We are what many people call unschoolers, but I don't really like the term. I don't like to define us by what we don't do. So I prefer to call us life learners. That is a better word, I think, because it describes what we do exactly. We learn by living life. Learning time is not separated from other times. We all decide what we want to learn about and what we want to do and then we do it. We also learn from the daily tasks that we do to keep our home running and from our play. I learn this way too, but I know people are mostly interested in how this works for kids, so I will tell you what we did in the past 24 hours, focusing on Livy.
Yesterday evening, we went over to Rational Jenn's house for a cookout. Livy played for hours and hours with her friends. An adult friend at the party read some books to Livy and to Morgan. I know for sure that they practiced drawing from a how-to book and they used some magnetic dolls to make a princess dance, but other than that I have no idea what they did. I am absolutely certain they were learning, as well as having fun. I also had a great time and learned from my friends (the great joy of having rational intelligent companions).
Last night, after I put Livy to bed, I did some French Rosetta Stone.
This morning, I gave Livy the gifts I got her in Washington, D.C.: a Dr. Seuss book about space, a book about the sites in D.C., and a kit to make a model solar system that I got from the Air and Space Museum. We read the books immediately (talking a ton about the trip and what Aaron and I saw and did).
Then, Livy and I ate at Chick-Fil-A and went to the grocery store. She helped me shop, unload the car, and put the groceries away.
I did some housework and listened to Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery. Livy watched The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on the computer.
We went to story time at the library. While I chose books for us that I knew Livy would like (space and fairy tales) and books I wanted to read (prehistoric people and The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler), Livy listened to a story about a dancing hippo, saw a puppet show of the lion and the mouse tale from Aesop, and made a mouse puppet and a mask. When we got home, she hunted through the bag of books and chose the prehistoric people book. We read it.
Right now, she is painting her model planets, using a library book as a guide for colors.
Really, this is a pretty typical day for us, when we are in the staying home mood.
7/6/09
