Sometimes I struggle with what to tell the kids about homeschooling. I don't want them ever to think they are better than others who aren't homeschooled. However, I do want them to be aware of and appreciate the different opportunities we have as homeschoolers. Today we spent some time talking about "school" and "learning" and how we don't necessarily have to be sitting in our living room or at our desks "having school" to be learning something - I want them to understand that learning is a constant thing and that what we learn "during schooltime" isn't anymore important than what we might learn while at the store or in the backyard or visiting friends. I'm considering stopping using the "school time" reference. Although we generally have different times we gather together in any given day to do something that might be considered "schooly", I don't want that to take away from something they might learn while rolling around in the grass outside. Structured gathering times have their place, I think, but I don't want them to think its the only time we learn anything worth knowing.
Today I told the boys one of the very cool things about homeschool is that we have a lot more flexibility in what we learn and how we learn it (whereas in the "big school" they tell you what to learn when. So we did an art project type thing (the boys love art) where, long story short, they had to think of five different things they want to learn more about this coming school year. Of course we can learn about way more things, but I thought it would be cool to get a feel for what they are thirsty for.
Iggy's list:
Monster trucks
Hot rods
Animals
Boats
Building with wood
Ooky's list:
Monster trucks
Hot rods
unicorns
The Edison Museum
more gymnastics
Tomorrow we have a "Not Back to Public School Party" to attend for a homeschooling group we belong to. There may possibly be a library trip worked in as well. Another busy day that I'm sure I will learn just as many new things as my kids. (I should really make a list of the things I have learned since starting this homeschool journey...)
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1 comment:
I inadvertently chose the same background as you!! I didn't even realize...must be the patented background for calm musings about homeschooling...lol.
Good for you for taking the long view with keeping the boys thinking positively about all "schools". We made the mistake of creating fear in Fuchsia of public school and it's something I wish I could take back because it's really an unfair blanket fear.
I like the idea of sort of polling the kids about what things they really want to learn more about and limiting the list to 5 is great because I think they can get overloaded when they have to think of more than that.
Great job mom!
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