Schooling with out bookwork

One of the things that MissG struggles with is writing. She reads OK, although large blocks of text are really overwhelming for her. She does like to read though, and is pretty good at it. 

Writing is another thing. She has a hard time with the fine motor movements involved. She has a hard time learning the rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation. She gets tired pretty quickly when writing. As a result, MissG doesn't like to do much bookwork. 

We do have some work books in the house, and she sometimes chooses to use them, but not every day. Sometimes not every week!! I ask her regularly if she'd like to sit with me and look at the workbooks, but I do not insist she does bookwork if she doesn't want to. There are plenty of other ways to learn that are just as (maybe more) effective, so this isn't a problem. 

So, I thought I'd share some of the things we have done so far this term in our homeschooling. 

It is worth knowing that pretty much all of the activities we did were initiated by MissG. I just support her in her learning and follow her around with a camera so I can record what she does and categorise it for my record keeping later on. This style of home schooling is often called Unschooling. We just call it "what works around here". 

Some of the activities we did for Maths included 

 *working on an Abacus to learn about groups of ten....

*using dominoes to learn about different ways of adding to get to the same number 

*using dominoes with some addition cards to make up a variation on a dominoes game 

*weighing and recording the weights of some of our vegetable garden produce, then talking about how much the things we had grown would cost at the shops

Some of the activities we did for English included

 *reading books while using the foot spa

*making a newsletter called "House Noos" (house news)

Some of the activities we did for Science and HSIE included

*gardening

*learning about the critters that live in our garden

*collecting eggs and preparing them for incubation, then incubating them

 *preparing the brooder for the hatching chicks

 *keeping records go the incubating eggs development (also Maths)

*hatching chicks!!! 

*selling some of the chicks (MissG chose how many to sell and set the price, I helped her find a buyer and supported her interactions with the buyer)

So, we've been busy with lots of learning, and barely a workbook in sight! 

I'll admit, this method of learning is more work for me, in terms of  vigilance on my part in record keeping and monitoring to comply with BOSTES expectations, but it is so worth it! The whole reason MissG is schooled at home is that the school institution doesn't provide a method of learning that she finds accessible and manageable in terms of stress.... so this is better for her, and fun for both of us!