acsnmama Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I'm finding myself very intimidated by using relaxed homeschooling and living books. Right now, we mainly focus on the main subjects and we're not getting the rest done, which I think is ok, they are only in K & 1st right now. However, I know the "issues" we're having, textbooks aren't cutting it, and having a "schedule" of sitting and doing every subject isn't working for us. I want to have them choose books and read them, animals, etc... How do you do it? Do you have a topic for a period of time, for example, Animals for a month, read about any animals and write about them? Astronomy for another month? Do it in weeks or terms? Do you just have them notebook what they wish? Lapbooks? I want to make sure they write/draw about what they're learning! I feel that it would likely be best if we had a topic to work on for X amount of time, rather than jumping around continually, varying day to day, or week to week, because that I believe would overwhelm me!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Are you just talking about science and history? For history we use Story of the World with the activity guide. The guide gives recommendations for books (lots of picture books, some chapter books; fiction and nonfiction), and I get some of those from the library each week. I also use the Classical House of Learning Grammar Stage Literature lessons (free!) for more book ideas, and dd does the narration pages for each book. So almost all her reading has something to do with whatever topic we're studying in SotW. For science, we're spending the whole (kindergarten) year on the human body. We're creating a paper body with all the main organs attached (we traced her body onto butcher paper). We're reading You and Your Body together. We also are doing experiments/activities from Head to Toe Science and Bubble, Fizz, Pop, Wow! She's making a notebook page for almost every experiment and all the main organs. So I guess we're not totally relaxed (less so in history than science), but hopefully that gives you some ideas for books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wee Pip Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 we just get eyewitness, dk, usborne type science and history books out of the library. when they've finished reading it or the interest has waned, we hit the library again. I dont do anything to organize or tie in our learning (that always ends up being the death of our interest led anything because I just cant seem to do it, no matter how hard I try). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acsnmama Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Thanks! Good ideas. We would be moving on to the human body this coming year. I have a large human body M&D puzzle, that names all the parts, and drawing a human body and attaching organs sounds great! I was just wondering what others do, I guess I can just be extremely lax in these areas and still be ok! Yay, weight lifted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 We get living books based on the theme we are learning for each subject. In our library box, we currently have books on Ancient Greece, Alexander the Great, and mammals. And, of course, the random books we pick up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 This is what we do for history and science. DD is K-1. We use tons of picture books, DVDs, etc. in our studies. Ancient History - http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20History Life Science - http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Life%20Science Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 I tend to use textbooks for core skills, but unschool content subjects as little more than hobbies. With some recent tutoring students, I've had no choice but to start teaching some content explicitly and systematically, though. I'm using the OLD early 1990s version of the What Your_ Grader Needs to Know series as my spine, and then provide lots of library books and DVDs on the topics. I don't think the students perceive the change all that much, but I know I'm being far more explicit and systematic. I'm not even sure it's benefitting anyone all that much, but...it makes ME feel better. :001_unsure: The lack of content that these adults know is shocking, at times downright dangerous, and prevents them from being able to understand current events. My favorite science is Magic School Bus and Bill Nye videos. Some of the Cat in the Hat are not all that bad too. When teaching a subject, Cat in the Hat first, followed by Magic School Bus, and then showing Bill Nye last, is usually the best sequence for student comprehension and application. I also really like Draw Write Now for history and geography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briansmama Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 You may want to look into main lessons and block-style teaching. After using Waldorf for years, I've come to really like the rhythm and flow to our days. Now that my oldest is in third grade, we do add regular math, spelling, and cursive practice to our day, but the bulk of his lesson work takes place during his main lesson time, which is when we use stories, creative output (drawing/painting/modeling/acting from the story), and academic output (summarizing and writing into main lesson book). So, we might work with a US History block focus for 6 weeks, then science for 4 weeks, Language arts for 4 weeks, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschickie Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 What about doing a Unit Study? This way you can have them choose the topics and you can move around from subject to subject as you want to. There are lots of them out there. You get some structure but lots of freedom to move around in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 We used living books but with guides. Noeo - each level uses a wonderful collection of books and has printables in their scheduled guides to record pictures, notes, vocab, summaries, and labwork. Creek Edge Press - each card gave guidance for projects and summaries. We filed the finished work in card order. Homeschool share - unit studies with lots of direction. I think as long as you keep pictures and some samples, you're really good to go, especially at your kids' ages. They're going to revisit topics throughout their school time and can add on to previous knowledge. If you're really on the ball, you can create notebooks for each subject and as they progress in ability add in the new papers and projects they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Some of it depends on your kids. Your kids are young, and it's more important to focus on the 3r's than Anything else. Also, and I may get flamed, some kids can't deal with relaxed. My kids couldn't. They want to play and not do school, so "interest lead" for us would be "engineering".-building Legos, and "architecture" -hideouts-every day. However, living books are another story. That has nothing to do with "relaxed" homeschooling. If yu do SOTW for history, yu will get a solid program, but she lists all sorts of "living" books for each chapter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Some of it depends on your kids. Your kids are young, and it's more important to focus on the 3r's than Anything else. Also, and I may get flamed, some kids can't deal with relaxed. My kids couldn't. They want to play and not do school, so "interest lead" for us would be "engineering".-building Legos, and "architecture" -hideouts-every day. I agree with you. In my house, "relaxed" or "interest led" worked best after he a) had enough skills to develop the interest and b ) when half his day was still structured. We made the rule of no tv/video games until after 3 so that he still had time to follow his interests and I had time to make sure he was progressing in a good manner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wee Pip Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Some of it depends on your kids. Your kids are young, and it's more important to focus on the 3r's than Anything else. Also, and I may get flamed, some kids can't deal with relaxed. My kids couldn't. They want to play and not do school, so "interest lead" for us would be "engineering".-building Legos, and "architecture" -hideouts-every day. However, living books are another story. That has nothing to do with "relaxed" homeschooling. If yu do SOTW for history, yu will get a solid program, but she lists all sorts of "living" books for each chapter. I will add...my 10yo is a great interest-led learner: she takes Usborne type books to bed with her. My 12yo has never been an interest-led type student, however, I am putting certain demands in place, "you *will* pick something interesting to study from this bookshelf, or I'm assigning a textbook" LOL. Then, I take the books she picked, and I assign how many pages she is required to read each day. She doesn't "love" it, but she prefers this over textbooks:) So, perhaps you call it "forced interest led learning" or some other oxymoron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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