Science and History
Reading, writing and arithmetic are easy at our house. They are such an every day part of our lives that Froggy is learning all she needs to and more without any great effort on our part.
Science and History are not so easy. I love science and love sharing it with Froggy. She knows lots of neat things, things I know I did not know at her age. Some of her favorite books are the Magic School Bus series. We talk about everything we see and do and explore. Yet there is no rhyme or reason to our explorations. The scientist part of my brain says how do you know that you are providing the full spectrum of desired information if you have no plan while the unschooler part of my brain says the best way to learn is living and following your interests and fooy on plans and checklists.
I think as far as science goes I may eventually have to make a list of things I want her to know / experience by X time and then just check them off as we reach them in our own unschooly fashion.
History is an even bigger mess. I hate history and see essentially no point in learning it as a formal subject. My feelings on the subject are you can't help but absorb some by living and thats all you will ever need. Clearly most people disagree with that. Luckily we live near DC and there are tons of fun living ways to explore history that happen without teaching. As well, my husband is a big history enthusiast and believes it is very important. So while I know that is the area Froggy is being exposed to the least, I also know despite my own prejudices Froggy will eventually get enough to hold her own in an educated society.
I will say that Geography is different. I feel Geography is very important and we spend lots of time learning Geography at the slightest opportunity. We have to huge maps up in our family room, one of the US and a Decater map of the world. We show famiy and friends travels on the map plus all the neat places we visit though books.
Science and History are not so easy. I love science and love sharing it with Froggy. She knows lots of neat things, things I know I did not know at her age. Some of her favorite books are the Magic School Bus series. We talk about everything we see and do and explore. Yet there is no rhyme or reason to our explorations. The scientist part of my brain says how do you know that you are providing the full spectrum of desired information if you have no plan while the unschooler part of my brain says the best way to learn is living and following your interests and fooy on plans and checklists.
I think as far as science goes I may eventually have to make a list of things I want her to know / experience by X time and then just check them off as we reach them in our own unschooly fashion.
History is an even bigger mess. I hate history and see essentially no point in learning it as a formal subject. My feelings on the subject are you can't help but absorb some by living and thats all you will ever need. Clearly most people disagree with that. Luckily we live near DC and there are tons of fun living ways to explore history that happen without teaching. As well, my husband is a big history enthusiast and believes it is very important. So while I know that is the area Froggy is being exposed to the least, I also know despite my own prejudices Froggy will eventually get enough to hold her own in an educated society.
I will say that Geography is different. I feel Geography is very important and we spend lots of time learning Geography at the slightest opportunity. We have to huge maps up in our family room, one of the US and a Decater map of the world. We show famiy and friends travels on the map plus all the neat places we visit though books.
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