Question Everything

We're coming up on the 2 year anniversary of when Padawan out of Public School. I think we have pretty much found our groove. We still don't fit under any one homeschooling label. My views toward education lean toward radical unschooling more than anything, but if someone looks at how we do things we probably look more like a family of (mostly radical) Relaxed Homeschoolers. That's ok; I'd rather just do what we do and let the labels fall where they may. The downside to this is that sometimes I worry that others may perceive me as talking out of both sides of my mouth or not practicing what I preach.

Snippets from Unschooling (#2)

Seven snippets from our life since the last time I posted - a week ago...has it been two weeks already?!?!

~1~

We celebrated 2 birthdays last weekend. Padawan and my Dad both share a birthday.***
 My parents came over for lunch and cake. Then they took the boy home with them. (It was his weekend to spend the night.)

My mother-in-law was in the hospital with breathing problems, so she didn't get to come. She has COPD. She's home now and doing better, but we found out this week that she has 30% lung capacity. Any less and she would need a lung transplant.


***I'm pretty sure Padawan planned to be born on that day. I was hoping for an Easter or Good Friday baby (which would have been just a few days before or right around my due date- can't remember exactly now) But he held out for 11 extra days so he could be born on my Dad's birthday. Which in pregnant impatient Mom-to-be time that equates to F O R E V E R. 


My labor sort of began around 3 am the morning of Dad's birthday. Since my doctor was planning on inducing me in two days anyway, they cranked up the Pitocin after I got to the hospital (around 8 am) to help speed things along. 


I was ready to start pushing sometime around 9 pm. Just to keep us in suspense, he drug out the drama until about 20 minutes before midnight . Yeah, I was watching the clock the whole time I was pushing- when 11:30 pm came around I was starting to sweat! The problem was his "melon" head was stuck  for what seemed like F O R E V E R. The doctor sent for the suction cup, but he finally popped out before they could use it.


Told ya- he's been stubborn since the beginning.

~2~

Padawan's public school friend came over twice this week. They traded some Legos - as usual.

They've been trading Legos and Hot Wheels since Kindergarten. Friend's Mom used to be against trading, but I've always kind of always kept a blind eye to the situation. Does that make me a bad influence? I promise I wouldn't let someone else's kid smoke or do bad things under my watchful eye. Really.

They also talked about the new Scottish Lego Mini-figures and have plans to get some to make some sort of WWII scene involving the Scottish Infantry. Once again, he's teaching me history. It's good to be homeschooled. haha

~3~

:sigh:
We have a car situation. Err...more of a lack of a car situation. We do still have an old Ford truck so we are not totally without transportation. But it is a gas hog.

Back in November Hubby was in a minor accident when a DUI driver hit him and ran. Hubby did manage to chase the guy down. Long story short. The insurance company total lossed our 1989 Plymouth. So, although it only has cosmetic damage- it also has a salvage title and is not street legal.

Right around New Year's, we used some of the money from that to replace the rack and pinion in our 2001 Dodge that had been sitting for about a year. Soon after the car started making a funny noise. Our multiple-award-winning-auto--technician brother-in-law had never heard such a noise and did not know what was causing it.

We found out over the weekend. It was the tranny. Yep. Now we have an insurable car that can't be driven and a perfectly good car that can't be insured.

We're weighing our options. Fix the 2001 car or find a body for the engine and transmission for the other car or....

~4~

I haven't mentioned that hubs STILL isn't working. So the car solution will have to wait. Orientation has not been his friend!
Once again. I'm thankful for my parents. We're borrowing Dad's truck just in case hubby gets hired next week by one company that looks promising.

~5~

I strewed pc game this week. Cold War - Supreme Ruler. Padawan and I played it for a couple of hours. He said it would be more fun if he had done the tutorial. But it was pretty fun watching him play.

He played as the United Kingdom (since he is on a Scottish kick this week). He raised taxes to 95% to quickly get enough money to build the things he wanted. Then I watched him try to make an deal with North Vietnam, but they couldn't come to an agreement.

I was asking question and trying to act like I was playing dumb about different countries' involvement in various wars. I really didn't know. He once again baffled me with his historical knowledge.

~6~

I also strewed a link to a math website. It's called MathMovesU. I want to hug whoever shared that link, but I don't even remember which of the several Homeschool groups it was shared in.
This is the first time that he has been engaged with any online math game.

He checked it out a few days ago and made an account. Last night he wanted to do school. (Yeah, wanted to do school on a Saturday night.)

So, he decided to play on that website. He had to answer some multi-step math questions to complete some of the steps in one of the games. (He was building a roller coaster.)

He asked me for help on some of the questions. I helped him sort through the information and determine what steps he needed to do to solve the problem. For the most part he knew exactly what to do. And I remembered how to find the circumference of a circle!

Then I told him it was ok to use the calculator to do the...well..calculating. He was a little leary and thought I was letting him cheat! I told him he was more than welcome to do the calcuations by hand if he wanted to.

Afterward there was even an inquisition (from him) about me letting him use a calculator. I think he thinks I'm a slacker teacher. :)

~7~

I'm still loving my job, and Padawan has been helping me here and there by giving me pointers. He showed me how to make a zip file yesterday. Where does this kid learn this stuff?

I'm setting up an Etsy shop for my sister-in-law who crochets. She's all excited. I'm also doing a pro bono website for her..just so I can add it to my portfolio. (Which is pretty empty at the moment)

______________
And there you have it. 7 Snippets from our Unschoolish life.

You can join up at Carma's blog, Winging-it.me.

Snippits From Unschooling

-1-

We've finally been spending some time OUTSIDE. 

Padawan has taken a (renewed) interest in Air Soft guns. He spent his birthday money on a new a rifle complete with scope. My parents were gracious enough  to let him have his present a couple of weeks early since the weather has been so nice and we all know it could get hot and humid here any time now.

Before and After

Unschooling Typing, Spelling, and Writing
A Progress Report...

I know I've mentioned before that I started suspecting Padawan has dysgraphia not long before I pulled him out of public school in November 2010. He is also not a natural speller. And forget about anything handwritten being legible, unless he takes a REALLY long time to write it.

Our Conversation About The Standards

My child is a riot. Sometimes I can't decide if he's trying to parent me, give me hints on how to parent him, or if he's just outright messing with my head.

Since we've been home educating, I haven't been following "The Almighty Standards" that had been drilled into his head from 3rd to 5th grade. I did look over "The Standards" (a) to be nosey, (b) to see what his friend would be doing in school this year, (c) to see if I wanted to plan any of that for the Middle School Years, (d) to see praise God for what I would not be stressing out over for the first school year since Standard Based Education began.  

Well, apparently Padawan had been thinking missing all the hoopla about "The Standards" in his new life and decided to have an impromptu talk with me about it.

(I can't remember word for word, but this is the general gist of the conversation.)

Padawan: (randomly stops what he is doing, sits at the edge of the recliner, crosses his legs, and leans towards me as he begins to speak in a tone that sounds freakishly like Ben Stein) Mooooom, you don't really like The Standards...dooooo youuuuuu?

Me: (trying not to laugh at the serious look on his face) No, I don't much care for them. Why do you ask?

Him: (in a sing-song voice) I'm just asking.

Me: Ok.

Him: (waits a minute for a dramatic effect) Whyyyy don't you like The Standards?

Me: Do you really want to know what I think about the Standards?

Him: Yes.

Me:  I think a lot of them are random. The Standards stress the kids and teachers out too much when half of them are repeated on the next grades list. The teachers have to teach you the actual list of Standards instead of just teaching to the Standards.  Besides, when you were in 3rd grade they were having you do things that I didn't do til High School because of the Standards. They should save some things to learn in High School.

Him: Well, you went to school waayyy back in the 80's things have changed since then.

Me: (appreciating him pointing out just how ancient I am becoming) Do you want to follow "The Standards"? I can print out a checklist, and we can follow "The Standards". 

Him: No, I was just asking.

We Really Don't "Do School" - Just So You Know

We've been home educating for a little over a year now. I have done a lot of de-schooling and had a complete paradigm shift. I completely understand Unschooling. I know that encouraging and letting Padawan follow his interests works, because I have seen the results even before we began home educating. I just didn't know there was a name for what we had been doing in addition to sending him to school.

On the other hand, Padawan has not de-schooled as much as I have and he has NOT had a paradgim shift - even though his actions, attitude, and insights pertaining to school and the system were the catalyst for said paradigm shift on my part. I had to read things by Gatto, Holt, and others to see the things he already figured out. 

This leads to some interesting conversations around here. I thought I would start sharing them on my blog.

Parenting Wild Things

Today, Jessica over at Bohemian Bowman's is giving away a free copy of her ebook, Parenting Wild things. I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but it has been getting great reviews in my circle of online friends. Hop on over there to see what it is all about and to find out how you can get your own copy.

A Lesson About Writing

or was it?...


I've always felt like I should be writing a book. A novel to be precise. Most of my life that feeling has been there. I love to write. Sometimes. But I don't have much of an imagination. So I'm not sure why I have always felt this- especially the part about writing a novel. I don't even read much fiction. Give me a good book of facts and I'm all in. Last year, I thought that blogging would satisfy that feeling. That I just needed to write. Period. But that feeling is still there.

What We've Been Up To....

Now that we are settling into our official school year, I thought it would be a good time to give a progress report on how things are going.

I CU #5

Its time again for the weekly meme 
I CU -Intensive Care For The Christian Unschooler


“This week we want to…”

Learning In The Kitchen- Popovers

The other night we watched an episode of Good Eats titled "Popover Sometime".
We had never heard of Popovers before seeing the show. Alton explained the science behind the way the popovers rise without any leaven. My little bread eater thought they looked YUMMY, so of course he asked if we could make some.

My 3 Year Plan for the Middle School Years

When I first started homeschooling my son last fall, I asked myself what my goals for my his education were. During our time of trying to do "school at home" I was trying to stick close to the state standards because I didn't know any other way. Then I noticed that many career homeschooling families recommended not even looking at the standards. Hmm..on some level that made sense. After all, I was completely free to choose what we would be doing for the first time in his educational life.

My Shortest Post So Far

Today has been a productive day!

I finished my saga AND I decided what I'm calling our method of Homeschooling. It describes the way we are doing things almost perfectly, and there are no set standards to obsess about.


Guided Natural Learning


That settles it.

I-CU #4

Intensive Care for the Christian Unschooler

“This week we want to…”

An Unschooling Epiphany

I "Get It" Now...

After months of reading just about everything I can find on the internet about Unschooling, talking to other Unschooling and Relaxed Homeschoolers online, and reading a ton of homeschooling blogs..I have had an epiphany.

Most people that have read anything on the subject of Unschooling will agree that there are two distinct groups of Unschoolers.

Radical Unschoolers and Unschoolers. 

But, from reading others comments and discussions on several blog articles in the past few days, it suddenly became clear to me that there may actually be three distinct groups.

What first brought my attention to this was something I read in a deschooling article.

It basically said "Unschooling is living life as if school doesn't exist".

I'm not there (yet?). For me school still exists. For Padawan school still exists. Although I have definitely de-stressed and de-compressed from all things that public school brought into our lives, this opened my eyes to the fact that niether one of us have de-schooled quite as much as I originally thought.  He still has a need to separate summer from school time, and schoolish things from from free time.

In my newbie opinion, in the world of people calling themselves Unschoolers there seems to be a definite distinction between Unschooling as a learning LIFESTYLE and Unschooling as an educational METHOD.

The meaning behind Unschooling as a LIFESTYLE becomes more clear if you use Unschooler as a noun.

Ex.: We ARE Unschoolers. Living is learning. Learning is living.

From this perspective, it is a state of being. You either are an Unschooler or you're not. There's no room for anything in between.  It is comparable to saying that you're a human being. Either you're a human being or you're something else. You can't be part human. (Well, I do wonder about some people, but you get the point.)

The meaning behind Unschooling as an educational METHOD is more like using it as a verb.

Ex.: We Unschool everything except math (or ____). (Math is the most popular example)

From this perspective there is no doubt that there is room in-betweens and combinations. You can Unschool some things and not others. This is how I have been looking at Unschooling til now.

Yeah, I know... I've read that Unschooling is a lifestyle numerous times, but now I "get it".

Will we cross over to the Unschooling Lifestyle? Only time will tell, but if that is where God is leading us, we will follow.

Encounters of The Math Kind

Padawan has spent part of the evening working out a complex math problem that involves multi-step problem solving, exchange rates, percentages, and algebra. He does stuff like this all the time with money- real or virtual, but I thought I would blog about one of today's encounters of the math kind. (Yeah, its Roblox math- what else is there?)

I was going to be cute and write it out as a word problem, but...well..its just too complicated. So, I wrote it out as his thought process instead....

A little background so this makes sense:  On Roblox you can buy and sell virtual items for your avatar with 2 different forms of virtual money. TIX and Robux. Also, we both have accounts.

I want to buy a helmet that costs 5000 TIX.

I have 410 Robux.

I can exchange 100 Robux to get 889 TIX.

How many more Robux or TIX do I need?

(Figures that out)

I can get more TIX by selling T-Shirts to Mom.

The market fee is 10%.

How many Robux and TIX does Mom have in her account?

How many Robux will Mom have after she exchanges her TIX for Robux?
For every 10 TIX that equals 1 Robux.

Now I will list a T-Shirt for that amount and ask Mom to buy it from me.

How much profit will I have after the market fee if she buys a T-Shirt from me for that amount?

I'm still X amount of TIX short to buy the helmet.

How can I get more TIX?

I need to ask Mom to create X amount of new accounts because they automatically get 10 TIX, then I will get 9 TIX profit from each account after they buy a T-Shirt from me.

Ok, I need to make 64 new accounts. I'll ask Mom to make make 30 and I'll make 34 .

Oh, wait Mom has a Limited Edition hat in her stuff. I'll get her to sell it for the going market rate.

(I list it for sale.)

Look, Mom got her daily stipend of TIX and Robux.  Now we can trade in her TIX for Robux and she can buy another shirt from me for X amount of Robux.

(Figures that out, and I buy the shirt).

(Padawan trades in Robux for TIX)

Oh, if we visit each other's games then I'll get 10 TIX each from that, then Mom can buy another shirt from me and I'll have X amount of TIX.

Ok, I'm still short 400 TIX.

So now we only need to make a little over 40 new accounts. K?

All this from the kid who would rather do anything than formal math lessons...

Unschooling Rocks!   

Just wind him up and watch him learn!

Pictures Courtesy of (c) 2005 ROBLOX, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission

Unschooling Experiment #2

Here are some highlights of Unschooling Moments since my last post.


~ Padawan was in the pool where he seems to do a lot of his pondering. We had a lengthy discussion about computer memory, processors, processing speeds, and comparing each of our computers to the model of car that would it would be like. Then he asked about 12445656254 other questions about random topics.


~He made some instant pudding by HIMSELF. I know for some kids his age or even younger that may not be a big deal, but usually anytime he makes anything in the kitchen he asks begs cons uses his managerial skills to get me to get out all the supplies, tell him exactly what to do, and ends up handing the entire project over to me anyway- out of some irrational fear of doing it wrong, making a mess, or :gasp: something touching his hands, or general lack of interest. This time I told him where the bowl and the whisk was. He read the directions and did it all himself!


~ There is an animation club and contest online called the 11 Second Club. One night we watched some of the entries. Padawan was fascinated by the videos. He really was interested in learning to make his own. So, we downloaded some animation software called Blender. He took one look at Blender once it was installed and decided that it was too hard for him.- and me too! It does look overwhelming, so we'll figure this one out together til he gets the basics of how to use the program down. Then he's on his own.


We also looked up an online game called Minecraft. He wanted to know the difference between Minecraft and Roblox. I found a forum that said basically that in Roblox you could use Physics, but in Minecraft you can't. So, next we had to look up the definition of Physics. Then I told him the story about how I took Physics in High School, somehow managed to make an A in the class, and didn't really learn a thing. He thought that was great!


While all this was going on I mentioned that I needed to order the science experiment kit to go with the Lifepac Science that I got for him- because he LOVES science and that was the one subject that they neglected in his school.


Apparently- that was considered school, because he said "No school, til THEY start back."


So, I laughed and told him that we were doing school now. I asked him what did he think we were doing by downloading software, looking up definitions, and all that jazz. He said that was different because we were just doing that stuff for the sake of learning it.


hmmm...sounds like Unschooling, doesn't it?



:Evil Grin:


I'm not playing my full hand yet. He thought we were slackers on "school work" this past year. I wonder what he'll think this fall. This is the first time EVER I've been close to being a step ahead of him!!!! I haven't mentioned to him that he wasn't actually going to be filling out the Lifepac workbooks, but I got them to make sure he would have plenty of science on hand (that is somewhat systematic - that part - for my sake.)



~ Then there was the night when a commercial came on for a power inverter that changes 12v D/C to 120v A/C. He asked me how that works. I never could wrap my head around how you can get 120v from 12v. I told him that he would have to ask his Dad some other time. After all, he used to work on power lines, he understands that stuff. Well, Dad explained it to him last night. Padawan said he understands it- I still don't.


~ A couple nights ago when my husband came home from work, Padawan and I were watching a documentary about the states on the History Channel and playing with a Gyroscope.


He accused us of doing school!


I said, "No, we're not doing school. Duh, this is summer break. Padawan wanted to watch this documentary, in fact its our second episode. Padawan can't help it that his Mom is a nerd."


~ Then there was today when I logged into the Currclick Summer Language Club on the kitchen computer to see what it was all about, while Padawan was playing Roblox on his computer in the living room. What else is there when he has computer time- right?

He tried so hard to act disinterested to what I was doing just around the corner from him, but the topic was Russian. He is very interested in most things Russian and German. So, he kept getting up to see what was going on on my computer.


~ Then of course there's Roblox. He's been learning a lot more about adding and modifying scripts and adding other elements to the games he makes. - stuff he was trying to get me to help him with a few months ago, that was mostly over my head but I muddled my way through it.


I've noticed that every time I help him get over his "stuck points" with anything that overwhelms him, he quickly takes off and leaves me behind in the dust!



Anyway, these are a few of the Unschoolish things that I remembered to take notes about.

Unschooling Experiment

We finished our required days for homeschool last month. I feel like I am almost completely deschooled, (YAY!) and as far as Padawan is concerned he's on summer break.

Even though I do have a general map for us to follow this fall, in addition to the things that he wants to learn and whatever else pops up, I thought it would be interesting I continued my observation over the next two months by keeping track of what he learns and what we do together (educationally speaking) without one of us saying "let's do school". That way I'll have a general picture of what unschooling looks like for OUR FAMILY without adding any of the extras that he would consider "doing school".

So, I will start at the beginning and list what I can remember that we have done so far since summer break started. Then I will try to keep it updated as we go along.

There were a couple of days before we filled up our (little) pool that it was finally warm enough for Padawan to play with the water hose.  The first day, he filled up a Rubbermaid storage container with water, and was filling up water balloons. He figured out that he could fill them REALLY full if he held them under the water when he filled them up. He thought that air pressure may have something to do with the reason the balloons would hold more water that way.  He tried the experiment where you fill a cup of water, put paper over the top, and turn it upside down - But we couldn't get it to work. He also experimented with some other things that I can't specifically remember.

The next day he played in the water again. I took my Kindle out there, and thought instead of reading something to myself I would read to him while he played. Well, I read tried to read The Hobbit aloud. After the first 3 paragraphs, he said he didn't like the Hobbit. So, I switched to The Storybook of Science, and read for a few minutes. He had gotten sunburned the day before, so I told him that he needed to wear sunscreen or a t shirt so he wouldn't get sun poisoning. He asked me to look up sun poisoning, so I did and read the definition. Then he asked more questions about it, so I jokingly asked "What do you want me to read- symptoms, treatment, or prevention?" He said,"All of it!" So I read the entire article to him. Then he asked me to look up spiders, and after that ants.

He has asked me to read more of The Storybook of Science to him at bedtime on several occasions. (He hasn't wanted a bedtime story in a few years).

He is still playing Roblox, chatting with his friends, building games, and designing uniforms using Photoshop, MS Paint, and Paint.net. Paint.net is a new program that he wanted needed to learn to use so he could make uniforms with transparent backgrounds. He learned how to do this by looking up "How To" videos on YouTube. I helped him download and install the program, and he figured the rest out himself. His designs are getting more creative and detailed all the time.

He has also learned how to make models in Roblox, save them and upload them to public domain, and has been finding and modifying scripts for extras that he wants to add to his games. He is still asking me how to spell words, and I have noticed his spelling is continuing to improve without us doing any formal lessons.

His multiplication skills are improving because he needs to calculate how many days it will take him to earn "X" amount of Robux. He also is using percentages to calculate profit and seller fees for things that he buys and sells on Roblox. He is learning about ratio and proportion because he has to resize graphics that he incorporates into his uniform designs. (All this in his head)

One night, we watched a documentary about the recent tornado outbreak while doing a craft that I found through a homeschooling blog. (paper Angry Birds) After that we experimented with his electronic tornado maker and two coke bottles connected with a tornado tube. He also has plans to make a video with the Angry Birds that we made.

We have gone out to the pool and talked about all kind of things from tadpoles and mosquito larvae to really deep subjects. One thing we discussed was about everyone having a purpose in life - even his 8 year old cousin who recently passed away who was blind, and well..basically (for lack of a better word)..a vegetable since birth. He could only laugh and smile.

His friend came over the other day. They played in the pool, and made plans for him to spend the night. They wanted McDonald's, but I told him that it wasn't in the budget for this week. So, Padawan paid for their food out of his own money. I was impressed with his generosity! By the way, (as it usually happens) his friend got homesick and left around 10 o'clock that night, so we had to deal with the disappointment from that.

We have still been watching documentaries and shows like Mythbusters, PawnStars, Swamp Brothers among many others that are full of science, history, and geography. As always, he asks tons of questions and learns several new vocabulary words each time we watch anything together.

Last night we watched Dual Survival which was full of geography and science. He chose to watch part of a documentary about Abraham Lincoln instead of a movie that I found while we were surfing through the channels. We also watched a show about Ancient Egypt, which included information about architecture and religion. He even came up with ideas of how the Egyptians and other architects could have done things differently.

That is just what I can remember worth mentioning off the top of my head. I know there is much, much, more, AND learning and teaching didn't stop just because I declared summer break.

Repeat after me....Homeschool is Fun

At my Chiropractor appointment this afternoon, my Dr. asked me how Homeschool was going and I immediately said blurted out “FUN”!

If you have read any of my blog about The Public School Years, you will know for a fact that I never thought that the word FUN would ever describe anything having to do with MY son and the word SCHOOL.

Then I told her blurted out about how there was a method called Unschooling, where you take the lead from what your kids are interested in. I told her about how Padawan was interested in so many things and how we mainly go with that, and how he has learned so much.

I also told her about how when I took Padawan out of Public School how he could barely spell. I told her that now that he has a need to know how spell he is interested in it, and asks me to help him spell words “hundreds” of times a day.

I laughed and told her that Unschooling was an unusual way to describe what we have been doing, because its not UN-teaching or UN-learning. I also told her about Padawan was a perfect example of the quote about throwing marshmallows at your kids and calling it eating.

She told me that it looked like it has been really good for Padawan and that he looked a lot less stressed.

Then she asked me if I ever planned on putting him back in school, and I said “Not if I can help it!”

What's My Homeschooling Method?

DEFINE YOURSELF


Ok, so I signed up for the Blog Roll at Hip Homeschool Moms for the upcoming school year. New Homeschoolers can sign up in the New To Homeschool category and also under a category of teaching style. The categories are Traditional, Montessorri, Eclectic, Unschooling, Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, and Classical.



Well, since we're fairly new at this, I wasn’t too sure if we have even found our style yet. It really got me thinking about what style of Homeschoolers we are.


You ask - Why such deep thoughts on a simple subject?

Well, it is because my mind LIKES to pick a random and not-necessarily-so-important topic and think on it obsessively and completely until there is nothing left to think about- ESPECIALLY at night while I'm trying to sleep.

And now that I have a blog, I can write about all of these deep thoughts too. (Hey- I warned you that I'm a smartypants)


Defining ourselves at the beginning of this journey was easy. The label was already chosen for us- Accidental Homeschoolers,. As an Accidental Homeschool Mom, my first concern was to pick out a curriculum that would give Padawan what he needed to finish the year out. The only game plan I had in mind was to print the State Standards and find something that in some aspect followed them. A few weeks before pulling him out of Public School, I Googled the word curriculum and was immediately overwhelmed with the amount of choices.


I'm having a hard time choosing between 7 styles of Homeschooling- how do you think I felt looking at literally 100's of choices of curricula?!? Yes, I also learned that the plural of curriculum is curricula- just in case you didn't know and were wondering.


I quickly decided that the best thing for Padawan for the time being was to use Time4Learning. I loved Time4Learning! I liked that the lessons were all planned out for me and they looked fun and interactive too. Another deciding factor was that we wouldn't be spending money on a year's worth of curriculum for a half-year of school. It would also buy me some time to figure out what the heck I had gotten myself into! I guess you could say it was an Emergency Curriculum.


The first two weeks we were on somewhat of a schedule because Padawan had wanted to be finished with school by the same time he used to be. We were careful to watch the clock and make sure that we had done the required 4 1/2 hours-not a minute less-  like the school board was watching us on candid camera! The first few days of Homeschool felt like a cross between letting Padawan play hookey and getting  him to do make-up work.


The schedule flew out the window the 3rd week because we had taken a week off for Thanksgiving Break, and we are just not a schedule type of family. His dad had recently started a new job during the previous summer and he wasn't even on a predictable schedule.


Things have changed so much since those first weeks of our journey. There is so much difference between our way of "doing school at home" when we first began and our way of doing things now.


A lot of days it feels like we are becoming “Almost Unschoolers". See, we're not all the way Unschoolers, because I'm not completely following the Unschooling Philosophy of letting go and letting Padawan totally lead the way. I find the concept and philosophy completely liberating, but frightening at the same time. I can almost embrace it on some levels.


I totally understand how Unschooled does not mean Uneducated. Some of the smartest people I know never had a formal education, and there are schooled people that I have met that were very uneducated. I can also see how Unschooling would totally not work for some children. I love the idea of Unschooling for Padawan because it is a joy to see him follow his passions and soak everything up that he can. But then my thoughts come back around to what I know and am familiar with and what feels safe. It makes it seem like completely Unschooling would just be a guilty pleasure for both of us.


During our time of trying to "do school at home” Padawan was somewhat willingly paying attention to some lessons, and I could see him shutting me out during other lessons- especially math. We fill in some of our school time with things that he suggested. His favorite was to look up random YouTube videos on animals, science, or whatever. (It still is his favorite when we say "Let's do some school". ) He also asked me to teach him how to cook, and he would make up his own science experiments. One day he asked if we could float different kind of chips in a bowl of water to see which ones sank first. When we were doing things like this he would often say “I can’t believe this is school- it’s so much fun!”


This way of “doing school” works ok, but I can still see where the road bumps and battles could come into play again...Math and Writing. I’m trying not to stress over doing things perfect right now, because this is new to both of us, and he was learning so many other things eagerly. I had read before that it takes a while to de-school too. Using the formula of 1 month for each year that a child was in Public School, I calculated that would have put us at right about NOW.


You see, on days that we "do school" later in the day and Padawan is allowed to have his free time first and to discover the world around him as he chooses, he follows his obsessions. (Like he used to only be able to do during summer break). He naturally soaks in so much History and Science that it blows my mind. He's always building, experimenting with things, and watching what makes things work. He comes up with detailed theories to explain why he thinks things happen. He's so full of questions. This is a child who watches documentaries because he likes to. He can repeat an encyclopedia's worth of facts on anything that he becomes interested in. A lot of the things he likes to do involve reading and math of one sort or another too. He asked me to show him how to do laundry because he wanted to, and he likes it! Don't ask me why. All the time he's asking me if he CAN do some laundry.


I’ve been kind of conducting a secret experiment. If I add up all the time that he's spent on educational activities without either one of us saying "Let's do some school" at some point during the day or on days that we aren’t “doing school” it is well over the state’s requirement of 4 1/2 hours. Learning comes so natural to him, and we are not longer at odds with each other. I hear "I love you, Mom!" over and over throughout the day. This from my child that I have been at war with 10 months out of the year since Pre-K because of school.


Padawan told me once that part of the problem with school was that they were trying to teach him things he had already learned at home from me and his Dad.


I guess my biggest fear about completely Unschooling is that I want to make sure that he will be able to get into a college of his choosing- if that's what he decides to do. I worry that I will not have prepared him for that if I don't at least stay out in front of him and guide some of his education.


So, I try to throw in some story time to get him interested enough in a book to finish it himself. I squeeze in a spelling lesson or writing assignment and a math lesson here and there. I find documentaries on the history subject at hand - this year was US History. Sometimes I come up with an experiment, art project, or activity. Sometimes I'll do something without him, but within range just to see if it catches his interest. I've even attended online classes from Currclick by myself in hopes that he would take part.


You know, if it were all up to me, our Homeschool would probably end up being looking like Traditional school- maybe not so much with a tight schedule, but definitely with structure. That's what I know and what I am comfortable with. It is the most common path. Its all laid out there in textbooks and workbooks. You can just get it done and get on with the day. Its all there in black and white to see what was accomplished. But you know- that way was not working and it took me way too long to see it. My Padawan has proven to me and his father over and over since the day he came into this world that he came with his own unique set of instructions- only we didn’t get the complete owner’s manual.


When family or friends ask me how school is going...my answer is: "Fine, but you know it doesn't look much like school." And I’m sure they think that's a bad thing, and on some level a small part of me still does too.

So, to answer my own question… I am a Spirit-Led-Relaxed-Eclectic-Montessori-ish-Unschooling-Traditional-Trial-and-Error kind of Homeschooling Mom!


I’ll go check the Eclectic box now!