Home*School*Home
I am going to admit to feeling at a loss as to what to do with homeschooling right now. We were moving right along before spring break and I was kind of on a roll. We were just finishing up a science unit. Since their public school friends were having spring break, the kids talked me into letting them have one too. I had plans to clean the house thoroughly on spring break and that didn't happen, but that's a whole 'nother story. After a spring break week, we were going to start back, but then spring break stretched into 2 weeks. (The public school kids here have 2 weeks too.) Then we were going to start schooling again. I made an easy spring lesson plan to follow. We have been half-heartedly looking at that thing for a week and not really doing much of anything. I think we all have spring fever or something. Maybe an attack of unschooling? I've got to admit, I kind of feel the call towards unschooling or delight-led learning as some call it, but on the other hand, it terrifies me. What if my kids grow up and don't have any of the necessary skills? I have heard such great things about unschoolers and they never seem to have this problem, but still, it scares me. So, for now, I will persist with at least schooling the basics. I'd like to have some schedule where the kids cover the necessities in the morning and follow their interests in the afternoon, but I haven't worked anything like that out yet. My kids tend to look at me blankly when asked what they want to study, especially the two older ones. They were in public school for several years and they expect me, the teacher, to decide what they will learn and make it interesting. I may ask the youngest to name something he wants to learn about and pursue that interest with a passion, even if it is something like 'bubble gum'. I could make a unit study out of that! Right??? As for today, I'll probably fall back on the workbooks ... but I'm not looking forward to it.
2 comments:
I could've written parts of this post! Like the part about feeling drawn by child-led learning, but being afraid that my kids won't learn anything if left to decide on their own. And my kids have been home schooled pretty much from the beginning, but I still get that blank look when I ask them what they want to learn. Well, either a blank look or something rather unrealistic, like "Welllllll, why don't we study riding our bikes?!?" I have friends who unschool. Some of their kids seem to be learning, while some seem to be directionless. It's those directionless ones that scare me out of trying it.
I wish I had seen your entry right away to tell you we all have days like this. It will be ok. Hang in there!
I love the theory of unschooling too, but it doesn't work exactly for us either. We need a bit of structure. I do try to let my daughter have a lot of say in what she's learning. She isn't the least bit shy at suggesting topics to study. Sometimes I give her 3 or 4 options to pick from, that helps keep her focused on something I think I can actually teach!
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