Both of my kids will be officially middle school aged this year. E starts sixth grade, while B enters eighth. Of course, those numbers don’t mean much to us as homeschoolers, but we do keep loose track, since on occasion someone will ask what grade they are in (we usually have to think hard to remember!).
With these older grades comes a certain amount of concern. Are they learning what they need? Are we covering the things we must? Will they eventually be able to get into college? We have for the most part been very unschoolish over the course of the past nine years, but as the kids age, I vacillate between letting them follow their interests and feeling like I must make sure that all of the bases are covered. This is by far the thing that I find hardest about homeschooling – striking that balance between how they best learn and giving them what they need for future education endeavors, whatever they may be.
Couple my constant waffling with B expressing an interest in more structure, and I’ve hit a little bit of homeschooling trauma. How do I get more organized? How do I offer structure, but still give the boys the freedom they need to explore? So, today we sat down and discussed a plan, and it seems like we’ve landed on something that will work for everyone.
Each week, they will get a folder of things that need to be accomplished. Not very unschoolish sounding, but remember, this is something they asked for so I feel like being structured is what they need right now, and recognizing their needs is an important part of unschooling. So, it really is unschooling. Follow me?
They will have the week to complete their usual math assignments, choose two science projects from their hands-on science books, write a book report about any one book they’ve read that week, and either write a letter to someone or a blog post. These are all things that can be accomplished without much help from me, so they are pretty much in charge of getting these things done.
Lastly, we’ll begin looking at American history. Ancient history has intrigued them forever, but they are just starting to realize that there is some pretty interesting stuff in our own country’s history. I told them I’d like them to start by reading Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbone. Then we’ll roll into colonial America, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
Hopefully, this plan will last for more than a few weeks!
I’ll post about this later.
July 28, 2006 @ 1:57 am
I totally follow you with the unschooling thing. I don’t think unschooling is a specific way to learn, i.e. all things must be learned in an organic way. I think unschooling is when the child is allowed to own their education and that means if they feel a need for structure you go for it! To me it would NOT be unschooling if you ignored your children’s requests and needs and forced them to learn everything “naturally.”
Blessings,
Faith