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Unschooling, or Workbook-Schooling?

9:39 AM - Jan. 16, 2007 - Add to the Wildness

I had a look at Apologia Science's web pages the other day, and noticed that they have a new elementary curriculum there from Jeannie Fullbright. Now, I know her stuff is good, but our house has been a-boil lately with the controversy over curriculized schooling and unschooling.

See, if it were up to Breakneck, the kids would all have nice little curriculum packets from CLE (because it's the cheapest out there, and anyway it's Mennonite), they'd sit there throughout the morning working through each subject, and I, the Zookeeper, would faithfully keep the Zoo so quietly occupied. And, of course, it would all be very productive and worthwhile.

That's all I have to say about that.

Anyway, as I read through the overview of Jeannie's creations in careful detail, I realized that my kids probably know all the natural sciences info she's got there, with very few gaps. Reason being, they love animals and nature, and they have lots of books about land, sea and air creatures.

As to the botany, their knowledge base is more practical, but there's no reason I can't cover plant physiology (which I had to learn for my Master Gardener certification) as we start up TYDOS again this spring.

I looked carefully at the astronomy package, and realized that - since my grandmother gave us a telescope for Christmas (can you believe it??!?? How cool is that???) - it was pretty much all the stuff I was intending to cover in a more, well, hands-on way. We just need it to get above -30 Celsius in the evenings first.

As far as entomology, the kids have tons of opportunities with bugs. I mean, we do farm bees, for starters. And they'd much rather play with almost any other bug out there, as long as it doesn't sting. Speaking of which, I have the honey farm website up and running, and I sort of had in mind to make it possible to get close to those bees without having to worry about stings. The new url is: www.honeyfarm.lazycreek.net (All our new websites can also be accessed through the main portal at www.lazycreek.net as well.)

Any workbook learning we do is basically a nod to Breakneck's more structured preferences and my insecurities (read: math). However, let me just list what's going on in our house right now.

Banana Brain (just turned 9 a few days ago) is teaching Brat Boy (nearly 5) his "One Pluses" on the big chalkboard in the homeschool room.

Squirrelly Girlie (soon to be 7) has gotten her paws on the unused workbooks of her older sister from Grade 2, and is devouring them. Last night, Breakneck had to tell her, "Would you please stop learning now? It's bedtime."

Spazzerific is asking to go to AAA Math (321know.com) to try out their Grade 5 math activities. Obviously my blogging and web design are interfering with the kids' learning.

I went out on a limb this year, and in the face of the Spazz's aversion to workbook math, decided to try de-schooling it completely. The worst-case scenario is that he would (still) not be learning the way he should. A couple of days ago I taught him the Pythagorean Theorem using triangles and literal squares of the three sides, all made out of construction paper. He is also being recruited for active participation in the garden planning process this year, as we need to renovate our yard. How much of it actually happens is not my concern right now. I just want the kid experiencing math in real-time.

Untitled Comment
First, I have to say, that I clicked over to the link to your honeybee farm (the rainbow ends where our lane starts) ~ a gorgeous photo! If that is where you live, I want a week of respite at your place. Uh, not when it's -30. We are at 6, a veritable tropical paradise in comparison.

I 'unschooled' Marissa our first year. It was fun and we both learned a lot, but I was increasingly anxious over my abilities. I am, afterall a product of public school and formally trained in adult education ~ all using a textbook.

I have found that I needed a structure, for two reasons. Marissa is doing high school level work in some of her subjects and needs a transcript on the off chance she may desire to go to college one day. Second, I found that I quickly ran out of ideas. With the exception of math (and because of my loathing of making up practice problems) I doubt I would ever turn to workbooks to provide that structure. Instead I bought a syllabus that outlined books to read and then gave ideas for activities that Marissa could do to demonstrate that she had indeed learned the subject.

Science ~ well, I don't have a bee farm or an organic garden (unless you count my parsley plant), so I did purchase a product that came with all the products to do experiments. Last year, I looked up experiments on the Internet. It was fun! Marissa picked the activities that she was most interested in and we went to the library to learn the "language" of that particular branch of science. Only problem... I found collecting the supplies to actually do the experiments a daunting task. I had to order many things from the Internet (add shipping and handling costs)... I couldn't afford to live like that. It sounds like you live in a wonderful science lab where kids are free to touch, explore and learn.
AcceptanceWithJoy - 11:35 AM - Jan. 16, 2007

Hey You!
I'll have you know my children use CLE!

mind you my attitude to education is somewhat different. with cle we can get all the academics tucked under our belt in record time, and then go and learn how to grow food, ride horses, put tents up, use compasses, light fires, build cross country courses, build geodesic domes with ponds in them ....

oh and my aspie 10yo likes it because of its extreme structure.

ok now i'm through defending myself ..... <g>

jackie
who can't remember how to log onto homeschool blogger and knows in anycase that if she does it will log her off homestead blogger and so is appearing as anonymous this evening.
Anonymous - 1:36 PM - Jan. 19, 2007

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