Unschooling?
We had a bad week for getting Calvert School done. However, Joss did some sort of math and reading every day of her own accord. On her own she counted all her money by grouping the different coins, counting them and making a table. She was able to total the pennies, dimes and nickels by counting by 1s, 5s and 10s. She then counted the quarters by grouping them into dollars. I helped her add all the numbers as she has not yet learned how to add such big numbers, doesn't know carrying, etc, but I showed all my work and talked about what I was doing as I did it. Today we went to the garden store whose "guess the pumpkin's weight" contest we had entered to find out how much the pumpkin had weighed. It weighed 95# and they were also able to tell us that the winner had guessed exactly 95, Joss was soo disappointed cuz she thought her guess of 100# would win for sure. On the way home she figured out on her own what the difference between her answer and the right answer was and the difference between mine (120#) and the right answer was.
Those are just a couple examples, but lately it seems like it is super easy to work math into everyday life. I would also like to find a couple fun computer math games.
She is doing more reading all the time, and amazing me with the words she knows. Not that she doesn't get frustrated and she is still a beginning reader, but her confidence is very good and her desire to read is strong. One benefit to less "school" is we also have more time for reading aloud.
When we were at the Gibbs farm I bought a book about the early life of the the Gibbs matriarch. It is fascinating, and Joss loves it as much as I do so we are really having a great time reading it together. I would like to read the book through together once, then along with Joss plan some field trips and activities and go through the book again in the spring.
Zeff has also been setting himself some rather school-y tasks - like lining up and counting our library books and "sounding out" the Kerry and Bush (thankfully, few) signs in our neighborhood. He also made the funny comment today as we entered the corner store, "They're not going to vote for John Kerry, they're just a store" Anyway, he is such a stitch and it is shocking how even a 3.5 yr old can pick up so much about an election!
ANYWAY: I keep coming back to this unschooling thing. I have this really sensible plan of doing the Calvert school to be sure we're covering the basics and unschool the rest of the time, but... I have totally noticed how much more creative and self-directed Joss can be after we haven't done school for a while (like this week - we got 1 LESSON done and that was on Monday!). She really is so much more willing to problem solve and sound out, etc when it is towards the goal of her own choosing than when it is assigned and I am leading her through it. So we can't I decide this before dropping the big$$$$ on the expen$ive curriculum???? I am really not at all sure I could unschool. My stomach literally hurts just thinking about it, but I find myself always thinking and wondering about it and coming back to it and seeing how it COULD totally work but can I really take that chance with my child's education? Anyway - no answers or plans her, just befuddled musings.
I should get to bed - my car is completely screwed up AGAIN and we still don't know what's wrong with it, but we have to get to ballet in the AM somehow so I have to get up early and figure that out!