning black on in the outside and inside. After all, they are the fruit of an oak tree….
* Pooh asks us to “write” almost everyday. We spent a morning last week coloring a giant Tweety coloring book and he insisted that he was writing on his page. Interestingly, we had two sets of crayons and Roo spent his time matching up the similar colors. He would hold both yellows, then both blacks, then both reds, etc. He would even get fussy if we tried to take one away. Seems like he’s understanding alike and different already.
* Park day with our homeschool group – That’s not really unschooling, but the kids like it and they get to be around other littles, so that works for us.
We’re considering enrolling Tigger in ballet and gymnastics in January. She sprained her ankle a couple of weeks ago and hopefully that will help her to learn movement and balance. But, in the meantime, we’re taking it slow and easy and seeing where we end up.