I am so grateful for how school is going this year. Unschooling is Awesome!!!! When I say, "Hey guys, let's go get started on our school work for today" one or both of them always whines and complains. But this year, instead of trying to get them to do formal lessons, they are just learning from the different life experiences that they have every day. Of course the daily "experiences" are not always random and spontaneous. Sometimes I will plan something educational for us to do together and they have no idea that this is actually a planned school project! We are very laid back this year. It is less stress for everyone. Last week several of our school subjects were very conveniently included in a pretty fun activity that we did. We wrote and mailed  letters to a person of their choice. They both wrote very simple letters to Mamaw. That one activity addressed letter recognition and letter sounds and phonics. It addressed spelling and punctuation. They practiced their handwriting. They learned the format of a letter.  Then Mamaw wrote them back. And when we got the letters from Mamaw we had another lesson disguised as just something fun for them to do. While reading Mamaw's letter they learned more about letter recognition and letter sounds. Phonics and spelling was included. They are learning how to sound out words to find out what they say. Tomorrow we are going to write another letter. I wonder who they will write this one to.

One day Isaac and I were sitting at the kitchen table and he started writing math symbols on a napkin with a crayon! I seized that opportunity! I grabbed a piece of their drawing paper (there seems to always be a stack of it laying there) and I started writing math problems. Then Tommy wandered into the kitchen and he got involved. We practiced counting with a bag of glass stones. We used them as the manipulatives as we added and subtracted. We did a set of 10 addition and 5 subtraction problems before they got tired of it and wanted to quit.

Life science and biology are just ongoing things at my house. They are always exploring and bringing in different critters. We usually put the critters in a jar and observe it for a while. We look it up and find out as much about it as we can. The first thing we try to find out is if it is harmful to us in any way (does it sting, bite or pinch). Then we find out what it eats and we feed it so we can watch it eat. We find out everything we can about how it lives and the habits it has and why. Then, if it is one of the lucky ones that survives being "investigated" by my boys, we let it go. I'm sure it runs (or limps) away and tells all the other critters that will listen, "Stay away from THAT house!!"

So that is how school is going at our house this year. They are learning a lot about a lot of different things. It is fun and they are excited about school without even knowing that it is school! Now that is how homeschooling should be!!!

Bye for now!

In Christ,

Shirley

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."(Psalms 19:14)