We Are Unschoolers, Finally!

Well, this year we took a further giant step, towards unschooling. This textbook oriented mama is nervous and there are some decidedly anti-unschooling things we're doing (mostly for my benefit) but it was most all child-led decisions. I'm excited and terrified these decisions will result in my child living with me forever! Lol

Dd, my last child at home, has entered a 10th grade of learning. We've had a few long discussions about what she wants to be/do and how she is going to get there. Granted, those decisions change often; the culinary school in England idea had been put on the back burner. And I was so looking forward to moving to England with her! Ha She is wanting to go to art school. But because of some classes she's involved in at church, her heart is also leading her towards working with children; being either an art teacher or a children's pastor. Neither occupation I'd wish on anyone. So trying, so committed, so fraught with hardships and politics sometimes. But God knows right where he wants to use her for his glory and we just need to pray and facilitate.

For those who are thinking about unschooling, let me put a few myths to rest. Unschooling doesn't mean letting your child run nilly willy through the forest, naked and dirty. Unless that is what you're okay with! It doesn't mean they spend every waking hour in front of a computer or tv, vegged out on Judge Judy and My Little Pony reruns. For each family it will look different but for the most part, unschooling means the opposite of real school. At least to me, hence the 'un' attached.

Wikipedia defines it as, 'An educational method and philosophy that rejects compulsory school as a primary means for learning. Unschoolers learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, internships and work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors and social interaction. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, believing that the more personal learning is, the more meaningful, well understood and therefore useful it is to the child. While courses make occasionally be taken, unschooling questions the usefulness of standard curricula, conventional grading methods, and other features of traditional schooling and maximizing the education of each unique child.'

I was afraid of the unschool 'label' until I read this definition and a whole pile of unschooling books (I'll make a list of my favorites to share.) This is so us! She is doing things she wants, she's also taking classes she wants and we're doing some things together as well. This year has been much more relaxed. Okay, for this hermit mama who likes to stay home, it's been a bit of an adjustment since a lot of her interests take us out of the house. But I'm dealing. ;)

This is what unschooling looks like for us. And I'll tell you some about each thing and I'll group them according to traditional subjects:

Language: Dd is writing a book. Hoping to edit in spring and see about publishing. She is also working her way through a few Analogies logic books which I requested because it will help her on the PSAT/ACT/SAT, whichever she decides to take. She gathers new words from 'Word of the Day' app, Webster dictionary and what she's reading at the time. She tries to use the new words in her writing. She researches new things like analogies, metaphors, gerunds and uses in her writing. We play scrabble.

Reading: She is rereading the Lightning Thief series (there's 2 sets), is currently elbow deep in Les Miserables' and on the pile of 'to read' are Robinson Crusoe, The Outlaws of Sherwood, Jane Eyre, The Pickwick Papers and Count of Monte Cristo to name a few. I'm sure The Hobbit will reappear in December to get her ready for the final installment movie. 'No Fear' Shakespeare books are also favs.

Math: Here is her only requirement from me. I asked her to study to take the PSAT/ACT/SAT sometime this year. Just in case she does want to go to college sometime, she needs a testing score to shut the colleges up. She agreed and studies a few times weekly on Kahn Academy and in an SAT book. If she ever wants more formal study, I've already purchased and have waiting the Saxon Advance Math set.

Science: Her only want for science was to 'blow things up'. I told her that's Chemistry and before we use our kit to blow things up we might want to go through the book to make sure we don't blow US up. So 3x a week we read through the Apologia Chemistry book, discussing what we read and doing any problems out loud. If she can answer all my questions, we call it good. I don't test. We're enjoying that. So far she's too lazy to get the chemistry kit out and figure it out so this might be all we do. I may arrange a tour of some Chemistry lab in the area or visit a Chem lecture/lab class at a local college one day. She talks sometimes about going to school to do pyrotechnics which I told her is engineering and she will need to brush up on Science and Math. It's in the back of her mind, back burner dream for right now. We also got chicks this year, yes we finally did. So chicken learning and care is high on our science priority list. Pretty soon getting them and the coop ready for winter will be our next task.

Social Studies/History: This subject is a mixed bag and we're still formulating. I count most any volunteer work for the community under social studies. She volunteers at the Ronald McDonald house twice a month for 4 hours each time with her grandma, cooking, baking, organizing, helping in the office, gardening. She also volunteers in the children's department at church twice a month 1 1/2 hrs each time, teaching the lessons. She does volunteer at the Harvesters garden (they provide food for those who have little) downtown twice a a month with grandma and they learn what's what from a Master Gardener, so that drops under Science in my opinion. We also started Sonlight's 'History of the Christian Church' curriculum which covers all of history really. She loves history so she agreed to this. The biblical portion had 4-5 books she was having to read out of each day and it got overwhelming so we're only doing a couple at a time right now. We're reading through Westminster Shorter Catechism 3x a week, really defining what we believe. She's also reading More Than A Carpenter right now. She requested to study up on Ancient Greece and Rome so we got a few books from the library but Great Courses also has a college lecture series called 'Classical Archeology of Ancient Greece and Rome' which she is watching. She loves it. In fact she draws or drags out her playmobil while she listens.

*** As you can see, this is specifically tailored to my un-high schooler. It will look different for everyone. My post is getting mucho long so I'll share our 'non-core' subjects in the next post. Unschoolers unite!

Posted with Love from Contessa

Planning, Boiling and Waiting...

HOMESCHOOL UPDATE:

Homeschool planning is in full swing. And to make matters more immediate, I decided to just jump in, without so much as planning one day. No really. The only reason I did this was because I was insane. Just kidding. But we have a friend whose daughter is beginning the Apologia General Science like we will be using this year and they started it last week. We thought it might be fun to try to keep pace and occasionally do experiments together. So this is why we find ourselves immersed in homeschooling. In July. In the middle of homeschool piles. In the middle of a heat wave. What was I thinking? Heat stroke probably.

Monday we had our first day. No problem on the science. Latin we reviewed since we haven't done any for months and we're in the middle of the Latin for Children book A. Math, we did review times table sheets and a Saxon Placement test to see what level we should be at. For English a friend loaned me a McDougal English program. Basically a public school's textbook. We jumped right in with minimal complaining. I also printed spelling lists from online although we didn't get to any of those.

Tuesday rolls around and I'm sick and we're both tired. Just great, on our 2nd day back to homeschool. So we read. All day. We started The Hobbit last fall but never finished it. I picked up The Lord of the Rings trilogy on tape and in 3 books at a garage sale so we plan to read those soon. Time to finish Hobbit first. And here is what I realized on our 2nd day of homeschooling. I don't want to shove textbooks at my child just to make sure we have 'something' to cover a subject. I don't want to have it all planned out. I want to be free to explore, to try out new things, to spend a whole day reading if I feel like it!  I like our science program, daughter needs experience with textbooks a bit if she is ever going to go to college (you know the backwards way they learn there, right?!) Latin is going okay, but its mostly chanting and fun things. I'm okay with that. I don't want to use a stale ole' English program or generic spelling lists from online. I realized while we were reading Hobbit, there were words we both didn't know. We started a list. Those definitions will have so much more meaning because we can apply them to what we've read. I like that. I have no plan for history yet. I keep looking at Sonlight's Core 100 just for the basic fact that it is all about reading, and is similar to a Charlotte Mason style of learning. We can do dictation and narration from the readings. We'll read up and discuss current events from magazines such as The Economist, Time and Newsweek. We don't have to be entrenched in boring ole' textbooks. Don't ask me what I'm planning on doing for math. Winging it???

Boy, oh boy. I can foresee an interesting year if I'm already feeling this way. Check back with me in a few months to make sure I haven't slipped back into textbook mode after I panic about whether we're learning enough or not. I'm praying that doesn't happen!  

* This homeschool update is linked to Back to (Home) School 2011. *

GARDEN UPDATE:

It's been 2 weeks of scorching hot heat. It's a miracle if I get out to water the garden and don't die from heat and mosquito bites. Basically it's so hot out, I'm surprised plants aren't boiling! But watering hasn't seemed to matter. Our wonderful plot of squash looks like a meteor landed in the middle of it. I guess it can't take the heat. It's still producing but it seems only a matter of time. 

We have, however had a few good points! The okra is FINALLY starting to bud! It is the slowest growing plant I've ever seen! But it's making up for lost time. See the adorable buds. I can't wait to have some!

The tomato plants look like Brer Rabbit's brer patch but they are still producing green tomatoes. This week I found one adorable red tomato! Yay! Finally. I'm counting on many more. I think they like this heat. I glad someone/thing does. All in all, the garden this year has been 'okay'. We've harvested some things but not as much as I had hoped. I have canning supplies all primed and ready but no use for them yet. We plan to do a fall planting soon. Maybe mid August? Need to read up on that. I also plan to Lasagna garden so the beds are ready for next year. All in all its been a good learning experience. I'm thinking we need to look into a watering system as well, maybe underground? We'll see...

*This garden update is linked to Tuesday Garden Party and Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. *

CHICKENS UPDATE:

We're in waiting mode. We're 13 days into the 21 days for our incubating eggs. So far so good. The temperature in our homemade incubator is doing pretty well. We've candled the eggs twice. First time we couldn't see anything, so hard with brown eggs. We candled on Monday as well and saw these. 

Don't know if they mean chicks or boiled eggs. We'll candle again on Monday August 1st, our 18th day and then we go into lockdown with hopeful hatchings on August 4th. Check back for an update!

Also, the other day we drove past a guy putting this at the end of his driveway.

We stopped and asked if it was trash, it was, so we excitedly offered to come back with a truck for it. FREE! Doesn't it look like a start to a great coop?! Our backyard is filled with scrap woods and paneling. Can't wait to get started creating a coop-de-ville!

This Week's Gardening...

Last week we only had one day that dipped below 95. This week the forecast is for 100's all week. Guess where I am? Yup. Inside. Guess where I'm not. Yup, the garden. I do go out and water, and the family picks various produce but we're just not spending the time outside, lest we be cooked to death. Our pledge/goal is to work outside a couple nights this week, ie: after 8 pm where hopefully God's fan will help us work cooler. We'll see.

(linked up to Tuesday Garden Party and Hip Homeschool Hop.)

In the mean time, we're growing sweet potatoes. Yes, I know they take 100 days (November 1st!) Yes, I know I'm behind and too late and foolish. I don't care.  Someone posted this video on Facebook last week and I couldn't quit thinking about it.

So when we stopped into Trader Joes this past weekend, I grabbed up a bag of organic sweet potatoes and I'm determined to make them my own! We'll grow them inside for a few weeks until they vine and then my goal is to plant them in 5 gallon white paint buckets. This way, when October rolls around and we can potentially have some freezes, I can pull all the buckets in the house, into the dining room to line the wall under the window for the last few weeks of growing. I'm determined. Can you tell?

I had the pre-teen watch the video and explained about pesticides and how they can harm us. She helped me fill jars (given to me for canning by hubby's boss. So thankful.) with water and stick toothpicks in the sides. I put them up on top of the hutch, hoping the cat doesn't find them. He's awfully curious and will want to pull them all out!

Chicken update: We've had a couple crackages. We're down to 10 eggs now. We tried candling on Sunday night but couldn't see anything. I think we'll wait until next Sunday (at 10 days) or maybe even the next Friday before we candle again. We're just nervous Nelllies, being that this is our first time hatching. Crossing fingers.

Okay, back to planning our homeschool. An update on that coming soon...

They're Heeeerrrreeee!!!

 

Talkin' about chickens here. Okay, not chickens really, but fertilized eggs. We decided to go a different route on our chicken farming adventure. And what better homeschool learning than raising your chickens from scratch!

I ordered eggs last week and they arrived yesterday. I spent all the time inbetween, building our very own incubator (you can see the progression of hits and misses of building it here). The eggs are resting comfortably in said incubator, being turned every 5 hours or so. 

There is so much to learn about chickens, and eggs and incubating and such. So I joined the forum boards at Backyard Chickens. Everyone there is so helpful! I feel like I might actually be able to do this endeavor! My main goal is not to kill the chicks! lol  We have a mix of chickens: Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, Easter Eggers (blue/green eggs!) and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. Should be fun.

Pre-teen comes home from camp today and I can't wait for her to see them. Now I need to do something homeschool-ish and teach her about chickens, eggs and such. Any suggestions on a unit study or something to use? She's going into 7th grade so I want it to be age appropriate if possible.

Anyway, just had to share!

Chicken House & Mealworms for Dinner

 (chicken house model, imagine a chicken wire part underneath)

Last night the little one and I sat down and perused these chicken trailers. We found quite a few that we liked but wanted to make out own. Pulling out scissors, cardstock and pencils we worked on making a model. 

(see the roosting boxes section planned?)

We still have a ways to go because I need to plan out double walls and what I need for those since we'll be insulating in between for winter warmth. 

Here's a pic of the plans for cutting pieces out of a sheet of paneling. Thankfully we have two we pulled off walls in the teen's room but we'll still buy two to use on the inside (since we're doubling the wood for insulated walls.) 

The little one drew a picture of what she thought it should look like. I've drafted a bit over it and I've kept a tally of measurements and am working on what pieces we need to cut for the supports of it. We're getting real technical here! lol  Can't wait until we actually build the darn thing!

Speaking of chickens...
I just joined the very informative Backyard Chicken Forum boards. Oh my goodness. I could stay on those boards forever. So much to learn! So much I did not know! 

For instance, chickens like mealworms. They're expecially good to have in the winter when the chickens can't find worms. We grew a few for a very short time while studying bugs one year in homeschool (they grow into beetles). I think its been about 3 years? Anyway, I found out that you can continually grown them and freeze the larvae to have chicken feed in the winter. Who knew! I plan to do this, although my family is going to balk at having frozen worms right up against their frozen veggies, meat and fruits in the freezer. I better start praying for a separate upright freezer! lol

Mealworm Links
Live Mealworms

Mealworms - Grow Your Own

Raising Mealworms

Mealworm Breeding Project (Youtube)

I'm also learning about all the different things you can feed your chickens: cucumbers, and kale, lettuce, and cheese. Did you know they'll eat yogurt and it's really good for them? They also like melons, celery tops, pumpkins and bananas. Who knew that either? I expect if I keep researching, we probably wouldn't have to buy much feed for them at all.

Feeding Chickens Links
Chicken Feed - An Introduction
Chicken Treats chart
How To Feed Chickens 
Grass Fed Chickens? 
Feeding Chickens 

I'm off to do normal things like dishes and laundry, cutting up and freezing peachs (and making a peach cobbler!) and quit dreaming of little chickens in my backyard for now. The little one is playing with Playmobil and listening to a dramatized version of the Chronicles of Narnia books. Summer homeschooling at its best!

Un-Chicken Update

Yes, I know. We are still chicken-deficient. I have wonderful excuses; I was out of town on and off for two months, hubby redid the floors and all extra stuff got moved to the basement where we planned to house the new chicks, we've had other problems to take care of,  it's been hot...

(my mom's friend has chickens)

But truth be known, we just haven't gone to get any chicks. Finding the exact breeds we want locally has proved not as easy as we would think. Plus, the little one wants to see the baby chicks grow up but I'm getting to the point in my thinking that I might want pullets that are about ready to lay. We could use some free food about now. As I see it, if we get chicks, they won't start laying for another 6 months. We're talking December. Eggs for Christmas. That seems like a long time away! Then, to add insult to injury, if they come into maturity (ie: 5-6 months old) during the winter months, they won't start laying until spring. What's up with that?! 

I've read if you provide a light source in their winter home that stays on longer than the sun is out, like it is summer, they will continue to lay. All this information and I'm confuddled as to what I should do. I think the best thing to do is to start building a coop. And a winter coop as well. Then, after I've felt like we've committed well enough by building the coops, I will feel happy to get the chicks. The other idea was to get a couple pullets and a couple chicks. Although I'm not so sure the pullets won't start pecking the chicks to death. Anyone know?

(I want my chickens to be helpful like these!)

I found this wonderful advice today at 2nd Generation of Homeschooling, for if ever I get me some chickens; "We rake the fall leaves from our many trees into a one-foot pile in the chicken run. When the leftovers from our kitchen (rinds, peels, scraps, scrapings, etc.) and chicken scratch are thrown into the run for the chickens to eat, the chickens scratch around, trampling and tearing apart the leaves, which mixes with their manure. After a few weeks, the one-foot pile is just an inch or so high and it is raked out and into our compost bin for use in the garden in the spring! This is wonderful fertilizer that we make for free."

See? Something else for free! Poop!

Fizzle Fizzle Crash Boom Boom

Where has the time gone? You'd think I ran off to my homeschool conference in the beginning of April and never returned! Boy life has been busy.  I'll try to sum up what has been shakin' , what's been going on in the past few weeks with our garden, our homeschool, places we've been, things we've learned, etc... (Linking this to this week's Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up and the Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge.)

Homeschool Conference - Every year I go, there is so much to learn. Every year I'm surprised and something speaks to me. This year I was surprised to find the classes that spoke to my heart the most were the ones that talked about how we are called to homeschool, Convictional Faith, another on raising Godly children in a pagan world and one more on strong knit family units.  I was blown away by some of the ideas. I think my focus has always been the teaching or curriculum classes. This year I was blessed by others.

Cruise - I ran off on a cruise with my mother on April 15th. I dragged another homeschool mom with us and we traveled around the Caribbean for 8 days. Oh to be able to do that all the time! But I'm thankful for the free cruise as I could probably never afford it otherwise. The countries I visited took my breath away. You can see my posts with pics here: Caribbean Cruise on my other blog.While I was gone the little one was homeschooled by the other mom's husband. Surprisingly the little one completed everything!

Garden - The garden has had its problems. Seeds we potted, most wilted and died. Seeds in the garden, only half came up (you can see some blank spots in the pic). We've replanted and are seeing more growth. We need to buy tomato plants. I've learned that while going organic is a nice idea, keeping bugs and animals away is another story (still being organic though.) Hubby put up a rabbit fence because our rabbit neighbors thought the plants were their own breakfast buffet. All the rain we've been having has made it a very stress free garden so far with no watering. Time to weed today though. We've been eating lettuce, spinach and kale left and right because there is so much of it. In fact, the other morning I woke up thinking about the wilting bowl of the three in the fridge so I looked up a recipe for a smoothie I could make. Here is what I found: Lettuce Smoothie and it was good! I modified it and used strawberries, blueberries, 1/2 a banana, splenda and 2 big handfuls of the lettuce mix.

Road Trip - A couple weeks ago the child and I went on an impromptu road trip with mom to Atlanta. We spent 10 days in their house they still haven't sold. Fixed up several things and put it back on the market. We also took in the new Coca-Cola Museum and the Atlanta Aquarium. Since they don't live there, there was no TV or internet. We visited the library several times and read many books. I really liked that slow pace. I need to do that more. I've been reading my way through books that continue the Sherlock Holmes series: The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I recommend it highly. The child was interested in reading Sherlock Holmes but much of it is still older reading so the librarian found us a kid's Sherlock Holmes series that she is enjoying: Enola Holmes Mystery series. 

Forgot to mention we drove through the Memphis area and saw the devastating flooding. At one point in Alabama (near Birmingham I think?) we came over the hill and stumbled upon the path of where a tornado had ripped through. You know, you see it on TV and are stunned but it's even more shocking in real life. We took a few pictures. Just amazing the power of the wind. Praying for both those areas.

Chicken Update - Unfortunately we have not bought our chicks yet. It is still on our horizon but seeing as we've been out of town off and on for 2 months, it really wasn't the best time. We plan to be home all summer so we will get them soon. On our road trip we were driving down the highway in Arkansas and at a light saw chicken trailers! We immediately pulled into this little craft shop that also sold sheds. They had one trailer. While we were there ohhing and ahhing at the $600 house, the builder of the coop drove up dropping off another coop. It was fun to talk with the people about the construction. We reluctantly left them there. We couldn't see ourselves dragging it all across the country and back or paying that much. But it did give us ideas... Oh,and we've discovered that a sorta neighbor around the corner has chickens. So each Sunday on the way home from church we ask dad to 'slow down' so we can see 'our chickens'.

Homeschool - As the title of this post states, Fizzle. just once I'd like a definite END to our homeschool year. Have a party, celebrate packing away the books and the beginning of summer. It never happens that way. We get busy or tired and just... fizzle out. We plan to do reading and Latin this summer but I haven't scheduled it out yet so this week we've been reading and playing Monopoly on PS3. Yes, very educational.  Oh yes, and hiding out in the basement...We have been watching the tornado coverage extensively, discussing how and why they form, watching footage of them and being shocked over the devastation. The one that ripped across Joplin was only 2 1/2 hours away. Yesterday we spent almost 2 hours in our basement because of sirens going off and the teen watched one touch down near her work. I hate tornado season. For those in tornado alley. Stay safe!

I'll be back soon with more about our schooling, garden and chickens. Have you ended your school year yet?