So in October we spent about two and a half weeks studying planets.
It. Was. AWESOME!
I learned so much. Bear learned a fair deal, too.
We had originally intended to approach homeschooling from a much more unschooling-type perspective. Actually, I say "we", but I think in reality it was more me: Mr. A was, from the start, interested in having a bit more structure. I resisted because, ideologically, I think unschooling makes a lot of sense. Children are bursting over with eagerness to learn about the world around them; I'm sure our kiddos would acquire the knowledge they need through their own discoveries. But through a combination of my overly-controlling personality, our continued eagerness to justify our abilities as teachers, and just generally being new to the whole process, we have taken a different approach. It's our own, fusion-type thing. And it seems to be working quite well.
We are doing relaxed, child-led unit studies. Basically, when it comes time to choose a new unit of study, Bear decides what he wants to study. If it's just ridiculously broad ("nature" was one such suggestion), then we guide him to something a little bit more specific (say, "plants"). But generally, we let him decide what he wants to study. Then, we go to the library to find a bunch of books (a mixture of picture books and for-kids fact books, like the Dorling Kindersley series), a preschool theme kit (if available), and any other resources we can find. Then, we go on a big "hunt" around our house for any existing resources we may have on the topic, and put them all into a big crate labeled "This week's materials".
Every couple of days, we try to have some kind of project to do together, and we read relevant materials almost every "school day" (Mon through Fri, except for holidays, and only while Mama and Daddy are in school, too). Technically, we try to do school stuff for at least an hour per school day, and that will be a mixture of a couple of different activities, due to his being so little and prone to huge lapses in attention. But obviously, we take the chances we get throughout the day and run with them. Case in point: I was making iced coffee last night (for myself, obv) and Bear decided he wanted to watch an ice cube melt. So we threw several into a clean pot, turned the stove up to high, and drew a big water cycle chart while watching the changes occur. Bear pointed out that it was reversible change (thank you, Sid the Science Kid!); I sang and goofydanced to "It's Raining, It's Pouring", subbing a couple of words out for their Spanish equivalents. It was spontaneous, multi-'subject', and pretty badass. We had a grand time. But, alas, I digress.
The point is, we have come up with a unit studies/unschooling hybrid that is working well for us so far. And as for long-term plans, when Belle is old enough she will join in the decision-making process for theme-of-the-month. Moreover, the unit study format enables different ability levels to be doing different projects under the same major theme at the same time, which I love love love.
Bear builds a rocket (entirely his own idea).
So the first topic chosen was the planets. The library (REPRESENT!) had a theme kit on outer space, so we picked up a copy of that. We also looked through our collection of National Geographic magazines, and while I looked for interesting planet-related photos for Bear to look at, he looked for planet stuff to cut out to make a collage; he ended up making a couple. One day he and Mr. A watched some short YouTube videos on the planets, on topics ranging from comparative sizes of the planets to each other and the stars in our galaxy, to silly planet songs. One song (link at the bottom of this post) was not-so-silly: it was written after the 2006 (didn't know the year before last month) demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet status (this is why), so it does not include Pluto, and it is an incredibly catchy way to remember the order of the planets.....without having to question who/what/when our Very Eager Mother Just Served. They also watched a video on supernovas, and I came home one day to have him explain to me in some detail what a supernova was (I had no clue).
On the first day, Bear did not know what 'to orbit' means, so we dropped everything and ran outside in the yard to figure it out. We happen to have a spare tire sitting in the front, which will one day be hung from a tree to become a swing; because this is nicely round and very visible, it became our sun. Then Bear and I transformed ourselves into planets, and we orbited the sun. Sometimes we walked, sometimes we ran, but we were outside for about twenty minutes and that boy had a whale of time while quickly absorbing the meaning of the word, 'orbit'.
A couple of days later, we created a solar system out of balloons. It was a beautiful crisp, sunny day, so I embraced my inner-hippie and took a stack of planet books and a bag of balloons outside. We sat in the grass, cuddled, and read for a bit. Then, Bear ran around ("I'm orbiting you, Mom!") while I continued to read aloud, alternating with blowing up some balloons. Two of the books we read were Postcards From Pluto and The Sun: Our Nearest Star, both of which I'd highly recommend for this age group. When we had nine balloons (sun plus eight planets), we went back indoors, tied some ribbon to each one, and taped them in a straight line along Bear's bedroom ceiling. It is far from glamorous, but he thought it rocked, and it certainly got the message across. Another project we did was to create a 'living' planets map. We made a little place tag for the sun and for each of the eight planets, and then pulled the tap measure out and ran it along the length of our hallway. We placed the sun at the beginning of the tape measure, and then put each planet along the line, to scale. Bear also had the bright idea to create an asteroid belt to put between Mars and Jupiter, which he did. It looked really nice, but in hindsight I think using rocks for each planet would have been a better idea, as the nametags went flying everywhere once Bear decided he wanted to be a rocket and fly from planet to planet. Repeatedly.
Other highlights from this unit included playing a Wall-E computer game a few times, Bear creating a rocket out of trash, and this YouTube video about the solar system. We put together his wooden rocket puzzle, and then tried to fit it together in other ways. We used the alphabet blocks to spell out planet names and place them around our living room (half the planets were invented ones), and then zoomed the rocket puzzle around to the different planets. Bear drew a lot of planets, and told us repeatedly how much he loves Jupiter. He told us all about its Great Red Spot.
Just look at this gorgeous girly! It's amazing the excitement that can come from a single balloon. Yes, this picture has absolutely nothing to do with our unit on planets, but it's such an adorable picture; her enthusiasm here is infectious. Plus, the pictures of my 13-month-old's participation in homeschooling activities are sparse. Obviously.
The completed rocket.
This is one of our favorite "different" ways to read: construct a fort, then have a readfest. We do it once or twice every few weeks. There are numerous impracticalities, but the allure of something a bit out of the ordinary simply cannot be resisted.
Our solar system! The sun is all the way to the left, appropriately attached to the room's light, as per Bear's request. Then we have Mercury (little by request as well) through Neptune, and I am superproud to say that, yes, my 4-year-old does know them all in order. Mostly due to this song.
At the end of the first week, and then again at the end of the unit, we did a couple of scrapbook pages about our work. The really memorable parts for Bear? The planet map, reading about Curious George going into space (Curious George Gets a Medal, on audiobook from the library as part of the theme kit), a silly YouTube video of the Earth and the Moon hanging out, what a supernova is, how the universe exploded from something really small, that the sun is really hot, and that Pluto hasn't been a planet since 2006: he actually checks the copyright page on planet books now to see whether they were written before or after Pluto was demoted. He told me Pluto must have been very sad in 2005 because it wasn't going to be a planet anymore the next year.
We created our own planet, and included in the scrapbook a factfile of its vital stats. Its name? "Poop"...hey, he's four.
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