The further we get into Keileeís 7^th Grade year the more I find myself almost completely unschooling.† Lesson plans?† I print one out.† It says this…

Monday: Coop† Tuesday: Math Wednesday: Science Thursday: History Friday: Language/Grammar
Additional Ideas:
Puppet Shows?† Your blog? Work on story for NaNoMoWrite? Art Journal Page? Stopanimation video?† Want to try to make a very short claymationvideo? Fun but so.slow!† Wanna play Meridian?† Webkinz? Start your own Pinterest account?† Let’s think of some Random Acts of Kindness we can do.† Any ideas?

I run across so many cool ideas that I usually just jot them down and send them to Kei or email her the links.† She follows up on things that interest her.† Everything doesn’t.† Some weeks nothing does that I send.† That’s OK.

The one thing I read time and time again is parents who think if they didnít plan their kids wouldnít do anything.† Keilee is not like that.† Now she may become like that.† There are unschoolers who say that that would be perfectly ok too!† I donít know what I would do if Kei suddenly sat on the couch and did nothing but watch TV.† But she doesnít.

Here is our unschooling week:

We went to an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln.† Keilee and I both love Lincoln and spent a week at the beginning of August learning about him.

We had a great afternoon playing in the leaves and playing with Nomad. Well Keilee mainly played, I took pictures.

Keilee had a great time at Co-op as usual.† She has such an amazing group of girls in her classes and they all get along so well.† They made homemade biscuits and CHOCOLATE gravy.† Chocolate gravy is a huge deal in the South. I have always. hated.it!† I tried the biscuits though and they were really good!
We voted on Tuesday and then stayed up all night watching the returns.† It is a lesson in Civics and Government that you can not get out of a book.

Keilee had Little Women practice 3 times this past week.† It is coming along so wonderfully. One of my favorite scenes is where the March sisters has their meeting of “The Pickwick Society”.

Here is a commercial they did for “Little Women”† If you watch it on Youtube there is also an interview with each actor.† It is called “Behind the Scenes”† This is the first time we have seen a director do this and it is a great idea!† Did I mention the director was HOMESCHOOLED! 🙂

Maddie Grace came over Friday and I am not sure what all they did but they were loud and giggly and Nomad was beside himself with excitement.† They played a drawing game on iPad, made a Video Star video [of course] made bracelets and I am not sure what else.
Keilee also spent hours and hours on the iPad.† She has discovered Open College courses and has been listening to lecture after lecture.

We took Nomad for a walk at our Wildlife Center, Kei made several videos and we got the most.amazing.package from Jenn and her girls.† It made our day, week, month. Seriously.† Thank you again Jenn. Thank you.

I have gotten several resources lately from a site called Teachers Pay Teachers.† Every thing I have gotten was free.† It is my Favorite Resource.

Here are a few more things she has done in this very unschooling week:

• Stop Animation videos
• Nano Writing.† She is at 7000 words I think
• Bio Poems
• Poetic Devices using a Katy Perry song [we both LOVED this and have noticed different ‘devices’ ever since.
• Saxon Math
• TED videos about global warming
• TED videos about spotted seals which led her to spend an hour looking up info about these. She was so excited after watching it.† She was talking 100 miles a minute telling me all about how scientists always thought they were aggressive and this one man did all these studies and they really aren’t.† The thing is..she will NEVER forget this information because it was something she WANTED to learn.
• She took a college pre test without telling me.† I heard her say, “This is really easy” but didn’t’ pay a lot of attention.† Afterwards she said, “Oh my gosh look at this”.† The page said she had missed only 2 questions and had qualified for College Math and English. She had to say that she was 18 before she could take the test.† She was pretty geeked.
• She is ‘taking’ a college class on Poetry writing and has written several poems.† This is not something she had every been interested in doing before.
• As I type this she is listening to a lecture on DNA and genetics.

So I think we will continue on this journey.† If she wants more ‘lesson planny’ stuff, I will give it to her.† But for us now, this is working so beautifully.† This is what I have always had in my mind when I first considered ‘homeschooling’.

No good news about my job, but for today, for this minute we are ‘gooder than good‘ as my Mom always said.

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“I know of nothing more inspiring than that of making discoveries for oneís self.” ~George Washington Carver

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Mary at Collage Friday
Susan at Favorite Resources