Thinking of Next Year : 6th Grade A Bit of Unschooling

Next year, I will have a 6th grader, and a 10th grader. My 10th grader, believe it or not, is easier to plan for than my 6th grader. I am going to try some Unschooling with her next year, which simply means interest led schooling. Not all her subjects will be interest led, but a few. First off, she has been saying she wants to be an animal groomer, walker, own business type thing when she grows up. She has a rabbit, and we have two dogs. She has been doing rabbit grooming for years, but is not comfortable nail trimming. I will have to work on that. Plus with the book below, she can begin learning about grooming in general. After she completes that book, I will look for others. She also has 4H horse project book, for next year. I was going to start a 4H horse group, but that has been sidelined at least for now. I just don't have the time to dedicate to it right now.

She really loves Life of Fred, so I will continue with that series. I will also continue with CK12 Elementary Math, to supplement Life of Fred. Learning Language Arts Through Literature, is also my choice for her. I have not decided for History yet. I also will probably supplement other Science. She will begin Spanish next year, using the free Duolingo app.  I do often change my mind, but this is looking pretty set in stone right now.  I would love a great deal on some of the books shown.

A Strange and Unusual School Week

I am so glad homeschooling is flexible. Monday through Wednesday, was completely normal school days. Then Thursday happened, lol. Thursday and Friday could definitely be classified as unschooling, with no textbook work at all. Today, I am back on track with doing all the things I normally do.

Yesterday, Caitlin and I did get to do some pumpkin decorating. We do not carve our pumpkins anymore. They literally last until Summer if we do not cut them. This year we bought smaller pumpkins so we could put them on the dining room table. I had some extra blue spray paint, from my tire garden, so we spray painted them blue. Much easier than using acrylics and a brush. Caitlin chose to put cute stickers on hers. I have to show her how to Modge Podge them, so the stay on better. I used an old doilie to create the design on mine. I have never tried this before. Keep your can moving, and spray lightly. Otherwise you get a lot of paint but no design. I got better at it as I went. I might get one more pumpkin and try it again, lol. We did find some Magnolia seeds, and got them soaking in water, for one of Caitlin's Science experiments. That is all we accomplished for school, on Thursday and Friday. A friend of ours lent us the game Rummy Roots. We were supposed to try it yesterday, that did not happen. We will play it Monday, and if we like it, I will buy it.

How was your homeschool week?

We Got Toads In Odd Places!

Well, I was going to share with you today our Winter theme, art projects, from Monday. But, either I forgot to take the pictures, I highly doubt that, or someone accidentally erased them, I don't have pictures. But, don't worry I will get some. We have started doing some kind of Art project each Monday. Now Art at my house can mean, drawing, painting, crafts, jewelry making, cleaning, gardening just about anything. But each Monday we do something. So, you will just have to wait. Next Monday is about the only normal school day we will have. We will be on vacation from school books next week. All unschooling, well except for FLVS Science. DJ does have to do at least three assignments, but that is no big deal.

So, anyways, since it is obviously never going to rain again here in Florida. I have to water our garden every day. We have roses, hibiscus, banana tree, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli and peas. So far the winter garden is going much better than the Summer one did. I bring the tomato plant in at night, to the garage, so hopefully it will survive and maybe even give me a tomato or two over the Winter. I moved two of the broccoli plants today, because they were not doing nearly as the one that was in a different location. So now they are all together. It was freezing the other day, and even though I covered the banana tree, hibiscus and poinsettia plants, the poor banana tree still got some freezer burn. But, it should survive. We have peppers growing too, but they must not take kindly to the cold either. They look a little wimpy today. Anyway, it warmed up nicely the past two days, and the toads have decided it must be Spring. I recycle or reuse old plastic containers to plant small plants in. This one has carrots trying to grow in it. I went to water it this morning and I thought a leaf was in there. So, naturally I stuck my hand in to take the leaf out and much to my surprise it wriggled at me. It was a big old brown toad in the container sitting on my carrots. They go in the silliest places. Well Caitlin didn't like him in there so she moved him, and he went under the house. Hopefully he won't come in the house. Do you have a Winter garden? I want to try herbs too, I just forget to buy the seeds. I do have some Garlic trying to grow. Garlic and Onions are easy you just throw the ends of your fresh garlic and chopped off onion end into some dirt and they pretty much grow on their own. I forgot about the onions. Maybe someday we could actually live off our harvest. Right now it is mainly just a once in a while snack, LOL! We do have flowers on our pea plants though, fingers crossed.

I watched the Dust Bowl, last week, from PBS. I am convinced this will be Florida soon if we don't get some moisture. Of course I have no idea, but it has not rained here at my house in over a month.

Unschooling Is It Creating Uneducated Children

I saw a report, on the evening news, about Unschooling. Unschooling, is a form of Homeschooling, where basically the child picks the Curriculum based on their current interests. Of course both sides had an opinion, both for and against Unschooling. The major concer being, that Unschooling is actually teaching uneducated children, but people who use Unschooling say their children are independant, free thinkers.

I do not actually know anyone who Unschools their children, so I am kind of curious. One of the issues I had with public school, was that almost everything was traditional learning, and elective clases such as Art, was never really Art class, Music class consisted of just listening to music, and not much more. I was really disappointed with both of these things. I do follow a traditional form of learning, in my home. We do make our own Curriculum, but I used a basic quide, to what each child should learn in that grade. I also do arts and crafts, and a music class. Now I am not a music teacher, so I purchased an I can play piano, and software, that teaches them to play piano. Unschooling is interesting, in that the child decides what they want to learn. So say for examply the child has an interest in Drums, their whole day is spent learning to play the drums, or at least that is my understanding of how it works. So I have just a couple of thoughts. How does the child learn Grammar, History, Math or other basic learning skills. I really dont know many children that would say boy I really want to learn about nouns and verbs today. Or oh boy, I really want to learn how to multiply today. While I can see how Unschooling would be wonderful, for creative and critical learning, I dont quite understand how the children learn basic educational skills, that they may need later in life. Or am I misunderstanding, and the basics are taught, but somehow creatively mixed in with the main interest at hand. For example I could see, how spelling could be taught by spelling words that have to do with music, and drum playing. Reading, by reading books, on playing the drums, or music related. Math by creating clever math sheets that use the main interest as the topic. Writing, and Grammar, by writing stories related to music and drum playing, and using correct Grammar to do it. So I could definately see how they could comingle together. Do you Unschool, do you know anyone who does, how does it work? I look forward to hearing, from some of you who do Unschool.