I've changed so much since I had my third child. I used to believe that conventional ways of doing things was best. Some times, the only way of doing things. Now, I find that it isn't. I wear my youngsters much of their infancy. I feed my family as much unprocessed foods as possible. I focus on life rather than things and our faith more than anything else. I have also found myself changing my mindset on education and learning.
Currently, we live in a state that discourages "unschooling," as it is called. Having said that, I am an unschooling mom. I homeschool my children by encouraging them to learn about what they want to learn about. Right now, I am pushing reading. Not purely because the state will require them to read soon, but because they keep asking to learn how to read. They want to, so we are learning through play, daily life, and a little study time.
I encourage my kids to play all day long. The boys learn the most when we are playing and being active. My oldest has learned basic math skills and science "stuff" (like gravity and magnetic properties) simply by playing. I would rather learn by play. We have completely shaken off the traditional method of learning and have replaced it with a lifestyle of learning. I use every opportunity to turn simple moments or ordinary ones into learning and teaching moments. Life has become our school and the world is our classroom.
I am currently still trying to decide how I can meet my state's requirements for home instruction while sticking as much to unschooling as possible. I don't know that we can really continue it since some counties are strict about having a set curriculum and school session calendar. We are holding out hope that our children's curiosity will drive them to learn even if we have to have books and study time to meet states standards.
How about you? Are you a fellow Unschooling family? What do you do to encourage your children on their journey? How do you help them on the way? Do you have state requirements like we do? How do you meet them?
