What an Unschooled Teen Can Do

Between a week long road trip and my two brother's weddings I missed the recent Internet explosion about GMA's unschooling report. I won't go into the absurdity of such biased reporting because that's clearly already been covered. What I think is interesting is the seemingly unrelated reports about Abby Sunderland, the teenager who is attempting to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world. There's been all kinds of talk about sailing records and the technical difficulties of the trip but I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that Abby is an unschooler.

I have no official documentation on Abby's educational status but I think it's safe to say that because she is on a boat in the middle of the ocean, she is not in school. I also sincerely doubt she is pouring over grammar and math workbooks in her freetime, so that would make her an unschooler. Even though she is living in a world without school, I don't hear anyone questioning her ability to work hard, her exposure to new things or her preparation for college. I just wish people would make the connection between Abby's unschooling status and her amazing accomplishments. Maybe then they would see what an incredible opportunity unschooling is!

Home Schooling, Minus the Home Part

Summary of a recent conversation:

So, your husband works from home?

Yes

And you home school your kids?

Yes

So, you're pretty much all home all the time? (Said with that you-poor-crazy-hermits look)

(This is the point where you know you have not met a kindred soul)

Pretty much, yes.

Only the truth is we're rarely home. When I first started home schooling I kept saying the only thing I don't really like about home schooling is the being home part. So we don't stay home much. Really who would when there are so many other things to do? Of course we're involved in all the usuals - scouts, science club, classes, youth group, piano, sports and field trips, but then we have the unique advantage of being self-employed, so we travel. This school year we've been to Yellowstone, Arizona and the Oregon Coast, tomorrow we're heading to Utah and next month we'll be in Illinois.

When people realize how much we travel they often say with longing, "I wish we could do that!" The ironic thing is, that was me five years ago. I had a husband who worked long hard hours and I was rarely brave enough to leave the house for more than a morning with my three small children in tow (and one on the way). My husband and I both felt like there had to be more to life. Taking the leap to make that happen was the hardest thing we've ever done. My husband quit his job just one year short of partnership and started his own practice. It was very stressful and scary but it was also successful and has liberated us from the rat race.

I know not everyone can make a leap like that, but I really do think most people can make choices that give them and their family more freedom to do the things they really want to do. For example, I have a friend whose husband saves up vacation time all year so they can take a long road trip each fall. Camping helps them to save money, and has allowed them to share some amazing experiences with their children. Even if you can only travel to your nearest state park, I am a believer in giving your children homeschool experiences away from home!

College Without High School

Legos seem to be of far more interest around here than school, but with eighth grade looming before us, I've started ramping up my research on homeschooling or "unschooling" high school. A few weeks ago I came across College Without High School by Blake Boles . What a great read! His educational research was inspired by Grace Llewellyn and John Taylor Gatto, both of whom I find to be a bit extremist and not terrible concrete in their advice, but thankfully, Blake's book is very practical and inspiring. His approach to unschooling is very similar to my own. It's all about following your dreams and studying the things you love but also making a plan and setting goals. I found this so much more helpful than just a lot of talk about living wild and free. He even talks about how occasionally you may need to buckle down and learn something you don't love because you know it will be useful in helping you accomplish your goals. He provides in depth guidance in how to establish your goals and carefully explains what you need to do to satisfy college entrance requirements. I would recommend reading this even if you don't have teenagers yet, just to give you an idea of the possiblities that unschooling can provide. Now if I can just figure out how to make legos a legitimate subject we'll be all set!

Burn-Out

Today I came to the realization that I haven't posted in over month. My excuse? Two little words-Burn Out. I have a friend that jokes that President's Day is a homeschoolers D-day. You've been doing school forever and you still have forever to go before summer. Throw in a life-changing medical diagnosis, a realization that Puzzler's learning disabilities are boarding on profound, my older boys competing with a very competitive science team, a new flock of chicks (more to come on that one) and the usual illnesses of winter and small wonder I can barely keep my head above water!

Several times over the last few weeks I've found myself wondering; How I can balance my own health and sanity and the needs of my children? I've been reminded that homeschooing moms often try to be the ultimate super moms. Especially as an unschooler it feels like the work of educating is never done. There are always more books to read, more projects to work on, more educational opportunities to take advantage of. On top of that there's always that nagging little issue of housework and the occasional grocery shopping trip! So we go and go and go until life really isn't fun anymore and there is no more joy in the journey.

So how does a homeschooling super mom reclaim her life? It's still a work in progress but here's what I'm working on:
1. Let some things go. As hard as it is for me, being a super perfectionist, I have to let some things go. The house does not always have to be clean. I do not have to volunteer for everything my kids are involved in. And it really is O.K. to take a sick day once in a while.
2. Get organized. The busier I get, the less organized I am, which just leads to more stress and confusion, so I am back to lists; grocery lists, to-do lists, packing lists.
3. Get up earlier. I am really not a morning person but I am trying hard to get to bed earlier and get up earlier. Late at night I am rarely productive and early in the morning I can usually fit in some exercise or quiet reading time.
4. Pray and give yourself credit for what you do accomplish. Sometimes I just have to believe that everything will work out!

The World of Geography

As a college student in Utah I was shocked by how many of my fellow students were uncertain about the location of my home state, Oregon. I frequently heard, “is that the state north of California, or is it up by Canada? “ I guess I can’t really blame them, until a couple of years ago I only had a vague notion about the location of many states, and my understanding of latitude and longitude was a little fuzzy. Rote memorization is a big no-no in our house so I’ve found some other fun ways for the kids (and myself) to learn geography.

We stumbled on our first game by accident. One summer the boys developed a bit of an obsession with finding out-of-state license plates. Everywhere we went they searched for vehicles from far- away places. They needed a way to keep track of which states they had found so I printed off a map of the United States for each of them, and then when they found a state they would color it in. It didn’t take them long to realize that the smaller a state is and the farther away, the harder it is to find! (We did eventually find the elusive Hawaii and Rhode Island plates!)

My boys also like to collect state quarters. I got them each a map to display their collections. Not only have they pored over the maps countless times, checking to see which ones are still missing but they’ve learned a little bit about each state based on the engravings. I’ve found that learning about a place is the very best way to remember its location.

We talked about the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock and then we looked at the outcropping of Massachusetts, making it easier to remember which state it is. We’ve talk about being able to see the Statue of Liberty from both New York and New Jersey, about Mississippi being next to the Mississippi river and about the Pioneers traveling across the Missouri River. Small, simple amounts of information give the names of places meaning and improve recollection. Sometimes we can’t think of a good bit of information to “hook” a state name on, then we try to remember something about the shape of the state. We used to confuse Indiana and Illinois until we decided Illinois looked like a swollen nose, which reminded us of “ill”.

Our favorite geography games are the “10 Days” series. There is a different game for each continent; the object of the game is to collect 10 country cards that you can place in the right order to take a 10 day journey. As each card is drawn we study the map to find its location and see if we can work it into our game strategy. Often when we’re done playing the game the kids like to just play with the cards, planning out all kinds of long exotic trips across the planet.

Another favorite in our house is a game we like to call, “Where in the World is Uncle Ryan?” My brother, Ryan, travels extensively and it’s always fun to look up his location on the map, learn something about where he is, and hear about his adventures when he gets back. Even if you don’t have an immediate family member who travels, friends, neighbors, and missionaries are excellent sources of information about different places around the world. Geography is literally all around us. Now that it has become more than a memorization exercise, it is one of our families’ favorite subjects!

Happy New Year!

I have been a total bum the last two weeks. At first that made me totally cranky and insane, I'm used to going, going, going. Then this week I finally settled into the idea, OK, actually I only settled for about 2 days, but that was enough time for my mind to clear enough for me to solve some small but nagging educational problems. First, I wanted the kids' computer downstairs where I can keep better tabs on it. One day I was walking through the house and tah-dah I realized how to rearrange to make it work. Second, I've had this perpetual problem of lose projects and half finished papers floating all over the place. (I think it's an unschooling curse) A few days ago I landed on a very simple organization idea. I got 2 folders for each child, one color for each kid. Then I put their name and "Work to be completed" on one set of folders and their name and "Saved work" on the other set. The folders go in two paper trays. Now all the stuff they're working on, book reports, stories, art projects, math activities, history coloring pages, etc, etc can find it's way into one of the folders. Not only will it help with the stacks of random papers, but now when they're dinking around wondering what to do with themselves they can check their Work in progress folder for ideas. It's amazing to me how our minds work out problems when we're "taking a break" and not thinking about them. I'm pretty sure the same holds true for our kids. Sometimes just giving them a break frees their minds from the clutter so new ideas can emerge.

"Talking" to our Kids

My husband recently came across an article that discussed a study which found that children don't only learn science in the classroom. They also learn from experiencing places like the zoo and from (hold onto your hats) talking with their parents. We had a good laugh over the irony in that statement but it did make me think about what my children are learning from "talking" to us. We don't use curriculum for literature, social studies, or science. We read a lot, and we discuss all kinds of topics with our children. We talk about the books they've read and about what we've read. We discuss politics, far-off places and religion. The newest issue of Popular Science is always a favorite subject (my boys love Popular Science but I highly recommend tearing out the ad section or your children may get more of an education then you want).

Dinner time is often a place for spontaneous discussions. Last night Thinker started us out with a random, "If water is just hydrogen and oxygen, can you split it and get oxygen?" That question lead to a discussion on hydrogen-assisted vehicles and then onto scuba rebreathers. That is a chemistry lesson no one is likely to forget! In my opinion this is the very best way to learn. I am amazed by the things my children know that we've never "studied". The thing is, until recently I never considered these discussions to part of my children's "education". I guess sometimes it's good to take a step back and look at the all the things you're teaching your children without even meaning to.

Interest Lead Education

I've discovered one really big problem with interest lead education-we have too many interests! I find myself constantly sidetracked from current studies by new ideas. I am a creative, scattered person by nature so it is all to easy for me to want to drop everything to learn something new. It seems like everywhere I look I see someone with a wonderful new book to read, a fabulous new topic to study or a great new project idea.

When you strive to teach your children based on their interests you are always looking for some indication that they might want to study something new. I find myself trying to turn every non-fiction book they glance at into a new topic of study. Then I'm perpetually frustrated that we never seem to finish anything, so I'm getting a jump start on the new year and I'm setting three goals to keep our learning on track.

1. We will start each month with a plan for what subjects we want to learn about, we will list key books, projects and field trips that we want to do and I will review the list often to make sure we are on track.

2. When I come across a fabulous new idea during the course of the month I will put it on a list for possible future study. I find writing things down helps to eliminate the constant swirl of ideas in my head!

3. I will not feel guilty about not turning every momentary interest into a unit study.

Reading back through my goals it sounds much more structured then I'm sure it will be but at least it's a place to start! Wish me luck!

Something To Do

I finally got my copy of the Charlotte Mason Companion from the library yesterday. Charlotte Mason is one of those methods I've heard about but have never really studied. I sat down to start reading today and was impressed by her idea that everyday we need to do 3 things for our children.

1. Give them something or someone to love.

2. Give them something to do.

3. Give them something to think about.

All those things seem fairly obvious but I was having trouble contemplating the idea because my kids' music was blaring and the boys were wrestle all over the room. Then it clicked and I realized that maybe if I gave them something "to do" they would stop making me crazy. I started by asking the older boys to design homemade Christmas gift tags. I cut up some card stock for them and then let them go to town creating their own designs. I cut some construction paper into different shapes and let the younger two do some free style modern art by gluing the shapes all over their paper. Everyone sat working industriously (and independently) until dinner time. It's always a hard balance, giving kids unstructured time to follow their own ideas and planning activities for them, but today was a good reminder that sometimes just giving them materials and an idea can help cut down on the chaos.