I realized fairly early on in this homeschooling adventure that attempting to follow a "school at home" approach was not going to work in this family. Any attempts at instructing in a formal way have been met with vigorous resistance. Often, when I tell people we are homeschooling, they comment - "that must take a lot of effort to plan and organize". This is because most people, myself included, were educated in the public system. It is often difficult to visualize learning in any other way than where the teacher teaches and the student does what they are told and learns what they are told to learn. So people think that I spend my evenings making up lesson plans and my days instructing my children, which would take a lot of effort and organization! I don't do lesson plans. I listen when my children tell me they are interested in something and I go to the library and find books. I search the internet for things I think they would find fun. We play games and do things as a family. We live. Trusting that children will learn by following their own interests and by simply living takes a great deal of faith, and I still struggle with this, but the following example illustrates that learning can, and does take place without instruction.
We have recently moved the wall map of the world from it's place on the wall onto the dining room table (credit goes to an article in Homeschooling Horizons Magazine). Over the last few breakfasts, lunches and dinners Jamie has discovered the latitude and longitude lines. We have noticed the international time line. We have had much discussion about these things and what they are for. We have located where Uncle Kevin and Uncle Michael live. Even Robert can point to Vancouver Island and tell me this is where we live. I could have planned a "map reading" lesson plan with worksheet and questions, but he doesn't need that. He just needs me to answer his questions as he asks them, and look at that.....he is learning!
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