How Do YOU Homeschool?

If you've been following my blog, you may have heard me say- "we are eclectic homeschoolers and lean towards unschooling."  If you're new to the homeschooling world, this may as well be a sentence in Latin.  Trust me, I know.  It took me awhile to get the lingo and some things I still have no clue what people are talking about.  So allow me to explain exactly what I mean when I say this sentence.

Eclectic homeschooling is simply the idea that curriculum, lessons and learning comes from many different avenues.  For this reason we do NOT have a set curriculum.  I pull William's lessons from several sources and incorporate lots of resources and tools.  Some things that I am currently using are:

• Scholastic Workbooks
• Sylvan Math Workbook
• Compass Odyssey online program
• Science experiment kit from Lakeshore Learning
• Classes taught by certified teachers and experts in the field at Edmonds Heights
• Sports
• YMCA membership
• Field trips and activities
• Worksheets printed from Education.com
• Online math games from CoolMath.com
• Board games
• Projects around the house
• Free quiet reading
• Weekly library trips
• DVD's and YouTube videos
• Art projects and classes
• Holiday themed activities
• Building projects at local hardware store

With unschooling there is no curriculum, there are no workbooks, no formal classes- nothing.  The concept of unschooling is that children learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it.  It is 100% child led.  

I love this concept but have to admit that 100% child led learning is just a little scary.  When I say that we LEAN towards unschooling, I simply mean that we try to let William direct his education.  If he's really interested in volcanoes, we allow him to pursue that.  We do not wait months later for it to come up in a unit study or perhaps wait a year for him to learn about a certain subject when he's older.  We let him learn now, when he's curious about it and the information will be more exciting to him.  By the way, did you know if kids are passionate about a subject they are more likely to enjoy the learning process and better retain the information?  Score for unschooling!

While you may think that parents who unschool would be fairly hands off in their approach to their children's education, this simply isn't true.  The role of an unschooling parent is to provide vast amounts of materials to help facilitate their kids learning process.  For example, last summer when William was interested in volcanoes, I helped him check out books on volcanoes, pulled up YouTube videos for him to watch, bought him a volcano making kit, put together art projects and took him to see a real, live volcano.  This can be much more exhausting and time consuming then simply following a set curriculum.  So parents- you've been warned. ;)  

We incorporate both of these styles into our son's education.  He takes classes during the regular school year- typically twice per day for 2 hours daily.  He also does 60 minutes of workbook, worksheets or computer learning as well as 60 minutes of daily, quiet reading in a book of his choice.  The rest is unschooling.  Once he's done with his "school work" as he calls it, he is free to pursue his own interests.  Some days he wants to go swimming at the YMCA, or go to their youth center to do a new craft.  Other days he makes an invention in the backyard with his trusty sidekick, Buddy Boy.  Perhaps he draws replicas of Lego Bionicals and spends time online researching all the characters.  He might want to play Monopoly or write a story complete with illustrations.  Some days he wants to go to the library to pick out new books or take a walk in the park and look for treasure.  For this reason, we also homeschool year round.  There is no off button when learning is happening.  And you really never know where the day will take us, the sky's the limit and I have to admit, that it's pretty fun too!

If you want to read more about what it means to be an unschooler, I highly recommend you check out The Unschool Bus.  They are awesome!

For us, this is what we do now.  This may change in the future and that's the great thing about homeschooling.  The ability to do what works and if it's not working, the freedom to change.  But I have to say, that right now- I'm pretty happy with how we homeschool and the methods we've adopted.  How do YOU homeschool?