A Week of Unschool : Episode 2
We had another fun week. It was winter jackets and snow at the beginning and no coat scootering at the end of it. We went to the library and were excited to see they added two ipads to the computer section. The three year old went with me to get the cars and trains for the car and train table and wanted to return them before setting them up after I said ‘huh, oh look, they have ipads like at gramma’s library!’
Introducing Children to the Dark Side
Back in my day it was star wars OR lego. or star wars WITH lego!
she hasn’t seen the movies. he’s seen the ‘making of’ 🙂
dad: make sure you put those pieces together very carefully. don’t use FORCE
5yo: good one, dad
It’s all about Roblox at the moment
So what do you do if your kid discovers computer games and watches computer game videos on youtube?
You fit as much education into that as possible!
It’s Been Super Cold. Out to the Snow Pile!
Sometimes the time it takes you to get the kids dressed up and undressed is longer than the time you were outside playing.
Here are some great ways to maximize their enjoyment while being exposed to some pretty harsh conditions.
Dad, Come See My Swidda!! Introduction to Computers
I’m so glad we found the game called Slither.io, a browser-based game that has helped our three year old start to figure out how to control a computer. I wasn’t trying to find a way to ‘teach her computers’ yet; that’s just what happened. She saw her brother doing it…and well…that’s all she needed.
Making Changes For Fun: Skyscraper Destruction
It turns out the kids LOVE Lego skyscrapers. They play together, (or alone) for hours. They follow common sense Lego rules like if one kid builds and ‘claims’ something, the other kid can play with but not modify or break it. Or not to worry about things falling apart on their watch if they were trying to rebuild something, but to not break something ‘just because’
When One Kid Is Done Exploring and One Isn’t
So clearly I couldn’t leave one kid on the bench on the bike path and continue on another adventure trail into the woods with the other one. So what’s a dad to do?
There’s a whole bunch of sticks to slow him down…send him into the woods (which you know look a whole lot bigger to him)
This was an exciting opportunity for me to just send him off to be alone on his own. (I could always hear him and could see him from time to time)
But if you look in the video, you can see
Better Than Travelling Around In A Rollercoaster? A Roof After Being On It.
When pushing your kid in a unicycle stroller is commonplace; even up & down 6 levels of a parking garage
This parking garage has a special place in our hearts. One of the landmarks we pass on our trips to grammas, it was one of the first examples I stumbled across of ‘introducing excitement’ to kids and how easy it is.
Wow! You know what that is??? A PARKING GARAGE!!
Week after week, looking for the parking garage, and staring at/studying it as we passed, it just became ‘our thing’.
Fun Ways To Educate? Use the Force. Always.
We knew she was ‘officially pregnant’ when she cried her eyes out seeing little Anakin leaving his mom in the desert…again…seriously, we had seen this several times already…)
Star Wars has always been a big part of my life (well, only if you include making a Star Wars reference whenever possible and owning and wearing too often an adult sized Star Wars costume) but the kids hadn’t really shown too much interest…no more than any of the other things they are in to – from every comic book hero to anything that’s in a ‘Flying Bag’ (blind bag)…or anything that they have seen on youtube.
A Week of Unschooling : Episode 1 – Mythology, Health & Fitness, Physics, Writing, and Biology
In our introductory weekly episode, the three and five year old visited a skatepark, play-drew Greek Mythology, and they experienced a variety of cutting tools that so far only dad and mom have been using.
There are many ways kids can learn but fun is always better. Let them play; when you’ve shown them how fun knowledge can be, what’s stopping them?
Can you stay back, dad? I’m going to do this.
A perfect example of unschooling? I think so!
The five year old was watching youtube. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t about some lady opening toys! He asked if we could do a science experiment…but we needed a syringe and we didn’t have that.
I let him know Walmart probably had them, and I knew of the general area where they might be.
“We need to ask someone if we don’t know where something is,” he reminded me.
Same Place, Different Discoveries
Our plan was to climb ‘Big Hilly Climby’ and go for a scooter ride through the forest – well, at least if I was making a lesson plan for the day, it would have only had those two bullet points.
Unschool Obstacles
Do you know if your city has an indoor obstacle course or climbing-type place? I just happened to see a post in a facebook group…I would never have known about this little gem!
CTC Obstacles is in London, Ontario. An old warehouse turned climbing/swinging/playing facility!
I’m So Glad We Found Out About Skateparks! (for non-skateboarding kids)
We’ve been to three different skate parks in our city so far. (London, Ontario) There looks to be siz or seven that we will be sure to check out. (they call Victoria Park one, but meh…it’s mostly just some concrete blocks and broken glass)
The kids just get there and play. Scooters, little bikes, and just running…we’ll be back often. Whatever risks the kids are comfortable with (or are almost comfortable with) are right there. Have you heard about Parkour? (Where people jump from building to building and do crazy flips and things off of structures). Skateparks offer a great introduction to
Unschool Math Immersion
The main lego pieces are bricks and plates. (the plates are one third the depth of bricks).
“Hey, can you find this 2 by 3 plate? It’s called a 2 by 3 because it’s two rows of three. How many posts does it have?”
“1,2,3,4,5,6!”
“See how much faster I can count them because of how I am just adding groups of numbers? See how they are organized in rows and columns?”
How Are Trick Scooters Put Together?
It’s funny. I never really pictured these trick scooters as valuable educational tools. Whoops, I think it’s the most fun and exhilarating their education has been so far!
So how do all these parts go together?
Play Now. Learn Later. Record Your Edventures.
We went to their first airshow! The were super excited about the first few planes that flew over, the Super Hornet (only during an upside-down fly-by), and the snowbirds…mostly when they drew the heart in the sky.
Advantage Unschool : Skate Parks During School Hours
We didn’t even come here to run, we came to scooter. I had to ask them if they were ready to put their gear on and ride yet..before they tired themselves out!
During school hours, no one is there. Kids as young as brand new crawlers can have a blast here with so many slopes and angles and risk levels.
Unschoolers : You Have Whiteboards, Right?
The whiteboard has had many letter games, tic tac toe games, and all sorts of pictures set up for them in the morning (which caused me to search youtube for ‘how to draw characters’. (I suck at it, but they don’t realize it yet!). It has little dots on it in a grid pattern which have many advantages down the unschooling road for sure.
First Time Randomly Bumping Into Unschoolers – Six Hours Away
Turns out the hens that came in through the treeline also lived with some unschoolers! We showed them about slacklines, they showed us turkeys!
Interesting fact about city kids: They’ll pick up an axe if they see one and you’ve never said ‘don’t pick up an axe’!
