Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Why is homeschooling ideal in terms of flexibility?

Today was a quieter homeschool day for us.  In accordance with my goals we still did just a little bit of reading, a little bit of writing, and a little bit of math, (more math than anything else because that's what R seems to prefer right now.)  Other than that we mostly just played, went to the library, and had friends over.  It was a nice break, a needed "day off."

This is one of the things that I absolutely LOVE about homeschooling.  I love that it follows my schedule instead of all the pressure that can come with having to follow the school system's schedule.  I love the flexibility.  I love that when baby brother is born in a few months, I'll be able to take a full month off in the middle of winter without any guilt or negative consequences.  This is possible in part because R and C are still so young, but also because we do school six days a week year round.  We don't take regular breaks on weekends and over summers.  Why would we, when homeschool is almost as natural as breathing?

Even on days like today when I feel like I've taken a break, (mainly because there was far less intentional teaching done on my part,) we still had our gospel lesson over breakfast and multiple conversations about informative things in addition to our reading, writing, and math.  We talked about what cemeteries are, what gills are for, and how the sun helps plants to grow.   We also covered issues such as sharing, taking care of our bodies, and not watching too much TV.  And this was on an off day!  :D

I guess you could say that my "off days" are just days when we slip into more of an unschooling methodology for a bit.  The unschooling theory is essentially that life will naturally lead you to the things you need know.  Now, I don't subscribe to this method entirely, but it certainly has it's merits.  I believe in child-led learning to a point.  I believe that my girls will retain those things that they are interested and completely invested in better than those things that are forced upon them.  Accordingly, I try to take full advantage of their curiosity and passions.  But, in addition, I feel it absolutely necessary for some things to be introduced into their line-of-sight which will hopefully lead them to show interest in a greater variety and depth of topics.

Today was an unschooling day for us though, and it worked.  I feel like both R and C got the attention they needed along with plenty of intellectual stimulation.  Any day that we don't spend glued to screens for eight hours or more counts as a success in my book.  ;)