An Unschooling Week in our Hackschooling Life

Our hackschooling life very much encompasses our lives itself. There is no line that separates schooling time from non schooling time, no teacher - student relationship that takes a break at the end of a school day, no holidays away from the school complex for either the student or the teacher. Day after day, we walk the same path, the same teacher, the same student(s). It can and does become wearying, as children will be children, and parenting and educating simultaneously is no trivial matter. Hackschooling though, allow us the freedom to shake things up at the first sign of drudgery. 

So, last Monday we started our unschooling 'week'. Since the start of our hackschooling, we have had many such weeks. They have been crucial to our  progression on this journey. We keep to our daily rhythms of waking up, meals and bed times and the children attend their classes / activities that are scheduled but no planned work, takes place. As always, I discussed about our impending week with the children a few days prior. This is our time to recoup and reconnect.

So what have we been doing since?

MAMA

• I welcomed the week as I needed to unplug .... from screens and gadgets, from my own expectations pertaining to our hackschooling.

• I needed to recoup, I was feeling drained. I spent a good chunk of my time reading. My book at the moment is The Thinking Child.

• I needed to reconnect, with myself and with the children. We spent more time cuddled up together, reading, chatting and watching T.V.

• I wanted to evaluate our hackschooling and devise plans for any needed changes. This is something I do ever so often, it gives us the flexibility to adapt and better accommodate the children's needs.

• I spent the  better part of my days being more attentive to the activities the children were engaged in and I talked to them about things they desired changing in their hackschooling. 

Mr Curious

• He made a start on the first book in his Narnia collection, The Magician's Nephew. Although he has had these books for over three months, he was not particularly interested in them until now.

• He watched several episodes of The Blue Planet and wanted to know more about non breeding mamals, when the conversation led to test tube babies.

• He spent several hours each day, building with his lego and announced that he needed a broader collection.  

• • He took his Cubs affirmation vows !
  
  
  
  
  
• He read and read a variety of books in a variety of locations, on the stairs, in bed, under the table etc....

• He composed various tunes on his keyboard.

• After dinner one night he wanted to keep a cooked chicken bone to carry out an experiment he had read about, so we provided him with vinegar, a small cup and he proceeded to soak the bone in and declared that his experiment should not be meddled with while he is sleeping.The vinegar was going to dissolve the calcium in the bone and render it softer. The following morning he hastened to check on his bone! It was indeed softer but not as malleable as he had imagined....

• He put together a Joke Book

Miss Delightful

• She designed and coloured in her intricate patterns.

• She took part in several cooking sessions.
  
  
  

• She engaged in role play, on her own and at times with her brother.

Here, she is in a self made costume ( she had drapped a long scarf around her waist and was pretending to be a dancer with rabbit ears! )

•  She conducted her own experiments, cutting a piece of thread and trying to glue it back together, to find out that not everything can be glued back!                                                                                 

We are slowly returning to some planned work this week. As I reflect on our week and well, our whole year ( as I am the relecting kind, you see), I learn to appreciate more the great things we do do. and not rumminate on the lousy things that do happen.