We Are Unschoolers, Finally!! Part 2

Unschooling, child led learning, is on the chalkboard today, folks. As I stated in yesterday's post, we are embracing a more unschooled approach to learning in our home this year. Yesterday I covered what unschooling can be defined as, and I shared what my daughter is learning this year based on her choices. In 'Core' subjects. So today I'll get to the real fun stuff, non-core subjects, and how I keep track of what she does just for my own peace of mind and to figure out how to do a transcript if needed. :)
Here's our non-core unschooling:

Art: I'm an artist, therefore I have a big studio full of art supplies. The world is basically her oyster unless she wants to get into glassblowing or metal works and then sorry sister, you're out of luck. #wink We sat down and with Pinterest as our ideas guide she made a list of her interests: Yarning (bombing, crochet), weaving loom, nature weaving, Sketching: cities, buildings, perspective, point line drawings, Pottery (make pottery wheel), Screen printing, Encaustic wax painting, Jewelry, soldering, Paper mache', Embroidery: constellations, feathers, people, eyes, Dolls, Scarfs. Out of anything, Felting, Fabric rugs, Wood art, Street art. So far we've worked on a few and done some new things. She's practiced perspective drawing, pointillism drawing/painting, watercolor, splatter painting (think Pollac and the corner of my kitchen is covered ceiling to baseboard in trash bags because this is her splatter zone.) She veered off plan and worked on a Loki costume for Halloween out of duct tape, made a corset out of cardboard, duct tape and metal for the 'bones'. She has begun covering shipping boxes in white paper to start decorating them as a city. What we don't know how to do, we google, youtube or Pinterest it. The internet has everything, seriously.

Music: She wanted to continue with the classes we did last year since she likes the instruments and has friends there, so she's in advanced guitar, advanced band and marching band. She also has made a list of songs she wants to learn on her guitar (Queen songs, hymns, Hobbit chant, Frozen songs, etc). She uses the PS3 2014 Rocksmith game which teaches you step by step how to play guitar. She has made a list of songs to learn on the piano and I've schedule her to meet with a friend to brush up on notes and chords. (Hello Dolly, Star Wars theme, Frozen songs, Led Zeppelin, Hymns).
Foreign Language: she's continuing with the class she took last year and doing Spanish 2. She wanted to be with her friends there too. It's now held twice a week in our small living room, 10 students and teacher.

PE: This is where we get a bit interesting. She asked if she could learn to 'swashbuckling pirate sword fight'. I figured this was like fencing, so she is now in a class twice a week for about 1 1/2 hrs each day. Hard work, great instruction. She is also taking archery instruction for 2 hrs each week. Sometimes we ride bikes or walk and she learns new exercises on Wii Fit Plus. Occasionally she'll take a yoga class with grandma.
Bible: We attend church weekly for 2 1/2 hrs, she also attends a small group and another class for 2 1/2 hrs a week. We are learning weekly bible verses, she's reading a bible chapter a day (according to what Sonlight History has her reading) and we're working our way through the Catechism although I'm counting that under History for now. She also has a devotional she gets to couple times a week.
Life Skills: A very important lesson to learn. How to care for a house, a car, a bank account. Things we will get to eventually. For now, she requested to learn about international cooking and baking so she sat and schedule what cuisine we'll learn about each month. This month is Indian food but we've been so busy we haven't done much with it. I'll work on that.
*** Her interests are varied and heady but I think we can fit them all in.
I used to keep detailed daily and monthly records but this year we're in a calendar. It works for me. This is what it looks like and how. I tally hours:

It does seem like a lot if you look at our whole list of things to accomplish but she is enjoying herself, and she picked 98% of it. I'm not running myself ragged hollering at her to get her work done, or study for that test, etc. We're enjoying each other much more. She has the option to put something aside if it's not what she wants to do at this time and I just try to keep up and make sure the car is filled with gas. Ahhh, unschooling.

Posted with Love from Contessa

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

Schooling 2012

This has been a tough summer for me, school planning-wise. I waffled back and forth, to and fro, up and down about whether I was going to schedule (ie: overschedule is more like it) my child this year. I know she's getting into those formidable years where a transcript must be kept and hopefully she takes some classes that count toward a potential college. I don't know though. The oldest got into college with no transcript, just her ACT scores and the college's math/english testing. So what does it really matter, I ask you? Anyway, this was my stress this year. 

I prayed and prayed about it, wanting to unschool but not having the guts. My child loves to learn and figure out things but I don't know if I'm comfortable with my 13 yr old planning how much she'll learn at all. I don't know how unschoolers do it! Maybe if I'd started from the beginning days I'd be fine. She'd learn differently. I talked to her about unschooling. She thinks it sounds 'great!' (eyeroll) because she wouldn't have any assignments. In the end, there were a few things I wanted to learn and we compromised. It's 1/2 school, 1/2 unschool time. Oh, and wait until I tell you about math! 

Here is our schedule:

Grammar - Grammar Made Easy computer game, or Easy Grammar

Grammar - Daily Grams

Latin - Latin for Children, Level B

Math - online program

History - Sonlight One Year World History reading program

Reading - List of fiction/non-fiction/spiritual books I compiled (will share soon)

Music - She's started Percussion & Band classes, Piano sporadically

That's it. No, I didn't schedule in Science, Art, Foreign Language, Writing, Poetry, Typing, Home Economics, PE, or Bible. Some things are a given. We go to church two times a week and Hubby and she do bible studies every night. Currently she has been reading Jesus Freak and I found there is a separate Live Like a Jesus Freak book with questions at the end of each chapter. They've been working through and discussing that nightly. I want to start memorizing scripture again with her but I need to find a fun non-school way to present it. Maybe by painting the words on paper and drawing pictures to go with it. I don't know, thinking on the fly here. 

Art is a given in our house. I'm an artist because I can't help myself and my daughter draws almost daily about what she's reading (Trojan War) or watching (Doctor Who, lately.) I keep art supplies at the ready in a mini studio space on top of the piano. Any of it can be used at any time.

Her schedule is, to hopefully get up with hubby every day at 7 am. If she works diligently she's done with her work by 12-1 pm. Then the rest of the afternoon is hers to study what she wants. I ask that she slip in a bit of piano and drum practice and chores and maybe work on training the dogs a bit but the rest is hers. Here is where we have the problem. I'm hoping she fills that time with science and art and poetry, etc... but she likes to think of it as her time to do what she wants. It is, but... Yeah. I'm having trouble with it. Maybe I need to plan some sciencing just to feel better about getting some in. Experiments and maybe a few field trips. I have 107 library books out from the library and a 1/3 are science so hopefully she is getting some in. It's just not a traditional way to do school and my brain is on fire because of it.

Okay, on a happier note. Math this year is LOVED! We've been doing textbooks like Saxon math for years and the repetition and blah blah blah was killing her. We've found something different for this year! Khan Academy. I heard someone talk about it and link to it but I didn't go look. Then my brother who is studying to be a doctor or some sciency person said he uses it for upper level science courses. Okay, this got my attention. THEN, 2 other homeschool groups mentioned it! I had to look. I found it has from the very beginning to hugely hard mathing. You do practice problems and if you get stuck you can watch the videos to learn how to do it. You earn badges and all sorts of goodies. Best of all, its free! It's a God send for me really.

For those other subjects I'm wanting her to study but didn't schedule her to study I've been a bit sneaky. I've bought software or other things that encourage her to learn them.

Typing - bought Typing Instructor

Foreign Language - our library has Manga on tap for free, most any language

Poetry - bought magnet sets in Haiku and Genius and put them in large metal tins with room to form sentences. Great on the go, take to a restaurant type sets.

PE - I bought a bow and arrow set for her birthday she uses, plus I let her walk the dogs or ride her bike around the block now that she's older. We also have Wii Fit

Science - so far we only have engineering games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2 and similar programs

So this is my not-so-quick schooling update! lol