Today was a fairly typical day, so I thought I'd make a note of all we did..and snap a few pictures...to give you an idea of what unschooling is all about.
Laurence left for school at the usual time. Susannah's bus was late, so she came back for a few minutes before heading back down the driveway to wait again. We've had more snow/ bad weather and the bus had run into a few problems.
Sam was still sleeping, but Abigail was awake and came into my room and sat on the bed with her French book from the library. She chose one with a cd and has been teaching herself French this week. So far she has learned counting as well as basic phrases such as hello, how are you? How old are you? etc etc...She's doing really well :)
Sam woke up and we looked on Netflix for a show for him to watch - we picked 'How Yellow Buses Are Made'....Abby joined him and watched it. Can you guess how long it takes to make ONE school bus???
While they watched their video, I listened and worked on my Truthteller statue of a little girl holding a bird - part of my class I'm taking.
Then Abigail searched Netflix for Madeline shows and sat and watched one of those - her and Sam chatted about paris for a little while (Sam wants to live there when he is older) and then Sam went off to his room to empty out his white drawers so we can move them to the workshop and he can have his new little table in there instead.
After Abigail was done with the laptop/ show, I used it to book some field trips for June. I then organized the cheques for those and got them ready to mail off. While I did that, and finished off my statue, Sam and Abby worked together on an electronic book we have called ' Kwik-Kindy Launch'. It's an educational program where you work through the questions and answer them by pressing the buttons and if you get the green light you know you're correct and can move on to the next question. Some of the questions are REALLY hard considering they are for kindergarten kids - but then it says they are for 'Really Smart 5 and 6 year olds'.....
Breakfast, coffee, showers and dressed....Sam and Abigail sat and did some finger knitting together. Abigail used her new really thick and fluffy wool!! Sam also did his tractor jigsaw again today.
Sam had $10. in his wallet and asked if we could go out so he could spend it. He asked to go to Walmart or Dollarama. I asked if they'd like to go to Millwoods Mall so they could go to the Edmonton Public Library there too and also the Dollarama there. They could burn off some energy in the little playground too. They agreed, so we headed out.
Abigail posted the field trip fees for me and checked the mail box - they take it in turns now.
We stopped off at Tim Hortons for lunch. My friend Shawna came over to say hello which was a lovely surprise although I was stuffing my face with a donut at the time hahaha! Sigh.....
Then the mall and Sam had fun choosing what to buy with his money - I decided to let him choose exactly what he wanted with it - he had been asking for a LONG time for a mini skateboard, and he picked that - as well as some gum for both him and Abigail. I think that was all he got - he saved the rest. He was also very firm about the fact that Abigail and I had to go outside while he paid!! He is so independent :) Yay for him :)
At the library Abigail used the computers to find more French programs....obviously her latest obsession!! Sam got chatting to a girl in the kids section and I could hear him asking her if she lived in the town or the country...and if she could count backwards... :)
We stopped at the playground for a few minutes and then headed home. I took migraine meds before I left the mall, and by the time I got home I was yawning constantly....I had to go straight to bed when I got home...and I fell asleep and spent pretty much the whole evening asleep. These meds just knock me out! They stop the migraines but make me sleep :(
Abigail read several of the library books to Sam on the way home...
Abigail used the sewing machine and made herself a bag and then she ironed on a pretty 'iron on embroidered dragonfly and butterfly on each side....I will photograph it tomorrow! She did a great job for a first try at sewing something with no help! Considering I was upstairs asleep!!! :)
Abby and Susie made baked potatoes for supper - they are still loving them....they brought me some up which was lovely of them.
I think the rest of the evening was spent playing, chatting, on the computer and watching tv, relaxing - from listening to the giggles coming from downstairs etc when I was awake. They were all asleep before 10pm or so....or at least it was very quiet in there so maybe they were reading in bed....
Anyway....that was our day...I guess I didn't include things like picking up clothes, making beds, filling the dishwasher, feeding Rosie and taking her out etc...but those are every day things that get done in between the other stuff...kind of like the dusting, laundry, tidying.....
So, we don't do 'school'....I don't make them sit down and do formal work...but a lot of learning takes place anyway.....through THEIR choice....things they CHOOSE to learn...and they retain that knowledge much more because it is what they are interested in and are choosing to learn themselves!! They are also going at their own pace...
I LOVE unschooling :)
I also love that Abigail turned to me as they were finger knitting this morning and said to me "I love mornings like this, when we can relax and just do stuff"......
:)
