In homeschooling there are so many ways to approach education. The bottom line for me and for our family is that I want my children to love learning. I want them to actively seek out information and to know how to find rich sources of information. I do not want them to detest learning about subjects (such as I did history, math and many sciences) because they view them as "boring," "dry," or "irrelevant." I want them to know that once I have taught them the basics (reading, writing and mathematics) they can learn anything they want by simply seeking the information.
I would say with my older children I have adapted a very eclectic style over the last several years and it works for us. I do enforce certain subjects that like it or not, you have to learn (fractions) but I allow for wiggle room if there is a subject that the children passionately want to learn about I am not so rigid as to say we cannot look into it because we have other studies. A perfect example of this, just yesterday one of my children had lots of questions about clouds and which ones did what and why some days there were great big puffy ones and other days they were wispy. We opted to just take a day off her regular science curriculum and now, after research, her curiosity is satisfied and she has new names for the clouds!
I am finding that with my youngest two boys I am really favoring an "unschooling" approach to pre-school. Don't get me wrong we are still learning letters, numbers, shapes, etc. but we are following the interests of the boys to do so. I am usually not a huge fan of the idea of un-schooling as at its core it is just allowing a child to only learn what they are interested in, my fear? What if they are never interested in multiplication tables, learning to read, history? Therefore I feel this approach is working for my younger boys but when they get older we will likely move more towards the approach that has worked for my other three children.
So, what does this "un-schooling" look like for pre-school? It is piquing your child's interest so that they desire to learn and then following that up with good solid information. Case in point, we have been enjoying some unseasonably warm weather this December so it necessitated a walk outdoors for the boys who frankly needed some fresh air and a change of scenery. One of the first things that caught my eye was an incredibly long mole hill trail that not only sectioned my property but continued for almost the length of a football field (that is one industrious little guy!) It dawned on me that my boys probably didn't know much about moles so we began by walking the length of the mole trail and talking about what caused that protruding dirt, can you see it here? It looks like it ends but I assure you it goes on and on and on some more!
I would say with my older children I have adapted a very eclectic style over the last several years and it works for us. I do enforce certain subjects that like it or not, you have to learn (fractions) but I allow for wiggle room if there is a subject that the children passionately want to learn about I am not so rigid as to say we cannot look into it because we have other studies. A perfect example of this, just yesterday one of my children had lots of questions about clouds and which ones did what and why some days there were great big puffy ones and other days they were wispy. We opted to just take a day off her regular science curriculum and now, after research, her curiosity is satisfied and she has new names for the clouds!
I am finding that with my youngest two boys I am really favoring an "unschooling" approach to pre-school. Don't get me wrong we are still learning letters, numbers, shapes, etc. but we are following the interests of the boys to do so. I am usually not a huge fan of the idea of un-schooling as at its core it is just allowing a child to only learn what they are interested in, my fear? What if they are never interested in multiplication tables, learning to read, history? Therefore I feel this approach is working for my younger boys but when they get older we will likely move more towards the approach that has worked for my other three children.
So, what does this "un-schooling" look like for pre-school? It is piquing your child's interest so that they desire to learn and then following that up with good solid information. Case in point, we have been enjoying some unseasonably warm weather this December so it necessitated a walk outdoors for the boys who frankly needed some fresh air and a change of scenery. One of the first things that caught my eye was an incredibly long mole hill trail that not only sectioned my property but continued for almost the length of a football field (that is one industrious little guy!) It dawned on me that my boys probably didn't know much about moles so we began by walking the length of the mole trail and talking about what caused that protruding dirt, can you see it here? It looks like it ends but I assure you it goes on and on and on some more!
We followed the trail into some pine trees on our property where we began collecting pinecones, we discussed the different shapes and kinds we were finding and my 4 year old then wanted to know why there were no mulberries to eat since he remembered that they grew right by the pines, we then discussed weather and winter (he was not a fan of anything that took the berries away!) Once the excitement of finding all the pinecones waned we collected a few and then headed indoors.
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There were more questions about that little mole who lived underground and my 4 year old wanted to know what he looked like so we visited youtube channels, images, and even coloring pages. That curiosity has since led to a desire to know more about groundhogs, hedgehogs and other rodents, youtube has been a huge help in these areas.
Photo courtesy americanratcontrol
This all was such a natural progression from a curiosity of something that we saw outside to a desire to learn more. I believe that teaching the younger ones in this manner is setting the stage for a lifelong love of learning. It does sometimes require creativity on my part, but often I am learning right along with them, (I did not know moles can swim but we found a youtube video of just such a thing!). At this point I am not bothering with lesson plans or formalized learning, we are just having fun and collecting a LOT of information in the process. We use flashcards and creative games for letters, numbers and some of the other important stuff but we also let the current carry us when there is something to learn about, and oh this world is filled with learning opportunities.
Keep in mind too that you don't have to live on a farm to do this kind of learning, there are opportunities literally EVERYWHERE! Just think, you may have flowers in your yard so you learn about why they give off that yellow stuff on your fingers and watch as bees come by, you may decide to let your child play in a sink full of water and see what objects can float and what can sink, you may listen to different kinds of music and talk about instruments, the possibilities are literally endless.
Think about it like this, as an adult when you want to learn something new, what do you do? You seek out information. It may be in the form of books, how to videos, magazine articles, you get the picture. By teaching children at a young age that they have the power to learn about the world around them and all they have to do is seek the information, you are setting the stage for a lifetime of learning!
-best wishes!
Keep in mind too that you don't have to live on a farm to do this kind of learning, there are opportunities literally EVERYWHERE! Just think, you may have flowers in your yard so you learn about why they give off that yellow stuff on your fingers and watch as bees come by, you may decide to let your child play in a sink full of water and see what objects can float and what can sink, you may listen to different kinds of music and talk about instruments, the possibilities are literally endless.
Think about it like this, as an adult when you want to learn something new, what do you do? You seek out information. It may be in the form of books, how to videos, magazine articles, you get the picture. By teaching children at a young age that they have the power to learn about the world around them and all they have to do is seek the information, you are setting the stage for a lifetime of learning!
-best wishes!
