Events Lead Our Learning

 Learning Day by Day

More and more, we are using the events of our days to drive our learning. Unschoolers learn through their natural life experiences, and I'm learning more and more how this type of learning looks as I try to separate from traditional schooling formulas.

The Dalai Lama was invited to speak in our town over 10 years ago and his visit was finally realized a few days ago. We read books on his life, spirituality, exile, and more. We also read about others who have received the Nobel Peace Prize. This event was an exciting opportunity that presented itself and drove our learning for the past few weeks. I continue to enjoy the freedom and flexibility to be able to focus on events happening right now without the fear that something else is being "skipped over" to make room for it.

Moms' Day Out

Follow the Leader

Spring fever is here and any chance we get, we are outside enjoying the sunshine. Today we walked around the local ponds again. This time we went with friends and had a great time looking for turtles. It was great to see a mama duck leading her ducklings in the pond, just as we were leading our "ducklings" around the pond (but to be honest, we didn't really lead our "ducklings" as much as they ran ahead!)

Hallway Walking

Walking the Hallway 


We visited a public middle school today. A friend was filming a project and invited the kids to participate. They had a blast, and while we were there, I snapped a few photos of the movie process. I got a few photos of what may never happen (my kids walking down the hallway with classmates, backpacks on, looking into their lockers...)?

Doing the Heavy Lifting

Physical and Nutritional Education

This year we have tried to be better about P.E. for the kids. Swim lessons, park play when it's nice out, hikes on the weekends, weekly meet-ups at the track... but it is a daunting task when it's so cozy inside with our books and computers. 

Nutrition, although it seems easier to discuss anytime, anywhere, is almost harder to explain. I'm constantly clarifying that food that is baked and not fried still may not be healthy. Is "less bad for you" really "good for you?" I mean, organic doesn't always mean what we think it should mean. So, nutrition always seems to be a lot of consumer awareness education, and not just eat a well rounded meal!

So, it was great to be invited to this field trip to a gym, where a trainer gave us a tour of the gym, weight lifting lessons, and a healthy snack. The kids even got a label reading lesson! It's always great to get information that supports what we're telling the kids on a daily basis.

Spring Fever

The sun is out, and so are we!

It rains a lot where we live, so when the sun shines bright, the whole town comes out to celebrate. We are no different.

The trees are bursting with leaves, the rhododendrons in full bloom, bees buzzing and we are definitely feeling spring fever. It's been hard to concentrate on studies, when the grass is calling for bare feet and the trees are begging to be climbed.

We've enjoyed several days of playing hooky. We know that we aren't in summer yet, so the sunshine can be fleeting. Thus, when it comes out, we call another homeschooling family and head to a local park.

Yay sunshine!

Marshmallow Shooters

Trouble shooting

Today we made Marshmallow Shooters using an Instructable tutorial. I've been wanting to do this for months and just never had the gumption to try it on my own with the kids. Finally, we found the time today and it couldn't have been easier! I just needed to be shown where the saw and vice were, then the shooters were super easy to make.

The interesting thing is that we loaded the marshmallows incorrectly at first. We were a bit disappointed with how our shooters were working (or not working) and we played for a little while. Then we figured out a way to load the marshmallow better and we started getting better results, but intermittently. Then we finally figured out where to put the marshmallow to get the best results and BAM! we were shooting super far with amazing speed. The sounds of the pop were satisfying and we found ourselves laughing amidst our joy and pain (When we got better at shooting and aiming, the marshmallows did sting a little bit when they found their target!)

I'm sure it would have still been fun if we figured it out the first time, but struggling at first and then figuring it out definitely made our success that much sweeter. Our failures definitely led to problem solving, experimenting and learning. Score!

Serendipity Continues

A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change. -  Earl Nightingale

I am finding that opportunities continue to present themselves to us. Opportunities that fit right into our lives and what we are doing. It's exciting each time we find experiences that strengthen what we have already studied and take our learning to a deeper level.

While on a trip to Southern California to meet our newest member of the family (baby niece of 5 weeks!) we found ourselves at the Upper Newport Bay Center. This center is a great resource that is free of charge. One exhibit concentrated on the migration of birds. Seriously? We JUST finished our unit on birds and migration. Cool that we were able to finish our unit with a free museum tour!


Then, a friend in our homeschooling community put together a "Brain" tour at the local university. The kids were able to learn about the brain and touch a few different brains! And yes, we did a brain unit just a few months ago!





And then, my daughter asked to study another animal this year. Turtles. She quickly decided to narrow her study to sea turtles. However, through her research, she did learn a lot about all kinds of turtles, tortoises and other reptiles.

In the meantime, I had been wanting to walk around the Delta Ponds near us, but never had. Not in the 6 years we've lived in this town. Someone just mentioned their latest walk around this area and said that they were able to see the turtles. I asked where to park and at the next sunny opportunity, we took off for the Delta Ponds and found no less than 28 turtles (the kids counted). During our walk, my daughter explained to my son and me all about turtles.  What a timely and wonderful experience for us all!