It seems I don't have much time for blogging these days; though once summer hits and it is too HOT to venture outside, I'm sure I'll find my self rambling away again .

Our family has been in a season of transition, and we've been almost completely "unschooling" since August.  Not my plan at all, but I worked part-time from mid-August until Dec. 31st.  And, even though the girls were with me at work, and I had permission to do my teaching while there, we still ended up not doing the "formal lessons" I had planned.  They learned much in spite of our very relaxed approach. 

I have found that by having lots of educational toys, manipulatives, workbooks, and other learning "supplies" and putting them out for the children to "discover" or "re-discover" now and then, I can encourage learning in a very simple, and even fun way.  My oldest uses her natural "first-born" tendency to be the boss and order everyone about to play teacher , and the little ones actually play along and have fun doing so! 

We also moved recently, which put my plans for getting back to my lesson plans on hold, yet again.  But, when I look back at what we've accomplished this year, I can see that a season of "unschooling" may have been the best thing for us. 

A break from the math book did wonders for my oldest's math phobia.  When we started things up again, she was ready to learn what had, at one time, caused much frustration and many tears.  She has also become a voracious reader, like her mom , and because she is a talker , too...she just naturally narrates what she is reading to me.  What could be easier than that? 

A free online typing program has been interesting for the older 2 and they are getting quite good with the keyboard. 

The little ones enjoy math games and several online math sites and are both improving in their reading and writing skills. 

Even though we did what I would call "unschooling" this year, there was still a focus on learning, and my "teacher mom" mentality made certain that we covered Language Arts and Math in some form or fashion every day !