BACK TO SCHOOL

Here we are, one month into our homeschool year and once again I realize how much I need to re-write my definition of "school".

Over the past few years, observing my children and reflecting on my time in the classroom, I've come to embrace the concept of "learning through life."  The world offers so many incredible opportunities for our children to learn!  I'm always amazed at the skills and concepts my children learn from observing those around them and participating in unique experiences.

Every little thing under the sun -- they notice them all.  They're amazed by the world.

- Julie Bogart, "The Brave Learner"

When we first decided to homeschool, I was excited to plan our days, select our curriculum, and learn alongside my children.  I have always LOVED teaching, and knew I'd LOVE teaching my own children.  But as I began to dive deeper into theories and philosophies of homeschooling, the more I realized, learning is less about checking boxes and more about stoking a fiery passion!  Our children are naturally deeply passionate about so many things, and my role is to fuel that passion as long as it lasts.  To follow the child.

So we've let go of the constraints of a curriculum and opened the world to our children.  We follow their lead and create an environment of learning around their specific interests.  When the boys show interest in a topic, we head to the library and find loads of books on the topic, we get lost down rabbit trails on YouTube related to the topic, we ask more questions and seek out more answers.  Sometimes the interest in a topic lasts for a few hours or maybe a few days, other times it lasts for months...but the kids are always in the drivers seat, I'm just there to offer support and guidance.

Everything can be taught through anything.

- Julie Bogart, "The Brave Learner"

Though I have a rough plan of what I want to expose our children to, more than anything I want them to fall in love with learning, I want them to hunger for more!  Taking time to follow the spark of their interests pays dividends in creating an education that is personal and meaningful to them!

In the spring, my boys became OBSESSED with collecting water.  After asking multiple times to use the hose and being told no, they decided to start collecting rain water. Any time it rained they would run around the house setting up buckets and barrels (plastic cups, old pots, anything they could find!).  Throughout the day they'd go out to check their water collectors, dumping the collected water into another bucket.  Initially I thought it was cute, I mean how creative of them to find an alternative source of water, but after months of the daily obsession and their constant need to check their barrels or being unwilling to leave the house during a storm, I began to get annoyed.  I didn't understand why they cared so much...why they were so passionate...and because of that wanted to shut it down and turn their attention to something else.  But instead I decided to lean into their obsession and fuel their passionate fire, finding creative ways to learn together.

Once we moved to our new house, we created a rain barrel to help them collect more water and give them a place to store the water they collected elsewhere.  We monitor the rain barrel and measure how much water is collected after a rain. Their excitement when it rains is so contagious!  Last month we decided to dive deeper and learn more about water and our world through a prepared science unit from The Good and The Beautiful.  It's been fun for me and they're loving it, especially the experiments!  There are so many ways to learn through passions, we just have to be willing to step outside the box of traditional education!

Other water related activities we've done:
1. Measuring our water collected.
2. Charting the weather.
3. Writing vocabulary words.
4. Drawing the water cycle.
5. Watering plants and watching how they respond.
6. Reading about climate change and how water effects our world.
7. Learning about and visiting Niagara Falls.

It often happens that what really gets learned is different from what the teacher had in mind - an experience both baffling and intriguing. But little can be done about it except to teach for surprise! 

- William Reinsmith, "Ten Fundamental Truths About Learning" 

Homeschooling for us is a lifestyle, not a curriculum.  Learning through life, following the spark, seeking to learn all day every day!  We definitely don't have it all figured out, but that's part of the joy of the journey...getting to learn right alongside my children!

tot school // fall

Fall is by far our favorite time of year around here.

Over the past few weeks we've soaked up the last bits of the warmer weather with lots and lots of nature walks.

We visited the apple orchard earlier in the season, but we've been enjoying loads of apples for weeks and weeks.  We used some of the apples to make some applesauce one afternoon, which he loved!

tot school // the color yellow

The past two weeks we've been fighting an awful cold.  So our time spent on tot school has been very limited.

Caleb really loves playing in rice, so this week we mixed in a bunch of yellow items to explore.

This was our daily activity between extra naps and lots of snuggles.  Caleb has so much fun filling and dumping...usually keeping it all in the tub!

Because he loved the rice so much, we decided to make some fun colored rice for our upcoming "fall" theme.

tot school // the color orange

The past few weeks for tot school we have been exploring the color orange.

Caleb LOVES crayons, so we did a little coloring before a snack time of oranges and carrots!

We also spent a lot of time enjoying the warmer weather searching for orange items like flowers and leaves.

I failed to get a photo of our orange kit from the library, but we read lots of books in addition to adding orange magnets to our magnet board.

tot school // the color red

This year Caleb and I will being doing a super informal tot school.  This year our focus will be on colors, we'll spend about two weeks exploring the "color of the week"!

Here's a little of what we've been up to in our first two weeks of tot school exploring the color red!

We started with a scavenger hunt around the house to collect all the red items we could find.  These items were then used to create Caleb's "red" discovery basket that we keep in his room to explore.

Every morning, we start our day with a little story time after breakfast.  Our library has awesome kits for kids that include loads of books that center around a specific theme, so this week we're exploring the "red" books.  We've found a few new favorites. "Red Truck" and "Big Red Farm"

We recently installed a magnet board (cookie sheet!) and felt board in the kitchen to give Caleb some activities to do while we cook or clean.  This week we used red magnets and I cut out shapes with red felt.  He loved picking up items out of the baskets and putting them on the boards.

Next we tried our hand at a "writing" activity.  Caleb used a red dry erase marker to color the word "red" printed on paper inside a sheet protector.  He loved scribbling, but especially loved making it disappear by wiping the sheet clean!

Our homemade red play dough was a HUGE hit!

As was the red bath paint!

Because we're taking a laid back approach to tot school this year, there is no pressure to "do school" each day.  We're just having fun!!