Breaking the Mold

It’s getting closer to homeschool graduation day for my oldest daughter.  It’s a bitter-sweet time. One of our friends is a photographer, so last week we went to a local park/beach and she took pictures in her graduation gown, with her best friends, and some pictures doing the things she loves most, which is soccer and long-boarding. Some of the pictures were near the beach because she loves the beach so much.  As I posted some of the pictures on Facebook, some of my friends who don’t homeschool commented on how different her pictures were from the average graduation pictures they’ve seen. And each of the girls were wearing different colored graduation gowns.  I explained that as homeschoolers, we think outside the box and break the mold.

Our homeschool support group has a graduation and promotion ceremony every year. As a matter of fact, we also have a yearbook.  For the graduation we have the option of standing with our graduate and speaking or pre-recording a message to her.  I’m going to opt for the pre-recorded message because I’m afraid I’ll start crying.  I realize I’m done with her academic education.  And I’m closing that chapter of our lives. That doesn’t mean she’s done with her own education, though. Whether she chooses to continue with college and university immediately, later, or not at all, she will continue to learn and grow in so many ways. She is just beginning a new chapter in her life, but learning will never end.  I am excited for her and I am looking forward to this new phase in our lives and in our relationship.

As homeschoolers, we realize that education does not need to be confined to what we learn within four walls. Whether you’re homeschooling, roadschooling, worldschooling or unschooling, there is a vast amount of information to soak in.  As our kids are growing, the trick is to foster a love for reading and learning, to encourage the inquisitive minds kids have and to get excited to learn new things with them.  Show them by example how to get excited about new things. We’ve made and are continuing to make beautiful memories learning together.

My son and his friends had a blast this week with their science experiments.  I didn’t mean to make a pun there.  There were no explosions, but it was fun.  In his Chemistry course he was learning about Kinetics and Catalysts. He was so excited as he took videos and pictures of the different reactions to the mixtures.

In one experiment he and his friends mixed Hydrogen peroxide using yeast as the catalyst. They also used different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. They added soap and watched the reaction of the oxygen being released as the process was sped up by the yeast and the oxygen escaped into soapy bubbles. The soap was used to make the release of the oxygen observable.

These are the kinds of memories I will always treasure. Our curiosity spills over into learning as we research, experiment and have adventures together.  Homeschooling is more than a way to educate my children. It’s  a way of life for us. It’s natural learning. And when it’s graduation day and you put a slide show together,  it’ll be so much fun to have all those pictures that reflect the fun, the memories and who your children are. Like our daughter’s graduation pictures reflect who she is and the many things she enjoys doing. 

Science at the Park....a day in the life of an unschooler

My favorite years of homeschooling are the elementary years.  Now that Amber and Noah are in high school, we have to be a little more focused on academics and completing required high school credits for their transcripts. I am a lot more flexible and carefree with Samantha who is in elementary.  I enjoy going on field trips, homeschool events, park dates, going to the library.  My high school kids still go on field trips and homeschool events sometimes. When they were all little, it was quite often we'd all be out together. My husband would sometimes ask if we were homeschooling or roadschooling.

What I didn't realize back then is that what we were doing was unschooling.  We were not at home following a schedule and working from textbooks or workbooks. That's fine for some families, but it's not a good fit for us. Even though Amber and Noah are high schoolers and have more structured curriculum, I would say we tend to lean more toward unschooling.  When they were younger we used workbooks at times, but not on a daily basis or on a schedule.  Even now they don't have a schedule for each subject they need to finish daily.  They know what they need to complete by the end of the week and they get it done.  If my son is repairing his airsoft gun, building something in his room because he likes woodwork, or working on a drawing because he likes art, I'm not going to tell him he needs to stop to do his History lesson.  He'll make time for it before the end of the week.  He's learning to manage his time.  The same with Amber.  She loves horses and there are days when she volunteers at a ranch working with horses and kids with special needs all day.  I think that's one of the beauties of homeschooling.  They have more time to pursue and develop their individual interests.  

The only set schedule that we had for a few years was going to the park every Wednesday at 2pm to meet with a group of homeschoolers and the park ranger.  For a couple of hours the park ranger would 'teach' on different subjects while taking the group on a short hike followed by a short sit-down talk/teaching.  She would talk to the kids, show them pictures or have them color or draw.  One time she brought dead bugs for the kids to study.   We learned about flowers, plants, bugs, birds, trees, animals.  Wednesdays were our day of science.  For Amber it wasn't just science, it was also photography.  I think she enjoyed taking pictures of the bugs more than studying them.  On the way home from the park, we'd stop at the library and get books.  Whenever possible, we'd find a book or an educational movie that covered the topic we'd learned about that day. When we got home from the park, we'd read our book or watch the movie on that topic we'd just learned about. The kids would talk to me about what they'd learned and what their favorite part of the day was.  This made it easier for them to then journal about their day while Samantha played preschool games.  

So unschooling doesn't mean we're not learning.  Even mom is learning new things.  As I reminisce on those science days at the park I'm thinking I'll call the park this week and ask if a park ranger would be available to do that with us again. Maybe the same park ranger is still there.  I know Samantha would enjoy it, and it would be so good for her. I think families in our homeschool support group would love to participate in Science at the Park.  We've got a very active support group with families who like to get together and learn together.  If you're an unschooler, I'd love to hear what your kids are interested in and what unschooling looks like for your family.