Adventures in Home(un)schooling

Day One

So here we are again, faced with the choice of how to educate Thing 3.  I have a hard time saying that we're homeschooling. The word conjures visions, at least for me, of vigilante style activists who are anti-public school, anti-gubbmit,  anti-everything.  That's not us.  I LOVE public school.  My boys all were treated well there and had lots of opportunities to learn many different and useful skills.  I have also, in the past, liked private school.  I appreciated the memory work and the daily devotions and what I thought was a balanced, law-and-gospel style approach.  Well that last plan was an epic fail when it comes to Thing 3. Seems like the going approach is a little more law than gospel and tolerance for kids who don't toe the line is at an all-time low. This boy is so ding-dang smart that he gets really bored in public school and, well, here we are.

Seems like there's as many different styles of homeschooling as there are homeschoolers.  If I had to name the approach I'm taking, unschooling would come closest. I am sooooo anti-worksheets.  I mean, yeah -- they have their place and purpose. But if the kid can show me he's got it with only answering a couple questions, then I think I can just move on. No need to beat the boy over the head with it.  I also like the idea of learning from the world -- helping with laundry, cooking, and hauling wood are some tasks that taught me a lot more about life than phonics worksheets ever could.

Since we didn't exactly plan to do this again, I haven't stockpiled ideas and plans to go on like I did last year.  Maybe that's best. Shoot from the hip and go with the flow probably works better for this kid than anything. Today we learned Spanish. I started the same way I learned -- with the alphabet. I figured we'd get maybe 10 letters done and he'd be ready to move on to the next thing. Nope. We had to do the whole alphabet. I gotta tell ya -- the kid has a really good accent, too!  Now his papa is finishing up reading The Hunger Games to him. The boy has really enjoyed that book. In fact, he even kept reading one night for a whole chapter all on his own. I found a neat printable online that compares the kinds of foods eaten in District 12 with those of The Capital.  Later,  we'll watch the movie again. I'm excited to see what he picks up on for differences.  Oh yeah -- and we made his bed.  That'll do for day one. We'll see what comes up on day two.