In our house a typical day looks like this:............................
Oh wait, let me, uh, uhm, sorry I got nothing.
Why? Well simple: because we don't have any 'typical' days.
We have typical moments, like breakfast and dinner but that's about as typical as it comes.
There is really nothing else in our day that's ever exactly the same as the day before.
We have days when we have our breakfast routine and then take care of our animals.
Sometimes my youngest sprout insists we should feed the animals first and there's nothing that can
change his mind about it, so we humbly follow his lead.
There are times when we spend hours on a subject like maths and we have moments when we don't see maths exercises
for days at a time.
getting hay for the ponies
Homeschooling
When I first started homeschooling my eldest daughter, I was sure I'd have a structured plan lined out with a curriculum and hold myself to it.
The intent was there as well as the will to implement this, but truth is: I fell off the structured high horse rather quickly and it soon became a very unstructured donkey.
It was my daughter who set the pace and there was really no way of going against this with her.
At the time, I purposely kept my youngest daughter and eldest son in school because they were 'only' in kindergarten and I wanted this time to focus on my eldest.
So there was a routine of some sorts. This routine pretty much consisted of stuffing breakfast down our throats, the kids frantically running around to find their left shoe or that princess backpack we just bought and me yelling that they needed to look at things on floor level because they'd never find it up in the air.
The circus would continue with me letting out a deep sigh of relief when I finally had them all buckled up in the car only for at least one of them to whisper that they had to use the bathroom. Of course their answer to my question why they didn't go while still in the house was always answered with a: 'I didn't need to go then.'
SIGH
Once that was all settled, I could finally start the car for our 30 minute commute to the school we all loved and thought was irreplaceable. This went on for a whole year and by the time the school holidays came around, I don't know who was more exhausted: they because of all the stress and boredom that came with sitting still in a stuffy classroom or me because of being a full-time taxi driver. OK, maybe not full-time, but I do think that two hours in the car every day only for school runs is insane.
At that time, I'd come back home with my youngest an hour later, or more if I had a little bit of shopping to do.
Sometimes I would find my daughter Skye either back in bed or making herself tea in the kitchen.
If I said: 'So, the plan for today is English and maths first and then we'll have a look at your history lessons.' Eye-rolling was more than expected and the usual: I don't care shrug would inevitably follow.
Unschooling
One day I mentioned that I wanted to pick up my original plan and bake things to sell at local markets.
Skye jumped on it like a cat on her prey and asked if she could bake cupcakes and cookies to sell as well.
I thought it was a great idea and right away we started planning this and I asked her to do find recipes she wanted to try, make an ingredient list, make the right calculations in regards to ingredients, check out the costs of the whole idea and find out what she would need to charge in order to make a profit. I also asked her to include a tiny portion of the stall rent into her calculations, because of course that was important to keep in mind too.
Low and behold: this same eye-rolling, shrugging teen girl with her indifferent attitude got busy and within two days rolled out a full sheet of recipes, with all ingredients, a calculation sheet for the cost/profit plan and even a miniature mini-business plan!
Now I had heard of unschooling, but I never thought it would be for us. But it was. I realised that once I let my daughter explore what she wanted to do she'd do it no questions asked and have fun while doing it!
Photo by imgflip.com
Home 'schooling' versus Unschooling
The rest of the week flew by. In fact: the rest of the year.
We were all relieved when the end of the year came and the kids could have their well deserved time to play.
I decided that I wasn't going to travel for two hours a day anymore and together we agreed that any other school just wouldn't cut it.
We'd do maths in the grocery store, paint, draw, walk, jump on the trampoline and when someone asked about a subject like history, we'd explore.
And we still are and having fun while we learn. Yes: I said 'we'. Because I learn when they learn.
And that is the freedom of unschooling.
Thank you for reading
If you enjoyed my post, please come back for more or read my introduction here:
https://steemit.com/adventure/@misslasvegas/my-story-and-how-steemit-helps-to-keep-things-flowing
Or one of my other articles here:
or here:
https://steemit.com/vaccines/@misslasvegas/how-vaccines-changed-our-lives-vaccine-induced-injury
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Love,
I have tremendous respect for homeschooling mothers. My wife and I homeschooled our three sons (mostly my wife, while I worked to keep the bills paid). One son went to a private school for his last two years of high school, but that was it for schooling outside our home. In retrospect, the only thing we might have done differently was to NOT send the one son to those two years of private school. Homeschooling can be discouraging at times, but you are doing the right thing. Here's wishing you the very best !
That is a great achievement to homeschool three kids. I'm curious how your boys are doing now. Your wife must be wonder woman :) It can be hard and discouraging at times. And I have great respect for people like you and your wife and that you were able to cooperate in a way that made it work for you. It's definitely not easy for the parent who works outside of the house either, since that parent would only be involved in homeschooling part-time while you're still a full time parent. The fact that that worked for you, means you have a great work ethic and are a team. I'm fortunate to be able to work from the home mostly after I chose to leave my full time job and traded it in for freelance work. Not everyone has that opportunity so I know how blessed I am to be able to do this. Thank you for reading and your well wishes!