According to my town calendar, school officially starts tomorrow, and Thomas becomes a fifth grader. Having taught fifth grade, I’ve been feeling somewhat nostalgic all summer. How did my baby get this old so quickly? Is it possible that five academic years have passed since we started this homeschooling journey? It’s been a bittersweet feeling, […]
Unschooling Academics
The Math in Milles Bornes
Playing board games is a great way to connect with your children and to practice math skills at the same time. Don’t do it for the math skills – having an agenda like that tends to kill the joy. Play for the sheer fun of it, and rest assured there’s probably some seriously good math […]
An Unschooling Twist on Worksheets
Friends of ours recently gave us a bunch of old workbooks their kids had outgrown, and today I pulled one out just out of curiosity. It was kind of cute, using classic literature and incorporating a few skill-based worksheets. As I flipped through the pages, Faith’s eye fell on some cut outs of farm animals […]
Can Unschoolers Learn to Read?
When I was just hours old, I did something truly astonishing in my mother’s opinion. I managed to fill my diaper. Enthralled as only a first-time parent can be, my mom promptly called up her entire family. “She works!” my triumphant mother exclaimed. It’s funny how we can know something intellectually, but it doesn’t truly […]
Unschooling: Yes, Spelling Counts
When I taught elementary school, there were some things we teachers would lament about year after year. Near the top of the list was our students’ truly atrocious spelling. Oh sure, they’d do okay on the spelling tests. But going through a piece of their writing was as grating as nails on a chalkboard. Simple […]
Happy Birthday! Academics Unschooling Style
Unschooling parents don’t set out to teach academics. But that doesn’t mean academics is missing in action. It shows up in some pretty unusual places. At our house, it recently put in an appearance at a birthday party. When Thomas, my oldest, turned one I planned a fabulous duckie party. For my twins, it was […]
Real Life Learning: Project Tie-Dye
If you’ve read my post about contagious enthusiasm, you already know that my family had a bit of a tie-dye adventure a while back. What began as a simple activity grew into a major project. This is where following a child’s passion can take you! After a morning of tie-dying their own stuff, my kids […]
Cooking: Finding the Academics in Everyday Activities
Unschoolers are learning all the time. They learn because they are hard-wired to do so. Whenever they are engaged in an activity, you can be sure learning is happening. It’s a natural side-effect of doing something we’re interested in. The longer I practice unschooling, the easier it gets to see the academics my kids are […]