Extreme Homeschool Makeover - The Challenge

[Amy loves Bud]

Alright. I'm alone here. Bud took the kids away for a couple of days to give me some time to rest, think, just enjoy the solitude. And I won't lie to you.

 

It's freakin' awesome. :D

 

Anyhow, I've been thinking and now I have a challenge for you. It is not for the faint of heart, so brace yourselves.

 

 

THE CHALLENGE:

 

You are now only allowed to school your children two hours a day (one hour if they are younger than 10). Anything else your kids learn must be learned through unschooling.

 

1. How would you use your 2 hours of formal school time?

 

2. How would you set up your life to maximize learning the rest of the time?

 

There are no wrong answers. After all, we're talking about unschooling. :lol: I crack myself up sometimes.

 

Can't wait to hear what you would do.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

HHHUUUMMMMM.... good challenge...... Going to think about this and answer later. :glare::001_huh:

[Parrothead]

I've only got one so my hour would be spent on 30 minutes of math, 15 minutes of grammar and 15 on spelling.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

Alright. I'm alone here. Bud took the kids away for a couple of days to give me some time to rest, think, just enjoy the solitude. And I won't lie to you.

 

It's freakin' awesome. :D

 

Anyhow, I've been thinking and now I have a challenge for you. It is not for the faint of heart, so brace yourselves.

 

 

THE CHALLENGE:

 

You are now only allowed to school your children two hours a day (one hour if they are younger than 10). Anything else your kids learn must be learned through unschooling.

 

1. How would you use your 2 hours of formal school time?

 

2. How would you set up your life to maximize learning the rest of the time?

 

There are no wrong answers. After all, we're talking about unschooling. :lol: I crack myself up sometimes.

 

Can't wait to hear what you would do.

 

 

 

1. I would probably spend the time on writing instruction, math, and science lab M-Th and do Geography and grammar on Fridays along with a literature/history class.

 

2. I would have a TON of books and educational games around. I would have music and art around the house and take long walks with notebooks to study nature.

 

Since I do a lot of #2 anyway, that wouldn't be too abnormal for my dc. I would have a struggle with #1 because I would always feel as though they're missing stuff--something I struggle with anyway.

[TxMama]

I have 1 hour since I'm currently hsing under 10s.

 

For my 1 hour I'd do math, reading, spelling, writing. 20 or so for math and the remainder of time on reading/spelling/writing.

 

Then I would disconnect the cable and remove the tv from our home. I'd also box up a majority of the toys.

 

I would set up a math game center, history/geography game center, writing center, arts and crafts center, a science experiment center and scatter library books in every room of the house. I would get in the habit that anytime the kids said," Hey mom what does this do" or "Hey mom help me with this" or "hey mom read me this" that I would drop whatever I was doing and read, help or do something with them.

 

I actually did something like this with my older kids and it was a very productive year.

[Renee in NC]

Is it one hour per child under 10 and 2 hours for each over 10, or is the 1-2 hours total?

[LittleIzumi]

That's pretty much what we do :lol:. I just mix up what is schooled every day. Mon it was French and geography and her K workbook, with a lot of unschooling for the rest. Today it's phonics and math that I'm doing on purpose. Tomorrow might be science and French.

[Amy loves Bud]

Is it one hour per child under 10 and 2 hours for each over 10, or is the 1-2 hours total?

 

Total. If you've got under tens and over tens and there is a big spread between them (like a 5 and a 13 year old, not a 9 and 10 year old), you may take 3 hours total...if you really must. But I don't like it.

[Renee in NC]

Total. If you've got under tens and over tens and there is a big spread between them (like a 5 and a 13 year old, not a 9 and 10 year old), you may take 3 hours total...if you really must. But I don't like it.

 

Oohh - I like this challenge because it IS a challenge. I have 3 school-agers under 10 and 1 over 10. If they could read, it would be more doable.....

 

Hmmmmmmmmm....:tongue_smilie:

[Willow]

I am schooling an over 10 and I only have one dc left at home so I think this is easy and doable.

 

I would do 45 mins maths and 45 min of writing (this would include re-drafting, and therefore spelling grammar etc, as appropriate) this leaves half an hour for anything else I would wish to concentrate on, probably science, but also things that came up during unschooling that I wished to cover more formally.

 

For the unschooling rest of the day, strewing is not so useful with a teenager. I would ban computer games until 4pm when he could play games from then until dinnertime. No games after dinner. We have no TV anyway. This would leave a vast tract of empty time. We normally go to the community garden and he enjoys this and we have a big library just 10 mins walk away. I would leave the rest of the day empty and watch him get bored and then begin to fill the time with his own interests.

 

Actually this sounds rather fun.....

 

Willow.

[AngelBee]

Awesome challenge! Thinking....

[amyable]

Fun! (well, except when I'm actually trying to LIVE that challenge, then it's stressful :001_huh:)

 

Luckily, even though my three school age children span 5+ years, they are working at similar levels on some things - my oldest is dyslexic, my 10yo is average, and my almost 7yo is advanced.

 

I'll start with the easy part - maximizing my home/life for unschooling. Tops on my list would be a netflix subscription. My kids will watch and enjoy anything, even if I call it educational. :lol: In fact, right now they just finished a DVD on the Virgin Mary in art, and are starting one on Ancient Greece. A steady stream of audiobooks for my oldest and regular books for the other two, particularly historical fiction. We stick maps and other fun stuff under the plastic protector on our dining room table. There are always fun discussions going on over that. Educational board games. We finally got a chalk board, and the kids all talk about whatever I stick up there. I'd leave quotes, sentences to translate or parse as a challenge, "this day in history" etc.

 

As for the two hours of "sit down educational time," that's a hard one, as my oldest takes 2x as long to do anything. One TT math lesson alone would take up her time. It takes 20 minutes for the others! If I leave her out of the equation :tongue_smilie:I would do about 30 minutes math lessons, 10 minutes math drills, 20 minutes on latin, and the other hour alternating between Classical Writing one week and MCT language arts the next.

 

This would be much harder if I had high schoolers, because I would want to be more formal, especially with sciences. But I'm not going to worry about that now. :)

Edited December 17, 2009 by amyable

[AngelBee]

Oohh - I like this challenge because it IS a challenge. I have 3 school-agers under 10 and 1 over 10. If they could read, it would be more doable.....

 

Hmmmmmmmmm....:tongue_smilie:

This is us too ALMOST! :)

 

2 under 10, one over 10. Plus additional ones there. :D

[Amy loves Bud]

I'm formulating my response to my own question, and it's not complete yet. So far, I've got:

 

Two hours formal school:

40 minutes on math

40 minutes on writing, grammar and spelling instruction, making these three as integrated as I possibly could

20 minutes on Latin

20 minutes on a topic of my choosing - history,science, a current event, etc.

I wouldn't give the two year old any formal time - it's all unschooling until she's around 6 or 7 in the alternative universe I'm setting up here.

ETA: The nine year old would get 20 min of math, 20 min of writing/grammar/spelling and 20 minutes on the topic of my choosing.

 

Unschooling:

The kids love for me to read aloud to them during breakfast and lunch, and I would continue that as long as they allowed it.

 

I would go to (our new, walking-distance) library at least twice a week and invite them along for the trip.

 

Get stacks of "Around Town" magazines for the Dallas Area and let the kids pick and choose the things they'd like to go and do.

 

Keep a constant flow of good Netflix shows coming. We just watched 13 Days in October, and the kids really enjoyed it though I thought it was kind of slow. So, movies like that.

 

Books everywhere.

 

Excellent art supplies and a nice area to work in.

 

A science cabinet with all kinds of stuff for experiments.

 

I would say "yes" as often as possible.

 

Music. Lots and lots of music.

 

Finish setting up the gameroom upstairs as a music room, with all the instruments set up and ready to play.

 

Outdoor walks, and longer hikes that we would have to drive to.

 

Cameras for everyone.

 

Computers for everyone.

 

Bud and I do a lot of do it yourself stuff. We remodeled the kitchen ourselves, and the laundry room, we'll be building in a mudroom soon, and closing in an open loft area and filling it with builtin bookshelves. I would be better about letting the kids help. I'm kind of a control freak with regard to household projects, but there is a ton to learn here.

 

 

It's starting to sound like a list of New Year's resolutions, no?

Edited December 17, 2009 by Amy loves Bud

[Tammyla]

I focus on the 3 R's and cover the remaining subjects during reading.

[tricia]

Hey, I think I am doing this already. Check out my blog post HERE.

[JenneinCA]

I would prioritize differently than many.

 

I would start with my little guy (age 5) and do his writing/spelling and math and piano. He NEEDS me to sit with him for all this. I expect it would take about an hour.

 

Then I would sit with my middle guy (age 9) and do his writing/spelling. Hopefully this would take about half an hour. He can do his math and music on his own.

 

Then I would sit with my oldest (age 11) and do math. She would get the last half hour. She can do the other subjects on her own.

[Aubrey]

This is fun. This is cool. We've got the stuff to do this, & reading these posts has helped me see that layout & organization is about all I need to do something like this.

 

For me, I'd spend my hour on math. Maybe 10 min of spelling, & maybe 15 min on writing once or twice a week.

 

As for the unschooling...what exactly counts? I mean, if I help, does it count? What about reading from SOTW? They *like* that, so it's ok, right? What about science experiments? Today we're making jello worms & peppermint marshmallows. It's school, but that's why they like school, lol.

 

All I need is to make their toys a little harder to access, which I've been thinking about anyway, since they seem to have so. much. trouble. picking them up. (Really, I'd like to take away the clothes they leave all over the floor, but naked kids are only cute for so long, & that'd be awfully hard to explain to CPS.)

[elegantlion]

Hmm, very interesting.

 

With 2 hours I would do:

 

30 minutes of Latin

30 minutes of Math

40 minutes of writing, spelling, grammar,

20 minutes of reading (my son dislikes reading :svengo: so we HAVE to count it as school)

 

Amazingly that looks an awful lot like what we do as our core everyday anyway.

 

I might trade out the 40 minutes of writing and do it for 30 minutes only and add 10 minutes of logic each day. My ds is the type of child that is going to need a strong foundation in logic for his adult years. :D

[tdeveson]

Alright. I'm alone here. Bud took the kids away for a couple of days to give me some time to rest, think, just enjoy the solitude. And I won't lie to you.

 

It's freakin' awesome. :D

 

 

 

 

Hehe... my favorite vacations are when dh takes ds camping and they leave me behind. :D

 

I'm fascinated by the concept of unschooling. One of my favorite bloggers (Doc of Doc's Sunrise Rants) is an unschooler and she has a pile of kids doing great in university. I'm wretched at it, though, so I'm looking forward to reading the collective wisdom here. I really wish I could do more unschooling.

Edited December 17, 2009 by tdeveson

[PollyOR]

When we are short on time I focus on math, spelling, handwriting, and reading aloud fluidly.

 

I know I shouldn't judge people, but I do :001_huh:. Poor spelling, chicken scratch handwriting, and reading aloud in a choppy manner make me feel sorry for them. I suddenly see them as not being as smart as I thought they were. I shouldn't do this as I have huge academic weaknesses myself. Plus, I know it isn't true. My dad doesn't like reading aloud, yet he is one of the smartest people I know.

[Amy loves Bud]

Aubrey, as for what counts for unschooling, I don't truly know. I've been browsing some unschooling sites and it seems that if the child instigates it, it's unschooling. So if you leave SOTW sitting around and they ask you to read it = unschooling. If you say, "Gather 'round kids, we're going to read SOTW!" that's not unschooling. Of course these sites also say to let the kids eat whatever they want and go to bed when they feel like it, so I'm not sure I'm all on board with that. :tongue_smilie:

 

So for the purposes of my challenge: Unschooling is what you, the mom, say it is.

 

I love being the author of my own alternative universe.

[Amy loves Bud]

Hehe... my favorite vacations are when dh takes ds camping and they leave me behind. :D

 

I'm fascinated by the concept of unschooling. One of my favorite bloggers (Doc of Doc's Sunrise Rants) is an unschooler and she has a pile of kids doing great in university. I'm wretched at it, though, so I'm looking forward to reading the collective wisdom here. I really wish I could do more unschooling.

 

Me too. (The wretched part.)

 

I really think it's my personality. Honestly, I loved school. I loved getting a syllabus and having it all planned out like that. So this free willy bit is hard for me. However, I see how very different my children are from me and want to encourage them to really pursue their interests in and in depth way without needing a syllabus to do so. So that's where this is all coming from.

[joannqn]

Mine would be different depending on the day.

 

Monday:

30 min math

5 min spelling (it actually takes us this long)

5 min penmanship

15 min vocabulary

 

Tuesday:

15 min math

15 min grammar

30 min writing

 

Wednesday:

15 min math

5 min spelling

5 min penmanship

15 min vocabulary

15 min math supplements

 

Thursday:

15 min math

15 min grammar

30 min writing

 

Friday:

15 min math

5 min spelling

5 min penmanship

15 min vocabulary

15 min math supplements

 

My kids read tons, so I'd cover comprehension by discussing the books. We'd also continue our family read alouds/audio books and discuss those more thoroughly.

 

History and science would be covered with craft/art projects, experiments, reading, and field trips which my children enjoy and would choose to do on their own. I would add more of this to our schedule and make sure we were hitting more time periods with the choices I suggested meaning... "Hey, let's go to the Seattle Art museum!" knowing that they had Roman artifacts on display....or "Hey, let's make this really cool mask" and talk about how it is King Tut...or "Let's make this suet for the birds and see what kind come to eat it."

[momto2Cs]

Oooooo.... fun challenge!

 

I have two under ten, so for their hour of "formal" learning, we'd totally focus on the three "R's". Reading, writing, mathematics, instead of trying to get history, science, etc. in there too.

 

Other than that, I would continue to:

Read aloud a lot

Give the kids outdoor time each day, so they can explore the natural world

Show the kids documentaries that follow their interests

Have loads of science and history books around

Lots of arts and crafts supplies

Listen to great stories and language cd's in the car

[coralloyd]

15-20 min. math

 

10-20 min. grammar or copywork/dictation. Switching between the two- grammar one week, copywork/dictation the next week.

 

20-30 min. geography, history, or science-history 2x a week, science 2x a week, and geography once a week.

 

Bible time at the breakfast table, as always.

Still read-aloud at night before bed, as always.

Limit tv time, as always.

Take some toys away and replace with learning activities/games/toys.

Library every week.

More trips in the rv.

1 hour quite time everyday.

 

 

Hey, I might do this!

Edited December 17, 2009 by coralloyd

[Aubrey]

Aubrey, as for what counts for unschooling, I don't truly know. I've been browsing some unschooling sites and it seems that if the child instigates it, it's unschooling. So if you leave SOTW sitting around and they ask you to read it = unschooling. If you say, "Gather 'round kids, we're going to read SOTW!" that's not unschooling. Of course these sites also say to let the kids eat whatever they want and go to bed when they feel like it, so I'm not sure I'm all on board with that. :tongue_smilie:

 

So for the purposes of my challenge: Unschooling is what you, the mom, say it is.

 

I love being the author of my own alternative universe.

 

Ok, if I say, We're GOING to do it, that's not unschooling. But if I say, Do you want to? and they squeal w/ delight--that shouldn't count as "schooling," should it? I mean, they're not going to *think* of peppermint-marshmallow-making, kwim?

 

But the other stuff? They got in trouble for something a couple of mos ago & were grounded fr almost everything. It wasn't long--maybe a week, but they were forced to find other things to do. They read more, & ds started doing science experiments on his own. It stuck. Now he gets out a science book & does experiments on his own a couple of times a mo or more, & they're both spending a *lot* more time reading than they used to. They're even choosing higher quality material. (Most of the time.) ;)

 

I'm thinking about moving sheets & stuff to the toy closet & toys to the laundry room shelves. They'll be able to see what they want easier anyway, & it will be easier for me to see that they've put stuff away instead of cramming it into the dark recesses of The Great Beyond, aka the babies' closet. :lol: That's probably a good idea no matter what we do w/ school. :D

[hornblower]

I would put all my energies into Maths & concrete LA: reading if they're not proficient; spelling; grammar; writing. For copywork and writing passages, choose items from whatever hx or science things YOU think they should know. This is all I'd try to fit into the avail hours.

 

 

Every thing else you strew through dvd's, cd's books, field trips etc.

 

Also, older than 10's can be assigned to watch (science, hx, art etc) dvd's or work their way through a science book without a parent.

[LibraryLover]

.

Edited December 18, 2009 by LibraryLover

[Renee in NC]

Ok, if I say, We're GOING to do it, that's not unschooling. But if I say, Do you want to? and they squeal w/ delight--that shouldn't count as "schooling," should it? I mean, they're not going to *think* of peppermint-marshmallow-making, kwim?

 

But the other stuff? They got in trouble for something a couple of mos ago & were grounded fr almost everything. It wasn't long--maybe a week, but they were forced to find other things to do. They read more, & ds started doing science experiments on his own. It stuck. Now he gets out a science book & does experiments on his own a couple of times a mo or more, & they're both spending a *lot* more time reading than they used to. They're even choosing higher quality material. (Most of the time.) ;)

 

I'm thinking about moving sheets & stuff to the toy closet & toys to the laundry room shelves. They'll be able to see what they want easier anyway, & it will be easier for me to see that they've put stuff away instead of cramming it into the dark recesses of The Great Beyond, aka the babies' closet. :lol: That's probably a good idea no matter what we do w/ school. :D

 

Unschooling is life - you are making the treats because you are making the treats. Sure they may pick up on something because of it, but there won't be worksheets or a test about what you learned when you are done - just eating.

 

They aren't going to think of a LOT of things simply because they don't know they exist! That's where the idea of good quality strewing comes in.

[Renee in NC]

I don't even need two hours for my 10 yr old currently. She reads and mines for meaning better than most adults, her math skills are at least 'grade level', her knowledge of history is pretty darn admirable. She's been soaking up stories her whole life. She loves science and reads science books for fun. She needs more 'work' in writing...so if I were to do anything more...if would be there. But there's no way I'd need two hours.

 

That's a good point - the best place to spend that time is on their weaknesses. For my 8yo that would be language related.

[EKS]

With a child still requiring reading instruction I would do half reading and half math, with about 5 minutes in there of handwriting practice.

 

With a child who no longer needs reading instruction, I would do half writing (including spelling and grammar) and half math.

 

The rest I would unschool.

[Amy loves Bud]

Also, older than 10's can be assigned to watch (science, hx, art etc) dvd's or work their way through a science book without a parent.

 

Yes, but if it's assigned, it's not unschooling, so that would have count toward the 2 hours. Sorry.

 

If you are going to unschool, please stick to All The Rules.

:D

 

I like sneaking the history, science, etc. into the writing. Taking notes.

[Rosie_0801]

I think strewing sounds very expensive.

 

I'm sure there are cheap ways of doing it, but I don't think my brain is constructed in a way to prefer them.

 

:D

Rosie

[coffeegal]

This is fun! For the over 10 I would do: Math (30-45 min), R&S English (20-30 min), Latin (15 min), Spelling/Vocabulary & Penmanship (15 min) and require 1 chapter book to be read every week.

 

Under 10: Math (15-20 min), Queen's Language Arts (5-10 min), and Pemanship (5-10 min). Also required to read 1 chapter book every week. :001_smile:

 

We'd unschool everything else. My personal emphasis is on skills, not content, since skills tend to take a while (years) to build.

[Amber in AUS]

Mine kids would fall into the 1 hour category. I would teach math and LA during that time.

 

For the unschooling side of it i would provide loads of library books on science, history, geography and have quiet time after lunch for looking at a book. I'd also encourage loads of games, nature walks, construction etc

[dragons in the flower bed]

The only way my nine-year-old could do that is if I sat right there on the next seat over and watched the expression on the kiddo's face intently the whole two hours, catching and redirecting dawdling before it happened. I only assign about three hours of work to that one, but we need a couple of hours of built-in dawdle time. I could probably hold the nine-year-old's hand, if I had to. The six- and twelve-year-olds are independent and motivated.

 

The six-year-old already does it in two hours plus what he believes is unschooling. He does RightStart, Just Write, Rosetta Stone Latin, a Hebrew primer, memory work, and either art, science, religion, history or geography, those last five mostly through reading then drawing in his notebook.

 

We'd have to ban all electronic media to get the twelve-year-old to unschool enough to reduce schooltime to two hours, but if we had to, we could do an hour of math and an hour of writing each day and call it good. All the writing would be related to science, and one hour a week we'd cut math & writing down to 30 minutes each, and do a lab. He'd unschool anything he could read or watch a documentary about, and a lot of logic.

 

I'd have to, of course, start speaking in Latin around the house all the time. After a year of that the kids could start doing compositions in Latin, right? Then we could integrate grammar back in through editing and writing drills.

Edited December 17, 2009 by dragons in the flower bed

[FO4UR]

Oh! Fun game!!!:D

 

School = 30min of math + 30min of SWR

 

 

RS math games & phonics games don't count as school:tongue_smilie:

[hornblower]

 

If you are going to unschool, please stick to All The Rules.

:D

 

 

 

Now you know why I failed unschooling 101. :lol:

 

I guess you could suggest.

Or just strew.

I find it's simpler to demand.

That's why I got booted off the unschooling island. :D

[Arch at Home]

This is great. It really has my juices flowing. I am coming to the conclusion that because of my work schedule, I can only home school a maximum of 3 hours anyway.

 

For 6 yo

 

30 minutes math

15 minutes phonics/writing

15 minutes science

 

For the 8 yo

30 minutes math

15 minutes phonics/grammar

15 minutes science

 

For the 10 yo

45 minutes math

15 minutes grammar

15 minutes science

 

The 10 yo is short but that will allow us to add time as she gets older.

[SeekingSimplicity]

30 minutes of shared math for all 3 (20/10), then 30 minutes shared phonics for the 2 youngest (15/15). The rest will take care of itself.

 

Lots of trips to the library. Everyday ask them what is important to them today-- and then do/study it! Let them spend their time being kids and offer suggestions here and there for them to accept or reject. Keep plenty of games and art supplies on hand. Take them everywhere and talk to people while we're out. Find the answers to the millions of questions they ask every day.

[Colleen in NS]

 

1. How would you use your 2 hours of formal school time?

 

2. How would you set up your life to maximize learning the rest of the time?

 

 

Love this thread! I'm always looking for ways to streamline. I am one who enforces skill learning (reading, spelling, writing, grammar, Latin, math), and I find that the more I learn about how to actually teach something, the more efficient things can be - I have a long way to go in this learning, though.

 

I can't put it down to exact minutes, though. I'd follow more of a routine for the two hours. I'd tutor ds through his skills work first, and *try* to get done in an hour, then let him work independently for the next hour while I work through dd's skills list and hopefully there is time left for her to finish things like math problems. I do a lot of this already, but it takes more like three hours, and then they finish independent work after lunch.

 

So anyway, I'd do this for two hours a day, and then set up the rest of our life pretty much the way you listed. Books, library trips, other trips (see my post on your afternoon school thread, LOL), musical instruments (check), art supplies and place to work (finally, check!), science supplies and place to set up experiments (check, finally), baking and cooking time with Mom, shadow Dad when he works from home, cool science videos from library, etc. etc. etc.. Oh, and games. I'm working on this - we used to have lots of games and things like that around, but I've gotten out of that because I've been so caught up in learning how to teach different skills that I forgot that games help! Now I'm looking for new ideas for 9-12 year olds and up. Wow, I found a really cool website last night (and I am NOT a website seeker for worksheets) for some really complicated mazes - my kids were in heaven today printing these off and doing them. Easy to super hard. Thousands of them, all free. Kids' Sudoku, too. http://www.krazydad.com if anyone's interested. Anyway, games, too.

 

This and your afternoon school thread are totally inspiring me. Thanks for starting them!

 

EDIT: One thing I wouldn't change though, is afternoon rest time for my kids. This is when they read and play - and I would still loosely organize their reading around a yearly theme like ancient history and lit. and biology science. But I would (and do) fold their loose-but-picked-from-big-piles-of-library-books-chosen-by-me-mostly into their formal writing time, so no separate time for "history" or "science."

Edited December 18, 2009 by Colleen in NS

[KristenS]

Oooh, interesting. I'll have to skim the rest of the thread... just catching the beginning and end here.

 

I've got two, ages 8 and 5, so... I guess I get one hour.

 

*IF* I could factor out dawdling, it'd be half an hour for math, and the rest divided among the language arts (handwriting and phonics mostly). We use FIAR and Noeo Science, which are very 'real books' and conversational and hands-on, so that would work well into unschooling if I needed. :-)

[Renee in NC]

The more I think about this, the more I think this is the compromise I am looking for. There is so much out there that I want to do - nature study, field trips, volunteering, fitness activities, scout stuff, etc. that we never seem to get to because we are inside working. That is *not* what I wanted from my homeschool.

 

We had thought of unschooling before and even tried it a few times, but it never felt right. We were pretty relaxed, but this might work best!

 

I am still thinking over the 3 hours thing, though.

[SquirrellyMama]

I love the idea but I have no idea where to start. I guess I'd do

 

 

8 yr old: 30 minutes math, 15 minutes R&S english (we do all orally), 15 minutes copywork/handwriting.

 

6 yr old: 30 minutes math, 10 minutes FLL, 20 minutes phonics/reading

 

4 yr old: SL 4/5 It is just a whole lot of reading to her.

 

I'd want the 8 year old to read everyday. She does pick up books to read on her own but not everyday. I'm not sure how I'd encourage her.

 

As for the unschooling I'd say trips to the library, science center, zoo, botanical garden, games like Yahtzee, Monopoly, Life, RS math games, computer games, educational dvds.

 

I might have to sit on this and see what we can do for the new year.

 

Kelly

[Tammyla]

But...if you don't allow other screen time and happen to have a big basket of educational dvd's or cd roms at the ready...It might. We do this with a library basket too.

 

If you only have champagne around, no one will look for beer.

 

Yes, but if it's assigned, it's not unschooling, so that would have count toward the 2 hours. Sorry.

 

If you are going to unschool, please stick to All The Rules.

:D

 

I like sneaking the history, science, etc. into the writing. Taking notes.

[Amy loves Bud]

 

If you only have champagne around, no one will look for beer.

 

I'm stenciling this on my wall somewhere. :D

[farmgirlinwv]

If you only have champagne around, no one will look for beer.

 

Love this quote! :lol:

 

Psst...I know many men who would disagree with you! :D

[hornblower]

 

If you only have champagne around, no one will look for beer.

 

LOL - I would. I have three or four bottles of really nice expensive champagne which my in-laws keep gifting us & I keep delaying opening them because I don't really like champagne that much. Dh wanted to open one a few days ago (we were having a small celebration) & I nixed it in favour of a gin & tonic. A nice pale ale would have been my first choice actually but we were out.....

 

OK, let's leave my drinking preferences now :)

 

I really think that if you have expectations, or preferences - if you think such and such a book/interest/activity is champagne, and such and such is beer - then I think it's better to be honest and suggest (or in my case demand LOL) that the champagne be consumed, or at least tried and attempted. I think there's a weird cagey underhandedness in really deliberate strewing when in your mind you're strewing champagne, because the kids will figure this out anyway - that you want them to know this, that you value this, that you think this is important. So if greek myths/literature/physics/whatever are what you think constitute important, why not just come out and say it?

 

It seemed to me that the people for whom unschooling really worked as a life and learning philosophy really had NO outcome expectations. They were truly open to all sorts of things and really would not say that champagne is better than beer or v.v. They strew too but they're not very wedded to the outcome - they really are ok with the child passing over that strewn item.

 

I was not ok with that at all.

 

There are certain things that had to be done & had to be learned & I wasn't prepared to have a kid just shrug & say 'well that doesn't interest me' and walk by...and so I just said 'DO IT because I said so and until you've read all these homeschooling and education philosophy books and can come up with a good argument about why you shouldn't, until that time, you're doing it MY WAY.' :lol:

 

 

This is a really good thread. I'm enjoying reading all the ideas.

[Amy loves Bud]

LOL - I would. I have three or four bottles of really nice expensive champagne which my in-laws keep gifting us & I keep delaying opening them because I don't really like champagne that much. Dh wanted to open one a few days ago (we were having a small celebration) & I nixed it in favour of a gin & tonic. A nice pale ale would have been my first choice actually but we were out.....

 

OK, let's leave my drinking preferences now :)

 

I really think that if you have expectations, or preferences - if you think such and such a book/interest/activity is champagne, and such and such is beer - then I think it's better to be honest and suggest (or in my case demand LOL) that the champagne be consumed, or at least tried and attempted. I think there's a weird cagey underhandedness in really deliberate strewing when in your mind you're strewing champagne, because the kids will figure this out anyway - that you want them to know this, that you value this, that you think this is important. So if greek myths/literature/physics/whatever are what you think constitute important, why not just come out and say it?

 

It seemed to me that the people for whom unschooling really worked as a life and learning philosophy really had NO outcome expectations. They were truly open to all sorts of things and really would not say that champagne is better than beer or v.v. They strew too but they're not very wedded to the outcome - they really are ok with the child passing over that strewn item.

 

I was not ok with that at all.

 

There are certain things that had to be done & had to be learned & I wasn't prepared to have a kid just shrug & say 'well that doesn't interest me' and walk by...and so I just said 'DO IT because I said so and until you've read all these homeschooling and education philosophy books and can come up with a good argument about why you shouldn't, until that time, you're doing it MY WAY.' :lol:

 

 

This is a really good thread. I'm enjoying reading all the ideas.

 

I think you are exactly right, particularly about the underhandedness. Which is why in my alternative world, we get two hours to demand whatever we choose, and then we unschool.

 

I think I would completely lose my ever-loving mind if I couldn't check a few items that I consider to be key off my list at a time I feel is appropriate. I don't think I would fit in too well in the unschooling world.