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!
Today's lesson was much different than most of our unschooling lessons are. My son learned how to deal with a bully. Since we do homeschool, this is not a common occurrence like it may be if he were to go to a private or public school where the student to teacher ratio is a bit skewed. Bullying could happen daily in a school environment. So luckily for my son, it does not happen daily, but it does still happen. One thing that is very different with homeschool than sending a child to school is that they have a tendency to have friends of all ages rather than same age peers. This concept took me a while to get used to and I remember pushing for a same age peer group for my little boy initially because it just seemed like that would be the norm, but after doing this for three years, I have become very relaxed with my child's friendships and just let them happen naturally and he has some friends who are a couple years younger than him, his age and several years older and personality is key rather than age. If his personality cliques with another child, they become friends and they are not concerned with age.
We went to the local science museum today for a homeschool class that we go to on a monthly basis. My son was playing with one of his friends who is 10 years old while my son is just 7 years old and some other homeschool kids told my son he was a baby and he should not be playing with the older children. This broke my son's heart because he loves playing with his friends and he sees them regularly and has good relationships with them. He held his hurt inside though, did not respond and went to his class and then felt like he was being left out in his class and like everyone was picking on him. When I went to pick him up from his class, he almost ran out of the room and then when we got into the car, he just burst into tears. He said that he never wanted to go back to the science museum again and this is normally something he enjoys because he loves science and he usually loves being around the other children. Little boys are always nominating him to be their best friend because he has such a laid back disposition and a sweet personality, so this was very unlike him. I asked him to explain and he told me the story and what happened to him and how it made him feel. I told him I would need to think about this for a few minutes to help him appropriately. I also promised him cuddle time when we got home.
So when we got home, we came up with a plan. If this happened again, instead of walking away and feeling hurt, he would respond with, 'it is not nice to call people names and I am not a baby, babies are under 2 years old and I am 7. Don't ever call me a baby again, you were wrong to do that'. I then went on to explain to him that the only reason someone would call him a name and try to leave him out is if they did not feel good about themselves and they try to make other people look bad to improve how they feel about themselves, but in reality, they are really insecure and sad. So this was not a personal attack against him, but instead just their way of dealing with their own problems. After telling him this, we cuddled for a while and he seemed much better. What was breaking his heart was that he was being told not to be friends with someone for a shallow reason and he looked to this person as having some type of authority over him when in reality they did not have any.
So this was lesson #1 on how to deal with a bully. There are many people around who are not kind and confident and gentle, so I'm sure it will not be the last lesson on how to deal with bullies. I'm glad that this is rare and bullying is not the norm with homeschool events, but I am also glad it happens occasionally because it helps teach my son how to get along with all types and not everyone is going to be a moral, kind individual who is always looking out for him and trying to help care for him. It is unfortunate, but everyone in the world is not good. My son is already aware of this, of course, but this helped him have experience with it and we came up with a plan together on a better way to handle it in the future so that he does not internalize it and make himself upset. It also helped him gain some insight of why someone would be this way. Human nature can often be one of the most challenging lessons. I am glad my son had the opportunity to learn more about this today. If it happens again, he will have the tools to better deal with the situation and he gained confidence in himself too.
We are an unschooling family of 5 with a 7 year old son, 5 year old daughter and 2 year old baby boy and we wanted to share our experiences with others who may be interested in unschooling, are unschooling, or have the desire to learn about unschooling. We have been unschooling for 2 years and have discovered that it is a wonderful experience. I have discovered through this experience that once you become an unschooler, there is no turning back. Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
A Day in the Life of an Unschooler: Project Laundry
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!
A virus has attacked our home. Ahhhhh! What did this mean? A 7 year old boy who is tall enough to reach all of the dials and can read fairly well has matured to the point where he can do laundry. So how is this related to homeschooling you say? As of yesterday, laundry has become a very strong interest for my son and he is so proud that he can do it on his own. It brings him confidence to know that he can take care of himself and help out the family. He loves operating the machines and learning about how they work. He is also learning how washing pillows and bedspreads and sheets helps nasty viruses from returning once they hit so instead of being sick for 2 months, our family of five will be sick for maybe 2 weeks tops as it sneaks its way into all of the little bodies. Well, he started by washing some clothes and then moved onto a couple pillows and bedspreads for 'project virus go away'. Then he took the sheets off of all the beds and washed those. Then he started a load of towels and has rugs waiting in line once the towels are finished. He set the dryer to buzz when it's done and as soon as he hears it buzz, he is off to do more laundry with such an enthusiasm. This is the most laundry that has been done in my home in a short period of time since we have lived here. It is quite amazing. He has been doing his best to help put it away too. Eventually, I never thought I would say this, but we might run out of dirty laundry.
My job as an unschooling parent when he has a new interest is to basically go with it and see where it leads us. I never know what this interest may be or what direction it may go, but it is always inspiring and I seem to learn as much as he does. So I am thinking his interest in laundry can venture into how machines or appliances work. We may be able to find information on this or it could even go into a direction of fabrics and how they are cared for and perhaps how they are made. Perhaps we will get to the point where we will obtain some wool and make our own fabric. Maybe it'll send me or my other children in a new direction with this introduction of a laundry obsession. I am not sure which direction it will lead, but one thing I do know for sure is I am no longer behind on laundry. He has had the dream of building a helper robot that can do housework while the rest of us just do fun things. Perhaps his laundry obsession will lead to the development of the helper robot. Or perhaps it will lead into a study of illness and how different cleaning agents can kill viruses and bacteria. The possibilities are endless.
I just heard the dryer ding and within seconds, I hear the little laundry expert in there doing his thing. Project laundry may have a part 2. :) At the beginning phases of this new interest, I am very satisfied with the dirty laundry issue and I am also happy that someone is enthusiastic about doing a job that I often do not have time to do or will forget to do. Did I mention that I really enjoy unschooling? I would recommend it for everyone if I could.
A virus has attacked our home. Ahhhhh! What did this mean? A 7 year old boy who is tall enough to reach all of the dials and can read fairly well has matured to the point where he can do laundry. So how is this related to homeschooling you say? As of yesterday, laundry has become a very strong interest for my son and he is so proud that he can do it on his own. It brings him confidence to know that he can take care of himself and help out the family. He loves operating the machines and learning about how they work. He is also learning how washing pillows and bedspreads and sheets helps nasty viruses from returning once they hit so instead of being sick for 2 months, our family of five will be sick for maybe 2 weeks tops as it sneaks its way into all of the little bodies. Well, he started by washing some clothes and then moved onto a couple pillows and bedspreads for 'project virus go away'. Then he took the sheets off of all the beds and washed those. Then he started a load of towels and has rugs waiting in line once the towels are finished. He set the dryer to buzz when it's done and as soon as he hears it buzz, he is off to do more laundry with such an enthusiasm. This is the most laundry that has been done in my home in a short period of time since we have lived here. It is quite amazing. He has been doing his best to help put it away too. Eventually, I never thought I would say this, but we might run out of dirty laundry.
My job as an unschooling parent when he has a new interest is to basically go with it and see where it leads us. I never know what this interest may be or what direction it may go, but it is always inspiring and I seem to learn as much as he does. So I am thinking his interest in laundry can venture into how machines or appliances work. We may be able to find information on this or it could even go into a direction of fabrics and how they are cared for and perhaps how they are made. Perhaps we will get to the point where we will obtain some wool and make our own fabric. Maybe it'll send me or my other children in a new direction with this introduction of a laundry obsession. I am not sure which direction it will lead, but one thing I do know for sure is I am no longer behind on laundry. He has had the dream of building a helper robot that can do housework while the rest of us just do fun things. Perhaps his laundry obsession will lead to the development of the helper robot. Or perhaps it will lead into a study of illness and how different cleaning agents can kill viruses and bacteria. The possibilities are endless.
I just heard the dryer ding and within seconds, I hear the little laundry expert in there doing his thing. Project laundry may have a part 2. :) At the beginning phases of this new interest, I am very satisfied with the dirty laundry issue and I am also happy that someone is enthusiastic about doing a job that I often do not have time to do or will forget to do. Did I mention that I really enjoy unschooling? I would recommend it for everyone if I could.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Intrinsic versus Extrensic Motivation
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!
http://www.chrismercogliano.com/be-my-guest-unschooling-reflects-current-cognitive-research/
I read the above article today regarding intrinsic versus extrinsic learning and how studies have revealed the positive effects of intrinsic learning, which if you're doing it the right way, should be the main learning style of unschooling. I found this article very interesting and it helped me feel confident that unschooling is the best direction for me and deep down, I feel like it would be the best direction for everyone. It touched on how if extrinsic motivations are incorporated into learning when the person is already intrinsically motivated, it can actually have an adverse effect on motivation to learn. So grades and awards for learning could actually interfere in the learning process instead of encouraging a child.
This idea made me think back to when I was in school and some of my friends would get paid for their grades and I told my parents about it. They told me that I should be motivated to learn just to learn and being paid for grades was not necessary. I accepted it and was not overly concerned that they did not agree to pay me for my grades. Money has never been a huge motivator for me to succeed in my life. However, experiences like that are probably why. I had older parents who had already raised several children before me and they seemed to learn from their mistakes. I also was not given an allowance and was told that helping is just part of being a member of the family. I guess this wisdom motivated me to use this same thinking style with my own children. So we do not use grades and if they do well at something, a trophy is not necessary, but just the satisfaction that they succeeded is enough.
This also made me think about the different things that inspire my 7 year old son. We went to the children's museum when he was 5 and he sat through a demonstration about how to prepare a mummy. That was followed by a year of mummy research and building mummies and learning about mummies, making mummy costumes, finding videos about mummies and thinking about mummies nonstop. We would go to the library and leave with 4 books about mummies and we would read all of the books. There were no grades during this time, no tests and no expectations. He just really found mummies to be the most interesting thing that had ever come into his life. Then he discovered great apes and loved watching the orangutans at our local zoo. He then learned everything he could learn about great apes. We got books about great apes, he has several orangutan, gorilla and chimpanzee toys. He would look through my husband's physical anthropology book and when I asked him if he could take a college course, what would it be? He said that he would like to take a physical anthropology course studying non-human primates and maybe learn about studies on orangutans. He also said that he wanted to learn Indonesian because this was the main language in Borneo and Sumatra where the Orangutans live in the wild and we learned of an orangutan sanctuary where they study orangutans. So my husband has been working with him on learning Indonesian. He also learned that palm oil is destroying the orangutan habitat because rain forest are being destroyed for palm oil plantations. That made me aware of how many things have palm oil as a main ingredient. I was never aware of any of these things until my 7 year old became interested in them and he is not graded on any of this. He just wants to learn. He is also fascinated by the anatomy of the human body and likes to make replicas of the human body out of various objects laying around the house. He is a very busy child and is always learning. If someone came up to him and said that if he did a quiz about orangutans and got an A, they would give him a trophy, I doubt this would motivate him because he already has the intrinsic motivation to keep the momentum going. He is like a sponge when something catches his interest and there is no need for a reward at the end of the day. Learning is reward enough.
If he was in a typical first or second grade classroom, would he have any of the knowledge he has today? I do not see any way he would. He has had the freedom to learn what he wants when he wants and he would be so limited in a classroom setting. With this mindset, it is amazing where he may be ten years from now or what type of career he may choose with this style of learning being introduced so early in his life. It is also interesting to think about how different society would be if people were focused more on the intrinsic value rather than the extrinsic value of existence. Would people stay at full time jobs they hated? Would there be as much misery and dissatisfaction among people of all ages? Money is often the focus of motivation when in reality, passion and interest would be a much more efficient motivator when dealing with life in general and career choices. Intrinsic motivation is key with having a happy and productive life and I am so glad unschooling is an option to make this mindset possible to blossom in a human being.
http://www.chrismercogliano.com/be-my-guest-unschooling-reflects-current-cognitive-research/
I read the above article today regarding intrinsic versus extrinsic learning and how studies have revealed the positive effects of intrinsic learning, which if you're doing it the right way, should be the main learning style of unschooling. I found this article very interesting and it helped me feel confident that unschooling is the best direction for me and deep down, I feel like it would be the best direction for everyone. It touched on how if extrinsic motivations are incorporated into learning when the person is already intrinsically motivated, it can actually have an adverse effect on motivation to learn. So grades and awards for learning could actually interfere in the learning process instead of encouraging a child.
This idea made me think back to when I was in school and some of my friends would get paid for their grades and I told my parents about it. They told me that I should be motivated to learn just to learn and being paid for grades was not necessary. I accepted it and was not overly concerned that they did not agree to pay me for my grades. Money has never been a huge motivator for me to succeed in my life. However, experiences like that are probably why. I had older parents who had already raised several children before me and they seemed to learn from their mistakes. I also was not given an allowance and was told that helping is just part of being a member of the family. I guess this wisdom motivated me to use this same thinking style with my own children. So we do not use grades and if they do well at something, a trophy is not necessary, but just the satisfaction that they succeeded is enough.
This also made me think about the different things that inspire my 7 year old son. We went to the children's museum when he was 5 and he sat through a demonstration about how to prepare a mummy. That was followed by a year of mummy research and building mummies and learning about mummies, making mummy costumes, finding videos about mummies and thinking about mummies nonstop. We would go to the library and leave with 4 books about mummies and we would read all of the books. There were no grades during this time, no tests and no expectations. He just really found mummies to be the most interesting thing that had ever come into his life. Then he discovered great apes and loved watching the orangutans at our local zoo. He then learned everything he could learn about great apes. We got books about great apes, he has several orangutan, gorilla and chimpanzee toys. He would look through my husband's physical anthropology book and when I asked him if he could take a college course, what would it be? He said that he would like to take a physical anthropology course studying non-human primates and maybe learn about studies on orangutans. He also said that he wanted to learn Indonesian because this was the main language in Borneo and Sumatra where the Orangutans live in the wild and we learned of an orangutan sanctuary where they study orangutans. So my husband has been working with him on learning Indonesian. He also learned that palm oil is destroying the orangutan habitat because rain forest are being destroyed for palm oil plantations. That made me aware of how many things have palm oil as a main ingredient. I was never aware of any of these things until my 7 year old became interested in them and he is not graded on any of this. He just wants to learn. He is also fascinated by the anatomy of the human body and likes to make replicas of the human body out of various objects laying around the house. He is a very busy child and is always learning. If someone came up to him and said that if he did a quiz about orangutans and got an A, they would give him a trophy, I doubt this would motivate him because he already has the intrinsic motivation to keep the momentum going. He is like a sponge when something catches his interest and there is no need for a reward at the end of the day. Learning is reward enough.
If he was in a typical first or second grade classroom, would he have any of the knowledge he has today? I do not see any way he would. He has had the freedom to learn what he wants when he wants and he would be so limited in a classroom setting. With this mindset, it is amazing where he may be ten years from now or what type of career he may choose with this style of learning being introduced so early in his life. It is also interesting to think about how different society would be if people were focused more on the intrinsic value rather than the extrinsic value of existence. Would people stay at full time jobs they hated? Would there be as much misery and dissatisfaction among people of all ages? Money is often the focus of motivation when in reality, passion and interest would be a much more efficient motivator when dealing with life in general and career choices. Intrinsic motivation is key with having a happy and productive life and I am so glad unschooling is an option to make this mindset possible to blossom in a human being.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
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".
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".
Monday, February 10, 2014
Sponteneity
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!
One thing I really love about the unschooling philosophy is the ability to be spontaneous and going with the flow of life. If you have a rigid personality that sees the world in more of a black and white manner without much beauty in the grey, then this approach would not be a good fit for you, but it works very well for our family. I have learned that going with the flow of life is the most relaxing, productive, and meaningful way to live. Life is so unpredictable and if children are taught at a young age that they have to follow a strict routine or schedule everyday of their life, this is not realistic and will not create a happy adult because life does not work in this manner. However, if children are able to live a free life where plans may change at the last minute, but that is okay and we will still live; then the struggles of adulthood will not be as challenging because this is just an extension of childhood with the unschooled child.
Today was one of those days when spontaneity led us into a very interesting direction. Normally, Mondays are recorder lesson day. We spend the mornings completely unschooling where the children choose what they want to do and we all have our little routines that help us deal with our lives and then we have lunch and shortly after that, head out to my son's recorder class and he does his class while the children play in the nursery at the church where the class takes place. Well, the class was canceled today because the teacher had a family emergency. Plan B is usually focus on reading time after lunch for as long as the children want to do reading time. I usually have my oldest son pick out 3 books to read on his own since he is working on his reading skills and the younger two children then pick out multiple books to listen to or try to read on their own or sometimes will choose no books and do free play instead. However, today we went to a last minute birthday celebration instead.
Facebook has been a very good social networking tool for homeschooling. I have met many families through this that I would not have met otherwise. There was one family I met recently. We set up a playdate at a local fast food play area a month or so ago. Today, this mom was on one of the local homeschooling network groups and asking about a good place to take her daughter for her birthday. I made a suggestion and she asked what I was doing, well, we were going to have reading time since recorder class was canceled, but I was also thinking about getting out of the house since cabin fever has set in pretty hard with this long winter. We ended up meeting this family at a local fun spot and stayed for about 3 hours and then swung by one of my favorite little local groceries, picked up a few things that they had in stock and headed home. It was a great, unplanned, spontaneous, go with the flow kind of day. It was great!
My oldest son, who is 7 years old, has gotten use to this going with the flow outlook and when I told him his recorder class was canceled and we were going to head out to this special location, he was very enthusiastic about it and just looked forward to playing games, connecting with the other children and enjoying life. That's what being alive means, going with the flow and enjoying every moment. My 5 year old daughter has not quite grasped onto this going with the flow philosophy quite yet, but it will come with time. She acted pretty shy and clung to me and was quite frightened of the characters walking around this place in costumes, but started to warm up to the experience towards the end. Baby boy was very similar to my daughter. He was very hesitant about this experience initially and also clung to me, but learned to enjoy his time as the hours moved forward. So our lesson today was learning how to go with the flow. My 7 year old son has already learned this lesson, but it was a wonderful learning experience for the younger two children. They learned that being out of your element and doing something out of the norm can feel really uncomfortable, but it can also be a lot of fun and a unique experience that they can look back on and smile even though at the time, they felt unsure about it.
I remember my 7 year old son clinging to me up to about the age of 6 and he is very independent now. It is interesting how most parents will remark and compliment him about his independence and I just chuckle to myself because he was just as clingy as the younger two when he was their age. I think children need to feel that security prior to age 6 and they need to know that there is a place that they can feel safe no matter what the situation is and then once they become more brave, they can spread their wings and fly and continue taking baby steps towards this until they miraculously reach adulthood with the maturity to care for themselves and the wisdom to let go, enjoy the moment and go with the flow of life. So this was our unschooling lesson for the day.
One thing I really love about the unschooling philosophy is the ability to be spontaneous and going with the flow of life. If you have a rigid personality that sees the world in more of a black and white manner without much beauty in the grey, then this approach would not be a good fit for you, but it works very well for our family. I have learned that going with the flow of life is the most relaxing, productive, and meaningful way to live. Life is so unpredictable and if children are taught at a young age that they have to follow a strict routine or schedule everyday of their life, this is not realistic and will not create a happy adult because life does not work in this manner. However, if children are able to live a free life where plans may change at the last minute, but that is okay and we will still live; then the struggles of adulthood will not be as challenging because this is just an extension of childhood with the unschooled child.
Today was one of those days when spontaneity led us into a very interesting direction. Normally, Mondays are recorder lesson day. We spend the mornings completely unschooling where the children choose what they want to do and we all have our little routines that help us deal with our lives and then we have lunch and shortly after that, head out to my son's recorder class and he does his class while the children play in the nursery at the church where the class takes place. Well, the class was canceled today because the teacher had a family emergency. Plan B is usually focus on reading time after lunch for as long as the children want to do reading time. I usually have my oldest son pick out 3 books to read on his own since he is working on his reading skills and the younger two children then pick out multiple books to listen to or try to read on their own or sometimes will choose no books and do free play instead. However, today we went to a last minute birthday celebration instead.
Facebook has been a very good social networking tool for homeschooling. I have met many families through this that I would not have met otherwise. There was one family I met recently. We set up a playdate at a local fast food play area a month or so ago. Today, this mom was on one of the local homeschooling network groups and asking about a good place to take her daughter for her birthday. I made a suggestion and she asked what I was doing, well, we were going to have reading time since recorder class was canceled, but I was also thinking about getting out of the house since cabin fever has set in pretty hard with this long winter. We ended up meeting this family at a local fun spot and stayed for about 3 hours and then swung by one of my favorite little local groceries, picked up a few things that they had in stock and headed home. It was a great, unplanned, spontaneous, go with the flow kind of day. It was great!
My oldest son, who is 7 years old, has gotten use to this going with the flow outlook and when I told him his recorder class was canceled and we were going to head out to this special location, he was very enthusiastic about it and just looked forward to playing games, connecting with the other children and enjoying life. That's what being alive means, going with the flow and enjoying every moment. My 5 year old daughter has not quite grasped onto this going with the flow philosophy quite yet, but it will come with time. She acted pretty shy and clung to me and was quite frightened of the characters walking around this place in costumes, but started to warm up to the experience towards the end. Baby boy was very similar to my daughter. He was very hesitant about this experience initially and also clung to me, but learned to enjoy his time as the hours moved forward. So our lesson today was learning how to go with the flow. My 7 year old son has already learned this lesson, but it was a wonderful learning experience for the younger two children. They learned that being out of your element and doing something out of the norm can feel really uncomfortable, but it can also be a lot of fun and a unique experience that they can look back on and smile even though at the time, they felt unsure about it.
I remember my 7 year old son clinging to me up to about the age of 6 and he is very independent now. It is interesting how most parents will remark and compliment him about his independence and I just chuckle to myself because he was just as clingy as the younger two when he was their age. I think children need to feel that security prior to age 6 and they need to know that there is a place that they can feel safe no matter what the situation is and then once they become more brave, they can spread their wings and fly and continue taking baby steps towards this until they miraculously reach adulthood with the maturity to care for themselves and the wisdom to let go, enjoy the moment and go with the flow of life. So this was our unschooling lesson for the day.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
8 Tips to Staying Healthy in a Sickly World
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!
Today's entry is not directly related to unschooling or homeschooling, but instead I am going to touch on a major benefit of this lifestyle along with some tricks I have discovered to keep my family healthy. What I mean by healthy is maybe 1 or 2 colds a year and almost completely free of fevers or infections. Stomach viruses are also almost non-existent where it has been an issue maybe twice since we started having children 7 1/2 years ago. These are things that I have found helpful and not everyone may agree with what I have to say, but this works for us and may also be helpful for others.
1. We completely avoid Dr. offices unless something major happens. After child #1 having a really scary reaction to immunizations at his 4 month immunization schedule because of Prevnar and the medical professionals denying this was the cause even though it was very obvious, we also decided not to do immunizations with the youngest and only did the first set without Prevnar for my 2nd child. We have not done well baby visits with the youngest after four months. Within the last couple years, my husband and I have done our own research regarding immunizations to discover that all immunizations have a possible side effect of death. I do not know if this is related to the immunization itself or the preservatives used in it, but either way, I do not see the need to put a poison into a completely healthy child that could possibly have the side effect of death. I am not completely against immunizations, but from my experience, I do not see any benefits from them. If I am proven otherwise and it seems like the health of my children would be better if I got their immunizations, which could happen, I would do this for their benefit. However, based on personal experience, good health has been the result of not having them for my children.
The result from these decisions has been very healthy children with maybe 2 colds a year and my 2nd child has only had one fever that I was aware of at the age of 4 and she just turned 5 years old and has never had an antibiotic in her healthy little body. The youngest has only had 2 fevers that I am aware of. The first one was from an ear infection that, at the time, I treated with an antibiotic, but later learned the hydrogen peroxide can heal an ear infection if a little is placed in the infected ear with a cotton swab. The 2nd one was caused by a virus and went away on it's own once the virus left his little body. My oldest child has been very healthy since we made these changes when he was around 3 or 4 years old. Prior to this, he did get sick about every other month and would get high fevers after each set of immunizations and from viruses that he would get often. However, once we stopped doing immunizations and well child visits at the Dr.'s office, this was no longer an issues for him.
2. We avoid regularly scheduling activities in the morning so that the children can sleep as long as their bodies need to sleep. Sleep is the best way to naturally fight off infections.
3. We eat mainly an organic, vegetarian diet with occasional meat and we drink a lot of water. We try to grow a lot of our own food when we are able and have our own chickens for fresh eggs during the warmer months. We also have local raw honey readily available to help fight off possible infections and bacteria. A very nice doctor recommended buckwheat honey for a cough suppressant when she learned that I was supportive of natural remedies. I have not used this yet because no one has had a cough since I found some, but I have this available if we need it.
4. Aside from organic laundry soap, I only clean with vinegar, water and baking soda. I even use this for dishes. I wash dishes by hand and clean the food off and then spray it with vinegar and water and rinse it off. I have vinegar and water spray bottles that I use for everything. I use baking soda occasionally too if something needs to be scrubbed or have a deeper cleaning.
5. We avoid crowds of people and if we are in a public place, we do a lot of hand washing or use hand sanitizers. The children also know to avoid others who appear ill.
6. We exercise regularly. During the warmer months, we have park days at least once a week and the children spend most of their time outside. During the winter months, each child has at least one outside activity where they exercise each week and they are always chasing each other around the house and playing. I do yoga daily and try to get outside and move around as much as I can when the weather is nice and my husband likes to go running fairly regularly when it isn't icy outside.
7. If a virus does attack our home, I wash all bedding including bedspreads and pillows and may do this repeatedly if needed. Since I have been doing this, instead of having a virus go through our family of five over a period of 2 months, it is usually gone within a couple weeks.
8. The kids play in the dirt, wrestle with our dogs who are not always overly clean and sometimes probably even eat dirt. This is a natural way for young children to build up their immune systems. We also do not overly wash vegetables from our garden. There are vitamins in nature that are often cleansed away in fruits and vegetables that you buy at the store and I have read that many of these vitamins help build up the immune system to fight off various health problems including cancers. I am not an expert on this by any means, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
These are the tricks I have learned to maintain a healthy household over the last 7 1/2 years. A main motivator for me is that I get very annoyed by illnesses that invade my home, especially when they are unnecessary and preventable. I have also learned that it is best to do my own research and not just trust what I am told, even if this person is a medical or education professional. Since I started having children, I have learned to question everything when I used to accept what I was taught. Part of it could be because I am somewhat lazy and do not like doing extra work. Another reason is because I have been forced to gain wisdom over the last few years and not be as trusting with information that is given to me. I have learned to think for myself more and not just accept the norm or mainstream information that is readily available. I have learned to dig deeper to find truth. I hope this information is helpful for you. This is what I have found helpful for us. My goal is to raise my children in the healthiest, most educational environment possible and this is where unschooling and being an independent thinker in relation to health issues plays a part with having a family. Life is too short to waste time on something that is annoying and preventable. That is my philosophy.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140212144611.htm
Today's entry is not directly related to unschooling or homeschooling, but instead I am going to touch on a major benefit of this lifestyle along with some tricks I have discovered to keep my family healthy. What I mean by healthy is maybe 1 or 2 colds a year and almost completely free of fevers or infections. Stomach viruses are also almost non-existent where it has been an issue maybe twice since we started having children 7 1/2 years ago. These are things that I have found helpful and not everyone may agree with what I have to say, but this works for us and may also be helpful for others.
1. We completely avoid Dr. offices unless something major happens. After child #1 having a really scary reaction to immunizations at his 4 month immunization schedule because of Prevnar and the medical professionals denying this was the cause even though it was very obvious, we also decided not to do immunizations with the youngest and only did the first set without Prevnar for my 2nd child. We have not done well baby visits with the youngest after four months. Within the last couple years, my husband and I have done our own research regarding immunizations to discover that all immunizations have a possible side effect of death. I do not know if this is related to the immunization itself or the preservatives used in it, but either way, I do not see the need to put a poison into a completely healthy child that could possibly have the side effect of death. I am not completely against immunizations, but from my experience, I do not see any benefits from them. If I am proven otherwise and it seems like the health of my children would be better if I got their immunizations, which could happen, I would do this for their benefit. However, based on personal experience, good health has been the result of not having them for my children.
The result from these decisions has been very healthy children with maybe 2 colds a year and my 2nd child has only had one fever that I was aware of at the age of 4 and she just turned 5 years old and has never had an antibiotic in her healthy little body. The youngest has only had 2 fevers that I am aware of. The first one was from an ear infection that, at the time, I treated with an antibiotic, but later learned the hydrogen peroxide can heal an ear infection if a little is placed in the infected ear with a cotton swab. The 2nd one was caused by a virus and went away on it's own once the virus left his little body. My oldest child has been very healthy since we made these changes when he was around 3 or 4 years old. Prior to this, he did get sick about every other month and would get high fevers after each set of immunizations and from viruses that he would get often. However, once we stopped doing immunizations and well child visits at the Dr.'s office, this was no longer an issues for him.
2. We avoid regularly scheduling activities in the morning so that the children can sleep as long as their bodies need to sleep. Sleep is the best way to naturally fight off infections.
3. We eat mainly an organic, vegetarian diet with occasional meat and we drink a lot of water. We try to grow a lot of our own food when we are able and have our own chickens for fresh eggs during the warmer months. We also have local raw honey readily available to help fight off possible infections and bacteria. A very nice doctor recommended buckwheat honey for a cough suppressant when she learned that I was supportive of natural remedies. I have not used this yet because no one has had a cough since I found some, but I have this available if we need it.
4. Aside from organic laundry soap, I only clean with vinegar, water and baking soda. I even use this for dishes. I wash dishes by hand and clean the food off and then spray it with vinegar and water and rinse it off. I have vinegar and water spray bottles that I use for everything. I use baking soda occasionally too if something needs to be scrubbed or have a deeper cleaning.
5. We avoid crowds of people and if we are in a public place, we do a lot of hand washing or use hand sanitizers. The children also know to avoid others who appear ill.
6. We exercise regularly. During the warmer months, we have park days at least once a week and the children spend most of their time outside. During the winter months, each child has at least one outside activity where they exercise each week and they are always chasing each other around the house and playing. I do yoga daily and try to get outside and move around as much as I can when the weather is nice and my husband likes to go running fairly regularly when it isn't icy outside.
7. If a virus does attack our home, I wash all bedding including bedspreads and pillows and may do this repeatedly if needed. Since I have been doing this, instead of having a virus go through our family of five over a period of 2 months, it is usually gone within a couple weeks.
8. The kids play in the dirt, wrestle with our dogs who are not always overly clean and sometimes probably even eat dirt. This is a natural way for young children to build up their immune systems. We also do not overly wash vegetables from our garden. There are vitamins in nature that are often cleansed away in fruits and vegetables that you buy at the store and I have read that many of these vitamins help build up the immune system to fight off various health problems including cancers. I am not an expert on this by any means, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
These are the tricks I have learned to maintain a healthy household over the last 7 1/2 years. A main motivator for me is that I get very annoyed by illnesses that invade my home, especially when they are unnecessary and preventable. I have also learned that it is best to do my own research and not just trust what I am told, even if this person is a medical or education professional. Since I started having children, I have learned to question everything when I used to accept what I was taught. Part of it could be because I am somewhat lazy and do not like doing extra work. Another reason is because I have been forced to gain wisdom over the last few years and not be as trusting with information that is given to me. I have learned to think for myself more and not just accept the norm or mainstream information that is readily available. I have learned to dig deeper to find truth. I hope this information is helpful for you. This is what I have found helpful for us. My goal is to raise my children in the healthiest, most educational environment possible and this is where unschooling and being an independent thinker in relation to health issues plays a part with having a family. Life is too short to waste time on something that is annoying and preventable. That is my philosophy.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140212144611.htm
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