A Peek inside our Unschooled Week

It was the end of March.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful.  And my husband and I were about to head out of the country for a special trip to Switzerland, which meant packing, preparing and really spending quality time with each of my children.

I was going to be away from my kids for 2 weeks and 2 days!!!!!!  This was a first for everyone and honestly scared the bejesus out of me. So quality time, with the 3 little ones that I love, was super important to me.  

I could have planned some structured learning.  I could have laid out books to read and planned out math lessons that needed to be taught.  But I stepped back and tried something that I will never regret…a week of unschooling.  

The term unschooling should have NEVER been created in my opinion.  Two years ago, I thought unschoolers were kids of crazy adults that had NO sense of time.  Boy, was I wrong.  Unschooling is more like "child-led learning".  

Kids play and learn naturally, you take their lead.  Am I right on this, unschooling homeschoolers out there?

During this week:

Did we stop reading…no.  

Did we stop writing…no.

Did we stop learning...NO! NO! NO!

I just stopped with my plans and had my children lead the way…child-led learning happened and I was amazed at how wonderful our week ended up being.

I simply noted (in red) all that naturally happened during this unschooling week.
By the end of the week, my planning book was COVERED in red writing.

Here is a peek inside our Unschooled Week:

These boys have Wild Kratt FEVER!!!  Lots of imaginative play in the back yard and at the park for these 2 brothers.

J wanted to print off a few power discs to play with and collect.  So this was the perfect chance for a quick intro to Google docs.  We looked up images, saved them, pasted them and printed them.  This boy EVEN learned how to laminate using my favorite tool in the house.  When you have ALL these power discs, then you better build something to put them in.  

And that led to this awesome Lego holder to house the creature power discs!

 When MiniM had some out-of-this-world fun!   

 And when you construction trucks are dirty...you better get out some soap and water to wash them clean, right?

And just when I thought it could get any better - THIS HAPPENED!

An amazing morning, hiking and learning about nature with our amazing friends.

This day clearly provided that "a classroom doesn't always have to have 4 walls".

We learned about bird migration and bees.  We hiked to a beautiful stream.  

Kids were being kids and the moms were soaking it all up.

Because of this one “unschooling” week, I have decided to claim a few unschooling weeks, just like this one, throughout our school year.  Honestly, we never stop learning at our home.  That's the atmosphere that my husband and I have created.  

But I guess claiming a week or two for just "unschooling" made me feel a freedom within our homeschool.  I felt a freshness about learning.  And if I felt this, then I know my children felt it too.