Plans for the year... (part one)

Through our community homeschool group, the girls and I are involved in an Early Learners Group which consists of 6 families, and 10 kids ranging in age from 2 to 4 1/2. The reason I mention this, is because I have decided to loosely base our learning activities for the year to the themes we have set up within our group. We will be meeting weekly, with the month of September revolving around Apples, Harvesting, and Fall.

For the girls, I have decided to use this opportunity to "strew" (borrowed word from another highly respected unschooler) corresponding material into their path. As I should have known Aislinn took to it like a bee to a flower. I had printed off the small poem shown right and she memorized it within minutes. We also started a word box (letter box for Tara) - basically a index card holder box for each to put in a new word or letter in each day. I hope to use this as a tool in developing their sight word recognition throughout the year. (Or at least as long as it stays fun!)

After that, I pulled out some finger paints, and encouraged the girls to draw themselves an apple tree. We cut an apple in half, took a few minutes to dig out the seeds and take a closer look, and then dipped the half apples in the paint to give our trees their fruit. What we did find out, was just how slippery apples get when they get covered in paint and had more fun figuring out how to get the apple from the plate to the paper. As always, this ends in my cleanliness freak -Aislinn- rejecting her project for the safety of the soap and tap. (I have never figured out her addiction to clean hands!) We then returned to label our works of art, and let them dry.

Aislinn's next comment of course was "What do you have planned for us next?"! Probably the last thing an unschooler wants to hear! So as we had accomplished more in the past 45 minutes than I had expected, returned to our happy little poem, and continued the chant (with hand motions) till lunch was ready!

After lunch we headed out to our homeschool group's "Not Back to School" event. An afternoon spent at a the beach of a nearby conservation area. The girls loved the social activities, and were happy to see friends from our Early Learners group to play with.

The kids worked on rock castles and pyramids, and waded through the shallows. Aislinn returned home with a handful of prizes - about 8 feathers to add to her fast growing feather collection. She is getting quite good at remembering where she has found each feather and what bird they come from. I am starting to wonder whether we should look into a scrapbook type system and some labeling. That might be a fun project! She currently has seagull, blue jay and peacock feathers and a bright red one she found which I am not sure of the origin. This might also help weed out some of the mangy looking seagull feathers she brought home today.

We then celebrated our shared mission with cake and juice. It definitely brought the group together in short order and made us feel like part of a greater whole. Such a nice feeling when you embark on such a life altering journey.

I am so far, so pleased with our homeschool group. We are looking forward to many more years of "Not Back to School".