Thursday, April 19, 2012

Unschooling Tools::Around Town

For us every day is an adventure.  Every day has a gazillion teachable moments and they don't just happen at home but they happen wherever we happen to be.   
Library

Going and doing and being and living are all part of what makes this unschooling journey of ours even more rich than it already is. 
Creating at the local woodshop. 

Much like Stephanie said in her Around Town post, our adventures are not "extras".  They are central to how we roll.  We don't go to a museum and pick up a clipboard with the sole purpose of checking things off.  Sometimes there's a specific exhibit we'd like to see but more often than not we go just to go and see where the adventure leads us. 
September 11th memorial in town.

Checking out the hydroponically grown plants at Water Fresh Farm.

Without these adventures our days would not be as rich.  Our learning not as natural and genuine.
Learning about beekeeping at Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

Contra Dancing

Exploring

Yoga Class

Old Sturbridge Village

Hiking

Art Class

In Boston.

Going to the theater in Providence.

And after all, part of the reason we are a radical unschooling family is because we value the naturalness of learning.  No matter where we go or what we do there is something that has been learned.  Something that has shaped us and helped us to better understand the world, who we are and our place in it.  Sometimes what has been learned is not so obvious. But chances are at some point it will become clear what has been learned.  Even if it's many moons down the road, and even if it's simply the fact that learning does not need to only take place in a classroom or during a set time of the day.  That it happens anytime, anywhere and to everyone.  The world is our classroom, and for that we are grateful.

3 comments:

  1. I love your statement that outings are not extras. I am going to remember that and use that. Often people who do not understand how we homeschool see our outings as field trips. When I was teaching I would be frustrated that a field trip was planned well before the curriculum was planned. Usually it was completely disconnected from what was happening in the classroom and therefore in my opinion was a day out of the classroom but did not really provide a rich educational experience. Most of what we do now is tied into what we are doing, or I make sure to give the girls lots of information before we do something. Your trips make up your children's learning environment - they are learning from the world around them. How fortunate!

    I love this series!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jess! I have always believed that our comings and goings and doings were all part of our learning and I loved that Stephanie put that into words too! You know, there are times that you feel like you must be the only person that feels a certain way, and then you come to find out that, as a matter of fact, there are others that feel that way too! We unschoolers are quite an amazing bunch!

      I think that unless you live in our world that it's hard to understand how we roll and why we do what we do, and I think that's why "civilians" see our adventures, our comings and goings and doings, as extras or field trips. And don't truly "get it". Beacause really, unschooling is about as far from how we all learned and it does not look like the sterotype people have of homeschoolers either. :)

      I am loving this series too! It's so much fun to put each post together and read what everyone else is doing too. I have gotten some great ideas from it, and I have gotten further confirmation that the path less taken was totally the right choice for us!

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