Unschooling--not so "un"


Well, the first couple of weeks of unschooling have been very sucessful. Magic School Bus only ruled my den for two full days! I expected a much longer binge than that. And besides a few scattered sessions on Beatles Rock Band, Kaden has mostly stayed away from the Wii as well. Very suprising considering he used to play Wii as soon as he woke up (before going to school) and as soon as he got home. Now it seems that having it be available all the time as created less of a desire to play. Instead Kaden's been building sofa cushion forts, crazy creatures out of pipe cleaners, toilet paper rolls, empty containers, and cardboard (complete with moving parts!). Besides all the free-play, we've been reading a lot more around here. We're still working on The Magician's Nephew from the Narnia series, but we've also been reading a lot of non-fiction (the library is great, no?) We've read about Japan, about Castles & Forts, a great book about Sea Creatures (fictional and real), a Prehistoric Monsters book, about Lasers (followed by a long explanitory discussion by dad, of course, since he works with lasers every day!), and more I can't even think of right now. Other things we've done have been to make cookies and bread, he has learned how to cook scrambled eggs on his own (with us turning on the stove).  We're growing sprouts and plan to start growing more things to plant in the garden come Spring. So far, everyday has been full except for a mid-week slump this week while I was in a stressed out mood (can anyone say Blowing-the-Budget-on-Christmas much?)... Thank goodness for Karate and Swimming Lessons on those days!

Currently Jeff is building a skating rink with Kaden in the back yard. They've got the wooden structure nailed down and half of it covered in plastic sheeting, but funds have run out and leaves are piling up on the plastic as we wait to splurge on another roll of plastic. I think it hasn't happened yet because we thought there was enough in that (expensive!) roll and it looks like we'll need another couple of rolls instead... However, we plan to repurpose the wood and plastic in our Square Foot Gardens this Spring. I think it's so great that the boys can do stuff like that together. One because it's great bonding/learning time for them both and two--I get some time off (bubble bath, wine, book---ahhhh).

So, what I've learned so far is that Unschooling is not a lot of Un, it's mostly active, hands on, and fun!

0 comments: