Never too Early…
Mar 27th, 2007 by willa
To plan for next year, that is.
Y’know, that was the part I missed absolutely the MOST when I was trying my total unschooling last spring. I really missed the planning This year, I realize I could have planned even as a complete total unschooler. Why not? Except that all the plans could be fun, not x number of pages in a math book, and we wouldn’t have to do the ones that we didn’t enjoy, or that got pushed out by other things. So I’m applying that insight to next years’ planning — I’ll plan, but I will try to keep the attitude that the plans are like open doors leading to spacious places, not railroad tracks we have to toil along.
Anyway, this year I have found myself in a mode that is mostly working for me and the kids. And my planning will NOT include spreadsheets with math and Latin page numbers. This year I discovered that those things are a waste of time for me to write out, because they never go the way I expect them to. And honestly, they depress me just to look at them. I do like spreadsheets and charts and things, but they don’t seem to mix with my idea of how to learn. I do better with booklists and a variety of ideas that connect with other ideas and make a kind of synergy.
All this is just to say that I’m going to start brainstorming planning for next year. I hope it does not get too boring. I like the way Faith does hers: plans for a 6th/7th grader and plans for a younger student. I like the way she considers the needs and temperament of the child, then pulls together what she has or knows about to provide a sort of guide map for next years’ approach. Something like that will be my goal too.
I really missed the planning part too, when we moved more into unschooling last year. I’m a planner by nature - menus, vacations, retirement accounts, lessons - and giving that up felt a little like a part of me was being strangled. I found that I had to redirect my planning tendencies into more “options” than “agendas”.
You could always plan with the kids. Even unschoolers can do that, by asking the children what they wanted to learn. Thanks!
You might like the Education Forums about Homeschooling & Unschooling.
Mom of All Seasons,
I like that “options” rather than agendas. That was what I was trying to work out as I wrote. Thanks for putting it in those words.
Scott,
Asking for kids ideas and plans is a good idea. I intend to do that and also watch what they are doing by preference to see what they might want to explore further. I find that the question: “What do you want to learn?” puts my particular kids on the spot, sort of like: “What did you do today?” I was the same as a child — lots of ideas and projects going on, but could never come up with a quick answer if asked, and if someone suggested something new, I would usually feel negative about it until I had some experience with it. So with my kids I look for lowkey ways to get them involved in ideas and experiences and try to keep it “no strings attached” — not expecting a new thing to become a lifetime commitment.
I love your perception of plans as “doors into spacious places” rather than railroad tracks. :-)
http://steph-roomofmyown.blogspot.com/