Eclectic-unschooling for 2021-2022

This new homeschool year deserves to be more joyful. Why? Because my children deserve it. My family deserves it. There is enough challenges in the times already.  Our home is our cocoon of safety, peace, joy, and love. And so will it be with our homeschool.  How will this year be different with the previous years? We're heading full on with our Morning Time, and we'll be more of the eclectic-unschooling type, more-interest-led, and project-based.

For my own "professional development", and to help me navigate, I got hold of books specific for the journey:

• Better Together: Strengthen your family, simplify your homeschool, and savor the subjects that matter most (Pam Barnhill) - a Morning Time guide.
• Homeschooling with Gentleness: A Catholic discovers Unschooling (Suzie Andres)
• A Little Way of Homeschooling: Thirteen families discover Catholic Unschooling (Suzie Andres)
• Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring self-directed learners (Lori Pickert)

I usually just register for the free access of homeschool conventions, but this year I purchased passes (I can do this every, or every other, year) for two homeschool conventions ("paid account" had me really tuning in):

• Catholic Homeschool Conventions 2021 (I love that it gives me a lifetime access to the incredible talks!)
• Connect Homeschool and Intentional Parenting Summit 2021: Thrive at Home

 

Here's how our days are going to look like:

Morning Time starts at the breakfast table with Catholic Sprouts Podcast, and daily newsrounds from CNN 10, and/or Children's BBC Newsround.  Call to prayer with a hymn (it has been Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah), this allows the kid to transition from what they're doing to our main Morning Time. We pray the Rosary from Mon. to Thurs., Divine Mercy Chaplet on Fri., and St. Michael Chaplet on Sat. followed by the Gospel for the Day. 

For our Morning Time lessons, I use pre-made plans I bought from Pam Barnhill's Your Morning Basket (less planning for me).  And add some more materials that I want to cover (more planning for me) that includes Religion, Virtues, Classic literature, picture books, Filipino tales, and leadership.  

Project-based-wise, I let the older brothers pursue their own interests.  I had them plan their own schedule, and subjects they want included-- Religion (Faith & Life 7), Math (Sir Cumference seris, , Science, History, Literature, and  Writing. They also get to choose the topics they want to read.  No workbooks or assignments.  

For the first grader, we're doing Phonics, Handwriting, & Spelling using programs from Catholic Heritage Curricula.  We did not finish Math-U-See Primer last year, so we continue to work on the 2nd half of the book, afterwhich, we'll use picture books from the Five in a Row booklist & lesson guides along with subjects that include Science, Social Study, and Arts. Five in Row is a multi-level, literature-based unit study program.  For Religion, we are using Faith and Life 1 (she works on the activity book enthusiastically, as with most of her materials).

As for the four-year old, he unschools, along with the goal of reading to him 4 books in a day. He's also tuned in for our Morning Time.  And the 18 month old, she's a budding bookworm.  She loved to be read to, like the rest of them did (and still do).   

With the pandemic still raging on, our mental health priority takes a front seat.  It reminds us to re-think what should matter in our homeschooling, in our home-- our relationships, everyone's health and safety, our sense of peace, joy, and a full love tank.  The academics, they can be had at a more relaxed pace, with a more simplified content, because no one's really "left behind". Trust that learning happens naturally.  There are graces that God pours in this season, and the important thing is to open up a room for that.

 

The year of the pandemic

 This should have been posted before school started, but here we are on our 3rd trimester.  Just for documentation:  I've added two things to help manage our homeschooling life. 

1) An organizer system. Made a box each for M1, M2, an J3 (unschooled last year, but now had to do a more formal Kindergarten) where they obviously keep their books and notebooks.  A space of their own, pretty simple.  Things still get lost, and pens vanish in thin air, but there's some improvement-- the boxes continue to be in use. 

2) I just want to keep the kids together, and spend time with all of them before they go work independently, hence, the "morning time".  We start with praying the Rosary (Mon to Thurs)/ Divine Mercy chaplet on Fridays/ St. Michael chaplet on Saturdays, and almost daily read up a Saint story. Then depending on the day, we read stories on virtue/character, Bible study, poetry, Filipino stories, classic literature, or do picture study. This morning time thing is specially helpful with a infant, and her ever changing needs as she reaches different stages and milestones. It has been like a... lighthouse. 

The rest of the "study time", the boys work independently on their Math/Science/Literature/Writing/Social Studies/Religion... depending on the day. Electives are Art, Music, Genius hour (where they pursue whatever interests them).

Writing has, and continues to be an area of struggle for the boys, especially M1, so I've invested on IEW. So like most of the world during the pandemic, they are also doing their learning by video streaming.  They're in fashion like that. (Seriously, though, I would highly recommend to most parents to explore homeschooling as there is such a huge difference from online/distance learning, where, as I understand, kids spend hours and hours staring at the screen.  If sitting in a class can be hard enough, how much more in that kind of set-up? Makes me wonder how much learning is really happening for most of the students?)

The boys are now also using Google and YouTube for their research.  Layers of filters in place, and enforcement of screentime.  Also subscribed to Epic!  With more kids reading, an ebook subscription platform can come in handy, and is cheaper. It's a techie-er year.  

Okay, it all seems like it's regular schedule.  It has been a blessing that we do not have to suffer such drastic change, school-wise, when the pandemic reached our shores.   But we do miss traveling-- visiting relatives, seeing other places, field trips, moving around in the city, and the kids miss their friends from the neighborhood, too.  I'm thankful for the wide open spaces in the village, and the 5 of them having each other for playmates.  It lightens the burden the of living through a pandemic.  If there's anything that we have to learn, it's to focus our energies on things that matter-- relationship, building up ourselves to be good people, and matters of faith and all things eternal.

 Our academic year ended three weeks ago after what felt like another year of drudgery. In fairness, within the year I got pregnant for the 5th time and during which, we tried to cover our curricula as much as we can so that we do not lag behind schedule as I expect to really slow down once the baby was born. Also, the boys did most of the work independently, but not before the was hormonal momma barked orders around. 

Some of the gems we found, and progress we made: thevirtualinstructor.com for art skills, Sitting Like a Saint by Greg Gotta do (a book on Catholic mindfulness for kids), Learning How to Learn course at Coursera, kayaking for M1, J3 unschooling herself and now she is [formal] Kindergarten-ready, rosary in Latin in the mornings, unsupervised use of power tools for M1, M2 progressing with violin lessons, M1 and M2 interest-led crafts (tiny robots, carton & styrofoam  battletanks & battleships in 3D, J4 potty-trained (at last!).

Yes, this time will be remembered in history as the year when the corona virus hit the world and had it on its knees. Friends said the kids were lucky because they were already homeschooling (indeed, in terms of education, we didn't have to fumble in the dark). But the thought that you couldn't go out felt like prison. The kids missed playing outside, and interacting with their friends in the neighborhood was severely restricted. So, for a time, for the sake of their mental health I let them out, with the constant reminder to do the precautions against Covid-19... physical distance of 1 meter between friends, wearing of mask, and hand washing. They play in the rain, and the mud with every rainfall. Every hug I get from them I cherish.