How long did it take for you and your kids to get settled on a right method for homeschooling? Did you start out with a curriculum and switch to unschooling? Did you start out unschooling and decide you needed more structure? I'm asking because we just started this week and I have already had to make MAJOR adjustments. My plan was to do unit studies. HA! I let DD pick the unit. She chose dinosaurs (surprise, surpise), so I print off a couple of dinosaur worksheets. It was like pulling teeth to get her to complete one worksheet!!! She hated it! She didn't even want to watch movies about dinosaurs. Any other time, she loves those movies, but when I tried to TELL her to watch them, she didn't "feel like it". That was Monday. Since then, my unit study plan has gone out the window and my new, improved unschooling plan just arrived. We've had a blast and learned a heck of a lot of stuff.....not just dinosaur stuff. And it hasn't been an arguement every hour about "doing school". I was just curious if other parents had great plans for homeschooling and then had to change everything because it didn't suit your child's needs.
I started out that way too, wanted to do serious unut studies but I work from home, have spent the last two months moving to a new place, and ds is only two. And for some reason he totally balked at the letter c- just wasn't interested. So, intead we have just been doing stuff, lots of activities, a couple of museums, and some waldorf inspired projects. Maybe in a month or so when all the stuff is unpacked at the new place I will hit the units again, until then we are sort of learning through play. H
Yeah, Blackie, I know what you mean.......I thought lesson plans, unit studies, all that jazz, was the way to go because that was what I read about while doing my research for homeschool. Come to find out, my daughter didn't care what I'd researched, and had a different plan in mind. I have read one book on unschooling, but at that time I wasn't planning on unschooling so I think I read through it pretty quickly and missed a lot of good info. I need to head back to the library and read more now that our plans have changed.
My daughter went to public school for a few years so when we switched back to home educating there was a sort of "deschooling" period where she just needed a break, and then we tried unschooling. Right now we have a more structured approach where she spends 2 or 3 hours each day doing work with me as a teacher. She does Saxon math,we have vocabulary words and a geography curriculum and that sort of stuff. I found the better organized I am the better it works for her. But everybody is different and you have to find the style that works for your child and you together. also my dd is 11,yours might be younger. It took that first year to get to where I really knew how she learned best and how to provide the best educational experience.
