Happy Monday!

I woke up early (for me) this morning, showered and hopped on my laptop to catch up with Facebook and friends.  I was really excited to be ready to go for my kids...who are still in bed at 11:09AM. 

One of the reasons I love homeschooling is freedom.  Freedom to stay up late and sleep in is one of the things I love.  Teens need a lot of sleep and I'm happy to let my teens sleep as much as they need to.  It's just not quite the start to the week I wanted.  I'm sure we'll get going around lunch time and then hopefully it will be a great, productive day.

In other news, once a week the kids are taking a chemistry class and their friends just joined last week, which made it much more enjoyable for them.

Also, a fellow homeschool mom told Caitlyn and I about a great class she wanted her to come try and Caitlyn did and she really enjoyed it.  I mean, how cool is this?

She will go twice a week and I'm just so happy she has found something she likes.  Things are going good, we are getting out more and now if something would come along for Brett that would be perfect.  Park day with another group we are in will be starting soon and there is a good teen group there so I'm willing to drive 45 minutes to get them there. 

I've been working on our fall bucket list and I may share that in another post.  I like making lists of things I want to do with the kids.  I only have a couple more years before I am a mom to all adults so I want to make the most out of the small amount of time we have left. 

Back to School!

We started back up with school this last Monday.  It was a little rough at first, but so nice to start getting back into a routine.  We just worked on our WWII unit, no math yet. 

I'm loving the two read alouds we are doing right now, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Parallel Journeys by Eleanor H. Ayer and Alfons Heck.  They are both such wonderful books. 

Parallel Journeys is so powerful because it's two first-hand accounts of WWII by a Hitler Youth German and a German Jew who had to flee Germany with her family to survive.  The children and I are learning so much.

The Book Thief I had already read on my own and  loved.  It's a bit hard to read aloud, the language and point of view and even the set-up of the book make it a challenge but it's such a lovely, tragic book and I think the kids are enjoying it.  

We also are trying to watch more documentaries, we finished 1940's House which was excellent and also watched a PBS documentary on Winston Churchill called Churchill's Deadly Decision, which talked about a part of WWII we knew nothing about; the French surrender to Germany, which violated an agreement France and Britain had, and Britain taking over the French warships instead of letting them fall into Hitler's control.  Very interesting and makes it all the more real to us what difficult decisions are made during war.

All week I had been fighting a cold and Thursday I finally gave up and stayed in bed for the day.  Caitlyn and Brett both read their books, Cait is reading Under a War-Torn Sky and Brett is reading a biography on Albert Einstein.  Friday I just read to them from The Book Thief and took it easy.  We have our final Disney vacation coming up this week before our passes expire and I didn't want to take the chance of being sick during the trip.  Thankfully Cait and Brett are recovered from it and Jody is almost recovered.  We are so looking forward to going back to Disney, a little sad our passes are almost over but it was such a fun year and it's time to put money elsewhere.  We plan on trying to take some day trips this coming year instead, one definitely to Savannah. 

I have a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs simmering on the stove, Brett is playing online with friends and the girls took baby Maverick on a walk.  He is 11 weeks today and every day it seems he does something new.  He's so smart already and very strong. 

Here are the books and videos we are currently using:

Build Your Library WWII unit
The Book Thief
Parallel Journeys
1940's House
Churchill's Deadly Decision -Currently available on Netflix
Under a War-Torn Sky
Who Was Albert Einstein?

Harry Potter & Catching Up

Well, once again I forgot about this blog.  I even forgot I had come on here and did a post about our Harry Potter unit study.  I'm getting old.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the unit, the most fun was using the cookbook and making quite a few yummy recipes.  It was great reading the book aloud again to the kids.  I think I'm going to reread the next book too and we will just add in the cookbook recipes that correspond with it. 

Right now we are back to work on My Father's World, we're doing 1850-Modern and right now we're almost to the turn of the century, talking about Industrialization and the British Empire mostly.

We are also rereading the Little House on the Prairie books and watching Season 1 of the show.  I know Cait (15) and Brett (14) are a little older for that, but they can't grow up without having heard mom read Little House.  I did read them all aloud to my older kids years ago and the little two did listen in some, but it's not the same.  I still enjoy them at my age, so I'm sure they are too.  They're timeless. 

Soon it will be time to choose curriculum for fall, Cait will be in 9th grade and Brett in 8th.  I want them to be independent with their school work for the coming year and that will be a new thing for both of them. 

My oldest daughter and her husband are having a baby and I find myself thinking a lot about all the fun homeschool-y type things I will get to do again with my grandbaby.  I can't wait.  Five in a Row is the first thing we plan to do.  Actually Before Five in a Row, which I never used with my own children (we did do FIAR).  Kaleb and Alexis plan to "unschool" or gently and naturally teach their child and they both want me to help a lot with that.  School is not a word that will be used, there will be no "school time".  Just a lifestyle of learning that's woven throughout the day.

I'm excited about that too and even though we did live like that when my kids were younger, I always felt we had to do "school time" as well.  I wonder what would have happened if I had been brave enough to just follow my children's lead.  I have so many great memories of our days when they were younger.  As they got older none of my children enjoyed school.  It will be interesting to see the difference and see if their child will be able to retain their love of learning if school books are not forced upon him/her. 

I've started becoming more social (a bit) lately and we went strawberry picking with some friends last week and...here's the big one...I started a small group of moms who are using or want to learn more about the Charlotte Mason method.  We had our first gathering at a state park/beach and we had a really good time and so did the kids.  We'll be doing a book study of A Charlotte Mason Companion with just the mom's meeting to discuss the book and methods and exchange ideas and resources.  I'm hopeful that it will be something that works for all of us and keeps going. 

I'd like to start blogging more, so let's see if I remember I have this blog a bit more often and actually use it.

Enjoying a beautiful day at the beach

Nature studies by our home

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Unit Study

I had sort of forgotten about this blog.

We have been using MFW 1850-Modern Times since December. Before that we finished MFW Explorers-1850 that we had begun the year before we ahd our Year of Reading.

We have just finished studying the Civil War and are now going to start a short unit study on the first Harry Potter book.  We are using one written by Build Your Library curriculum.  I think I'm more excited than the kids are, but they are definitely looking forward to a break from the regular and we have all been Harry Potter fans ever since the first books came out. 

I purchased a new copy in paperback and two of the recommended books for the study that looked good to me.  I can't wait to have the kids make some of the recipes from the cookbook.  We are going shopping tomorrow for Knickerbocker Glory.  That's my kind of school :)

I'm going to try to blog about this unit study, we'll see how well I keep up with it.

Just starting out

I thought I'd make a blog to chronicle our years as unschoolers.  I have been doing a Year of Reading with my 13 and 14 year olds this school year.  We have always used a literature approach with our homeschool and over the last decade I have collected tons of great children's literature.  One day I was looking over my bookshelves and sighing, thinking of all the books that I never got around to reading to the kids.  I said "I wish we could just take a year and do nothing but read."  My oldest daughter was in the living room and said "Do it Mom!"  So, that was all it took (I'm easily convinced).  We started in August 2012 and will go through August 2013.  The kids are enjoying it, although I can tell they're starting to slow down with their reading and the enthusiasm isn't quite as high anymore.  Ok, I'm having to basically make them read now.  However, I'm still excited and going strong :)

Unschooling is something I've thought about for years, wishing I could do it but then fear would take over and I'd tell myself I couldn't do such a thing.  They wouldn't DO anything if I didn't make them.  Over time and with dealing with my two youngest who avoid any kind of school work like it's the plague, I started to realize that they mostly are self-educated.  They have always escaped school with all kinds of devious ways.  Their favorites are "Mom, we're outside!  We need fresh air!"  or "Mom, we're playing with Legos (or K'nex or whatever) we're using our IMAGINATIONS!"  Now, what kind of mother could argue with that?  Well, I didn't. 

Even when I did use a curriculum with them we were pretty laid back with it.  It really was more work on me, I did a lot of reading aloud because like I said before, I love the literature approach.  So, I would read history, Bible, science, plus always have a classic or good child's lit book going with them.  I'd ask some questions after reading history or science...blank looks.  "Oh, we were supposed to listen?"  I'd be sneaky and try to get some narration in (good old Charlotte Mason you know).  "So, Brett, what happened in the last chapter we read yesterday?" 
"Some guy did that thing and then they went somewhere." 
Not exactly what I was hoping for.

My kids are smart though.  Really smart.  I'm not just saying that because I'm their mom either.  They are always amazing me at what they know or what they do or how they act.  Many days I'm saying "where did you learn that?"  or "how did you know how to do that?"  The answers vary.  From a TV show they watched with dad, from something they heard somewhere, something they read, just figured it out on their own.

Self-education.  They've been doing it.  And doing it well.  I'm confident enough to put them against any graduate from the local high school.  I've seen what comes out of there.  And it's scary.  Don't worry, I know you're not supposed to start sentences with the word "and".  But it's my blog and I'm doing it.
 Same with "but".
 Just wanted you all to know I'm not stupid either :)  They are conjunctions and even though you shouldn't, you CAN. 

Where was I?  Oh yes, well I used our Year of Reading as an excuse to buy more books.  I'll take any excuse I can get.  For example, in realizing I didn't like to clean or do it well, I bought some books about cleaning.  I read them.  I still don't clean much.  Any excuse will do.  Someone is upsetting me?  Let's get this book about Dealing with Difficult People.  Didn't make them any less difficult, I might add.
So, I bought a few books on unschooling that I didn't already own from when I would buy a book and daydream about unschooling and then never do it.  I read them.  They weren't very good.  By then I was on a quest to find out all I could about unschooling and did any normal people do it? Most I find seem "hippy-ish".  Not that that's a bad thing. 

Anyway, the more I looked the more I found out, the more books I bought and read and the more I realized that children learn no matter what.  I learn no matter what.  I can sit here and read all day to them but if they aren't listening it's pointless.  I can force them to do a curriculum but if they just daydream and argue or pout or do the bare minimum with a bad attitude and don't care about what they just read then they're not learning much. 

On the other hand, if they are interested in a topic they're excited to learn about it.  They remember it, they tell others about it.  It becomes part of them and they don't forget it.  Do they need to be excited about Algebra or WWI?  Nope.  I have full confidence that if they NEED to know something for some reason, be it college or work, they will know how to find the information and learn it. 

I have so much more I could say, but this post is way longer than I intended, so I'll stop for now.  If anyone reading this is an unschooler, please leave me a comment.  Especially if you have a blog, I'd love to check it out.