Unschool-ology

Unschool-ology
Unschooling: Living Without School; Living Free Range-Freedom to Learn What One Wants When One Wants

Monday, March 28, 2011

Binder

I started a homeschool binder for Samantha. It isn't extravagant since it is more for practice and fun. It is actually just an add on section of my Home Management Binder, but I have her topics written down in a lesson book. (I have topics picked out for every week, but no plans for each topic yet.) I also have any ideas I have listed in it. Websites I can use as references, etc. It is just fun to do and use as a reference. I really think I am going to enjoy this. ;) 


Oh, and this Weeks' Topic: Earth's Weather and Its May Moods

Friday, March 25, 2011

Week One: A Healthy Earth Is A Healthy Me

This was our first week. Things were a little out of order because we had a crazy week. But I think for our first week, it went pretty smooth. Here is what we did: 

Monday: We read a book about recycling and used our "reusable shopping bags," and pretend grocery shopped in the kitchen. We went over which items were healthy for you, and which ones weren't.

Tuesday: We had to skip this day, had a lot going on.

Wednesday: We picked up trash outside. (This didn't go so well. It was sort of cold, and about to rain. Samantha was grumpy.)

Thursday: We made "dirt cups," out of pudding and Oreos and gummy worms. She LOVED it! She really got into it. We also had a healthy snack and talked about organic foods. We had mandarin oranges and all natural juice.

Friday: Watch a Barney movie about taking care of the Earth. (Thanks to Christina for finding it.) I think we are going to do a movie every Friday. Since we have instant on Netflix, it shouldn't be hard to find something on each topic, hopefully. We also did a small activity/art project. We took two pieces of construction paper, one blue, one green. I made little fish out of copper wire, and then also took some trash. For every piece of trash we threw into the "pond"-the blue paper, a fish disappear. Then after there were no fish left, the pond was "green." We had to take the trash out of the pond one piece at a time and as the trash disappeared, the fish reappeared. (We were going to do an art project, but I can't get to the art stuff right now. Again, long story.)



She Loves her little bag.

This one is my bag.

LOVE this book!


"Grocery Shopping"

We talked about the difference between plastic bags and reusable shopping bags. We also talked about different ways to reuse plastic bags.

These are the groceries she picked out.

Picking Up Trash

About To Make Our Dirt Cups



After we mixed it, it looked like mud.

Here it is...Our Dirt Cup. We put it in a clean disposable flower pot to make it more "Real."

She had a worm in her mouth.

Healthy Snack, All Organic

She was posing in this picture.


Watching Barney

This was the nasty pond with all the trash.

This is the clean pong with all the fish. I promise the paper is blue. It just looks green in the picture.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Hello, Welcome to My Adventure As A Homeschooling Mom of One...

Hello, and welcome to my adventure as a homeschooling Mom of One smart little 2-year-old. I made the decision to homeschool not too long ago, maybe a few months. Our reasoning: We want to be responsible for her education. Although I will be deciding what she will learn, we will be taking this adventure all together as a family. We want her learning to be Christian based. We also enjoy the flexibility and freedom that homeschooling brings, choosing the hours, the activities, everything. My husband and I have agreed that we do not want to formally school until our Daughter is in Kindergarten. Until then, we are going to allow life to be her teacher. Although, I have recently chose to enhance that learning with a small 30 minute lesson each day. We will pick a topic for the week and each day there will be a different activity for the topic. I am trying my best to do a book, an activity, an art project, and a food project with each one. I am just praying that the old saying is true, "Practice Makes Perfect."