So for the rest of regular school attending society, school is almost out! For the 2006-2007 year we used a very generous and oppressive online school, ORCA to be exact, and let me tell you how hard that was to balance ORCA for 2 kids, take care of a preschooler and a NEWBORN baby...a year with many tears shed by all. However, it did give a kick start to reading.
This last school year, the one about to end, 2007-2008- we unschooled all the way. My house look a little better for it, the kids were a lot happier and well, I got to enjoy my toddler (*was* baby) a lot more!
The question is, do I dare *try* to homeschool over the summer, or just dedicate our summer to just reading books and me learning more about Unit Studies & Lapbooking? That sounds good! Start fresh and new in the Fall! Our co-op is planning on starting up and going bigger this fall, so some prep for that will be good too.
Happy Summer!
Showing posts with label Unit Studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unit Studies. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Unit Studies & Lapbooking
I am gearing up for our first Unit Study...Farm Animals. This is one I have always wanted to do since Morgan was a toddler. I think this will be fun since I can easily tailor it for all the kids, it is Spring and there are a lot of baby animals out there being born, we just came from the Ag Fest and it leads into our next Unit, Veggie Gardening. These are min-Units because I am learning how to do this, and we will do at least one Lapbook during the unit on something specific. I am SO excited, this is what I have always wanted to do, but never really knew where to start. I have a bunch of info from the workshops I took at OHEN and will be posting more soon!
Monday, March 31, 2008
OHEN Conference
I attended the OHEN conference this last Saturday. I am going to copy & paste my description from my SASH yahoogroups...
I went to the TV free class, the Unit Studies class, Lapbooking class and the Unschooling class.
The TV free/limited TV class was small, about 8 of us, but really discussion oriented and I loved how it worked out for our small group. We learned a lot, shared a lot and got some hand-outs. Nothing I didn't know already, but helped to reinforce my thinking of "limited meda" for so many reasons, a place I am at right now...fed up w/ too much media mediums in our home.
The Unit Studies class was great, and I got a lot out of it! I took a bunch of notes on her powerpoint slide show and just loved the hand-out too. I am really thinking that Unit Studies will be fun for all of us. Her style may have rubbed some the wrong way, but her having 5 boys and one girl, well, honestly...perspectives change once you have a "troop" of kids (especially boys), and people can sound harsher than they are meaning to (just their style of humor w/ a big family!).
The Lapbooking class style got a little grittier, I could tell she was just exhausted! However, I learned some great things on Lapbooking, how to integrate into Unit Studies or between them. Very helpful! (Youtube has a bunch of lapbooking clips).
The Unschooling class...well, let's just say I was wishing it was as engaging as her opening speach in the morning. Not what I would've said in a speech about unschooling, and I am not an expert. Some gems in there though, and pulled as much as I could out of it, taking notes all the while.
I am going to some of Scott's talks at the "Life is Good" unschooling seminiar in Vancouver next month or May (keep forgetting when it is!), so I skipped his talks.
Last year the whole thing was WAY bigger I think...bigger space, more classes, bigger rooms to sit in. But they are a very small group of women making this whole thing happen, and I think they did an excellent job it just being them! I think maybe more PR and bigger speakers to rally up more people?
I didn't get my registration in until Friday night, so I had to actually get in my car and leave for lunch (didn't make one and they were out of them, only taking pre-orders), so I missed the walking around and checking out name tags. That and getting my 10 year old to his classes and then to mine.
We drove around a part of Beaverton I wasn't familiar with and found their enormous health food store- New Seasons Market. It was SO cool, wish we had that down here!
I did really enjoy it though, and sadly, they only happen every 2 yrs. We will be attending the A Good Life unschooling conf. in May as a family though, and that should be fun too (especially since I HATE leaving Logan for so long & far away!).
I went to the TV free class, the Unit Studies class, Lapbooking class and the Unschooling class.
The TV free/limited TV class was small, about 8 of us, but really discussion oriented and I loved how it worked out for our small group. We learned a lot, shared a lot and got some hand-outs. Nothing I didn't know already, but helped to reinforce my thinking of "limited meda" for so many reasons, a place I am at right now...fed up w/ too much media mediums in our home.
The Unit Studies class was great, and I got a lot out of it! I took a bunch of notes on her powerpoint slide show and just loved the hand-out too. I am really thinking that Unit Studies will be fun for all of us. Her style may have rubbed some the wrong way, but her having 5 boys and one girl, well, honestly...perspectives change once you have a "troop" of kids (especially boys), and people can sound harsher than they are meaning to (just their style of humor w/ a big family!).
The Lapbooking class style got a little grittier, I could tell she was just exhausted! However, I learned some great things on Lapbooking, how to integrate into Unit Studies or between them. Very helpful! (Youtube has a bunch of lapbooking clips).
The Unschooling class...well, let's just say I was wishing it was as engaging as her opening speach in the morning. Not what I would've said in a speech about unschooling, and I am not an expert. Some gems in there though, and pulled as much as I could out of it, taking notes all the while.
I am going to some of Scott's talks at the "Life is Good" unschooling seminiar in Vancouver next month or May (keep forgetting when it is!), so I skipped his talks.
Last year the whole thing was WAY bigger I think...bigger space, more classes, bigger rooms to sit in. But they are a very small group of women making this whole thing happen, and I think they did an excellent job it just being them! I think maybe more PR and bigger speakers to rally up more people?
I didn't get my registration in until Friday night, so I had to actually get in my car and leave for lunch (didn't make one and they were out of them, only taking pre-orders), so I missed the walking around and checking out name tags. That and getting my 10 year old to his classes and then to mine.
We drove around a part of Beaverton I wasn't familiar with and found their enormous health food store- New Seasons Market. It was SO cool, wish we had that down here!
I did really enjoy it though, and sadly, they only happen every 2 yrs. We will be attending the A Good Life unschooling conf. in May as a family though, and that should be fun too (especially since I HATE leaving Logan for so long & far away!).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
