Charlotte Mason approach- natural learning for kids.
Unit teaching-immersing in a topic and incorporate all to Egypt or cooking.
Traditional and Home at school and standard school room approach.
Then there is eclectic-taking parts of each or different subjects taught each way.
And now "Unschooling" when I first heard that term, I thought it meant doing nothing.
Unschooling is so much more. Oats allowing the kids to learn and provide life learning opportunities. Learn math by doubling or halving recipes, finding the area of your home, cooking, cleaning, reading, learning by do in and a very hands on approach. There is s ton of reading.
I'm an eclectic homeschooling mom. I take some of all approach. We definitely have school time where I teach math, reading comprehension, writing skills, history, social studies and the gospel. We work on a topic. But then we explore.
Oh how I love exploring with Hayden. Yesterday we did math, reading comprehension, gospel study and writing. He worked on assignments while I worked on the Q96 business. We then learned life skills of cooking lunch, planning dinner, cleaning/pickup house and the much needed laundry folding lesson.
Afterwards, the fun began. Hayden and snuggled up on the couch with Max and Maya cuddling on Hayden. Hayden ate lunch while we began our American Heritage class study. I want Hayden to know how to learn, how to think, how to notice truth vs lies, how to solve problems and how to learn.
We picked out four very different history books from the library. One a textbook. All the facts. Very few stories. Another very heavy in how history effects today. Another with year by year highlights of each presidents and the fourth is stories and crazy facts and just plain little known facts and nicknames.
We started with the revolutionary war and decided we were going to do an overview and then go back and go into much more detail. We started with George Washington and his days in continental congress and general days. We studied for five hours thru Jefferson. We talked of the Loiuisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the wars, slavery, Hamilton vs Jefferson philosophies, that both Adams and Jefferson died on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and more.
I was in awe of how much Hayden was able to relate to other points on history both old world times and modern, secular and philosphical and how it related to the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was in awe at what he knew and his deductive reasoning skills.
As we talked and laughed, discussed ideas and principles, I was so grateful we chose to homeschool Hayden.
It isn't the traditional day. Many days, if I am sick and in bed, Thomas is the night teacher. He learns computer programming with his dad. He is starting Java script. He is learning to make Minecraft mods, he wants to build a computer, he is doing an online Mineschool class. Thomas teaches him about serves and pumping gas, resetting breakers and hunts with black lights for scorpions. Instead of "homework" at night, learning continues with big smiles and eager anticipation for dad time of learning and teaching.
It's not a perfect system. I have so much help. Grandma Joyce is his ceramics teacher. Grandma Julie is science and outdoor survival. Chad helps with history and facts. Suzi helps with Scouts and reading. She also wants to do field trips.
The possibilities are endless. And I love that I have time to teach him when the situation arises. There are no deadlines. So we are free to teach. We can teach him adaptation skills. How to be flexible. How to be conquer daily tasks, deal with interruptions, balance learning and life and work and play.
I love it. I love him being home. I love that when I am sick that I have help. That documentaries and good books can fill in for me. That he can build and be creative. That he can practice art or building Legos and guitar and read. That he can work on OT and PT. That he has bins that can be pulled out and contain prewritten instructions for help.
What a blessing this is for us. I love having the time and ability to slow down and just learn together. There are ao many resources. So many free resources. So many options. Life is learning. I see the value of Unschooling. Life is a classroom. A huge one.
I honestly think I am learning as much as he is. Most of all....I am soaking in each moment, each question, each teaching moment, each smile, each hug and each shrill of joy when he accomplishes a new task or masters something he has struggled with. I am so grateful to be this kids momma. (And the naps. Oh how I love my naps)
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