A NEW site to us for learning!

Why Don't Spider's Get Caught in Their Webs? A fantastic fall wonder from Wonderopolis!

I have spent the weekend searching and reading the website Wonderopolis. 

This website is an unschooling families dream! Wonderopolis is a site full of information about topics people wonder about. Each "wonder" includes a video, article, links, vocabulary, and more! 

Natalie LOVED the listen button. She doesn't like to read on the computer screen, so listening to the article was a GREAT feature for her.

 Ella has her own "wonders" to ask, but is excited to get answers to some of the most popular "wonders" on the site. 

Olivia liked the site as well. She is interested in exploring it more on her own. 

This website covers so many topics that are fascinating. We will be using this and the app as part of our daily learning. 

I LOVE finding wonderful ways to learn. At my house technology is our favorite method of learning. 

Thanks Wonderopolis!

Seth Godin and Learning

I have been watching this Seth Godin video today.

Choosing to homeschool my kids is my first step to standing up for learning in a different way.

Giving my kids the freedom to learn about anything their hearts desire is my way of standing up a bit more. I want my kids to want to do and learn more. Giving them the freedom to choose allows this to happen.

My dream is for all kids to be able to learn what they are passionate about.

Worry, Learning, and Technology

I worry about my youngest. Sometimes I am concerned that she is not doing enough. I worry that I am making a mess of her education, since I am choosing to allow her to learn in an interest led way. 

Today Ella spent most of the day playing, practicing her tumbling skills, and on the computer. She did two math lessons, watched a video on Billy the Kid, watched a Youtube video on how to make changes to her Youtube channel, wrote a question to the creator of the video, thanked him for his response, and listened to her read aloud. Then she spent three hours at dance. 

When she came home she hopped onto Club Penguin. Then, she surprised me. 

Tonight Ella informed me she had written the first two pages of her script for "real" actors. Understand up to this point her movie's have been all Webkinz, all the time. She showed me her script. I was impressed that she naturally wrote in a script format and it is typed. She wanted me to know it wasn't complete and she will be working on this for a long time, because she doesn't want to film it until after Christmas when she gets her "real good" video camera and tripod. 

I was quite impressed with her spelling. She informed me that she is getting better at spelling. This is a true statement. We have never spent a day with any spelling curriculum. Some words she said she knew how to spell because she has seen them many times on her computer games. Another vote for how gaming increases learning. We went through her script, discussed and fixed some of the mechanics such as capitalization and punctuation. 

It was a great discussion. She asked if she was suppose to use the two "dots" after the character names. I told her yes. Those "dots" have a name, it is a colon. She was stoked that she had used them correctly. She told me where action was to take place within the script, so I explained how to use brackets and short phrases to write where the action occurs. She thought this was a great idea, and told me where we needed to add more. 

At this point it was late and she went to bed. When I went to look at her script and close some windows on the computer I noticed this image above. When Ella writes and I am not at her side to ask, she has discovered how to look up the correct spelling of a word. 

I did not teach her this skill. She did not show me with pride her method for spelling words correctly. She did not see writing this script, or our discussion about grammar, mechanics, and script writing as a school lesson. Ella simply loved the process of writing a script for a movie. Her movie. Her first movie with real people!

It is moments like these when I take in a deep breath, realize we are on the right path for us, and Ella is learning about what she loves. This is a perfect combination. 

Enjoying Life and Learning

We are enjoying life. 

Recently I enjoyed a day with a photographer taking photos of my girls. It has been years since I have had anyone other than myself take photos of them and it was time. They had a great time and I now have hundreds of beautiful pictures of them!

This weekend Ella enjoyed creating skirts for her Webkinz. They are SUPER cute and we discussed how she decided to create them. She decided she wants to write a how-to script, have me film her process, edit her video, and post it on her Youtube channel. She enjoys Webkinz. I NEVER expected so much learning to come from stuffed animals, but it just goes to show what role passion plays in how we learn. 

Natalie is enjoying the season of Halloween. She is painting, creating, and making all things Halloween. We decorated the house this weekend, and have been enjoying reading Heidi. 

Olivia has also been enjoying the creative Halloween bug that is consuming my house. She has been working on a couple of Halloween projects and finished reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

Enjoying life is why I homeschool in an interest led way. When creativity strikes we are able to travel down that path. The ability to do this is pure joy. 

Learning Independently and Unschooling

I consider my kids independent learners. Educators take terms like "independent learners" to describe kids who are peer tutors. This educational terminology is NOT the method I consider my kids to be learning. My kids are NOT mini teachers that run to the aid of one of their siblings to tutor them in a subject they are good at. This is not an independent learner, it feels more like a mini teacher training camp led by "experienced teachers."

I am an experienced teacher. I don't feel it is a requirement for my kids to be independent learners. As a matter of fact I have had to get rid of my experienced teacher hat in order to allow my kids to become independent learners. I define an independent learner as any one who freely chooses to explore and learn more about a topic that they are intrigued about, or feel is necessary for their future. Freely choosing to learn is important, as it has the ability to change attitudes about learning. 

Yesterday my oldest chose to spend her day reading and writing. She chose to finish reading The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, after which she rolled on the floor and discussed her despair at how the book ends and the fact that she has another year to wait for the next book in the series. She shared her excitement on new insight about several characters. Next, she picked up a book I had picked up from the library about Aladdin and other Tales from the Arabian Nights. She was excited to read Aladdin and ran upstairs to start. After reading she chose to read a couple of chapters from a book about writing called Seize the Story and decided to do the writing exercises at the end of the chapter. We discussed what she learned from the chapters and how she used the exercises to learn more about the characters she is developing in her novel. After lunch she saw another book I had on the table called The Witches by Roald Dah lthat I had picked up to see if my youngest wanted to use it as our next read aloud. My oldest asked if I would read it to her, so we read a couple of chapters. After lunch she added another paragraph to the next chapter in her novel and wrote over twelve pages in her writer's notebook. She did not do any reading of history or science on this day, nor did she do a math lesson.  Yet  she was still choosing to learn after 11 pm. 

I believe this description embodies an independent learner. My oldest is freely choosing to read and learn about what interests her. I do not get in her way and try to teach her something. My job as her mother is to listen and discuss her interests with her. Through these discussions she shares what she is passionate about, we are able to analyze and think deeply about her interests, and when we are unsure of something we go and explore; searching for an answer. 

Independent learning is a result of unschooling. Teenagers are not the only age group who excels with this style of learning. My elementary aged daughters are also independent learners. I have one in the kitchen trying to re-create science experiments she has found on Youtube. She will spend most of her day doing this. We are reading aloud the classic story Heidi and will do a math lesson or two on the computer. Later she will spend some time learning how to design a web page and write HTML code and at 9:30 pm curled up by the fire to read the book Storybound. My youngest announced at 9:30 last night that she wanted to read a chapter from the book My Haunted House by Angie Sage. She also announced that she likes reading and she discussed how she remembers not liking to read (back when I was still trying to be the "teacher"). She listened to a chapter in our read aloud, The Willoughby's by Lois Lowry, and spent time on the computer doing a math lesson. She grabbed a book about Billy the Kid that I picked up from the library and ran off to read it. She played her favorite on-line games and spent the entire day practicing her hand stands for the hand stand competition in her tumbling class (which she won). 

I am not teaching my kids. If anything they have taught me there are better ways for them to learn. I am a listener. I listen to what they are working on and exploring. I ask if they may want help finding more information on a topic they are exploring. I set books and materials on the dining room table and if they gravitate towards it great, and if they do not then  I return them to the library. 

This is what independent learning looks like at our house. It does not resemble a classroom. There is no teacher. There is most certainly no mini tutoring sessions going on. They will help each other if asked, but it doesn't look like school or tutoring. Simply put, my kids are unschooler's who learn in an independent fashion. Public education turns simple language into a teaching style that completely misrepresents the words from which it originates.

Reading Aloud

This week we are reading. We read every week, but for some reason this week we are spending a lot more of our time reading. We are reading independently, silently, but most importantly we are reading aloud. I am currently reading three different read alouds.

My youngest is listening to The Willoughby's by Lois Lowry.

This story has completely grabbed her attention, made her giggle, ask about new vocabulary, and provided some great discussion.

Natalie is listening to Heidi.

I have never read this story, but I am so glad I get to read it to Natalie. This story has grabbed us both and is taking us on a lovely journey up high in the Alps.

I brought home The Witches by Roald Dhal from the library.

I thought I might read this to Ella as a Halloween themed book. She saw the cover and wanted nothing to do with it. At lunch Olivia saw it and was asking about it. I read her the description and told her how Ella wasn't interested in listening to this story. Olivia asked, "What about me!?" So, I began reading Witches to Olivia, Natalie, and Maria who spends some time with us each day. All three of them were sucked into the story and are excited to hear more tomorrow.

It is nice to have so much reading going on in my house. Reading aloud allows us to all be a part of an adventure and share thoughtful discussions and ideas about what we have read. I am thrilled all three of my girls are wanting to share stories and be read to.

History and Television

Check this show out on the National Geographic Channel.

This weekend we watched a show that was new to us, Diggers from National Geographic.

I turned this show on as I recalled how much fun I had as a child using a metal detector on the family farm. Slowly Natalie and Ella joined and started watching with me. We watched several episodes. One episode involved an unarmed atomic bomb that had been accidentally dropped in the US, others were about Billy the Kid, and Bonnie and Clyde.

Ella asked many questions about Billy the Kid. Was he real? When was he alive? Why were people after him? Are there any movies about him? Would I like them?

Needless to say I was floored. Here is a girl who has steered clear of any topic history related. Yet, a television show which gives a quick synopsis of history and geography has completely drawn her in.

I have put library books on hold, a PBS video, and we are watching American Experience episode about Billy the Kid during lunch today on Amazon Prime.

An interest in a topic can come from anything. Yes, this includes television. I am thrilled I stopped to watch a few Diggers episodes. I am sure we will watch more in the future, and who knows what one of the girls will be inspired to learn more about!

Youtube and learning

My husband has become Mr. Fix-it! When my bread baking ended in failure with a broken Kitchen Aid mixer my husband went to Youtube and with a couple clicks of a mouse was able to watch a video and learn how to repair my broken mixer! The part he needed cost $6 in comparison to replacing the mixer at over $300!!! Yeah!

I was not shocked to hear that Olivia had been taking drawing lessons by watching Youtube videos over the weekend. She proceeded to show me several of her sketches and explained how she had found a Youtube channel that actually taught drawing techniques that she could use to her own drawings instead of just copying someone else's drawing.

First, let me say that I LOVE that she was able to find a teacher on Youtube. I am thrilled about our discussion as well. She didn't settle on learning from someone who simply wanted to teach her through imitation. What she really wanted was a teacher who could teach a technique and let her use her own creativity and imagination to draw her own character's.

This process is what unschooling is all about and I absolutely LOVE it!

Learning by Example

This past week has been full of learning. I have been learning, testing and experimenting with baking bread. I started last week with my first success baking cinnamon swirl bread. My whole wheat bread was not so successful. Due to my failure I was determined to figure out a way to bake the perfect loaf of whole wheat bread.

I never thought of failure as a "good" thing. Yet, it is failure that sent me on a mission this past week. I spent hours pouring over recipes and blogs. I finally decided to combine the process from my failure and several ingredients with another recipe's ingredients, and created my own smash up recipe for whole wheat bread. The bread is INCREDIBLE! I learned that I can actually create a successful bread recipe, and had success making dinner rolls, and have french bread resting in a bowl on the counter as I type. I CAN bake bread. This is something I have failed at my entire life until last week, when I had success with cinnamon swirl bread. I didn't give up, even when I failed. Failure this week was good, because it taught my kids to persevere and find a way to do what your mind is set on. 

Yeah. I know. It is only bread. Yet, it has been something I have always wanted to be able to do. Plus, I had three girls cheering me on through my failure. I even had suggestions and Natalie decided she wanted to help and learned along side of me. 

I also learned that as a mom who unschools, I need to lead by example. I need to demonstrate that even adults learn through failure. I need to be a cheerleader to all three of my girls. Cheering them on when they experience both success and failure. Reminding them to persevere when their interests and passions seem out of their reach. 

I could tell you about everything my kids learned this week, but I'd rather point out that baking bread taught us all a HUGE lesson. This was not all my girls learned this week, but I feel it is the most important.