The Hatch School Diaries - Entry Four

Unschooling.  Yep.  Unschooling.

When we first started this whole homeschooling journey I thought unschooling sounded a bit too hippy.  My inner dialogue sounded a lot like....

"Let the children lead the learning.  You've lost your mind.  Seriously.

All they'll do all day is play on their Nook or watch you tube videos. 

Or play the Wii. 

Unschooling.  You've truly lost your mind."

And up until Christmas we shot ourselves out of a cannon and finished a reasonable amount of math and history for an entire school year in a mere four months.  That's while also keeping up with our reading, language arts, and science.  And travel soccer.  And church.  And.....And.....

How awesome are we?!?

Yep.  So Christmas has come.  And gone.  School is back in.  And we are incredibly unmotivated.

Over the past four months I pushed way too hard at first and then eased off to what felt acceptable.  It was that first two months that we accomplished way more than necessary before I realized it was too much.  And I relaxed.  Now, I am questioning the schedule.  Why do we need to get three point four math lessons in each week until April?  If we finish early, what do we do next?  Start next year early, and keep up the crazy?

What would happen if I let them explore?  Not laze about....but pursue interests.

They jumped at it.  Of course. 

And so the unschooling experiment is started.  I have given them this week to try it. 

Here's the funny thing.  Today, I had way more stuff to get done than time, and the youngest cried.  That we didn't make time enough to watch about Alexander the Great and he has to wait until tomorrow.  That he didn't get to learn more.  That caused tears.  Seriously.  Can you imagine?