Brent's book on Earthquakes and Volcanoes arrived. He was very excited to get his hands on it and check out the projects and activities inside. We used these books last year quite successfully; he did rocks and soil and early US history. Brent likes to really get into a subject and do it for a long time, but struggles picking what he wants to do. He likes using these books as a reference and source of ideas. These books contain a collection of activities & ideas all related to the one subject and he picks and chooses what he wants to do. The activities become a spring board for lots of related things. I'm not sure the writers intended these books to be used for months at a time, but that is how it works for us. Who knows how long this current love will last, but we haven't "finished" one of these books before, so we probably won't this time either.
I'm not a lover of curriculum especially when you lose site of the learning of a child because you are so rigidly following your to do list, but the way he uses these never feels forced or overly structured. Despite the use of a workbook, we consider ourselves mostly unschoolers; though I am not a fan of the name; I prefer Natural Learners. Brent is free to pick and choose whatever he wants to do. He likes projects and learning as much as he can about whatever strikes an interest. He chose this and could easily never do one thing in the book and that would be fine with me. I don't believe unschooling/natural learning is about restricting what my kids want to pursue; this includes educational resources if that is what they want. I like the freedom of allowing him to structure his own days the way that makes him happy while at the same time his sister chooses something completely different. Homeschooling is such a wonderful way to live. I wish I had been allowed to pursue my own interests when I was young. Sometimes I have trouble remembering what they were!
ummm seriously.. nightmares.. the floridas are gonna blow. mark my words. gonna blow!!