Today concludes my week-in-the-life-of-an-unschooling family blog series, but of course our whole family learning continues. There are no calendar starts and stops here.
This week has been really fun, sharing snapshots of the minutiae of our days. Maybe you saw some of your own unschooling rhythms in these posts, or maybe you have more clarity on that common question: "But what do you do all day?" Maybe you have more assurance that this is a lifestyle you could embrace and enjoy. And maybe you see how, for our family, learning and living are constant and inseparable. There are no silos in our week. Learning is not something that happens only at certain times, in certain places, with certain people. There are no "subjects" to cover in certain ways. There is no curriculum: no top-down, artificially-contrived framework dictating what humans should know and when. We learn and live naturally, authentically, following both family and child interests and in alignment with our values. Mainly, our values are centered around the treasured triad of family, community, and the natural world. I hope that was reflected in this week's posts.
We spent most of today at the Boston Museum of Science, where a local homeschool dad was kind enough to organize a homeschool group field trip to see the Lewis and Clark Imax show. This particular film is only available to museum "school" groups, so it was a treat to be able to join other area homeschoolers for this event. Brian took the three older ones to the film, while my two-year-old and I explored the museum. As the day wore on and my littlest got sleepy, he and I walked home for a nap while Brian and the older kids spent several more hours at the museum.
When the crew arrived home mid-afternoon, everyone was beat from a busy day. We made dinner, read books, played, and my oldest worked on creating a knitted headband with Ireland's colors for tomorrow's "World Cup" homeschool soccer game. Also tomorrow, we're all heading down the road to MIT for a Chemistry Magic Show for homeschoolers. An MIT Chemistry professor, who was homeschooled his whole life, reached out to me a year ago saying that he wanted to offer some free programming and internship opportunities specifically for local homeschoolers. He wanted to know if there would be any interest. For tomorrow's program he got 300 RSVPs in just a couple of hours. I would say that's interest!
It's a great time to be a homeschooler, friends! And an even better time to be an unschooler. I look forward to sharing more with you about our unschooled life in the days to come. Thanks for following along!
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Lovely, Kerry. At the risk of sounding like a broken record... it'd be great if you could share a little more about the social piece of your unschooling. Do your kids mostly see friends at events like you mention here, or do they have playdates as well? Are get-togethers with friends planned well in advance, or spontaneous, or both? Do you mostly socialize as a unit, or do your kids have one on one time with their buddies?
ReplyDeleteHi Amy, hopefully it was clear from this week's series when and how we're interacting with others! From homeschool park days, to gatherings with friends (homeschoolers and non) to classes and field trips and afternoon play with the neighborhood kids, the challenge sometimes is to make sure there are enough moments of quiet among all the socializing! :)
ReplyDeleteThis has been so fun to follow along with your week! Homeschoolers (especially unschoolers) often say, "There is no typical day," and it is easy to see that in the flow of learning, making, doing, and going of your days here. I especially love to see how your connections to your community fuel your family's learning. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Heather! It was really fun writing this series this week. Thanks for following along! ~Kerry
DeleteThank you for sharing your days with us, Kerry! It's so interesting and inspiring. I have a question regarding parental involvement; it's so fantastic than both you and your husband are able to be present - daily- in your children's lives and their learning & I know that this is partly due to your husband unjobbing at the moment- does this mean he's working from home? How has this affected your children- has having him around more resulted in any significant changes? Will he do this on a permanent basis? (You don't need to answer that if it's too personal!) My husband works fairly long hours with quite a long commute (we're in London) & we're currently reassessing what works for our family (we have 2 daughters who are home educated). I'm struggling to see how we'd manage to survive (financially) with both of us at home. But, equally, seeing more of him feels like a necessity. I think whole family learning is fantastic & your children are clearly thriving. Thanks again for sharing with us :-)
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