I've been telling those who bother to ask what we've been up to that we've been on vacation for the longest time, since January, and our school year starts on September. And that's for our 1st official year of homeschooling. Come to think of it, since homeschooling is not just going-to-school-only-it's-done-at-home, but more of a lifestyle, really, homeschooler's don't really go on vacation mode. I've just realized that we're not really on vacation but just on the more unstructured extreme of homeschooling-- UNSCHOOLING! We've taken a break from M1's textbooks, all those phonics, math, and writing. But we continue to read. Everyday books lie around, they scan pages, fascinated by the pictures. At times they ask me to read, at times they don't. They open story books and encyclopedias. And of course, they learn from their play, from building blocks to pretend play. They learn from the things around them. Last week, they swam with whale sharks. When we got home we read on whale sharks, and other sharks. We sometimes watch video clips of wild animals. They're fans of the blue whale. The other day, we again went to the beach. M2 insisted we take home some sea water so he can conduct an experiment: he wanted to see what will happen if we mix the sea water with oil. Imagination flourish. Today, they had their art moment (without any cue from me).
From the book, I'm reading, it says, trust that the kids are learning. I believe they are. It's like knowing kids are growing and getting taller each day, you can't tell that everyday, but when you take their measurements, there's no denying that they've grown. I'm not sure about M2, but M1 sure got my introversion, but engage them in a talk, you'll be amazed by the knowledge they've amassed at their age.
Meanwhile, I'm still in the middle of the book. It gives me comfort in times when I can't sit down and be like the ideal homeschool moms blogging about their creative homeschools, that for our family we're doing just fine.
