What? That can be a fun project too!
Oh yes it can.
Don't believe me? I'll show you.
The first thing we did was go to Fry's Electronics and get ourselves a gigantic world map and hang it above the dining room table. Of course Monkey immediately began inspecting it and asking questions about it, and we've had a lot of fun talking about directions again and finding our town on the map (we live near (but not in) a big enough city that it's on the world map). Now all we had to do was take it one little step further onto the world stage.
So I had Monkey choose a country to learn more about. The winner is.......
Australia!
So how do we incorporate the culture and history of Australia into our unschooling experience? We're going to start where we nearly always start.....with food! This week we are going to make Lamingtons-which besides being a positively delicious looking sponge cake with chocolate and coconut, were also conveniently (for unschooling purposes) named after a historical person (Lord Lamington, a late 19th century Governor of Queensland).
We also plan on learning some Australian songs and the history behind them (including of course the infamous Waltzing Matilda) as well as using the internet to learn about different animals native to Australia.
We also plan on learning some Australian songs and the history behind them (including of course the infamous Waltzing Matilda) as well as using the internet to learn about different animals native to Australia.
We'll practice reading, writing, logic, math (with cooking), as well as Internet navigation and research and we will gradually learn more about Australia, it's history, and it's inhabitants....there are so many fabulous directions to go with this, and so much to be learned! I am very excited to keep moving on this project, to learn more about Australia-and of course the rest of the world! This is a long term project though, so I'll have to be patient.
I'll keep you guys updated on how it's going!
7 comments:
Hi Stopping over from Sits, congratulations on your unschooling. For years I tried to explain what the hell that was to people who asked me what I was doing teaching my child at home. My sister in law did unschooling to 4 for 15 years. We relented though when we both had to go back to work... So highschool is where it all began for the kids. Her's are in traditional while mine prefers charter, home studies. They are all extremely good students even mine with her learning dissabilities. So you go girl and never let the masses see you sweat. I miss those unschooling days sometimes.
Cheers
Brittany
http://www.papermoonies.blogspot.com
How fun! I love the map idea. I can't wait to hear more about the activities you do.
That sounds like a great unit!
That is such a great idea!! I bet you'll both have so much fun with this project! I hope you'll keep us posted....I need some inspiration.
I tried to teach my big twins today how to tie a shoe and I almost lost my mind after 10 minutes.
That sounds like an AWESOME idea! Can hardly wait to hear how it goes!
Don't forget to throw some shrimp on the "barbie"! :) And could you send me some of that chocolate-coconut stuff..sounds delish!!
Brittany-We do love unschooling. We try to keep an open mind-our kids are still very little yet-but so far it's going fantastically for us!
Jenny-Thank you! I think I may be going doing a 'video' series about this project....but we'll see how that works out. The kids are already sick of the camera!
Muthering Heights-Thank you! I'm looking forward to doing all the countries of the world...if his interest sticks that long :)
Helene-Oh I can teach world history but shoe tying? Forgeddaboudit. That's Hubby's department-I just don't have the patience!
Country Girl-I think I'm going to be doing a lot of posting about this particular project!
Jen-Mmmm, barbie (as in BBQ)....
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