Homeschooling Changes...

Okay, these are the kinds of posts that are very hard for me to write because it means taking the jumbled thoughts out of my head and trying to make them into words and sentences and paragraphs that you, the reader can understand. So, bear with me if this gets a little confusing. In past years of homeschooling I have done a lot of lapbooks, small unit studies, science experiments, and more history. After feeling like I was too task oriented about accomplishing these hands on things and rushing through them to check them off a list I decided to just quit doing them this year. I felt like my kids weren't getting that much out of them because in my haste to finish I was taking the fun out of the project and not allowing for much depth. So, consequently, this year has been day after day of Math, English, Wordly Wise, and a few other workbook style language arts practice. No wonder it's been our worst year ever. The kids have definitely learned and progressed but the spark is gone. I had already decided to scrap the English book in favor of this--Nonfiction by Evan Moor for the girls. I am also doing an Easter lapbook from In the Hands of a Child. So, I've added a little fun back into school and that's a start.
I would also like to start following the kids' interests more and "living a life of learning" as opposed to "doing school." I read the book, Homeschooing: A Family's Journey by Gregory and Martine Millman and it really inspired me. They take more of an unschooling approach but yet do a lot. I am not much of an unschooler, I have always felt too undisciplined to just wake up every day without a plan but I found some ideas in this book that I could use in my own homeschool. For one thing, I want to have less specific curriculum that just becomes rote learning. When I think of the workbooks I do with Joseph, outside of his Math and Wordly Wise I think the others are really a waste of time. I bought one Comprehensive 2nd grade book back around Christmas and thought that if we finished that I would feel like he had done 2nd grade. He does the pages in the book but they are so disjointed and shallow that I don't think it's even worth the time we spend on it. It would be much more valuable to take a walk and point out nouns, act out verbs, and use adjectives to describe what we are seeing for example. Joe hates writing in the workbook but will happily write a sentence out of a book he is reading so we could do that more as handwriting. I still have a few science kits with plenty of supplies and experiments to keep us having fun with science for a long time. I have a bookshelf full of science and history picture books, biographies, art books, etc. We could spend a day reading about volcanoes, Pompeii, and even build a volcano, or paint a volcano, and watch an instant play video on Netflix about volcanoes. That would be interesting and informative and I know the kids would remember it. So, I am going to "practice" learning through living in these last couple of months of school and see if it's something I want to continue long term next year. I am planning to get out of the house more and either go on field trips or nature walks, or take the book that we're reading aloud for history and go sit by the lake for read aloud time. So, in a nutshell--I am going to do less bookwork (of course, math is still a daily subject) but hopefully more learning. In the next couple of days I am going to make a list of the things I want to do, and want the kids to work on and learn for the rest of the school year and then set about making that happen. More than anything I want to find joy in homeschooling again. So, we'll see. Of course, I'll document much of what we do here on my blog. Stay tuned...