Unschooling kidergarten

Unschooling is interest based learning where children naturally learn from their environment and are trusted to learn what they need to learn to succeed in life.  Parents act as a resource person and role model to help educate their children in a respectful manner.  Unschooling will often look different with each family.  This blog includes my family's approach to the unschooling philosophy.  I will sometimes include ideas and challenges and sometimes I will include a blog of an actual day or event of our unschooling family.  Feel free to follow my blog if you would like to learn more.  Thank you for taking time to read my blog!


We live in a state where we have to keep attendance for 180 days once a child is 7 years old or from the moment they are removed from public school, whichever applies.  I would not worry about grade levels for my children otherwise since all children develop at different rates.  The way I do grade levels is if a child turns 4, they are preschool, 5 kindergarten, 6 1st grade, 7 2nd grade,...and so on.  So once they have a birthday, they start a new grade.  I figure this would be the easiest way to chart it and it also will make it so once they become an adult at 18, they are done with school no matter when their birthday is, so there is no going to high school until you're 19 or 20 just because you could not keep up with your classmates at the age of 6.  That just seems crazy to me.  I figure once an individual is an adult, they should no longer be required to go to high school and are ready to start college, or a career at that point and they should feel confident and ready to do so. This is just my view of how it should be and it is not necessarily right or wrong, it just makes the most sense to me.


The reason I have explained this today is I have a child who turned 5 years old and therefore, is in kindergarten.  What does that mean for a child who is unschooled in my home?  It means that she too will be included in some of the extra classes where we participate.  For the first time, my daughter was scheduled to participate in science class.  When we arrived at the science museum, she said, "no, I'm not doing it!  I wanna be with you, mom!"  I told her that it was time for her to start science classes with her brother because she is a big girl now that she is five.  Then the time came for her to go to the class with her brother.  She threw a big fit and cried and carried on even though her brother and two good friends were also in her class that is for children from 5 to 8 years old.  She refused to go to the class, so we started heading upstairs to the play area and I was thinking to myself, she needs to do this class.  So we had another discussion about it and finally she agreed to go to the class.  She unwillingly sat down in her chair between her two friends and looked like she was going to cry, but was able to hold back the tears.  I then left the classroom with her younger brother and walked by and checked on her from time to time during the 45 minute class and she was not crying and was participating with the help of the mothers of her friends.


After the class ended, she ran off with her friend to explore the museum and enthusiastically said, "I'm going to go play with my friend now, mom!"  and off she went.  I was so glad I pushed her to do this class rather than allowing her to stay with me.  Unschooling is a process that prepares children for adulthood and if I allow her to just cling to me whenever anything feels uncomfortable, she will not progress with this development.  In 13 years, she will be an adult and possibly living on her own or getting ready to do so.  There are so many changes that happen during childhood.  It is a time of the biggest changes in a lifetime.  When I think back 13 years ago, there are things in my life that have changed where I no longer work full time and started a family instead, but I really have not changed a lot as a person.  However, in 13 years, there will be a significant difference in my daughter and the child she is now will only be a distant memory, so these baby steps towards independence are essential.  However, she also needs to know that I am here for her if she needs me so that she can feel secure about spreading her wings.


The next phase of this science program was going to a presentation and she enthusiastically went into the experiment area and was excited about watching the presentation on her own.  I love seeing her confidence to be more independent.  This was challenging for her little 2 year old brother though because he is used to running around after his sister and having a constant playmate.  This new program will also help him with independence and finding his own friendships.  There have been a lot of lessons on social skills and self-confidence this week for the younger two children.  We are going through a transitional phase where my daughter is starting to be more mature and discover further who she is as a person.


Science class from 2 to 4 was followed by her ballet class from 5 to 6.  When my children turn 4, I start putting them into an extra-curricular activity.  For my son, it was t-ball and then ballet, for my daughter, it has been ballet since she did not have interest in sports at this age, so she started doing ballet a few months after she turned four and this was her first experience with being independent. She loves her ballet teacher and has made some little friends with ballet and she was so happy in her class tonight and seemed to smile more than normal.  I think her new found independence is starting to feel very good for her.  I am predicting a more confidence, happy child will bloom from this and this is something I love to see.


When my husband asked her what she learned in her science class, she said, "I wasn't really paying attention, but I sat with my friends".


And I say "welcome to kindergarten, my beauty".