It's our first year hs'ing and we only bought curriculum for math because I wanted to be more relaxed. I thought the Charlotte Mason method would work for us and have been trying it for a while, but ds still says school is boring and really does not enjoy it. I really want him to enjoy learning... long story short, I'm flexible enough to say scrap it; lets try unschooling. I've been trying to wrap my mind around it though. I'm a planner and want to have something to show for our time. So how do unschoolers keep track of or document what the children learn? What do you do when the child says he doesn't want to learn anything? I am going to require him to read and do math (boring stuff) everyday and maybe some phonics (which he actually likes), but then I guess it's up to him?
Some of my closest friends are unschoolers. Most of them keep a camera handy all the time and get pictures of all the projects they do, field trips they take, and etc. Then they make an album or scrapbook of their learning journey. By having the kids help make it they also tend to have yet another learning experience that is fun. By making albums and journaling what they choose to work on each day they all seem to end up with great records. Good luck!
My boy is as old as yours (Bo is only 3), but I consider us Unschoolers. I go to IXL.com for math and do 20 free problems everyday, and then Starfall.com and he gets to choose what we do there, and then we mess around the rest of the day! We might go outside with our magnifying glass and look at things, take a walk and observe. We to a TON of art things around here: art eisel outside ot paint/color/draw the changing season, leaf rubbings, collages, etc. I agree, a camera is what you will need, and a composition notebook for journaling everyday.
Yup camera. I would say I am ecclectic. And some scrapbooking, nature journals, lapbooking may be something to try to. Educational videos/tv shows are also great. And talking about the world we live in a lot is also great. Why things are the way they are and so on. And if you just started realize it may be your son resisting the idea of school because he thought homeschool would be immensely different. I started with my son last year at six and he was the same. I let it go for a few months and just made more projects with him and read a lot and experimented a lot. Maybe you can try your curriculum in a couple of months again if you feel the need. That's the beauty of homeschool flexibility
Thanks for the ideas! Keeping a journal and scrap book are simple enough; I love scrapbooking anyway. Maybe we'll just go out and explore for a couple weeks and see if he developes an interest in anything. I though homeschool would be different too, but I think the planner in me took control and made it school at home. That was not my original intention and neither one of us is happy with it. So... we'll try these great suggestions and keep the camera handy!
Wow, I have been tempted to do this. The crazy thing is in a lot of ways my son would be great in this. He has an intense interests in weapons and wars and history. All that could lead to knowledge in so many things. I just haven't been able to let go completely. I have relaxed a lot though. I would say watch for anything that is learning. A lot of what we do every day is learning. If he helps you cook-learning. If he is reading (whatever) - learning. You might begin to see that he is learning science by catching tadpoles or bugs. I would also suggest a trip to the library or starting a collection of books you can have on hand for interests that pop up.
I have really wanted to try this method too. I guess I worry about math when they get to high school level. It would be really fun to try for a while just to see how it works. I'm just not sure my youngest would ever bother doing anything!
Funny you should say that... I told my ds that we aren't "doing school" next week, but that he had to decide on something to do with his time. He says he wants to study Star Wars movies. LOL I said ok... but you have to be able to present to Daddy and me what you learned from the movies. He said he'd write in his journal about them. So we'll see how it goes.
I was just thinking today that I need to do a blog post on my record keeping! Now I HAVE to so you can see! LOL We are not radical unschoolers, hubby won't allow it but I'm as unschool as he will allow. Has your son spent time in PS? I hear all the time "I could never do that, my kid would do nothing but play video games all day" Well, so would my son-when he was stressed out in PS all day. Once his life changed and was more relaxed though, he rarely plays video games anymore. Maybe 2-3 days a week now for maybe 30 minutes is all he WANTS to play video games now. I use our blog as part of our records of school. http://childledhomeschool.com/ Then I have a teacher planning book, I don't use it for planning in advance, but rather recording AFTER we do it. I am REALLY bad about keeping records though LOL Cause I don't HAVE to in my state. But I do have a reading list form and a tv/play/video form-never really use either one though LOL I'm just not much of a structure type of gal LOL So it's hard for me. I do fairly well at keeping up the planning book in spurts though LOL That's all hubby wants, so I'm better at keeping it up than the added forms... My blog is my fav record keeper though-cause it has photos! And videos! Actually-I need to redo my curriculum page to, cause since Aug-a lot has changed. We do very few math worksheets now, we use mostly manipulatives for math now.
My son was in public school through 1st grade. We started limiting screen time (for everyone in the family) today, but then we didn't do school like we normally would today either. We're kind of experimenting now. I checked out your blog and really like it! I think a scheduler like you have would be a good option for me because it breaks it down by subject instead of just having everything all mixed up. Lots of good stuff there! Thanks!
I fairly sure I got that at Staples. It was only like $4. Do you have a staples near by? I love that it totally blank so I can fill in the dates (which I feel less bad about when I skip documenting for a week or two LOL) and the subjects. We experimented a bit too before we found a routine and approach that works for us. Come January, we're dropping out co-op classes, so I'm a bit nervous as to how that will work for us...not so much from my end, but from hubby's end as he's not as unschool as me though he is okay with us dropping co-op...so we shall see...
