Unschooling for us is taking the time to create learning goals for ourselves. This is an exciting time for everyone because we are exploring our interests and writing it down as an action plan. It's invigorating and keeps us active and fulfilled. Not all unschooling families do this, but for us; it is the only way to live. Teaching your children to be an active force in their lives, prepares them for life. They will learn to not just to float along taking life as it comes, but rather being the orchestrator of their lives and an active participant! Here are some tips that we use to plan out our unschooling year.
Check into the Planner Perfect, planner, over at my Planner Perfect blog. It is, The Complete Home Management System. This planner harness goals for you and your family, monthly, and is the perfect place to write down monthly learning goals. It is set-up for every mom to use easily, and you can manage everything from schooling to your complete home management... all in one place!
Plan as a group:
Take the time to sit with your children and make group plans of how you want each month to look. Each month has a fun feel to it such as September for the Apple Festivals and apple picking, zoo trips, and as many outdoor activities you can muster in this nice fall weather. Keep going with your months as far as you can.
Break your children into age groups:
Then sit with your children in age groups (depending on how many you have of course!) I have seven children, so I put my smaller children together and discuss with them what fun projects we can do together and bring to the table all of my ideas that I've prepped for and what I'd like to introduce to them. This smaller age-group of around 6-9 love fun ideas and hands-on learning. So the sky is the limit with them, so get creative and get their ideas and show them yours. Your planner will be filled to the brim on all the learning and activities you'll want to do.
The older children are going to be more individual with their plans and want to set personal goals for themselves and use their talents. This is where we can help them find their talents, if they don't already know of them, and help guide them into activities and set learning goals that help facilitate and help them grow in these areas.
Taking time to listen:
I know when they hit the teenage years it is crucial you know their needs. With unschooling it is part of our role to make sure that their learning and social needs are met. It is a personal decision for each family to make if highschool is an option if your teen wants to try it out, but for us, we try to ward off even the curiosity.
Teens love to keep busy and be around their peers. This is important that you make that happen for them. Create fun groups in your home on a regular basis such as book clubs, game nights, and/or movie nights and put them in classes that evolve around their interests and keep them active. Make sure they have their learning goals in place and keep the teens that prefer structure, structured, with their own plans they have set for themselves. Have them keep a planner of their own with just a spiral notebook or a calendar. (Planner Perfect will be coming out with a planner just for teens!) I have found that as children grow into their teen years, they like the structure. No problem! Unschooling is following a child's interests and if they want structure and/or even structured studies...fantastic! They are learning according to their own desires and that is what keeps them forever learners and leaders of their own destinies. What a powerful teaching tool! No one is telling them what they have to know, no one is grading them on their performance, no one is making them take a Spanish class, if they don't desire to learn it.
Unschooled children want to learn all the time! And we have a big job as parents to be their guides and help them obtain their learning goals every step of the way.
Watch this video on more of how we plan our unschooling year...
Check into the Planner Perfect, planner, over at my Planner Perfect blog. It is, The Complete Home Management System. This planner harness goals for you and your family, monthly, and is the perfect place to write down monthly learning goals. It is set-up for every mom to use easily, and you can manage everything from schooling to your complete home management... all in one place! Plan as a group:
Take the time to sit with your children and make group plans of how you want each month to look. Each month has a fun feel to it such as September for the Apple Festivals and apple picking, zoo trips, and as many outdoor activities you can muster in this nice fall weather. Keep going with your months as far as you can.
Break your children into age groups:
Then sit with your children in age groups (depending on how many you have of course!) I have seven children, so I put my smaller children together and discuss with them what fun projects we can do together and bring to the table all of my ideas that I've prepped for and what I'd like to introduce to them. This smaller age-group of around 6-9 love fun ideas and hands-on learning. So the sky is the limit with them, so get creative and get their ideas and show them yours. Your planner will be filled to the brim on all the learning and activities you'll want to do.
The older children are going to be more individual with their plans and want to set personal goals for themselves and use their talents. This is where we can help them find their talents, if they don't already know of them, and help guide them into activities and set learning goals that help facilitate and help them grow in these areas.
Taking time to listen:
I know when they hit the teenage years it is crucial you know their needs. With unschooling it is part of our role to make sure that their learning and social needs are met. It is a personal decision for each family to make if highschool is an option if your teen wants to try it out, but for us, we try to ward off even the curiosity.
Teens love to keep busy and be around their peers. This is important that you make that happen for them. Create fun groups in your home on a regular basis such as book clubs, game nights, and/or movie nights and put them in classes that evolve around their interests and keep them active. Make sure they have their learning goals in place and keep the teens that prefer structure, structured, with their own plans they have set for themselves. Have them keep a planner of their own with just a spiral notebook or a calendar. (Planner Perfect will be coming out with a planner just for teens!) I have found that as children grow into their teen years, they like the structure. No problem! Unschooling is following a child's interests and if they want structure and/or even structured studies...fantastic! They are learning according to their own desires and that is what keeps them forever learners and leaders of their own destinies. What a powerful teaching tool! No one is telling them what they have to know, no one is grading them on their performance, no one is making them take a Spanish class, if they don't desire to learn it.
Unschooled children want to learn all the time! And we have a big job as parents to be their guides and help them obtain their learning goals every step of the way.
Watch this video on more of how we plan our unschooling year...
Would you be able to maybe give some examples of learning goals? I'm just trying to picture this a little better. Particularly for the 6-9 year old group. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi! For the 6-9 age group, we like to make some learning goals that we can do together as well as their individual interests. Such as museums, learning crafts, doing some science experiments, and learning about different countries such as my theme nights. Then, I will discuss with each child and find out what they are interested in learning. Some of mine say reading and writing, one is interested in math and history, one has wanted and loved baking, sewing,learning bible verses, and taking horse back riding lessons. Let me know how else I can help!
ReplyDeleteAlso, to add to my earlier post to clarify...these are written down in my planner. There will be a header that reads "group learning goals for Bella, Brock, and John" then I will list all the different outings and fun learning things to do together. Then I will list each child's name down and underneath that is where I write down what their personal interests were. From here they are written and speckled within our days to execute these new goals. Does this help?
ReplyDelete