Quinn and I have been having a battle of wills when it comes to sitting down and doing his school work. Everything is much more interesting to him…playing tag with the dog, his gecko, the sun shining outside…..it was getting to the point that instead of being fun like I had hoped, it was becoming a chore that we must GET DONE WITH ALREADY.
Finally, after a particularly difficult morning, I sat down with him and asked him if he behaved like that at school. He said that , no, he did not act like that and when I asked him why, I got a response that hit the nail on the head. He said “Because it was easy”.
So, he is being challenged, but at what cost?
In the beginning I was all about staying on schedule. Get the work done and keep on target.
After thinking things through and reading some message boards, I have made some changes into how I want our homeschool to proceed.
What I want for us is to explore and learn. I want some hands on fun and adventures to shape the bulk of our day. I want to unschool with Sonlight.
The Sonlight Core that we are doing is 1+2. There is sooooo much in it to learn, and it is divided up into 36 weeks, but there is no way we can go through it all in that amount of time. There is no way I want to do that. I plan to take until at least May 2009 to complete it and spend more time in each area of study. I mean, going with the schedule we just plowed through Egypt…a place that we could probably spend months studying. So I am back tracking, because we NEED to make a sugar cube pyramid! Not to mention go to the beach and …..pretend we are in the desert in Egypt and are digging for mummies….or daddies. Or clams. Clams are in Egypt, right?
This afternoon we will be heading to the beach with some plaster of paris, some watercolors and beach toys. I will post the how to’s, the finished product and how it relates to our studies later today.
For now, I am off to my kitchen with the kids to make granola. I am hoping my underwear stays put.
the dark side, baby, the dark side! (mwahahahahaa)
(is this where I confess I was *just* about to move from unschooling to unschooling when Pike picked up World History and has been reading it for days? sheesh!
some kids also find they need time to “deschool”.
That is such a great thing to do. Kids rarely have time to “get their hands dirty” with their parents. I just love seeing the activities you come up with for the kids, especially the ornament making back in December. Not to turn you into a Martha Stewart (bleh), but why don’t you post some of your crafty projects occasionally. I love getting ideas of things to do with B. Also, good job with the homeschooling! If we have any more, that’s the way we’re going to go.
Jody says: You mean WHEN you have more. ;*) Yes, I will post some of the projects we are doing. Todays will be fun. The kids are already ready to go.