Deciding where to take a 5-year-old on a field trip is easy. Places like children’s museums and zoos are practically made for young kids’ field trips. Unfortunately, deciding where to take your teen on a field trip can be a little more difficult. Teens are a lot harder to please than young kids, and there [...]
Posted in Back to School, Homeschool 
Tags: experential learning, field trips, Homeschooling, Museum, Music, theatre, Unschooling 
Comments OffThe fact that your 5 year-old can name all the state capitals, can add and subtract double-digit numbers, and identify nouns and verbs in a sentence might be hindering her ability to get into college when she’s ready. In fact, a 5 year-old who, instead, spends time pretending, playing with toys and peers, and [...]
Posted in Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning Methods Tags: Learning, play, play-based curriculum, Unschooling Comments OffYou can gain University degree-equivalent knowledge in any of thirteen different areas of study. You won’t pay any money. You can study at your own pace and when and wherever you choose. Best of all, the textbooks that go with the courses are free and authored by university professors from around the world. The only thing [...]
Posted in Books, College, Homeschool, Learning Methods, Online Tools, technology, Unschooling Tags: Bachelor of Science, E-learning, free online learning, Free University, Homeschooling, Online Learning, Open Courseware, Saylor, Unschooling Comments Off“The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) almost seems designed to flunk an autistic person: it is a completely verbal, timed test that relies heavily on cultural and social knowledge. ” -Scientific American Mainstream public schools supposedly offer educational instruction to everyone. However, children who think and learn in ways not accommodated for in public schools [...]
Posted in Learning Methods, Teaching methods Tags: autism, IQ, Personalized learning, Scientific American, Unschooling, WISC Comments OffHarry Potter fans may remember the 5th Harry Potter Book (The Order of the Pheonix) when a government appointed teacher (Professor Umbridge) at Hogwarts School changes the learning process in her classroom so that kids only learn theory and not practice. Disappointed students preferred to practice what they’ve learned and found the in-class reading and [...]
Posted in Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning Methods, News, STEAM, Teaching methods Tags: alternative education, Education Reform, Homeschooling, Learning, NPR, Science Friday, STEM, Unschooling Comments OffUnschoolers are radical mavericks who approach learning 180 degrees in the opposite direction from traditional education. Unschoolers learn in an unstructured environment almost completely devoid of teachers, separate subjects, grades, tests, or quizzes. Instead, unschoolers hack together their learning palette from many sources to create a truly personal learning experience. Unschoolers are active learners who [...]
Posted in Crowdsource, Eclectic Homeschooling, Economics, Electronics, Interdisciplinary, Learning Methods, Make, News, social change Tags: DIY, Hack, make, maker, Maker culture, Open source, Tim O'Reilly, UnCollege, Unschooling Comments Off“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao-Tzu Humanity has disrupted nature’s path of least resistance by creating cities, structures, roads, and even political systems that defy natural conditions. We [...]
Posted in Eclectic Homeschooling, Interdisciplinary, Reading, STEAM, Unit Study Tags: constrtuctivism, creativity, Homeschooling, Learning, play, Project-based learning, technology, Unschooling, whole learning Comments OffRemember the masses of young Harry Potter fans who stayed-up all night reading J.K. Rowling’s newly released books, then learned everything about all the characters, Hogwarts, the magical creatures, and the spells? Imagine capturing that passion, interest, and engagement through learning of all sorts. Project-based home learning is a more than viable alternative to traditional [...]
Posted in Eclectic Homeschooling, Interdisciplinary, Learning Methods, Unit Study Tags: child-led learning, homeschool, Learning, Project-based learning, Unschooling Comments OffWhat happens when you bring together over one hundred young people from all different age groups, schools, abilities, and from diverse backgrounds for a weekend of intense orchestral site reading? Learning happens. Under professional musicians, regional conductors, and college professors, the young musicians sat on a state-of-the-art stage as a unique group unlikely ever to sit together [...]
Posted in Art, Learning Methods, Music Tags: child-led learning, homeschool, Music, Unschooling Comments OffUnschoolers often get a bad rap. Often, those unfamiliar with unschooling assume children are completely unsupervised and learn nothing. Actually, the exact opposite is true. The key to unschooling is to allow either very little or no structure to the learning process so that the child has time to pursue interests. To an outside observer, [...]
Posted in Activities, Eclectic Homeschooling, News, Teaching methods Tags: child-led learning, Homeschooling, Learning, Unschooling 1 Comment »
