unschooling

Life and Learning at home

This last week, the little one has had a nasty cold which means we have spent a bit more time at home than usual. This is a good thing! To wake up and have the day just waiting and full of potential.

Every now and then I write down some of the things we’ve done in a day. Especially if I’m feeling the kids haven’t focused enough on academics or, the ever gnawing feeling at many a homeschool Mum, that they haven’t learned enough.

Today it was challenging to write that list, there was too much! I thought I’d share with you some of what we did to give an idea of an average day and to show you that even if you don’t feel like you’ve done a lot, it’s pretty amazing when you reflect back.

Slip knots. The little one learned to make a slip knot from her sister and is now happily slip knotting everything in sight!

The list is randomly arranged and outlines activities that have happened at home today.

Knitting project, piano practice, music reading (the 2 older girls are teaching themselves from a book), baking, garden work and planning, animal care and lots of animal hugs, pats and trick teaching, World War II history, Ancient history, writing practice, Kahn academy, online physics game, singing practice, reading novels in bed, English, spelling and phonics, science – a lesson on reptiles and a fun activity that involved the taping of fingers to create webbed feet, prayer and religious education, library visit, grocery shopping where the girls used the self checkout to purchase, free play, drawing, movie watching, and chores.

And how could I not mention standing on your head? There are some in our family who must be upside down for at least a part of the day!

Gallipoli study

by Kelly 3 Comments

We’ve been studying Gallipoli all together over the last week or two. I was never interested in Australian History at school (oh, those boring text books!!) but now, not only do I find it very interesting, I think that, as an Australian, it’s my duty to know the history of this great country.

The Australian War Memorial website has some great information and in particular, this page about the food that soldiers would have eaten at Gallipoli provided us with inspiration to hold our own Gallipoli lunch.

As you can see, the younger ones weren’t too pleased with my soldier’s meal of rice, Spam, hard tack and jam. For drinks we had the choice of water, milk, cocoa and tea – all with powdered, not fresh milk. My littlest one declared that she definitely does not like soldier’s food!

But they were pretty good sports about the whole thing (except aforementioned little one) and ate their soldier’s meals. We imagined how grateful the troops would have been for a meal like this after a hard day of battle and misery.

In addition to researching with some library books we also watched a Gallipoli documentary on Youtube which was informative. Please note, there are images of corpses on the battlefield in this video – although they are in black and white and not too graphic they could be upsetting to some viewers.

I call our study a complete success and appropriate for each of us, regardless of age. My next topic idea is the Early Settlers with a bit of a focus on the gold rush. If it all goes well I plan to surprise the children with a visit to Sovereign Hill as none of them have been there before.

If you’re looking for ideas for study topics or ideas to share with your children I highly recommend you head over to Sue’s blog- Stories of an Unschooling Family where you will find a plethora of blog posts and many podcasts related to unschooling. Sue’s blog is a real inspiration to me.

But that’s not learning!

by Kelly 1 Comment

February has been a good month for us. My husband has been on leave from work and we have travelled interstate twice to favourite beach locations to stay.

We made a conscious decision to change our way of homeschooling this year, for many reasons but mostly because leaning strongly towards an unschooling approach felt right. One of the major concerns people have about unschooling is how on earth children are going to learn if they are not immersed in daily. formal lessons. I haven’t quite figured that out yet either, but I do know one thing – the children are learning. Constantly, in so many ways. Lets have a look at some of the learning opportunities they have had over the last month.

When we were on our beach holidays they observed the tides daily, saw a goanna dragging a shark head up the beach and into the bush (now that was cool!), learned more about petrol and mileage in our extensive car travels, witnessed the arranging and paying of accommodation, noted gardens and the different varieties of plants that grow in coastal regions, went fishing and walking. A visit to a local library presented us with storybooks by aboriginals and gave us more insight into their culture. Our oldest son was able to navigate one of the towns on his own – something he is never able to do here in suburbia due to safety issues. All these experiences instigated much discussion and dialogue.

At home, one daughter was painting a lion on a large piece of paper using the easel. She called me over to show that she had been mixing colours on the palette. I marvelled that she had made such a beautiful bright purple without the use of blue. This led to a discussion about colour theory.

Another daughter spends hours a day reading, writing stories and drawing – these are her passions. She can write for hours on her own, calling out occasionally to check the spelling or meaning of a word.

We have a new puppy! This has inspired lots of internet searching and video watching on animal care, handling and training.

I’ve been suffering with back pain more than usual, requiring a lot of rest time. For the children this has meant more input into running the house and helping.

We have also been preparing for Lent which starts tomorrow. Lent themed colouring sheets and activities as well as discussions and plans for all of us have been common.

2 of the children have been seized with garden fever, and with no help or input from adults, they have potted seeds and marked out small plots in our garden for themselves for experimentation.

I could easily go on and on about what the children do each day but really there is too much to document and every thing they do teaches them something. Learning opportunities are endless when your life is not filled up with unnecessary stuff – time and freedom are on your side and there is so, so many possibilities!

Seamstress in the making..

by Kelly 4 Comments

Gem (my 8 year old) made her first skirt! I call it the awesome skirt, can you see why? 🙂

This girls is a big maker (gosh, where did she get that from?) and constantly has something on the go, usually a little wool felt stitchery project of her own design. But she hasn’t made herself any clothing before.

We drafted a pattern together based on the Crafty Mamas hoody skirt. She chose to have a stretchy knit skirt rather than a woven (like Mum wears). So, we started with a white Stella base.

She did most of the sewing on the machine herself, with my guidance. Except the waistband, that’s the tricky part, so I did that for her. The waistband is also made of Stella, so it’s one of those gorgeously comfortable skirts – no elastic.

Next, she had her first experience with dyes. After some discussion and planning, I showed her how to mark and tie the skirt, then apply the colours to get the effect she wanted. She was amazed to see the colours run into each other and mix, creating new colours. I don’t think she understood much of the dye process before, you need to actually do it and see it in action.

After curing overnight (what a painful wait for a young lady!) we cut the ties and rinsed. Then the awesomeness of the colours and patterns was revealed. The look on her face when she realised what she had created was priceless.

Here is another recent project she came up with as a surprise for me. It’s the best little pincushion I’ve ever used! She embroidered “Ma” at the top and used a polymer clay button I made ages ago.

There is only one downside to all this. I think I’m going to have to hide my fabric stash 🙂