Our Unschooled Week in Welly

We had been pushing hard at home for a good 4 weeks.
We finished up our BraveWriter Arrow book, Sarah, Plain, and Tall.
We completed our IXL online math lessons.

Not to mention, New Zealand holidays (for schools) were about to happen.  And when the Kiwis go on holiday, homeschoolers get the itch to go too!

And with things naturally coming to an end, we decided to travel with Daddy to Wellington for the week.  But this week, I decided to claim as our "unschooling" week.

According to Wikipedia
"Unschooling is an educational method and philosophy that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschooling students learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, internships and work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors, and social interaction. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, believing that the more personal learning is, the more meaningful, well-understood and therefore useful it is to the child."

And THIS is how we spent our UNSCHOOLED week:

Mini Golf at Carlucci Land

Mini golf has always been my go-to activity for teaching Math.  Count your strokes, write them on the scorecard and add them up after 18 holes of mini golf.  The simple addition to multiplication...an invitation to use a calculator!  Just having fun and mimicking the good ole game of golf. 

But after finding THIS unique course that's tucked away in Wellington, NZ, I looked at ALL the possible learning that happened on this course.  

My boys began to study how the golf balls moved through the steel structures.  They came up with strategies based on their basic knowledge of mini golf engineering and science.  We all stepped back to appreciate the artwork that went into creating each of these unique golf holes. 

STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math...these were ALL covered in this one, sweet homeschooling experience!  

Bet this made you rethink your next mini golf experience! 

Celebrating the Fourth of July...with fellow American Homeschoolers

Planning and preparing a celebration always ends up being fun!   But when you connect with another family that JUST moved over and they join you for the celebration...that just adds to the fun, right?  And that's just what Wild + Free Mamas do.  We find a way to connect even if it's for the first time in a new country! 

We grilled hamburgers.  Drank raspberry lemonade.  Popped the most basic fireworks we could find.  The kids suited up in their swimsuits to soak in the hot tub!

BC swimsuits in July seem to make sense to all of us!  (even in the middle of a NZ winter)

And even made strawberry & blueberry cheesecake parfaits for dessert.  

The Wellington Zoo

The weather was unbelievable and so was this zoo.

I could go on and on.  So to help with all the details...just check out our favorite pics.

Jax hanging out with the Emu!  Free ranged and so friendly

Sweet Life!

This place had a grassy area where the Wallabies just freely hang out.  They were so friendly and chill.  At to top off the experience, they had a giant trampoline for the kids to jump on. #pretendplay 

Nix having a standoff with a Kea.  These are very smart NZ birds.  Google it!

Homeschoolers at their finest!  Being Wild and Free!

People Watching while Whale Watching 

Thursday, while we were at the zoo.  Someone spotted a Northern Right Whale in the Wellington harbor. So Friday, we made our way downtown to go whale watching.  Our favorite park (Frank Kitt Park) happens to be right there!

Later, we walked to our favorite downtown bookstore.  

We found some good reads, then grab a treat at the cafe.   

 We had fun!  We learned but in a non-traditionally learned.  And we learned so many great things!

From learning about being honest and leaving cash in the box at the mini golf place, to using an EFFPOS (NZ debit card) machine to buy parking tickets. 

All great weeks must come to an end. 

We were all ready to leave the city and head back home.

Desert Highway - Mt. Ruapehu 

Happy Learning with your loved ones!