After an extended blog break (mama's need a break from all things periodically), we're moving on in our four-part series, A Month of Christmas, we visited Italy in the second week! It was by far, much more fun than the Mexican Christmas. Maybe because we had a more open week, or perhaps because Italy just has… Continue reading A Month of Christmas Week Two: Christmas in Italy
Throughout November we learned everything we would ever need to know about Mexico. As December approached I was excited by the idea that we could do a Mexican style Christmas in the first week to kinda finish up on what we had been working on in our Mexico study. Hayden suggested that we should learn… Continue reading A Month of Christmas Week One: Mexico!
I was in a Mom Mood today... Mamas, you know what I'm talking about. We had what I would classify a "bad" trip to the grocery store, which is kinda silly. Nothing was knocked over or forgotten. No one ran away or hid in a clothing rack. For the most part, they held on to the cart and participated in getting the things we needed, and no one asked to buy anything they didn't have money for in their pockets. They were all just a little hyped up and full of energy, while I was utterly drained.
There are many lessons I've learned from the Holmans in the time I've spent with them, and I hope I learn much more. If you've yet to meet the Holman family, check out Sarah's new book, There was Always Laughter in Our House, which is now available for pre-order until November 24th. It's not the same as in-person, but it's close.
Here are three ways we incorporate structure into our unschooling family:
So, that's the past two weeks in about 1,000 words and 20 pictures... give or take a few. Is that all, you ask? 😉
If you keep up with our Insta at all, you'd have seen the (almost) daily updates of how A Week of Yes went for us. I actually didn't think that we would notice much of a difference since we already are kinda "free" (except things like manners, chores and such) so I was interested to see how often I actually said no.
This weekend we celebrated our sweet Lylahs 6th birthday. In our house, this is a milestone birthday. One that means we start working actively towards reading. This is new territory for me because with Hayden and Ella we were using a boxed curriculum or had certain goals we were trying to reach at six, that as unschoolere, are pretty much non-existent. The good I can see clearly in the murky, unknown waters is that Lylah is ready to jump into reading, so following a self-led approach will easy, and a gentle introduction for me into the self-paced, unscholong world of reading. I feel like math and science are so easily obtained organically, and reading is something that needs to be worked at, so, while I have solid feelings on unschooling as our path, I question whether I can actually do as I intend as far as reading is concerned. We celebrated Lylah with family and friends at our house with a simple party with snacks, cake, NO games, and a BEAUTIFUL fall (Texas Fall) day. Lylah is unique and always allows her difference to shine through, so it was only right that she had a unicorn party! My talented mama made an awesome cake, and Lylah wore her super magical dress with, what she called, glitter hair. (We put glitter in the past of her pig-tails. The beginning of this month not only marked lylahs birthday, but it also brought a new extra curricular into our lives: GIRL SCOUTS! We love our troop (and hope the love us) and I'm so glad we found them. They're all homeschoolers and close to the girls age. It was a great opportunity I'm glad we didn't miss. We're running full speed right now with Scouts, homeschool group, and church, cut it's a wonderful and welcome type of busy that's appreciated after a summer of being home trying to become grounded in our new child-led style and exploring the true meaning of unschooling. What has your family been up to?
Have you ever heard elementary aged children discuss God? It's humbling, sweet, and hard to keep up with. They'll go from talking about their love for Christ to sharing something gross they did at school
When we first started out, homeschooling was my hobby. I was still shopping curriculums, reading homeschooling book after book, trying new approaches and figuring out what approach to schooling worked for our family. I didn't have time for a Mom Hobby, but I slowly got to a point (about the same time we started unschooling) that I felt run down by homeschooling
