Further Adventures in Unschooling

Unschooling is MESSY! Today we played store. The kids emptied the pantry of all my canned goods. Bub arranged them into categories. We emptied piggy banks and pulled out the toy cash register. Cans sold for $.50, large cans were a buck, and there was a sale running on the beans, only .15. Bub and I were customers; E and M calculated the cost of our purchases, because they were the all important clerks. M wrote receipts. Ethan didn't want that job because he hates to write, but he did concede to writing the sign (scotch taped to my wall) and the open and closed sign. Bub started to write "King Soopers" on my family room wall, but I caught him while he was still on the "C". I'm not sure what exactly he thought he'd write, seeing as he can only write A, C, X and O. After the store was closed, and the open/closed sign duly flipped, the kids took inventory. M practiced skip counting by 5, and using tally marks. E calculated how much it would cost to re-stock his inventory if the wholesalers sold cans for $.20 each and he needed 6 beans, 8 baking supplies. 3 fruit, and 4 veggies. Bub knocked over cans just to irritate his sister.

The kids have done their chores. E finished his volcano book, and M still needs to sit down to read with me. E is now playing educational computer games and Bub and M are watching a movie about a woman who had a lion cub for a pet. I vacuumed. But my wood floors need mopped. All and all we had another successful day of unschooling. Unfortunately, my house is trashed,and we never talked grammar, phonics, spelling, or history. But we did have a much better than average math day.

Unschooling is fun, messy and time consuming. Kids learn and are engaged. It's been a nice change of pace, but I don't think I could do this all the time. I have this fabulous schedule that gives me the illusion of control. And I know that my kid are learning their grammar even if it is a semi-lame worksheet. I miss our read-alouds. And I miss my kids ability to do some tasks independently. I'm thinking of being a part time unschooler, and taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming once a week. That way we will get to enjoy the freedom in homeschooling and still satisfy my need for order.