What do unschoolers do all day?

A great post, discussing principles. 

Principles?   

1. We focus on exposure, not mastery.

2. We focus on strengths and potential, not weaknesses.

3. We focus on modeling.

4. We focus on relationships.

5. We focus on time, not content.

6. We focus on our conviction and faith in the path we’ve chosen. 

Toddlers and unschooling

Toddler unschooling. A discussion on our Unschooling Catholics email list.


Isn't it just living life with toddlers? Yes.


But.... we all need new ideas. And it is often counter cultural to be living with toddlers without plans for preschool or  school or even school at home. How will they learn?


As John Holt pointed out many times, children are natural learners. if we don't squash their interests. And if we share our lives with them, share the big wide world.

So here is a link on  Toddler Unschooling.... ..with many micro links contained within. With a reference to this book ( see image), one I found helpful as a young mother of young children. 


Enjoy. 


And share your ideas!  

Learning at home in the school of life

What a great description of unschooling. "Learning at home in the school of life."

From a newspaper article in an Australian newspaper . “When you home-educate, especially using the natural learning method as we do, learning becomes so much part of your lifestyle, you don’t even realise you’re doing it. You’re just having conversations,” says Wight.

Blogging an unschooling morning..

Friday morning here.

I was set to work outside the home one to six in the afternoon so there popped up a free morning ....which is rare. 

My alarm was set for early so I could go to mass at Tyburn convent with the Benedictine nuns. Ah, peace..

Came home, kids were exercising, showering, Facebooking...

I did a few chores and chatted to my twenty year old about stoicism.

And then my sixteen year old started making pancakes for breakfast.

With that smell in the air I did a Taebo workout ..Cardio Scilpt. Go Billy Blanks!

And then made and had some pancakes myself. 

We talked about our plans for today and for the weekend ( youngest son and I taking a bus to Canberra to stay with an older son who works there in Parliament and going to the Renaissance Exhibition at the Art Gallery).

 Kids reading (those old Donna Parker books that I was addicted to as a girl, Dorothy Sayer's Gaudy INight, finishing off Dante's Divine Comedy, a book on Stoic Philosophy, a book on Catholic Bioethics by our Bishop, A Wrinkle in Time as its the 50th anniversary of that book!).

 I went into laundry, emails, talking, planning on doing banking for Kumon and taking whoever wants to come to the shops with me, reading Ten Habits of Happy Mothers.

And we  looked at the saint book for today.. Sts Fabian and Sebastian.

 And two sons started a game on Playstation 3.

That's our unschool  morning .

Anyone else?

A Day in the Life

Would you like to share a day in your unschooling life? Not a Typical Day. But just a day.

Today?

Here is a day from last week....

Three older sons are home for study week for university. I and one son get up

 early to workout then others start waking up. My second son Greg, a postulant for the

Conventual Franciscans and in Chicago for postulancy and novitiate for two

years, phoned to talk so we all take turns chatting. It's getting cold there...

And summer is starting here! Contrasts!

We talk a lot about the movie Midnight in Paris with Owen Wilson, the 1920s art

and literature references. Kids get breakfasts and do workouts and as Anthony,

our high school age unschooler, eats some fruit cake and cheese for breakfast I

remark that the cake was marked down at our local independent grocer. He says he

will walk down now and get another at that price (99c!) and count the walk as

fitness for today.

I start in on work for my Kumon Education Centre and also discuss food and

 recipes as the older ones are doing a cook off with friends from university. They look

through our cook books for ideas.

I keep up my work while chatting. Anthony comes back from the store and we talk

 about Blessed John Scotus ( tomorrow! A Franciscan! A philosopher! The doctrine

of the Immaculate Conception) and Marie Curie ( would be her 144th birthday

today).

I ask Anthony to sort the laundry and perhaps do some maths and Physics. He does

 the washing and maths and is sitting on the sofa about to look at his Saxon Physics text, leftover from hid older brothers, when his friend's dad arrives to take him to games at a friend's house. We

alternate houses for games on Mondays.

 I go to mass at university with one son who is dropping off an assignment. I visit the

 university library for philosophy books for my essay and find a book called Philosophy

 and Movies... I borrow this for Anthony as he, like all of us, love movies and we

can read and discuss the related philosophical discussion together.

 I rush some lunch at home and go to pick up Anthony and his friend to bring them

to work for me at Kumon. Three other sons arrange to meet me there. I discuss an

afternoon women's retreat with my friend when picking up the kids... Can we both

go?

We work at Kumon 2.30-8pm then some sons go to Theology on Tap ( George Wiegel)

 and some sons and two of my Kumon assistants and I got to 7 Eleven for our free

 slurpies because today is 7/11! We pick up a DVD from the rental on the way

home.

 Leftover for dinners, the kids watch a DVD, Anthony practices piano and begins

 writing for Nanowrimo as he and his friend and I were chatting about this in the

 car. I do work for the MI (Militia Of the Immaculate) and talk to others about

Wiegel when they get home from TOT.

 So that's Monday's Unschooling day!  

Weekly Rhythm

I like to have a bit of a rhythm to our days and weeks.

Too much routine and I am bored...yawn...

Too little and I think we feel scattered and less connected.

So how does a rhythm work in unschooling? If we are not "doing school" how do we structure our days and weeks?

It varies.

You knew I was going to say that...

When my children were younger we had a routine of pretty much daily mass, ice skating or swimming or science centre on Monday afternoon..and mum would try to catch up on washing on Monday mornings! Wednesdays were Discovery Journal days..writing and drawing about our week, our maths discoveries, our Science discoveries, books, current affairs.. Doing the Days.  Thursdays we often did grocery shopping and went to the library and out for cofffee..or met with other Catholic homeschoolers. Friday was park day or nature/art day. Music lessons meant we played 'pick an envelope'..an envelope with ideas like do a maths game, write in your saints book, draw in your nature journal..to keep siblings occupied while others were in their piano lessons.

And all this fitted in around my work schedule and around babies and toddlers.

Now with an unschooling teen, and older sons still at home but at university, our rhythm still revolves around my work schedule and our outside things.

Mondays, Anthony has gaming day with two homeschooling friends. Often mass at Campion College with the older kids.They work with me at my Kumon Education Centre. Tuesdays have mostly been unstructured, so around my work we have had errands, library visit and in my mind... a good morning to try some more formal work. But this term Anthony has surfing lessons so he is out most of the day with other homeschoolers. And we all go to the mass and Novena to St Anthony in the evening. Wednesday, I teach catechism at a local school so that is a good day for religion! he has drama class, sometimes goes to debating  with his brothers at Campion, maybe guitar lesson and a friend for dinner.Junk mail delivery! Thursday Anthony helps me with work for Kumon, we go to mass, he may do some maths and Latin, he works at Kumon, we usually watch a DVD. Fridays can be ice skating or outing or hang around, mass in the Extraordinary Form, busing to piano lessons and coffee, youth group.

And that is how the weeks go...way too fast...but we work on flow...on doing...and on being.. For me, knowing the flow of activities throughout the day works better than having set times. Waking up flows into breakfast flows into getting dressed flows into brushing teeth, etc.

Like the blue willow tea set...cups in a row, beauty, but not perfect...little imperfections...like those little imperfections in our days, our order, our rhythms ...that make the unschooling week.

Memories and Unschooling

Remind yourself that each moment we're creating memories. Think of those moments as photos in a photo album.

I put this quote on my blog yesterday - and several friends, in real life (? weird term but you know what I mean..) and in email, have commented on it. On how much it spoke to them. On how it reflects the why of homeschooling.

The why of homeschooling? Isn't homeschooling about education?

Not really.

Gasp! Did I say that homeshooling as not about education?

Well, yes. Simply because it is so much more than that .

Homeschooling, unschooling , is about life.

And creating memories. Memories that are stored away, that make up the child and then the adult. Formation, in other words.

I think that strong positive family memories, exposure to activities and ideas and to other people, are what make a strong case for homeschooling. For the advantages of homeschooling.

You never know what will strike a chord with a child. Ignite an interest. Be tucked away in the scrapbook of memories.

For this reason, we unschool. We live and thus, by living together, we learn. We laugh together, read together, play together , watch movies together, eat together, do chores together, do some schoolwork together, talk together, get cross together, go to Mass and pray together ~ and hopefully build on this storehouse of interactions.

Last night, we prayed the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yes, I was a bit silly during prayers - moving my feet in rhythm and prompting dh, the leader, simply because I have memorised this litany. Sigh. I am bad in prayers...

However, we did pray together, we did smile together, we spent time together and with our prayer intentions. Creating a scrapbook of prayer and family memories.

Today, we had French class at another homeschooler's home. The kids laughed as they listened to the CD and followed along in the French storybook. They tried to learn the Lord's Prayer in
French. They did French copywork, a la Charlotte Mason. And shared morning tea and active outside games.

Followed by going to the movies, meeting up with Jonathon and a family friend.

Lunch at Coffee Club....

A day of memories, fun, conversation and perhaps some sparks of learning.

A happy unschooling photo for that mental photo album.

"Education," said Sister Miriam Joseph, in writing on classical education "is the highest of arts in the sense that it imposes forms not on matter, as do the other arts, but on minds."

The Church clearly notes in the Catechism that parents are responsible for their children’s“moral education and spiritual formation.” This responsibility is so intertwined with the family“that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute” to the parents' involvement (CCC 2221).

To be honest, I am not necessarily the best person to talk about spiritual formation, being still in formation myself ( as my two or three regular blog readers know! ).

I hold, however, that creating memories, positive memories, educational and spiritual and relational memories, is important to the intellectual and spiritual formation of the child. Of the person. And of the family.

This is why I homeschool, why I am glad that we have homeschooled.

Memories.

Time

How do unschoolers spend their time? It's often quantity, sometimes incidental time.




-picking up DS when he toddles out and wants to see what I'm cooking

-letting DD help chop things in the kitchen

-stopping in the middle of my chores to sit on the floor and read to DS when he asks so nicely--"Pees!"

-listening to DD "read" a book to me

-looking out the window with DS and talking about sounds we hear

-sweeping with both kids--each has a little broom, and everyone likes to pitch in!

-talking about all the instruments  the dental hygienist used on DD's teeth this morning

-going for a mother-daughter jog before breakfast at DD's request and talking with her about hiking and camping while we go

-helping DD find a missing knee sock and missing (chewed) piece of gum in our playroom--reorganizing together after items are found!

-watching The Waltons together and discussing the lives of those Depression-era kids! :)

~ watching the birds at the feeder and trying to figure out how many species and what kind we have
~ going to the library's butterfly garden to do nature study
~ teen making food food for Michael (tube fed and on a blended diet), talking about nutrition and calories
~ working in the garden
~ talking in the car (the radio is broken!)
~ working on CGS things together
~ talking about Church issues in our parish - looking up things in the GIRM and CCC
~ reading books and discussing
~ having teatime
~ just trying to keep the house in order
~ talking about child development while watching Joseph and Peter - comparing them as they are only 3 months apart
~ attending some weekday Masses with whomever chooses to go
~ going to a parish mission and discussing what was said
~ going to the Lenten reconciliation service at two different parishes and talking about the differences
~ Wii fit
~ shopping together
~ cooking together
~ eating together
~ working in the garden
~ talking in the car (the radio is broken!)
~ working on CGS things together
~ talking about Church issues in our parish - looking up things in the GIRM and CCC
~ reading books and discussing
~ having teatime
~ just trying to keep the house in order
~ talking about child development while watching Joseph and Peter - comparing them as they are only 3 months apart
~ attending some weekday Masses with whomever chooses to go
~ going to a parish mission and discussing what was said
~ going to the Lenten reconciliation service at two different parishes and talking about the differences
~ Wii fit
~ shopping together
~ cooking together
~ eating together

Typical Day 7

Our day yesterday was getting ready for visitors, French class here ( singing! Fun! And choosing recipes in French as our next class will be a French cooking class).

Catholic Homeschoolers here, a talk by a friar, a writing or colouring activity about Our Lady and lots of lunch and games and running around and shooting dart guns and playing the Wii and computer..

Then clean up, St Anthony Mass and Novena, dad came home as he’s been away for work and we went to see the new Star Trek movie...Fairly typical activity for us! ~ Leonie

Typical Days 6

Thought I would share what we did today.
DS, 9, decided he didn't want to go to homeschool group again, so we decided to use our free entry for homeschoolers pass to get into Raglan Castle.

The weather was lovely, and we enjoyed clambering over walls,up spiral stairs and down dark holes.DD noticed swallows nesting in the stone work. We knew they were swallows because they had the same song as a toy swallow we had.

Lovely picnic. We talked about how we could make flapjacks-"Yours are not like these, these are lovely and moist!"

A school party was there at the same time. I was struck by the rigidity-they had to go where the teacher wanted to go, they had "educational" worksheets they had to fill in.

My children were delighted to get £1 each to spend in the gift shop-they spent many minutes deciding what they could get for that.

DD12 decided on the chocolate castle, dd6 and ds 9 both bought a pen and eraser.

All of the children took lots of photos. They loved the koi in the pond. We noticed these particular small birds landing on just leaves floating on the pond.

On the way home we popped into a garden centre to buy some trailing plants to go in our "new" watering can, which we rescued from the recycling centre yesterday.Ate ice cream as the weather was nice. ~ Catrin

Typical Days 5

Not necessarily in chronoligical order...

Oldest son wrote a letter to Suzanne Collins. (author of Gregor the Overlander books). I helped him find her address, and he addressed the envelope. He played with Legos. He helped me serve lunch to the other kids outside. He helped his Dad put a new net on the trampoline. He finished one Gregor book and started the next one. He unpacked and put away his backpack from the Cub Scout campout.

Second son did a few pages in his Kumon math book. (Dad has promised a new Wii game when his book is finished) He researched how to defeat a character in one of his video games. He read a wikipedia article of how to escape from quicksand. He helped with the trampoline net.

Both boys read the parks and recreation brochure to identify which gymnastics class they want to take next.

5 year old daughter practiced writing some numbers. (She just picked up the book and started doing it!!) She asked me to take the training wheels off of her bike. She tried to teach herself to ride the bike. Oldest brother gave her some really useful tips. I lowered her seat and she tried some more. Dad told her to stop trying, that she needed an adult to help her and wouldn't be able to do it herself. (!!!! He obviously is not well read on the whole child-led learning, unschooling, John Holt, etc, concepts) She helped me cut out some fabric for aprons I'm going to sew. She helped me take care of the baby.

2 year old did some coloring and played outside with the neighbors dog. She also made pee pee in her underwear twice, and spread the coloring books all over the living room floor.
The baby mostly just smiled, laughed, slept and nursed. ~ Anja

Typical Days 4

Betsy

Yesterday our day looked like this:

I woke up and prayed (or tried to with my 2 year old.) He senses whenever I get out of the bed and jumps up! I went to workout for an hour and was back by 8:30. Isabel, who is almost six, goes to a little homeschool preschool. It is all girls and she has all brothers. She really enjoys the girl time, Dh dropped her off on the way to work. I checked my email and messed around on the computer for awhile. Coffee is definitely happening at this time.

Jack (13), Luke (11) and Max (8) did the breakfast dishes and then backed a weekend bag. We are going to visit my sister in Syracuse. She is having a baby and is dying to have her bathroom finished. My dh is pretty handy and really likes her hubby, so we are heading up. Jack finished his mathbook he is working on. He did a little handwriting and worked on his annotated bibliography and Latin for the Homeschool Coop. He would like to go to high school and is motivated to do the work needed to get there. I REALLY hope he changes his mind. We are considering a Community College class next year.

I played Zelda for a little while with Max. He is my consultant. He really enjoys being on my team. He can't read yet, but is really quick with math and puzzles. It was Jack's turn to play and I went to pick up Isabel. It is about 45 minute round trip.

I made lunch for anyone who was hungry. The kids continued playing Wii. They gave it up for Lent, so I am pretty loose this week. Luke and I did the Barton Method for Reading and Spelling. It is a program for dyslexia. I think he has a mild case and he helps me practice. He then worked on some schoolwork on the computer. We are in a coop and he has a short story due next Wednesday.

Declan (2) went down for a nap. Max, who has severe dyslexia, and I did Barton.

Luke, Max and Isabel went out to play. Jack continued Zelda. Isabel and I played Zelda and then went outside.

We prayed the Divine Mercy Novena.

I went out for Indian food with friends, this doesn't happen very often and Paul had dinner with the kids.

This morning, dh worked out and went to Mass. Max has speech therapy and the rest of us are goofing off waiting to head to Syracuse. Luke has been out playing basketball. The weather here is finally nice.

I sometimes question what we are doing, mostly in the middle of the night! :-) I think Jack made unschooling easy. He loves to read and has on his own passed "grade level." The next two make me a little nervous. I know they are happy and kind. They are involved in baseball and are very popular with the coaches. They make eye contact when speaking with adults. That is an uncommon skill around here.

Typical Days 3

Willa

My 3 oldest kids are graduated. My oldest son is finishing his senior year in college, he composes music for the fun of it, plays a little classical guitar, writes stories, and programs games on the computer. My second son is still at home, interested in football statistics and history, Church history, and a knowledgeable naturalist. My daughter is going to college next year -- she writes in a group blog, plays several musical instruments, is spending quite a lot of time learning to cook and sew these days, and loves to look through thrift stores and other places to put together her own vintage design outfits.... she's also very interested in old movies and in GK Chesterton and apologetics.

My son who is going to high school this year is an athlete -- he loves football -- he's 16. The next one down is 13. Right now the thing that occupies most of his interest is computer games, though he loves logic puzzles and science projects and reads a lot too. He plays a little recorder.

The last two are ages 9 and 6. The 9 year old is special needs -- he had a liver transplant when he was an infant. The 6 year old is a livewire, very extroverted. I worry about him a bit because there are no real playmates up here for him. We are talking about moving closer down to the Fresno/Clovis area.

Yesterday wasn't a typical day because Sean, the highschooler, was sick and had to go to the doctor. Then toward afternoon Aidan got sick and by evening we were all feeling pretty bad.
We spent most of the afternoon watching videos.

Our unschooling is sort of different from some peoples'. I read a description on a blog of a mom who called their family's homeschooling style "unrelaxed unschooling" and that probably fits us. When I'm too relaxed I drift into my own world. In my "nature" I'm like CS Lewis who described the perfect life as studying all morning, taking a long brisk walk in the afternoon, and hanging out with friends and family in the evening conversing and sharing thoughts and ideas. But I have seven kids. I have to actually be quite intentional to interact with them in a learning atmosphere.

Hmm, maybe that IS a description of unschooling, come to think of it.

Typical Days 2

Dee

We have 5 kids that range in age from 1 to 17. Our days have been spent building a chicken coop. We have 39 baby chicks that are ready to go outside!!

We have numerous projects going on right now! The kids are helping with them all.
We are redoing two bathrooms, building a coop and getting the garden ready. We are also planning for a month long visit from my MIL and FIL. My MIL has dementia.

Yesterday, most of the day was spent outside with the chicken coop.
My 14yr ds is finishing up a physics course at the local nature center.
My 17 yr spent most of yesterday watching a dvd on "how to change the needle on her sewing machine" LOL .
My 10 yr dd is very happy reading upstairs in her room. I am very happy about that one as I was sweating when or if she would be bitten by the reading bug.
My 6 year old is very happy doing some workbook type stuff. He does it in between other stuff. My littlest in very happy just to be the center of attention.

Throughout our day we stopped and talked about many different things that ran the gamut from politics to soil erosion.

Our day is really never typical. We kind of go with the flow.

Typical Days 1

Leonie

Tuesday in the Octave of Easter. And what did we do?

I got up early to work out with two sons, others were woken up around 7.30 or 8.00 am as we were going out.Kids tidied bedrooms ( kinda), got their own breakfast, played computer games, played guitar and piano, I briefly checked email and Facebook and blogs, did some computer work for my Kumon centre, prepared food for a shared lunch at Catholic Homeschoolers group. One son made me some porridge to make sure I'd eat breakfast! Gotta love these kids!

Eventually, I changed from workout clothes, too and we looked at the saint of the day, missal readings and plans for the day. Started laundry. Left to pick up a priest who was visiting our homeschool group, then off to Catholic homeschoolers, kids reading novels in the car along the way. And chatting to Fr.

At Catholic homeschoolers, my kids were disappointed to find no other teens turning up. But they listened to the talk about St Gemma Galgani and mysticism while I did crafts with the little ones. We prayed the chaplet of divine mercy, shared lunch, drove home, dropped Fr off at the friary – with listening to music and a discussion on relationship and covenant on the way!

Home to find two other sons had two friends over – so a big game developed with nerf guns in and out of the house. I washed up, cleaned the oven from the morning cooking, did laundry – then took one son to part time work at another Kumon centre. I stayed there for two hours, doing volunteer work for the other Supervisor, kids at home continued games and playing guitar and computer/video games.

Came home, chatted to boys and friends who were still playing, paid bills online, did some Kumon work on the computer, did the minutes of a parish meeting, cleaned up the house. One son made me some tea, friends were picked up, one son went to pick up another from work, we got ready for Mass.

Our Tuesday night mass and novena to St Anthony with veneration of the relic and blessed bread, was beautiful. Youngest son served at mass. We are very lucky to have solemn reverent masses in our parish.

Talked outside church to a few people, then went to friends, for pizza and to meet visitors from interstate and play games, talk, watch Robin Hood.

Prayed the rosary in the car and discussed relationships yet again.

In school terms we did oral language, group work, religion, society and environment, life skills, work education, computer education, social and personal development, physical education, reading and writing, music. Not bad!

Who They Are and Who God made Them To Be

From Christian Unschooling.

The thing is, this is WHO they are and who God created them to be. Because they have plenty of materials on hand and the freedom to do and make they will run with it. They are allowed to watch as much tv and play as many video games as they like–which they do (unless of course they have a job they need to do like their dishes or someo ther parental request) but it is not nearly as much as one might expect–they watch, in general, much less than they would if I limited the time spent. Because they have freedom and materials on hand, they have TONS of movies and lots of video games, plenty of arts and crafts materials and the freedom to use scrap paper and other random bits of stuff they have much more interesting things to do than sit and watch DVD’s. ......... Sometimes things get messy (okay, usually–5 people at home all day means no house beautiful), sometimes too much is enough, and sometimes they fight, but in general it is a peaceful life overflowing with learning and activity, and we all are learning daily.

So, what do Catholic Unschoolers Do All Day?

It differs, from family to family.

Sharing some links. Please add your own!

How We Homeschool

How Our Family Came To Unschool

That photo album

Tidal Homeschooling

A Recipe for Classical Unschooling?

Memories and Homeschooling

Unschooling Tuesday

Math Stress?

First Week of School?