A thought just hit me. I like the idea of unschooling. Child-led learning, all the time. But I believe in my heart that it is important to teach/guide them through the basics. I think that there is a core set of knowledge that a child SHOULD have. But just now it hit me. While a child should be able to read “Hop on Pop” at a certain age, a child is NOT required to color in worksheets, create diaramas, orchastrate presentations/performances all about “Hop on Pop”. Those activities do not enhance the child’s ability to read..they don’t really assist a child to engage with a text. They don’t add anything to the process unless initiated BY the child (unschooling!)! Those are the hoops that my unschooling side rebells against. Lapbooks, worksheets, projects, unit study – GAG me. I will sit with my children, teach them the basics, and then they have the rest of the day to play and explore on their own. Why waste their time or mine on this stuff? If they aren’t into it, then all this is just extra fluff that won’t help them to retain information…just takes up time, is a pain to plan for, set up, clean up, etc.
So it hit me, to incorporate my unschooling side and my belief in laying a foundation, I do actually do both! And if my kids want to create a diarama on their own because they are personally involved with the material, then groovy. Otherwise, I am just laying a foundation..teaching the skills needed for them to acquire an education…….I am not going to sing a song or dance a jig in the hopes that it motivates them to become engaged with the process. Their engagement is their responsibility, and has to come from internal motivations….
My thoughts exactly. I started Austin out with the Learning Language Arts Through Literature curriculum and it just hit me last week why the both of us have disliked it so much. I love the idea of using real books to learn to read, write, and spell. However, that curriculum was constantly providing “busy work” as a way to reinforce a concept. BLAH! Just because you read a story about a kangaroo does not mean you have to cut out a picture of a kangaroo and glue a pocket onto his belly to understand the story you just read. Especially if you have ADHD and you can’t sit still long enough to even find where you last left your scissors and glue. I now use the curriculum as a jumping off point and eliminate all of the busy work. We now can do 5 days of the curriculum in just 1 day. Language Arts time is now a much happier one for both of us.
You should look at an older copy of LLATL. The older ones are much less busy-work. What level is Austin using? Red is second grade, but many people use it for first. If you are using Red, I could send you an older copy so you could check it out. I just couldn’t use it because of the religious nature. I’m a purist when it comes to secular curriculums.
Yep, we’re currently using red, but he is whizzing through it so fast, I think we really need to be up a level.
Makes sense.
Here! Here!!! I think we pretty much do it as you describe. Tho I’ve always, since childhood, loved worksheets. I think this is why I love our current math program. My two *schooling* children seem to be really doing well in it so we’ll stick with it.
I do hope that at some point, they will be able to write a book report on stories/books they’ve read. I do feel this is a very important life skill. Just not now. That being said, Rachel and I have worked on them gently and she’s enjoyed it.
I also really like the history pockets stuff we’ve been using. It’s easy to do and we can take HUGE chuncks of time off. And it seems to offer her very different kinds of activities, not based on readings, tho sometimes they are connected a bit, but just based on other ways to learn about that period in time. Like making a quilting pattern, making a recipe, making puppets, etc. It’s been a lot of FUN! And I’m NOT a crafty person in this sort of way. When I first looked at these books, I almost turned them down but decided that my very artsy and crafty DD would love it and I should suck it up. I’m soooo glad that I did…for her ;0)
I can’t STAND worksheets. I used them exclusively when Jess was in Kindergarten, because I knew nothing else, lol. She LOVED them…like you and your schooling kids Diane
. When Allison came around, my aversion to worksheets was firmly in place, but I remembered how much Jess enjoyed them at her age, so I offered a few to her, just to make sure I wasn’t forcing my preferences onto her. She did them but really didn’t understand the point. My heart soared! We haven’t done any since then. Now Meredith is four, and beginning to write, etc., and SHE started printing off her own worksheets from the Internet! With no help from me. Mostly Starfall.com worksheets. But she prints them, completes them, and turns them in (to me) and then prints another. Sigh. She is the kid that enjoys coloring books, and Allison is the kid that SERIOUSLY asked me for a coloring book that had no pictures in it the other day. A sketch book, lol. So you know, whatever the kid wants. But you won’t ever catch me requiring it, lol.
As forth the book reports. I agree. We do Charlotte Mason inspired narrations after readings, and at some point hope to evolve to written narrations.
And the history pockets…I just got some art “pockets” from bookcloseouts.com – have yet to look at them, but they were a great price and came recommended…we’ll see. I’m sure the kids will love them, if I choose to use them, lol.