Let's See Where This Adventure Will Take Us

Don't fall out of your seats but every since I started homeschooling and learning about all the different ways families homeschool the have been two things that have kind of kept coming back to me one is Waldorf style and the other is unschooling. So I have decided to squash a good bit of how and some of the whats or our homeschool as a trial run. I am not going full on unschooling so don't freak,lol. I guess you can say I am going to move to a more relaxed eclectic way of doing things. If you think about it I am sure some of you already do this in some ways. Do you cover every subject every day? No then you are in a since relaxed. Do you maybe let one subject be more child lead then you are some what relaxed. Anyway. I am throughing the schedule out to the trash and I am going to see where it leads us on this path. What is the worst that can happen? Next year we might have to work a tad bit harder. Ok I am fine with that. I am going to be spending a good bit on adding to the already large amount of education items in my home. Maybe more hands on, more movies, more crafts, that kind of thing. I just wondered if any of you have experienced moments were you question is they way you go about homeschooling the best fit. Have you wanted to just break free and see if maybe there is something to this unschooling. I am going to try and document this journey and the things I see them choosing to learn. How ever math will remain the same because if this fails it is the one area that will be the hardest to catch up on.


An Unschooling friends wrote this and I wanted to share.... We intentionally strive to allow our curriculum to be interest-driven; that is, based on the interests of each child. With our guidance, our children decide what, when and how they will learn. We want them to be active participants in their education, not passive receivers. It is our belief that through this process, their self-esteem will be preserved and they will be empowered to make good choices throughout their lives.
We have access to and knowledge of typical public school curricula and take those into consideration as we offer social, developmental, and educational opportunities to our children (which we do in abundance). We believe that the most developmentally appropriate curriculum for our children is one that is based on their current interests and needs. Because our children do not naturally divide the world into curriculum areas (for example, language arts, math, etc.), our curriculum is inherently integrated. The children may pursue interests for varying lengths of time (hours to months) and one interest often leads naturally to another.
For example, an interest expressed in the history of the state of Ohio might lead us to: read the World Book section on Ohio; read books on Ohio History and famous Ohioans available at the public library; discuss the authors, artists and artistic style of the books we read; visit major historic sites around the state; write letters to congressional representatives; draw maps of places we have been to in Ohio; go to metro park presentations on the history of Northwest Ohio; study the birds of Ohio; discuss the science and mathematics of building bridges across the Maumee River or skyscrapers in Toledo; and visit manufacturing plants in Ohio. From this might come other interests as diverse as air pollution or the Civil War.
When it is time for our children’s portfolios to be reviewed by a certified teacher, we will collect our many journals, photographs, scrapbooks, and projects that show all the interesting things the children have discovered and the skills they have acquired in the process. This is our course of study – it is an “after the fact curriculum.” This type of “curriculum” is inherently more useful for it provides an accurate record of what our children have actually achieved.  

If you are interested in unschooling I suggest you read some books by John Holt and Jogn Gotto as well as join a few unschooling groups . 

Here is a wonderful video to get a better idea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwIyy1Fi-4Q 


and another great video 

 .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4mC53vuPs&list=TLr-NTQC80AJI 

Again at this point I am not saying we are unschoolers I am going to say we are very relaxed eclectic homeschoolers. I am very excited to see where this adventure will lead my family and to compare the differences in homeschooling. At this point we have attended publicschool, online virtual publi school, traditional homeschool, and now we are going to attempt a relaxed more child lead, interest lead way of learning. I am a true believer that the world can be your classroom as are many homeschoolers so why not take it a step further and see where life leads us.