I am leaning more towards 'unschooling' my youngest children. I have read lots and lots and continue to research the best way to educate our children. When we began this journey into homeschooling our oldest, Preston, was in first grade and all I knew about homeschool was Abeka. I also knew I did not have enough money to purchase all I "needed" for first grade, so we bought some $1 workbooks from Wal-Mart and began our quest. I felt at the time that I was giving him an inferior education but was doing the best I could with the resources I had. I truly believed that he needed a full'real' curriculum that came neatly packaged in a box. So we saved our pennies and the next year my mom and I drove to Pensacola, FL to shop at the Abeka bookstore. Oh the joy of fresh workbooks and 'real' readers! I packed up everything available for second graders (minus the teachers manuals bc I figured if I could not correct his 2nd grade papers with out a manual - I had no business homeschooling him!)

We began the year with a bang! We were living 30mins from town and had 3 children and the 4th one 'baking'! Preston was 7, Catherine was 3, Cuyler was 1 and mom was tired! But we persisted. I had him doing 1-2 pages in each workbook everyday and reading aloud to me everyday. Math was torture, he would cry almost every day, he absolutely hated it. And so did I, but it was all there was, the only way, right? He did not care if he could not multiply (he was SEVEN!! but it was on the page, so he must do it right?) Catherine could not even count to 20, so why did it matter if he could not multiply (his justification) In March we welcomed Cade home and pressed on with school. Every day was a struggle and by the end of the school term Andre' and I decided we could not do this anymore.

So I went to work to pay for his tuition and put the three little ones in daycare, a very difficult decision, but the ps's in our area were awful and obviously I could not homeschool this child! He went to our church's small private school for 3rd and 4th grade. And I got pregnant for our 5th child the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. Andre' got a new job an hour away from home, so we moved. In our new community there is one Christian school and the tuition is out of range for our budget. And Catherine was beginning school. Preston went to the local ps to finish out 4th grade and he hated it, so did I, but I vividly remembered 2nd grade, I CANNOT homeschool him, the others sure, but not him.... he asked to come home.

We agreed to try it out and I knew we could not return to a boxed curriculum full of workbooks and textbooks, btdt - never again! After many hours of research and prayer we found Sonlight - it sounded too good to be true. I did not want to overwhelm him with the amount of reading required and I wanted our year to be an easy transition, so I chose Core 2 World History. We had a great year, stress free and he (and I, and the little kids who listened in) learned a ton. And we were on our way to being a true Sonlighter. However, I was still a perfectionist box checker. I loved that Sonlight gave me a schedule and I faithfully checked every box, which worked great for a 10 year old doing Core 2.

We have since completed Core 3+4, Core 5, Core 6 and Core 100 and the check every box philosophy has not worked as well. I have learned to trust myself and make decisions on how deep we delve into a topic and which areas or books we skip. And it is working so well, we are all loving school and learning so much.

I have learned so much in the 8 years I have taught my children at home, and now that my youngest 2 are in K and 2nd grade I see how much I have grown.  Homeschooling families have options ranging from "school at home" in which the family has a traditional classroom setting with a black board, educational posters, desks and textbooks to "unschoolers" who allow their children to follow their own passions in the pursuit of education.

Our family began with the "school at home" model (Preston even had the little school desk) and now are endeavoring to give the children more of a say in what they learn. There is no way to for anyone to learn all there is to learn in 12 years of school, indeed we continue to learn our entire life. Andre and have realized that we have learned far more teaching our own children than we ever learned in a classroom. Think of your own life, any situation where you were 'forced' to learn something that did not interest you (most of what I experienced in school) you only learned long enough to pass the test, then most of that information was forgotten. But when we are interested in a topic, we retain so much more of that information - for good. Why would we think our children learn any differently?

Which brings me to the title of this post, Unschool? We have been studying history extensively since we began using Sonlight (it is really my favorite subject) but Catherine was tired of "wars and dead guys". We had a conversation about what she would like to study and she wanted to learn more about her body. So we spent last semester reading lots about anatomy and how our bodies work, also did a s*x ed study (using Passport to Purity -amazing stuff) and read Beautiful Girlhood, all about being a godly girl inside and out. It was great, we all enjoyed it.

This semester we are studying Japan in preparation for 'Mega-fest'. Mega-fest is put on by our local hs group, it is like a giant social studies fair. Each family studies a different country and presents a project board and food from their country. We are having a great time learning about Japan (the boys are loving the sumo wrestlers!) We ordered candy from Japan and will serve real sushi and kid friendly sushi.

So I suppose for us, we are somewhere between the textbook approach (Preston is using textbooks this year that he chose, and is doing great; the others also have a few workbooks they use for math and phonics) and unschooling where they choose what to study and I provide the encouragement and materials. With the youngest two boys though, we are leaning more toward unschooling with our approach to their education. They do a little workbook study, but the majority of their education comes from life experience. For example, weeding the garden (science), making pancakes (math and home ec), comparison shopping (more math) and building with lego (problem solving, following directions). Most of the time they are learning they don't even realize they are learning - they are just having fun being little boys exploring their world!

I just finished reading The Way Children Learn  by John Holt and truly enjoyed it. His research with children proves that they will figure out their world and learn a ton if we allow them to. When children have a reason to learn something there is no stopping them. But it has to be their reason, not just because "I said so." Don't get me wrong, I know there is a place for obedience, we teach our children to obey the 'first time'. I am excited to see where their learning takes them as they have more say in what they want to learn about.

Life is good!