Our Unschooling Journal

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Join Us As We See How Unschooling Goes

My 12 year old, Jasmine has been telling me that she wants to "unschool" for some time. I ran across an unschooling squidoo lens the other day which intrigued me to find out more and to pursue her wishes.
Jasmine is ADHD, unmedicated, so she is up and down a lot, her attention span is not there. Especially if it's not something she is interested in learning at the time.

I am starting this lens to track our journey. In this way it helps me as I am keeping track on paper what she is doing. Then typing it in here reinforces for myself that learning is happening.

Yes, I am the mom that wants to use textbooks and workbooks, have a schedule for each week throughout the year and stick to it. This is an adventure for myself.

I will be blogging through this lens each week. I hope you will check in and see what we are up to. I also hope that you will leave me feedback on what you think, and how Jasmine is doing.

I am including a plexo list to this lens. If you have a lens on unschooling, or know of good unschooling resources and websites, please add them to the list.

Included at the bottom on the lens is a video by Dayna Martin from youtube. I hope you will not only check out this video, but click over as she has many videos on youtube. There are also many interesting unschooling videos there as well. I've sat watching many over the past few days before deciding to give this a real go.

Jasmine

This is my Jasmine :)

Week of December 28, 2008

This will be my first week of actually paying attention to what Jasmine is doing. Technically this past week has been a vacation week. We have 4 of my grandchildren that live with us. One is in 2nd grade and 2 of the girls are in Headstart. They've been out of school on break.
However, here are the notes that I took on Jasmine's activities for the week:

We went bowling on New Year's Eve
She's been working on illustrating and writing up a cover page for a story she wants to write.
She's been doing a LOT of drawing.
She asked me to teach her how to use the washer and dryer and has started doing her own laundry.
She is into Sociology, which is a college course. She's gotten 2 piles of texts from the public library's book sales. This past week she read 2 chapters in a text entitled Sociology with Social Problems Applies to Nursing.
She chose to do a grammar worksheet on sentences.
She did a lot of building with the K'Nex that my grandson got for Christmas.
The weather has been mild, so she did a lot of outdoor play this past week.
I was given a sewing machine for Christmas. I don't know a lot about using one, so we will learn this together. She sat and mended her scarf as well as the side of one of her pairs of pants.
She watched a show on the History channel about gangs, and also one on Hitler.

This is what we can think of for this week. Stay tuned for next week.

Week of January 4, 2009

This ended up being an off week. Although I quit my job as a lunch aide, with my last day being December 18, right before the holiday school break, I got called in to work this week. The first week back and I ended up working all week.

Each day I would come home and ask Jasmine what she did that was school related. Each day she gave me that look and said nothing really.

So, we aren't doing so hot on this unschooling venture as of yet.

These are the things that I had her do;
A health worksheet where she tried to come up with foods for each letter of the alphabet for each food group.
A cursive writing workbook page
A sentence grammar workbook page
A start of putting together a stamp collection.

i had Jasmine make up 2 banks. One is marked tithing and the other savings. We also got her a purse and a wallet. I am going to try to give her a little money (and I do mean little), but I want her to tithe 10% and save 10%. We had several discussions on this throughout the week.

On her own Jasmine did these things:
Quite a bit of drawing
She made her own alphabet list like the health worksheet only for Deathnote (an anime show she likes and I built a lens on)
She went to Awanas...for those of you that don't know, this is like scouts, put on by the Baptist church. There they learn Bible and play games.
She did a multiplication chart
She's been playing a lot of the game Magic the Gathering this week. I got 2 decks of the cards free on the internet. Can you tell me if this has any educational value at all? I paid some attention and they do have to know what they are doing and add up points.

Amazon

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Stamp Collecting

It's going to take us weeks and weeks to even get through the stamps we have. This is a photo of Jasmine working on preparing some of the stamps.

Week of January 11, 2009

As a bzzagent I got the Game Wave gaming system I really like it because the games are educational, and not violent etc.
This week several times Jasmine played these games:
Letter Zap--you get a box of letters and you see how many words you can make with the letters.
Rewind-History type game--relive the events of our past. Mostly what I seen on this game had to do with entertainment.
Click-is a game like Wheel of Fortune.

She watched Animal Planet...2 shows on animal surgeries.
She watched Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest on the History channel.

She did her own laundry as well as helped cook several meals this week.

We played the board game called Great States. I took this a step further by then getting out a blank United States map and having her fill in the states.

Each Monday our newspaper, as part of Newspapers in Education, puts out what they call a mini page. My mom has been saving these for us for years. I thought it was time to use them. Each one has a little something about history and such plus a couple of word games. In future posts when I talk about mini pages you will know what I mean.
This week we did 2 mini pages, one on the History of Music and one on Farming in the City.

She did her usual drawing, which this week I included a scan of one of her pictures.

She attended Awanas.

She did a math worksheet on fractions, plus we worked on her saving plan more.

She also worked on the stamp collection....which I also included a photo of.

Week of January 18

This week we got the kayboard replaced on Jasmine's computer. It's not online but she has spent each day this past week working on writing a story.

I started playing bingo with all the kids this past week. I have several snack food items to choose from for prizes. They are all having a great time.

We did 2 mini pages from the newspaper this week. One was called The Elephant Sanctuary and the other Connect to Our World.

Jasmine attended Awana's this week and right now is off skating with her Awana's group.

She finished reading Midnight for Charlie Bone #1. She cleared a bookshelf in her room and put all her books on it. She has loads as she gets lots of them at the library book sales. She has them organized now just the way she wants them.

She did one page of cursive writing and some math worksheets having to do with measuring, angles, etc.

Once again, she did her own laundry. I hope she wants to continue with this responsibility. Saturday is my 17 yr old's day that she does her own, so I think this is where Jasmine picked it up. I'm still glad she wanted to learn how to work the washer and dryer and has continued.

We watched the Inauguration and all the news that went along with it on Tuesday.

Lastly, this week, she put in more time working on the stamp collection.

Jasmine's drawings

Jasmine is really into her drawing...and her anime. When I write each week that she is drawing, this is the type she does. This picture is one of many drawn the week of January 11, 2009.

Week of January 25

As mom, I feel like we had a much more productive learning week this week.

We played bingo as usual.
Jasmine attended Awanas.
She messed around more or less reading in several books, but didn't find one she actually wanted to read.
She helped cook a few meals.
She got into reading her Seventeen magazines and trying some of the beauty tips (like putting egg whites in her hair for shininess for an example)
She worked on jigsaw puzzles with her oldest sister.

I had read a lens here about a mini math office. Much like a lapbook. I told Jasmine about it and showed her. She couldn't wait to start making hers. It's rather large, but it is hers. You can see a photo below. Since making it we have found other things to put on it. She has sat several times in front of it this week just going over the things she chose to put in it.

I also found a math on DVD set that I had gotten a few years ago from a homeschool site. I had gotten it to review. It's amazing, she got right into the lessons....begged me to get the worksheets printed out, and has done the lessons 3 days this week. This is impressive for someone who hates math. So between the DVD lessons and the math mini-office I think we will do well from now on.

January 29th marked Kansas' 148th birthday. In honor of that I decided our first lapbook should be about Kansas. This was a hit for Jasmine too. We spent 2 days looking up photos, cutting things from the newspaper and putting it together. I made a separate lens on it. I hope you will check it out at Kansas Lapbook

Week of February 1, 2009

We've had a strange week with some personal things going on not pertaining to schooling. This has been stressful but all in all I think a lot was done around the worry.

I won another deck of Magic cards from a contest on gather, so she got into playing it again for a couple of days.

She's been playing a game on her computer which involved multiplication over several days. She was checking with me on if answers were correct before putting them in as well as using her math office.

She made a small lapbook on the Oklahoma Octopus, which i will share in another lens.You can find Jasmine's Lapbooks lens here
She took up an interest in Atilla the Hun, doing research and taking notes from the computer.

She's been learning some of her favorite songs in foreign languages.

She's done her normal amount of drawing.

She attended Awanas.

I got a t-shirt painting kit so she made herself a t-shirt.

I bought her a bookmark with a timer so she's been making sure to read for at least 30 minutes a day.

She helped me iron the material for my quilt squares.

She did her own laundry.
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Jasmine's Mini Math Office

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Week of February 8, 2009

Jasmine has decided that she wants her next lapbook to be on anime. She didn't get past deciding how big it needs to be other than doing some drawings that she will put in book form inside.

She attended Awanas, plus did extra work in her book at home.

We did one mini page from the newspaper on Helping One Another.

She worked more on cutting out stamps. I'm going to have to sit down and help her or it might (literally) be 3 years before they are all cut out and sorted.

She's been playing on her game sites. I have to learn to appreciate them. The one you have to do multiplication to get the right answers. The other 2 is basic math as you earn items to sell. You have to know how many things you need to acquire to buy the items that you want or need.

She also found another website that is really neat. It's howrse.com. You take care of horses. As you take care of them you are learning about them....all about them. She showed me and told me all kinds of interesting facts. There are also quizzes on what you've learned along the way.

She got a real life lesson this week. I bought a van. We drove it for 2 days deciding on whether to keep it. She was there with me the whole way. We had walked to the Dollar Store and on the way home stopped at the garage to see if they had anything I could afford.
She went when we decided to keep it and had the title made over. Then it was off to pay the insurance, then to the court house to tag it. After that it was to the gas station, the the autoparts store. I had to buy oil, oil filter and other needed motor items. She came to the conclusion that when she grows up she does not want a car. She says it's way to expensive to own one. She will make sure her house is close to places she wants to go and those that aren't she will take a taxi or find another ride. (pretty smart actually) That night after all the running to make the van really ours, the ignition went out!

Another thing she did this week was to spend a lot of time reading Seventeen magazine. She's really into her personal self now. She spent some of her allowance while we were at the dollar store buying the suggested type of body lotion, bath gel, and acne wash.

She's used her math office again with Roman numerals.

I posted before that she had finished reading Midnight for Charlie Bone, but I was mistaken as she brought it to me last night saying she had just finished it.

Another online game she played was called piano and she was learning songs with her computer keyboard. It was really neat and she was proud of the songs.

Week of February 15, 2009

This past week Jasmine has been doing a lot yet on howrse.com. One day she told me about how she had to get a job to earn enough to take care of her horse. She then stated she might have to find a 2nd job as it's expensive to take care of a horse. Another day she logged on to find that her horse had colic. She was actually panicked but was able to get the right medicine (and have enough money to buy it), and cure the colic.

She attended Awanas.

We were going out and about and I told her to choose something to bring along. What she chose was a crossword puzzle book. I don't have a problem with this, you learn a lot doing those.

On another outing she forgot her book. It ended up being almost a 2 hour appt for my older daughter. I pulled out a Fruits and Vegetable activity book out of my note that a lady at church had given me. She ended up working the entire book.

She cooked us a really nice grilled chicken supper.

She worked quite often in an attempt to clean and organize her room.

She worked on the stamp collection.

She read This Day In History February 21 that I had printed out for her.

She did a page of cursive writing.

She did a Making Our Lives Better mini page.

She did a whole and parts math worksheet.

She thought more on the anime lapbook, but thinking is as far as we went with it.

I'm still having a hard time with this...I want to see concrete work done. Even though I know there is a lot more that she actually does than what I observe (or ask her to do). I'm going to keep giving this a try to see if I can get used to it.

Jasmine Ironing Material for Quilt Squares

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Week of February 22, 2009

This week we've had my aunt and uncle here visiting from Michigan. It was quite the week of here and there.
While visiting with the relatives at my brother's house she did get a lot of outside time playing kickball since it was a nice day.
There's always the family "history" you hear while the relatives are visiting.

We went to church this past Sunday for the first time in awhile. I finally had my own vehicle to drive, which since is down again. :(

We had family fun night at church on Friday night. That was a fun night of fellowship with supper and a movie.

She started reading the next Charlie Bone book.

She worked some on the anime lapbook as far as getting the folders ready and drawing more pictures.

She attended Awanas.

She did a mini-page called Lincoln's Greatest Speech.

We put together a pocket chart of daily items to do. She is just getting in to that, but has already asked me to make her a weekly pocket chart as well.

I am hoping for a much more organized week this week with the relatives gone.

Week of March 1, 2009

Last Sunday we had a bit of excitement. One of our cats spent all day having her kittens. Jasmine asked me if that would count for school while she watched. I told her, of course, it's science. And, it was the first time she's actually witnessed it. I share a gather photo essay on it if you are interested at Nymphadora Had Her Kittens--Photo Essay

She read in her Charlie Bone book.

She attended Awanas

She helped me check and refill fluids in the van.

She did some more anime drawings that will go in her Anime lapbook. I hope to really help her out with this this next week as far as printing out things.

She did some adjective grammar worksheets.

She did some fraction math worksheets.

She did one mini page on Making Our Lives Better.

She did a cursive writing page.

She watched episodes of How It's Made on making a dollhouse, making fishing reels, and making mixers.

It's been a nice spring like weather week so we spent a lot of time outdoors. They've played a lot of ball games, jumped rope etc as well as yard work too.

(This is my last posting for this lens. I will be starting part 2 next week)

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  • Reply
    darciefrench Dec 18, 2010 @ 12:29 am | delete
    I am discovering unschooling.. interesting it came out when I was a kid in the 70's and desperately wanted to be unschooled -:) It is amazing so few people have heard of it.
  • Reply
    Tipi Oct 4, 2010 @ 8:42 am | delete
    Marsha, you do make very interesting lens that are personal and I always learn something new from you. Thanks!
  • Reply
    eclecticeducation Oct 1, 2010 @ 11:07 am | delete
    We are not unschoolers, we are eclectic, but we do have times when we "unschool" like if the kids are doing something really interesting and it is educational, I just let them continue instead of insisting that they do their other school work. We get off on tangents a lot. I feel it's more important to learn than to follow a curriculum. I had trouble with that at first, like I would tell my oldest son (when he was younger) to put away his book and get on his school work, then I realized what I was doing. lol!!! Great lens. Blessed by a Squid Angel.
  • Reply
    theraggededge Jul 23, 2010 @ 12:43 pm | delete
    We unschool - I usually have no idea what my kids are doing LOL! I have never taught my 8 yr old daughter to read properly, yet she can read like an adult and form perfect sentences with correct punctuation. I never worry whether they are learning or not - they can't help themselves. Unschooling requires that we trust our kids to know what's best for them.

    Good lens - and I can see you are going through the deschooling process yourself!

    Blessed :-)
  • Reply
    tandemonimom Apr 25, 2009 @ 7:22 pm | delete
    Love this lens! Congrats on your journey with Jasmine - sounds like things are going great! And Welcome to The Homeschooling Group!
  • Reply
    GrowWear Feb 14, 2009 @ 6:06 pm | delete
    Much success with this for you and your daughter. Unschooling seems to be a viable option in this day and age.
  • Reply
    Margo_Arrowsmith Feb 8, 2009 @ 3:37 pm | delete
    Never heard the term before. Interesting. 4 grandkids with you. My head exploded at that point! ***** stars for the lens and supporting what you are doing.
  • Reply
    alteredkat Feb 3, 2009 @ 8:26 pm | delete
    Interesting read so far...look forward to checking in often.
    Thanks for popping into my lens recently...I was wondering about you just the other day.
    Take care
  • Reply
    Jimmie Feb 2, 2009 @ 8:46 pm | delete
    The mini office is great! :-)
    I think that your descriptions of what you and Jasmine did each week for "school" will be very helpful for others who are wanting to know what unschooling looks like.
  • Reply
    Elsie Duggan Jan 31, 2009 @ 10:15 pm | delete
    I think you are doing a wonderful job with your daughter. Kids that can't pay attention in school really need one to one tutoring which is what seems to be going on here. She is learning life's skills, helping around the house, and I am sure she is further advanced than she would be scholastically than if she were in regular school, good luck with her, I find this very interesting.
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marsha32

My name is Marsha and I am now a married woman, as of July 30 2011, residing in Kansas. I have 1 child left at home. We are a home school family.
I have...
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