An un-typical-schooling day

Sometimes it's hard to explain to people how unschooling works and how the children learn. In one way a day for us is a constant round of question and answers.



I've kept notes a few days lately to prove to myself more than anyone how much they actually do learn just following their interests from day to day. Here's one day example from last week, not everyday is like this they are all unique!



Thursday

P worked and I took the kids to the bike park in Cooroy. Zan and Mr T rode their bikes while Rain, Tui and I walked up to the markets to buy some plants. The stall holder pointed out to Rain how to tell the difference between the white flowering and blue flowering westringias (native Rosemary). She told P when he got home from work. She also noticed that the wattles had two different types of leaves on them. We discussed how the juvenile leaves will eventually fall off and they'll just have the bigger leaves.

We also looked at a crystal stall. We learnt some names of some and Rain liked the clear quartz and decided to buy one.

I had given the boys some money to buy ice creams and when we got back Mr T was finishing his but Zan had bought a 2liter tub at the supermarket because it was the same price as a single ice cream at the corner shop. Mr T certainly had a lesson about economy there!!!

When we got home the three big kids watched a movie and discussed how the main actor was funnier in some other movies they had watched. I worked on a rainbow poncho I'm making and Rain wondered why I always do the colours inn the same order. We talked about how that is the order they appear in a rainbow, the spectrum of light, crystals splitting light. And then she got her new crystal and let the sun shine through it and made rainbows.

I played 3 games of UNO with Mr T, then Rain played with him. Zan finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book for the um...probably 10th time.

Rain and Mr T played mouse trap. Rain got bored though and an argument nearly broke out. I suggested that instead of following the rules they just set up the trap(which after all is the most fun part of the game) and then Mr T could just play with it by himself.

Rain e-mailed friends and planned her birthday party. She then wanted to cook so we tried anew recipe. Date, banana, sultana, apricot and pecan cake. She did most of it while I was cooking dinner. One of Zan's friends came over after school and they all practised new tricks on the trampoline.
After dinner P made fruit juice with Mr T and froze it for icy poles. Then we watched Ten Canoes. This brought up discussions about aboriginal dream time mythology, concepts of nudity being a societal more and hunting for food. Mr T now really wants to try making a bark canoe.
And to top the day off Mr T lost his first baby tooth...my little boy is really growing up!!!

So you can see from reading this how many subject areas were covered in our day. Maths, computer skills, spelling, geology, science, sociology, craft etc, etc. But the most important thing is that they all had a fun happy day. They weren't told to learn anything but their innate curiosity made sure they were learning every minute.
They were free to decide what they would do which will lead them to a great sense of self responsibility, self worth and self determination as they grow.