My 8 Year Old Chooses to Learn

My youngest who detests anything that has to do with physically writing asked to learn cursive this week. Out of the blue she requests not only to learn cursive, but she wants a cursive book.

I immediately ordered a book and it is set to arrive this next week. I am not certain why she suddenly has this interest, but she does. I simply roll with it and encourage her.

She spends most of her day playing, reading and watching videos about animals, adding videos to her Youtube channel, doing a bit of math, and this week we will add in some cursive. Love how this little one chooses to learn.

Those Who Judge Our Choice to Home School

It is the time of year when I get asked one question over and over again. Where do your children go to school?

I quite simply answer, "They don't." Most often people ask if I home school and then spend the next fifteen minutes explaining to me how they would love to be able to home school, but they could NEVER do it.  

Today was a new day, yet the questions about how we school were the same, but my response was answered with raised eyebrows, many questions, and a look of disapproval. When a child sitting near by started to share how much they wish they could home school, the mother who raised her eyebrows stated, "Think of all that you like about school." 

Needless to say the child shrugged, and no longer participated in the conversation. 

I get that not everyone can wrap their head around the idea of home schooling, let alone the idea of unschooling. I simply ask that if you can't wrap your head around a concept please refrain from casting judgement and squelching others curiosity. 

I understand why some believe that they could never teach their own children, and can not imagine taking them out of school. I completely disagree, but I can understand how someone can believe this. I simply ask those who have difficulty understanding why I would home school, or unschool my children to put down their judgmental glances and comments. 

I ask these people to take some time to read and learn about the topic of home schooling or unschooling. Don't squash inquisitive children, because they are curious about a topic you are fearful of. Most importantly, don't judge with words or body language. I am not judging you for keeping your children in public school. 

Time and Unschooling

TIME is the most joyful part of unschooling. My house often looks like this, because my kids can spend an entire day working on something they love without worrying about being interrupted. They have time to dive deeply into topics. 

I also enjoy the TIME we spend sharing and discussing topics. Olivia is writing and researching a couple of ideas for new novels. She is excited and we have the time to hash out her ideas. Sometimes this will take up most of a day, other times it occurs in fleeting moments. Simply knowing our time is basically limitless allows us to enjoy the writing and discussion process.

I also enjoy my TIME more since we have started unschooling. Working on my own interests has inspired my children to spend more time exploring their own interests. Currently Natalie is excited about all things ocean related and Ella is captivated by wolves. 

I am not sure how long these topics will be at the top of my kids interest list, but it is exciting to know that there is no need to hurry. After all, we are unschooler's and we have as much TIME as we desire. 

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.