Amida’s Biggest Homeschooling Mistake: Saving Projects for a Rainy Day

by on October 7, 2011
in a mom's education · 30 Comments

Written by contributor Amida of Journey into Unschooling

I used to be a hoarder, stashing away all sorts of goodies for a rainy day. Sometimes, these were fabulous books I had found that I wanted to look over with the kids. I’d read them (in private) and put them away for that perfect time to share. Or I’d acquire some new art supplies, and then store them away for that next great project.

Other times, they were more ordinary things such as math manipulatives or even interesting paper. A big component of my secret collection were the science kits for every subject imaginable, from owl pellets to solar models, carefully hidden away in the garage.

Unfortunately, the rain never came and my wonderful resources just collected dust. Sometimes the perfect opportunity presented itself but I either couldn’t find the time to share the item, forgot where I had stored it, or worse, forgot it even existed.
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First Day of School

by on August 31, 2011
in a mom's education · 23 Comments

Written by contributer Amida of Journey Into Unschooling

By now, a lot of you have probably started school again. If you took the summer easy like we did, you might have found it a little difficult to jump start the ol’ school bus. Sure, we knew the day was approaching but even so, it caught us off guard and totally unprepared.

I wasn’t the only one. One friend decided to postpone the first day all together, starting next week instead, and the others downright ignored it. Between bites of my sourdough toast and sips of coffee, I decided to jump right in.

While the kids finished up breakfast, I announced our plan for the day and did a quick mental list of what I wanted them to tackle this morning.

Our day went something like this:
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Moms Just Wanna Have Fun

by on July 20, 2011
in a mom's education · 17 Comments

Written by contributor Amida of Journey into Unschooling.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

Some days, we don’t do any school-related work at all.

These aren’t planned in advanced and they aren’t penciled in on the calendar. These days are brought on by my own inspirations and happen as spontaneous as those thunderstorms in the middle of summer. I can feel it creeping up on me, just not sure when it will hit.

Maybe I’ve been leafing through some really cool craft books, or surfing a little too late into the night, and something pops out at me that I just have to make. Then out comes the sewing machine, cutting board, and the kitchen table becomes sewing central.
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Making Summer Goals

by on June 10, 2011
in a mom's education · 15 Comments

Written by contributor Amida of Journey into Unschooling

It’s the last day of school for us, which brings us relief and freedom from the shackles of “required learning,” materials we need to cover to satisfy the school requirements. But what to do with the two-three months ahead?

Usually we have a somewhat relaxed homeschool during the summer, continued learning, but at a much easier pace, with a lot more outdoor activities and playtime thrown in.  I don’t want them to go completely cold turkey on schoolwork because that would make August that much harder.

At the same time we could all use a break, so this year, I’ve asked the kids to come up with a few summer goals of their own — what they would like to accomplish schoolwise and otherwise?
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Don’t Know Much About History Resources (2011 Curriculum Fair)

by on May 6, 2011
in curriculum · 19 Comments

Written by Simple Homeschool contributor Amida of Journey Into Unschooling

Ages of my children: 12, 9, 4, and 5 months
Educational Philosophies I Pull From: Unschooling, Eclectic

History was never my strong point. I blame it on all the instructors who pretty much killed the subject for me, like elementary school teachers who had us read and respond to the social studies textbook questions without a single explanation on how it related to the rest of world chronology.

Plus the grad-school student-teacher who had us studying Machiavelli’s The Prince for a whole semester in high school because that was her dissertation work. And although she was totally enamored with the subject, it just didn’t rub off on me.

Thankfully, there were two teachers who did bring some light into those Dark Ages, and both had one thing in common — they told stories and they told them with enthusiasm.

On days when we probably should have been reviewing declensions, our Latin teacher, egged on by students who knew his weakness, would spend the entire period telling us stories from Roman history.

Another instructor acted as our tour guide to all the must see Wonders of the World — from Pyramids to the Taj Mahal, he shared with us the stories behind all these architectural marvels as we zipped through different time periods in history.
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