Unschool was the way human children, like their mammal cousins, learned for millenia. It was not called "unschooling" because the institution of forced education had never been forced upon children until very recently in human history. What is now seen as a new philosophy is not new at all; it is a deliberate attempt to return to nature;s intent, to return children to their natural, organic state of innate passion. ~Laurie A. Couture


Monday, September 26, 2011

updates week ending 9/24/11

Lots of fun and discovering going on!!  We have been having a blast playing with magnets, taking measurements, and learning to play board games by the rules.  We have also really enjoyed tons of animal and science docs on NatGeo, the Science Channel, Discovery Channel & Netflix.  Lots of Mythbusters with daddy and picked up 13  issues of Zoobooks at Goodwill.  Cory also figured out that he doesn't want to eat animals after sneaking in a peek of Food Inc while I was watching it.  I thought this was a very grown up decision, his reason being he doesn't want to hurt animals.  Too bad he asked for a hamburger for dinner.  We will revisit this when he gets a bit older!

We got a bunch of new games too, including Twister and Dora the Explorer Candyland.  Besides the hula hoops this is their favorite game.

Back to the magnets...they use these for everything!  It's a set of little colored stick magnets with ball bearings and I swear they are more creative than I will ever be.  They make shapes, letters, patterns and used them to measure how long they are.  So cute to watch them learn and explore together!!

Cory has expanded his writing vocab to include his name, mom, dad, Mara, lion 7 cow.  He wasn't much interested in trying much more at the time so I let it go and beamed with pride that he asked me to show him to write what he did!  Baby steps....

Another cool thing about this week, family walks when daddy gets off work.  When he gets home we leash up the dog and go for a walk; sometimes around the block, sometimes to the park. Either way, much fun to be had!!

Have a good week y'all!!!!


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

lessons you wouldnt learn in PS

1.  When you are mad at mommy and throw down a glass bowl
      a.  it shatters into 3 zillion pieces
      b.  it makes mommy even more angry

2.  Running immediately to your room screaming "I didn't mean to" and "I'm sorry"  works because mommy realizes you knew you made a mistake.

I gave him 5 minutes by himself then went to his room. Conversation once in room...
"Cory, do you understand what you did was wrong?" 
"Yes ma'am."
"Cory is that what we do when we are angry?  What do we do?"
"No, we use our words not our hands."
"Do you understand that broken glass can hurt you?"
"Yes ma'am."
Do you understand that the money I was going to use to buy you a new toy this weekend will now be spent on new bowls for the kitchen?"
"but mommy.....yes ma'am."
(insert lots of hugs here)


I am a very proud mama. I only once raised my voice (when kids were trying to come in to help clean up glass) and steered clear of time outs or physical punishments. 

Mommy's lesson learned today: using logic and empathy with a 4 year old works!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Topic of the Day: Whales

Cory is obssessed with whales and they are often our topic of study. Suits me just fine.  So browsing youtube, we found this video; he and Mara were entranced


We also read a bit about Orcas in the Wildlife Explorer & I pulled out a map to show them the oceans. Whales prefer colder waters but live in all oceans.  I told Cory that the ocean is the whale's habitat.

We then had a short devotion, and thankfully our devotion book is animal based and had a page on whales.  It talked about whales singing and the verse was Psalms 13:6 (I will sing to the Lord because he has been so good to me).  Then we sang bible songs (Jesus loves me & God is wild).

After our lovely (and way out of key) signing time, we sat down and drew pictures of what we think whales look like. Cory did really good, Mara wasn't interested and colored a pic of Dora & Boots instead; she's getting better at identifying her colors!

Then we watched this...




So, subjects covered:
animal science
geography
art
music
Bible
spelling (whale, ocean, fish)
math (we counted whales and fish in a couple vids)


And all before noon   :)    Lovin' this unschooling life!!

After lunch? Disneynature: Oceans & some discovery channel or animal planet docs