Our Homeschooling Journey Has Gone Through Some Major Changes This Year and I Couldn't Be Happier
Our homeschooling journey has gone through some major changes this year and I couldn't be happier about it.
Last spring, I decided what we were doing just wasn't working for our family anymore. We were in a rut. When it was time for school, I was hearing sighs and complaints and it just wasn't what I envisioned for our homeschool life.
So, we stopped everything we were doing and started our summer early.
Also, at the time I was feeling a strong desire to explore unschooling. According to Maria Taviano's An Unschooling Manifesto, unschooling is:
Unschooling: student-led, interest-driven, mostly-fun, super-meaningful education that happens at home (and/or any other place along the way). Parents and other adults are valuable facilitators, but instead of lecturing, they’re sharing from experience and often learning right alongside the kiddos. There’s no set curriculum, no list of things the kids need to know, no replication of school at la casa. Creativity and innovation and community (and all the important stuff in life) are encouraged and nurtured. Kids are celebrated for who God created them to be and inspired to become the very best grown-up version of that unique and amazing person. Unschooling families think school cramps their style; childhood’s too short to spend cooped up in a classroom; and learning happens best in the context of real life. And real life starts right this very minute.
Sounds pretty great, right? Of course, it wasn't easy at first, and for us it was more of deschooling than unschooling. I had to take a step back and relearn what learning actually is at it's core. And let me tell you , that was not easy! Especially for someone who was public schooled. I read books about unschooling all summer and watched my children. Once they got bored I could see their interests growing. I watched my, always bored with what I thought was an interesting lesson child, actually want to learn about things and asking questions.
I decided my top two homeschool goals were:
1. That my children follow God's lead in their lives and part of that is their interests and growing in what they are called to do.
2. That they have a love of learning.
September came and went, and we were still on our deschooling/unschooling exploration. My oldest son (14) asked to take online classes for his first year of high school (how is my baby in high school!???) so I signed him up.
Then about a month ago my hubby expressed that he wanted them practicing math facts daily and doing some sort of writing practice. Admittedly, I still stressed out about them not regularly practicing math, even though I knew they were getting math through life experiences. After discussing everything with him, I decided that I wanted to still do our interest led learning, we just needed some structure and math practice added in.
I decided to try out the Funschooling journals by The Thinking Tree. My darling son #2 (Creative Genius) had asked for their Homeschooling with Minecraft journal over the summer and really liked it, so I started looking at all of their journals. I would describe it as a fun and interesting mix of Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, Interest Led styles, which is actually perfect for us, because I enjoy the literature and gentle learning from the Charlotte Mason approach and the interest led learning to follow each of my children's interests. My hubby is happy seeing them practicing math and writing in the journals and I'm absolutely loving that we are still interest led learning but with structure.
Last spring, I decided what we were doing just wasn't working for our family anymore. We were in a rut. When it was time for school, I was hearing sighs and complaints and it just wasn't what I envisioned for our homeschool life.
So, we stopped everything we were doing and started our summer early.
Also, at the time I was feeling a strong desire to explore unschooling. According to Maria Taviano's An Unschooling Manifesto, unschooling is:
Unschooling: student-led, interest-driven, mostly-fun, super-meaningful education that happens at home (and/or any other place along the way). Parents and other adults are valuable facilitators, but instead of lecturing, they’re sharing from experience and often learning right alongside the kiddos. There’s no set curriculum, no list of things the kids need to know, no replication of school at la casa. Creativity and innovation and community (and all the important stuff in life) are encouraged and nurtured. Kids are celebrated for who God created them to be and inspired to become the very best grown-up version of that unique and amazing person. Unschooling families think school cramps their style; childhood’s too short to spend cooped up in a classroom; and learning happens best in the context of real life. And real life starts right this very minute.
Sounds pretty great, right? Of course, it wasn't easy at first, and for us it was more of deschooling than unschooling. I had to take a step back and relearn what learning actually is at it's core. And let me tell you , that was not easy! Especially for someone who was public schooled. I read books about unschooling all summer and watched my children. Once they got bored I could see their interests growing. I watched my, always bored with what I thought was an interesting lesson child, actually want to learn about things and asking questions.
I decided my top two homeschool goals were:
1. That my children follow God's lead in their lives and part of that is their interests and growing in what they are called to do.
2. That they have a love of learning.
September came and went, and we were still on our deschooling/unschooling exploration. My oldest son (14) asked to take online classes for his first year of high school (how is my baby in high school!???) so I signed him up.
Then about a month ago my hubby expressed that he wanted them practicing math facts daily and doing some sort of writing practice. Admittedly, I still stressed out about them not regularly practicing math, even though I knew they were getting math through life experiences. After discussing everything with him, I decided that I wanted to still do our interest led learning, we just needed some structure and math practice added in.
I decided to try out the Funschooling journals by The Thinking Tree. My darling son #2 (Creative Genius) had asked for their Homeschooling with Minecraft journal over the summer and really liked it, so I started looking at all of their journals. I would describe it as a fun and interesting mix of Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, Interest Led styles, which is actually perfect for us, because I enjoy the literature and gentle learning from the Charlotte Mason approach and the interest led learning to follow each of my children's interests. My hubby is happy seeing them practicing math and writing in the journals and I'm absolutely loving that we are still interest led learning but with structure.
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