Thursday, July 12, 2012

Summer Child Led Unschooling


This is my first summer after my first year of being serious about homeschool.  I love educating myself and my children and I can't just stop because its summer!  Through the summer we are doing our best to read aloud consistently and also have my 5 year old read to me.  We are currently reading 2 chapter books, one of which is Peter Pan. SO fun to read! 



The other book I am reading (only to my 5 year old) is about a brother and sister that live in tornado country.  My husband is into watching a show called Storm Chasers, and the kids have seen parts of many episodes, AND my sister and her family just moved to Oklahoma City, so we decided to learn about tornadoes.  We picked out a bunch of tornado books at the library and I plan to do a tornado with them in a 2 liter bottle probably next week for a little nature based science.  Lucky enough, one of my friends has been in a tornado and wanted to be a storm chaser, so she told them about her experience at lunch.  So cool!



The kids and I were at a friend's house the other day and we saw them doing math with jelly beans as manipulatives.  The only way they get candy at their house is if they do some math.  The kids ran up to their Mom, while playing with friends, and said, "Mom!  Can we do some math!?"  Well that excitement convinced me; we are copying them.  Today I bought some gummy bears and some jelly beans that will only come out for math.  I would LOVE for Math to become an exciting word at my house like it is at theirs.

I love the free form of the summer and I love getting a taste of unschooling.  Yum!


P.S.  This next year my "Superman" will be starting his 1st grade curriculum, and "Spiderman" will be starting Kindergarten.  I like the organization of using a curriculum during the school year, although I'm not the most consistent person ever.  My plan for next year is to plan in a week break like every month and a half or so, so that I still feel FREE.