Natural Learning with Simply Homeschool
You can’t use a curriculum and unschool, can you?
What if your child’s natural approach to learning is more child-led, but you would like a little more support; somewhere to find great books, somewhere to find engaging activities, somewhere that has space for your child to take their learning in whichever direction their interests carry them?
What do you do?
Here’s what a day in the life of an unschool child supported by Simply Homeschool could look like.
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Your child wakes in the morning having rested as long as they need. They wander down the hall and start making themselves breakfast. Some mornings they make a big breakfast, other times they are keen to get going again on a project they started yesterday, so head straight back to that with a piece of toast in hand.
They’re fascinated with World War 1 at the moment and are building a claymation reenactment of Gallipoli. You call them over after a while and everyone gets ready for the day.
Once everyone is ready, you sit down to read together; inside on the couch, outside under a tree, around the table; anywhere is fine.
In your reading basket you’ve got a beautiful collection of books based on your children’s current interests. You’ve checked out Just Good Books on the Simply Homeschool website and also added some other books which you think might spark new interests or interesting conversations.
Sometimes your child just listens while you read. This morning though, they want to draw.
You read a couple pages from each book and spend time chatting together, asking questions, thinking out loud and looking up any interesting wonderings. One of the new books you read from today is 100 Things to Know About Food. Your child is hooked and wants to know more!
You thought this might be the case – you know how much your child also loves cooking – and so had already scanned the Simply Homeschool Food Tech and Everything core looking for some engaging options. You talk them over with your child and decide which one she would like to do.
After reading together, everyone settles into their own projects. Your cooking-loving child decides to make a recipe folder of her favourite recipes (Food Tech and Everything Lesson 1.4). Your other children get going on their current projects; one’s writing a short story, another is sewing handkerchiefs for a market (Seasons: Spring Lesson 1.3), and the last one is making an ancient world in Minecraft.
You keep track of all their learning in your Simply Homeschool planner. You make note of any resources they need, any troubles they are having, and any ideas and plans they have. Your planner helps to keep the engines churning.
When everyone is settled into their projects, you open up Simply Homeschool to look through your Family Learning Plan; you’ve got lots of cores in there. You don’t necessarily do every activity in every lesson, and don’t always do them in the same order. That’s ok. Your child is guiding the journey.
You notice a few activities in Food Tech and Everything which your child can already do, like make breakfast, chop vegetables, cook eggs and make salads. You tick those activities off as completed.
Then you notice the new War Horse core. A core about WW1! That’s perfect. You make a note to check it out later. The library has a copy of the book so you reserve it.
Everyone seems to be getting hungry and wandering in looking for food. Your cooking-loving child offers to make everyone lunch. You’ve got co-op tomorrow with friends and ask your child whether they would like to plan a picnic (Food Tech and Everything Lesson 20.2). Yes!
While you’re eating lunch, you read aloud. Sometimes you read poetry - you’ve printed the poetry booklets from the Seasons cores - other times you read from your current novel; Wonder. Today, you do maths puzzles together from The Number Detective.
After lunch everyone is keen to get their bodies moving, so you head down to the local skate park for the afternoon. In the car, you pop on a podcast. Everyone enjoys Squiz Kids. You came across it in the Introduction to Australian Government core.
Once you get home, your children are pretty tired and separate out to their own space. Your cooking-loving child picks up 100 Things to Know About Food and reads quietly in her room.
While everyone is having some time to recharge, you go through your Family Learning Plan again and tick off anything you completed today. You upload photos to the record-keeping section and check over your notes in your planner; ready for tomorrow.
And that pretty much finishes out your child’s day. The rest of the day is spent playing, relaxing, reading, and getting ready for bed.
An unschool day, supported by Simply Homeschool.