School update

Well the month of august is almost over, which means we have been in school for about 3 weeks. Things have gone very smoothly this year. I am not sure if it is because we are getting better at choosing resources or if it is because all of the kids are getting older.

This morning, though, I am vascilating between these two thoughts: Do I require enough from my kids? Are my expectations high enough for them to reach their full potential? OR Am I killing a love of learning and free thinking in my kids by requiring them to do specific things? Would they be better off as unschoolers?

There you have it. I am hot and cold today. Maybe I am just tired and grouchy. I have no reason to question what we have been doing. it seems to be going well. My kids are doing fine. They do really well in some subjects and poorly in others. Their strengths and weaknesses are normal and a part of life. We are all content with the curriculum and resources that we have chosen this year. There are struggles and successes. BUT what if there is a better way? What if, even though we tend to be relaxed and let the kids help choose what they want to use, and let them use those things at their own pace.. what if there is still a better way?

Yesterday I had a talk with Daniel. He has been dragging out his math work. He says he likes the resource he uses, and that the work is not too hard.. challenging but not hard. But he is dragging it out. I really don't care how long he takes to do his independant work. As long as it is done before bedtime. BUT if he takes all day to do it, fiddling around between every problem, that leaves no time for him to follow his interests. No chunks of time to dig into those things he loves doing. As I mentioned that to him he got this puzzled look in his eyes. LIke he had never considered that before. I guess I never mentioned to him that my true desire for their homeschooled life is that they would be able to do those few things we require of them to learn to read, write and calculate quickly, then have TIME, that precious commodity that most kids do not get, to just LIVE, love, learn, explore, create, invent... THAT is what I treasure about homeschooling. I like that they can finish their required subjects quickly and move on to the things in life that they really want to learn. And if I love that so much and it is such an important part of my philosophy of education.. then why do we have so many things on our schedule?

When asking them how they wanted to study things like Science and history.. we decided to do them together... read alouds and experiements and books sometimes guided by resources and sometimes not. And they seem to be liking it.

BUT, what about those required subjects... how would they choose to learn those things if I let them just go with it. I do let them help choose a resource to use for Language ARts type things. I also, for the most part just let them choose books to read for reading and literature studies.

I am wondering how our days would look if we went completely unschooled. Would I be brave enough to do it? Would we sit around all day being lazy and incompetent? Just WHAT would they do with their time? WHAT would I do with mine? I am curious to know.