I’ve been thinking a lot over the past year about the concept of unschooling.

I know that unschooling means different things to different people.  To me it simply means self-directed education.

Even though I am quick to link myself to the unit study approach, I believe I’m an unschooler at heart.  I try my best to supply the resources for my children, but I give them a choice in the matter.

This is why we do not always have a unit study going.  Sometimes we’re busy learning about Stan Lee or Japanese anime’, or graphic arts. 

Time 4 Learning has beome a great tool in our unschooling toolbox.  It’s so easy to use and it’s so fun!

Wednesday I had my 3rd grader and 4th grader work from their Sonlight language arts and then do the other subjects on t4l. The newly revamped Sonlight LA program focuses on being a good writer. My special needs son prefers t4l learning LA because he doesn’t have to come up w/ the answer on his own, he gets to choose the answer. And he doesn’t have to write! He feels the same way about math!

I would like to have them do some Sonlight LA more regularly, but I love though that if things get hectic, I can depend again on t4l LA.

Also, I signed up for a free month of Pokemon learning league for my neighbor’s grandson(age 11, almost 12). My kids never watched the show, but this kid loves it. Everyday I let him do one lesson of t4l and then the other subjects on the Pokemon site. Anything to help the medicine go down, I say. He has some learning differences, too. I just love hearing the Pokemon characters teach what he has already been taught on t4l w/ a “Pokemon” spin to it. I hope it really reinforces the lessons for him.

My daughter who is a first grader is doing awesome. I tended to let her just listen in to lessons as she wanted to, many times skipping activities I had planned just for her. Sometimes she would just play in her room or maybe watch a movie or play on the computer while I tended to the other kids. Now she gets on t4l and does the most lessons and the most subjects of all my kids!  We were all telling my husband Wednesday night what a hard worker she is. I am so glad; and she is very proud of herself.

My first grader has very little interest in learning to read.

I have successfully taught my older kids to read using various phonics materials, ie. Abeka, Saxon and Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons.

I have tried several things with this one child over the past couple of years.  We have had the most success with Time 4 Learning and in a very short time.  He loves that the phonics lessons are similar to his favorite thing-computer games!

But…   He is so very wiggly, out of focus, talky-talky! 

He knows all of the letter sounds and many of the blends. He is at a point in the lesson activities where he can complete the lessons, but just isn’t holding on to the information when it comes to reading.

What have you all used along with T4L to really get going with reading?  OR, how have you tweaked T4L to make the most of this great learning tool?

Thanks!

Lisa

Hi, I’m Lisa! 

My husband, Tim and I have been married for 21 years and have five children.  We currently homeschool four of them.   They are 17g(next week), 13b, 10b, 6b and 2b years old.  

We are closing in on the end of our 10th year of homeschooling. The years have flown by!   It has been hard, easy, scary, fun, challenging, but always….real.

We chose to home educate mainly for Biblical reasons in the beginning.  Being Christians, we wanted to add Godly principles to our children’s education.

After a short while, we realized we were also dealing with dyslexia and dysgraphia in our oldest child.  So, our story and our reasoning changed a bit-still Christian, but more. 

Now our homeschool also covers a language/developmentally delayed fantasy/sci-fi fan , one “easy breezy” artistic child, a very bright, possibly ADHD computer freak and the baby-our medical miracle heart baby!  Whew….

Our 6 year old is currently using T4L and is doing great!  We hope to add our 1o year old soon and then our 13 year old will squeak in before he gets too old.  Oh, how I wish I had T4L back in 1998….

That’s our story.  I hope to get to know you all and chat about all those things that make us who we are; so different and yet, so very similar…

Once again, Natalie just amazes me.  I can’t say it enough, I wish I had T4L when Emily was just learning to read, 8 years ago.  Anyway, Natalie is reading on her own now.  This week she went through about 10 small lessons mostly in the Language Arts curriculum for 1st grade and then a few others in the Language Arts Extention for 1st grade.  In these lessons there are sections where the story is read to her, then it asks her to identify different words and finally it makes her read the story back as each word is highlighted with a click of the mouse.  She did great and really enjoyed reading the stories.  As hard as it is at night (because I’m usually very sleepy) I let her read to me or we share the story.  She also reads to her dad when he’s working in the garage.

I am proud of her progress and her dedication to keep learning and to even go on T4L after being in school all day.  She doesn’t go on everyday, usually on Wednesday because she has a half day and Friday’s because she goes to bed a little later than usual.  The other days are optional.  She also goes one if she is reviewing something in particular that she may be struggling with. We just find one of the lessons to help her through that and so far we’ve been able to find something on T4L to match what they have been doing in class.

We are over our colds, still holding on to a little sinus or allergy issues but otherwise everyone is feeling pretty good and looking forward to our family vacation over the holidays.

Everyone, have safe and healthy week.

Terie