Unschooling Ninjas!
Our first week of unschooling has been an amazing journey. I have been so focused on the boys and I have been more present than at anytime in my life. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I am reporting on our learning and it has forced me to be aware of how Lan is learning, what is working and what isn’t, and noticing all the little things that I might have missed if I wasn’t present in my mind.
A recurring theme I have been seeing is Lan’s love and friendship with Kayden. He has been helping Kayden with his counting, encouraging him by telling him what a good job he is doing, and playing with him so well.
I’ve also had a few uncertainties this week. Some of my friends have expressed to me that their children who have started Kindergarten this year are absolutely loving it. I guess I’m still having a battle, albeit small….Am I doing the right thing? But luckily, when I start to have these feelings, something happens to reassure me. Things like the other day Lan and I held hands through our lunch time. If he was at school we wouldn’t have had that special moment between us.
Our learning has been completely organic. While playing with foam letters in the bathtub he spelled and read “fox” all by himself. He made a craft with leaves we collected and then presented it to his Grandma. While looking at a picture of the layers of earth he asked me “How come we don’t fall off the earth?” Which has lead us to searching out books on gravity. We’ve picked strawberries, blackberries, and peppers this week and talked about why food grown close to us is so much better than food that comes from other countries. We’ve visited the art gallery, the library, the park, the pier, the Japanese gardens, and have had 3 dinners with extended family.
I am looking forward to the weeks to come!
New to Unschooling?
Here is a list of books that have helped me to build my educational philosophy:
Home Grown by Ben Hewwit
Free At Last by Michael Greenberg
Big Book of Unschooling by Sandra Dodd
The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith
Radical Unschooling by Dayna Martin
Unschool Yourself by Jason Xie
How Children Learn by John Holt
How Children Fail by John Holt
Learning All the Time by John Holt
Teach Your Own by John Holt
The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn
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4 comments
Joni says:
September 17, 2010 at 5:33 pm (UTC -7 )
Of course their kids are loving Kindergarten. Just wait- about 2nd grade it will start to be painful; they’ll come home complaining about how they “hate” school. I raised 3 boys and it was the same with each one of them and I’m a teacher, so I was very encouraging back then and it didn’t help. It never does. Most parents just ignore their kids feelings and tell them, “Buck up- you HAVE to go to school- that’s life” and thus it all begins. YOU are doing the right thing- keep on keepin’ on! 🙂
loveisliving says:
September 17, 2010 at 5:39 pm (UTC -7 )
Thanks Joni! I’m finding the courage to go against the norm and I am sure the longer I do it, the less insecure I will be!
Margie Lundy says:
September 17, 2010 at 8:59 pm (UTC -7 )
Fun! We’re fulltime RVers, learning on the road and it’s so worth it! Glad I stumbled onto your blog. 🙂
loveisliving says:
September 17, 2010 at 10:51 pm (UTC -7 )
Thanks Margie! Just checked out your blog. Very cool. Depending on when the house sells we might be doing what your doing before we go to Asia.