Unschooling, Back to Our Roots!

School had gotten boring. We were beginning to hate it! With the diagnosis of dyslexia, I realized why it was harder, but that still didn't change the fact that it was hard. We struggled to work on anything on our lesson plan. Reading and math were nightmares that I avoided like the plague! Then, I read Life Love & Dyslexia. I remembered why I started homeschooling to begin with!
I wanted my children to love learning! I wanted them to get books that interested them, not assigned readers. I wanted the world to be their classroom. I didn't want workbooks and tests. I wanted nature studies and notebooking! I wanted to read together, watch documentaries, and explore the great outdoors! I wanted to unschool my children!

I had given in to the lie that my children needed structure and curriculum to learn properly. While that might be true for some families, it is not for ours!
So, along side my friend Heather, we started over this week. Our children were equipped with their journals, both plain spirals and some fun ones from Dyslexia Games. We set out to allow the children to learn! Here are just a few of the many fantastic things that we did!

Top Right: Sister, Popper, Diva, and Fashionista are learning to sew.
Top Left: Tiger Lily is researching the Holocaust.
Bottom Right: A group game of Monopoly Jr. to help with math skills!
Bottom Right: Brother Bear and Turkey Boy make Yodas out of theraputty!









Left: Turkey Boy showing off his nature scavenger
        hunt finds!
Top Right: Fashionista found some tree sap.
                 She thinks it smells like honey.
Bottom Right: Brother Bear is cradling our sweet
                    hen, 'Penguin.'

Top Left: Diva and Popper are enjoying the                            chickens and trying to decide which ones                  are hens and which are roosters.
Top Right: Popper is holding 'Bat girl' (though the                      chicks gender is still unknown)
Bottom Right: Tiger Lily and Fashionista are burying                       the others during an afternoon of                               outside learning!
Bottom Left: All the kiddos journaling about their                         finds on the nature scavenger hunt!




We had such a good time learning together this last week! We started each day with our daily Dyslexia Games lessons and journals which I don't have pictures of. I also failed to get pictures during reading time, but there was learning of subjects across the board from Holocaust to Titanic to Gorillas. I feel like we learned more together in this time than in the last 2 months!

This is my passion for my children: to create an atmosphere of learning. Teaching them to follow their interests to the furthest point and back again! I want them to be curious about life and search out answers on their own with a little guidance from mom and dad when needed! My job is to help fuel that curiosity not squash it! I want to come along side them, learn with them, and learn from them! This was the reason that I started homeschooling my children! Thank you Sarah Janisse Brown for reminding me of that in your book!

Thank you, Heather, for joining me on this journey! Learning together with your children is so fantastic! Thank you for your friendship that means more to me than you'll ever know!

Above all else, Thank You, Father God, for the privilege of getting to learn right along side my children in this way!

And to you friend, thank you for joining me each week! I am so excited about where our school year is headed and can't wait to share them with you!