...other than the rag bag that is :)
Hula hoop loom
One very happy boy:)
Who gave his first rug to his big brother and is ready to make another for himself:)
Showing posts with label unschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unschooling. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A Use For Old T-shirts...
Hula hoop loom One very happy boy:) Who gave his first rug to his big brother and is ready to make another for himself:)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Papa Knew It Would Be Good For School...
Heroscape, that is. Mama didn't really bother to have an opinion either way. Imagine my unschooling delight to not only see my boys playing a "grown-up" (kind of) game together without help and without fighting...
They used to randomly pick their armies. One day I mentioned that each character has points and you usually make sure each player has the same number of points. Then I continued washing dishes... The next day Brannon was counting up points to make sure they had about the same. I asked him how he knew he had the right number of points. "Well," he said, "if my card has 170 points and Joshua's card has 120 points I just find the difference between 7 and 2 which is 5. Then I know I need to find Joshua a guy with 50 points." Upon further inquiry I discovered he'd asked Papa to help him count points and Nate had explained to him that counting by hundreds and tens is no different than counting by ones. The information sank in and stuck.
Brannon will often make up character cards writing 'moov' 'utack' 'range' and 'defense' and assigning point values. He is learning to make a balanced character that works realistically within the game.
They are both learning to add up how many dice they need for each turn and the simple addition and subtraction needed to carry out their "attack" and "defense"
I've been asked a couple of times to read out a character's "special attack" or some other information they only need once in a while. I think they'll start trying to read them themselves pretty soon.
I suppose we'll be back to science experiments and easy reader books in a week or so, when the heroscape craze wears off, or maybe it will be on to something new. Who knows. My suggestions and thoughts on what will interest them and get them learning are wrong at least as often as they are right. I just keep searching and suggesting and grabbing opportunities (carefully! It's so easy to go overboard and start pushing...) to teach through what they are doing day to day.
It's possible Brannon will need a lot more structure next year, or will want it. I don't know. I've never done this before, so for now it's one day at a time. And lots of prayers for wisdom! ;-)
They used to randomly pick their armies. One day I mentioned that each character has points and you usually make sure each player has the same number of points. Then I continued washing dishes... The next day Brannon was counting up points to make sure they had about the same. I asked him how he knew he had the right number of points. "Well," he said, "if my card has 170 points and Joshua's card has 120 points I just find the difference between 7 and 2 which is 5. Then I know I need to find Joshua a guy with 50 points." Upon further inquiry I discovered he'd asked Papa to help him count points and Nate had explained to him that counting by hundreds and tens is no different than counting by ones. The information sank in and stuck.
Brannon will often make up character cards writing 'moov' 'utack' 'range' and 'defense' and assigning point values. He is learning to make a balanced character that works realistically within the game.
They are both learning to add up how many dice they need for each turn and the simple addition and subtraction needed to carry out their "attack" and "defense"
I've been asked a couple of times to read out a character's "special attack" or some other information they only need once in a while. I think they'll start trying to read them themselves pretty soon.
I suppose we'll be back to science experiments and easy reader books in a week or so, when the heroscape craze wears off, or maybe it will be on to something new. Who knows. My suggestions and thoughts on what will interest them and get them learning are wrong at least as often as they are right. I just keep searching and suggesting and grabbing opportunities (carefully! It's so easy to go overboard and start pushing...) to teach through what they are doing day to day.
It's possible Brannon will need a lot more structure next year, or will want it. I don't know. I've never done this before, so for now it's one day at a time. And lots of prayers for wisdom! ;-)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
School and Play
Yesterday morning for school we read several pages out of a wonderful book called "Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation". Over the weekend I asked Critter #1 to pick an insect or animal to study this week. He wrinkled his nose and said "But I don't want to study an insect or animal".
"OK," I said, "what do you want to learn about?"
After a moment of thought came this reply--"While I'm deciding what I want to learn about could you explain to me why people came up with evolution and what that is all about?"
So, creation science it is, lol! He is so far delighted with this book. We went quickly over the six days of creation, a little bit about water, and a little bit about atoms. He was especially fascinated by the description of how all the positive protons in an atom stick close to the nucleus. He is familiar with the concept of like charges repelling one another because he loves magnets. :)
He snorted loudly when I explained (from the book) that some scientists have decided there must invisible particles called gluons that hold the protons together.
"... all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Colossians 1:16, 17
In the afternoon we spread a blanket behing the house and read some out of our Wildlife Habitats book. We decided we should make a small pile of brush in the "snakey woods" for the rabbits and mice, and a stump-top birdfeeder should be made before winter.
One day, Critter #2 was out front by himself(I think brother was visiting grandma for a bit). I came out to check on him and found him hard at work, stacking these old shingles.
One day the boys needed an occupation while I worked on a complicated meal in our crowded, cluttered, half finished(speaking generously) kitchen. I assigned Critter #1 a pretend salad...
And Critter #2 a pretend soup... They were very creative and had a great time:)
It was so cute I caught them all staring at the flat tire lol! (That's one of my nieces with Critter#2 in the trailer).
My favorite scenes from my birthday dinner...
Lovin' it all :)
"OK," I said, "what do you want to learn about?"
After a moment of thought came this reply--"While I'm deciding what I want to learn about could you explain to me why people came up with evolution and what that is all about?"
So, creation science it is, lol! He is so far delighted with this book. We went quickly over the six days of creation, a little bit about water, and a little bit about atoms. He was especially fascinated by the description of how all the positive protons in an atom stick close to the nucleus. He is familiar with the concept of like charges repelling one another because he loves magnets. :)
He snorted loudly when I explained (from the book) that some scientists have decided there must invisible particles called gluons that hold the protons together.
"... all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Colossians 1:16, 17
In the afternoon we spread a blanket behing the house and read some out of our Wildlife Habitats book. We decided we should make a small pile of brush in the "snakey woods" for the rabbits and mice, and a stump-top birdfeeder should be made before winter. Then we went to find some grapes, then the boys played contentedly with mud they had made the day before until it was time to go inside.
One day, Critter #2 was out front by himself(I think brother was visiting grandma for a bit). I came out to check on him and found him hard at work, stacking these old shingles.
One day the boys needed an occupation while I worked on a complicated meal in our crowded, cluttered, half finished(speaking generously) kitchen. I assigned Critter #1 a pretend salad...
And Critter #2 a pretend soup... They were very creative and had a great time:)
It was so cute I caught them all staring at the flat tire lol! (That's one of my nieces with Critter#2 in the trailer).
My favorite scenes from my birthday dinner...
Lovin' it all :)
Friday, September 19, 2008
A "Relaxed" Approach
So lately I've been using these phases a lot-- "we're just going to be relaxed right now" "we're not going to push him" "we're really not in a hurry" etc. These phrases result in a flicker of panic in my dear mother-in-laws eyes, which she valiantly covers. Why? Because I'm talking about teaching our 7-yr-old to read.
Hubby and I are in total agreement on an "unschooling" type approach to our homeschool. The reason we are not fully explaining this to my honeys parents at this time is because they are already completely panicked about us homeschooling in the first place. In fact grandfather has to try really hard to even be nice about, which I must admit he is doing a great job at. I know what he really thinks about it though. He is convinced that his grandsons will grow up ignorant, unable to attend college or get a decent job. He completely exploded the first time his son mentioned homeschool (I know this was out of worry for his grandkids). Grandma is not quite as panicked, but still unsure. She wants to know lesson plans and how much progress we are going to make this school year etc.
So for now we aren't revealing our real master plan for our children's education. I envision near-future pointed questions about our plans for the year. I also imagine using an approach I recently read on someone else's unschooling blog. Pointing wildly over the questioners shoulder and shouting "Is that a UFO!!!!". When they look I can run in the opposite direction...
I personally think "unschooling" is such a negative name. We should rename it something positive like "Life Education" or "Living Learning" or I'm drawing a blank. I know these are cheesy and sound more like organizations than a way of life and learning. I'm pretty sure I came up with some better ones yesterday and now I've forgotten them.
I'm praying for wisdom about how to talk about this subject when it becomes unavoidable. If we lived farther away we could just say "We love you, we're raising our kids how we want". But, living on the same piece of land we are definitely in each others space daily which gives plenty of opportunity for meddling. I don't think my father-in-law will ever agree with our choice to homeschool (although you never know, miracles happen) but I want there to be peace in our family. I hope all our parents can trust us to raise their grandkids well, even if we make decisions that are vastly different than their own were.
Hubby and I are in total agreement on an "unschooling" type approach to our homeschool. The reason we are not fully explaining this to my honeys parents at this time is because they are already completely panicked about us homeschooling in the first place. In fact grandfather has to try really hard to even be nice about, which I must admit he is doing a great job at. I know what he really thinks about it though. He is convinced that his grandsons will grow up ignorant, unable to attend college or get a decent job. He completely exploded the first time his son mentioned homeschool (I know this was out of worry for his grandkids). Grandma is not quite as panicked, but still unsure. She wants to know lesson plans and how much progress we are going to make this school year etc.
So for now we aren't revealing our real master plan for our children's education. I envision near-future pointed questions about our plans for the year. I also imagine using an approach I recently read on someone else's unschooling blog. Pointing wildly over the questioners shoulder and shouting "Is that a UFO!!!!". When they look I can run in the opposite direction...
I personally think "unschooling" is such a negative name. We should rename it something positive like "Life Education" or "Living Learning" or I'm drawing a blank. I know these are cheesy and sound more like organizations than a way of life and learning. I'm pretty sure I came up with some better ones yesterday and now I've forgotten them.
I'm praying for wisdom about how to talk about this subject when it becomes unavoidable. If we lived farther away we could just say "We love you, we're raising our kids how we want". But, living on the same piece of land we are definitely in each others space daily which gives plenty of opportunity for meddling. I don't think my father-in-law will ever agree with our choice to homeschool (although you never know, miracles happen) but I want there to be peace in our family. I hope all our parents can trust us to raise their grandkids well, even if we make decisions that are vastly different than their own were.
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