An Unschooling Day
In keeping with my previous post, I decided to carry through with an unschooling day. We would try it out for one day and then see if we wanted to do it for the rest of the week. Of course, being the control freak that I am, there are some boundaries that I implemented in our learning time. We had a great day yesterday (day one of our experiment) and the kids have decided that they would like to continue on throughout the week.
Oh! I forgot to explain the boundaries. I told the kids that they could do whatever they wanted in the morning but it had to be some form of learning. It could be some art project, a science experiment, reading, baking, games, etc. I just didn’t want them to play on the Wii or watch TV all day. Also, we would start the morning and afternoon with our version of Morning Time and for a half an hour after lunch we would read individually in the living room all together. Those were my stipulations and they were greeted with openness.
So we started our day with Morning Time–reading the Bible, reading a section from John Piper’s Passion for Christ, reading a chapter from The Story of Science by Joy Hakim and a chapter from our read aloud The Striped Ships by Eloise McGraw. Then I told them all that they could move on their own to do whatever they so desired. Missy decided to make some fudge (oh my word! It was yummy!) Rocky tested Mia on her knowledge by asking questions from ‘What a 4th Grader Should Know’(I didn’t ask how she did, I think it is best not to know) while Mia designed and sewed a dress together for a doll.
Missy and I had some reading time together. We are reading together The One and Only Ivan. Then all three of them congregated at the table where Missy drew pictures using Draw Write Now, Rocky did a few pages of math drill and Mia designed clothes using her design desk (she got this for Christmas.) Rocky and I started reading Farley Mowat’s The Dog Who Would Not Be ( I have not read a Farley Mowat book since I was a kid but, wow! that man is a prolific writer! I love reading this book out loud.) Mia was able to get some math and writing done in the morning as well.
After lunch, Rocky did some copywork while I read some more from The Striped Ships. Then we had our big ‘reading time’ We were all gathered together in the livingroom quietly reading from our own books. Missy read her own beginner readers, Rocky was working his way through Gentle Ben, Mia finished Alan Bradley’s I Am Half-Sick of Shadows and I began 11/22/63 by Stephen King (here is another man who writes amazingly well. I know. Stephen King??? But his writing just trills along in my brain.) After our silent reading (which got a very positive review from the fledglings) Mia and I read Ivanhoe together.
I asked for the day’s review and the verdict was that this was a wonderful, joyous day and they would like to continue this throughout the week. But Rocky voiced some consternation about being behind in his ‘real’ school work. I never thought those concerns would come from him. So we talked about how he could rectify these worryings of his.
True to form, I can see us doing this for the rest of the week but the natterings are already forming in my thought patterns so I don’t think I will be able to continue on with this style of learning but I think it is valuable to do this every once in awhile when the birds (the mental birds, that is) start to squawk.
Julia in Sk.