Weekly Plan...and a Jungle Project

In my previous post, I wrote about flexibility being key for me in my homeschooling days. I'd like to share an example of how this came in to play recently with my five year old. At the beginning of the month, I had written out a vague but useful outline of what I wanted him to learn in those following weeks. Adding and subtracting was on the list, long vowels combinations was on the list, locations of oceans was on the list, plant growth was on the list. However, this is not what we ended up learning about.

One Thursday, we were driving into town and my son asked, "Mommy, what is a jungle?" I gave him a brief description, but in my head, I knew that was what our lessons were going to be about that next week. I researched ahead of time, kid-friendly photos and information about a jungle and cut out pictures from National Geographic magazines. We looked at the information and videos online, we read books about jungle animals from the library, we located areas on a map where jungles are found, compared and contrasted other environments that we know of, and by the end of the week, made our own jungle. He didn't learn what I had planned for that week, but he did learn. This actually led to researching other types of environments and doing projects relating to them. For us, unit studies and/or projects are a fun way to break up the monotony of "work".

That is one thing I love about being able to homeschool my children. Being able to flow from their own natural curiosity is a wonderful and fruitful thing. Of course, there are times when we work on the standard topics, and everything is and will be covered, but it's how you cover them sometimes that means more.

On another note, what did I do with my other two small children while all this was going on? The answer is simple: whatever they wanted. I usually have some sort of "school work" for my almost three year old to do, or I'll pull out play-doh or some other fun thing that interests him. Those things keep him busy for a while until my older one and I take a break, then we regroup and change activities up, or he just plays with whatever he wants. My one year old does the same, she plays and interacts with her brother and makes a mess! During the times when my oldest is doing something independently, I will work with or play with my other two. Sometimes we all flow well, sometimes we don't...it just depends on the day :) It is completely normal to have my living room and/or house look like a tornado hit it, but then start other lessons: counting items while we clean, helping others, and organizing and sorting items for their proper place. Learning never stops.

*May 2016