A Full Day of Unschooling

The other day we totally slid into unschooling mode. 110%! I love unschooling days because it teaches (me) the kids that learning happens all the time and in many different ways. On unschooling days I learn a lot about my children and what their interests are.
We had a perrenial exchange to go to in the afternoon and we had a few things to do to get ready before we went.

Plants we brought home.

We had to locate the plants in our yard we wanted to exchange, dig them up, pot them, and make tags to go with each plant. The tag had to give the name of the plant, it's needs, and a brief description of color, height etc.

So we became botanists for the day. I already knew the information needed for the tags, but I figured it would be a lot more educational for the kids if I let them look their plants up in books, read a little bit about them, and write down their information so that people could get a clear description. The challenge for them was that it had to be very brief. They had to make sure people undertood there message in as least amount of words as possible. So lets see, so far we have accomplished science, writing, penmanship, and reading.

When we arrived at the exchange every one was milling about a long table where all the plants were to be placed. I walked around the table with the kids looking at all of the other plants, reading their tags, and deciding which ones would do well in our yard. There also were various gardening and plant books placed on the surrounding tables to flip through and get a bigger picture of what was on the "plant" table.
More reading and science!

After we signed in and picked our numbers (here comes math) the kids ran off with their dad to explore the woods and pond life (we were at a park). They took a break from botany to be biologists.

Upon returning from their exploration (believe it or not they discoverd a plant that intrigued them so much they took out their botany book as soon as we got home, looked up the plant they thought it was and discovered that it wasn't- I was very excited they took the time to do the research on the plant in question.) they stopped off at the jungle gym for some exercise and a little P.E. time.

Once every one had arrived at the exchange it was time to begin calling numbers. The kids waited patiently for their number to be called. This was a homeschool event, so you can imagine all of the children that were there eagerly awaiting the moment when it was their turn to go up to the table and pick the plant or flower that caught their eye.

After all of the kids had chosen it was now the grown ups turn to pick. While we continued picking plants the kids ran off and formed a very organized game of baseball and played for at least an hour and a half (more physical education).

It was a very successful day packed full of educational, and hands-on opportunities, not to mention the socialization they received. The best part was that it was delight directed learning, we didn't use a single textbook, just real books and we all had a great time and made wonderful memories...............


Happy homeschooling!!!