We’ve got three boys aged 6 to 15, and we have a lot of fun homeschooling. We’ve been homeschooling for a long time—really, since our first son was born. What else is it we’re doing with our kids but helping them learn about life? We do our best to unschool, that is, to follow the interests of the kids and not force them to spend a lot of time doing things they don’t like. Having learning be an exploration, to be fun and exciting, is what we try for around here.
We do find that combining some structure to the day with plenty of time for play and child-led learning works well for us. I like structure and so does our oldest, so our days evolved to put some of that in place. We wouldn’t count as radical unschoolers; we’ve tried a number of things over the years and this is what works best for us.
So what does our typical day actually look like? Well, we don’t really have a typical day, every day is different. Some days the older kids sleep in, other days they get up early. I’m just as happy that they’re not all up at 6am ready to go anymore, although there are days I would prefer that they got up a little earlier. Say, before noon.
We don’t actually have specific times for working on particular things, although that did work for the kids when they were younger. We tried to get everything formal out of the way early so there was more time to play. Now that’s all changed with the teenagers sleeping in whenever they can. Our oldest prefers to do his math late at night when it’s very quiet…
This article is from my guest post at the Minnesota Homeschoolers Alliance blog. Read more here!
Kate
I love this! We do a combination of home- and un-schooling, I guess.. my husband is a checklist guy, so following some type of curriculum is really important to him. But we also love to travel, so when the opportunity presents itself (a month in Ireland this year, 4 months traveling next year) we just sort of pack up and learn as we go on the road!
homeschoolersnothermits
Sounds lovely! We haven’t made it to Ireland yet, but love all the educational opportunities that travel gives our kids. Good luck!
Sannylob
Make a more new posts please 🙂
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Sanny