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How we Unschool
So this month the sun is still shining but our Tassie weather is getting colder again, but that doesn't mean we stop our adventures, our natural learning together or stop embracing the great outdoors.Alot of Natural learning has already happened this month and it is only the 10th.So this is some of the things we have learnt in our Unschooling Journey over the last week!
This Month's Natural learning so far
We found our very own secluded beach,by 4wding the kids practised parkour and balancing over rocks, questions were asked by indie about why the rocks were so smooth and round on the beach -so I googled this on my phone- they all learnt (myself aswell) that -
Over time they are worn smooth from being rolled around by waves and
these are
The 3 main effects that take place
Abrasion-
Rocks collide causing the rocks to chip and become smooth.
Resistance-
the sand creates resistance and acts like sand paper to smooth the rocks.
Motion of the water-
The motion of the water pushes the rocks and causes the rocks to collide with the rocks and stream beds.
We also played maths addition games, whoever get the most correct answers out of 15 won the title of calling our new beach's name - Huey won so of course he called it Huey's beach.
- covering science, geography, pdhpe, English,maths subjects
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We explored around the rockpools and to our delight found some carpet starfish, the kids held and observed them .We discussed how starfish have no brains or bones, and how they have a eye on the end of each arm,that are colour-blind.We also discussed how they can only survive in saltwater- Then this conversation brought up what the difference between salt water and fresh water meant. - covering more science,geography, english subjects
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We went fishing a few times and caught lots of Australian salmon, Huey and Julian were really interested in this, dad taught them how to cast and a technique on how to wine in the lure-to act as a fish.They measured and realised the smaller ones back into the ocean.They all pretend played floor is lava, balancing on the rocks and sliding down the big sand dunes and indie decided to do some list writing ( she loves making lists) - she wrote some ideas for her Roblox café she was designing - covering science,geography,pdhpe,creative arts,english subjects
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Where we live the mountains meet the beach and that means the farms to ,we drove past a Mumma cow and her calf on the way fishing and got to have a great little conversation of the great facts I research about cows on google, then and there - we pulled over the car to have a better look.So we got discussing how Mumma Cows are devotional mothers and are known to walk for miles to find their baby calves, we also discussed how cows just like people form friendships and often hang around 2-4 certain cow friends in their lifetime,We learnt together how cows are extremely curious and inquisitive animals that will investigate everything,and that they get excited when they solve problems like a research study found when a cow is faced with the challenge of trying find out how to open a door to reach food, their heartbeats went up, their brainwaves showed excitement, and some even jumped into the air. How cute is that! My daughter just loved that fact ! and We learnt together that cows have 3 exceptional senses their sight -they have almost a 360 degree panoramic vision, their smell - they can detect odours up to five miles away and cows have great hearing - cows hear both low and high frequency sounds beyond human capability - Unschooling is all about great learning opportunities like that! covering - science,geography,english subjects
We went to our favourite waterfall swimming hole ,(you'd only find this great spot if you new a local)- the kids swam against the little current,timing each other to see who can stay the longest with their heads under the flowing waterfall wall,(you can breath under there) whoever won got a soda! (they all ended up with a soda )- we discussed about salt water vs fresh water again,as they learnt about this a couple of days ago.My curious son asked where does the water come from ? We discussed unlike the ocean water (which is salt water), the swimming hole was from freshwater, that comes from the rain falling down the mountain creating a little freshwater river system.The kids practised their rock climbing skills remembering their safety precautions we always talk about . covering science,geography,maths,pdhpe subjects
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Our new lift the flap Usborne books have finally arrived
The kids have been doing alot of creative arts , we finally received our amazing lift the flap Usborne books ,They cover so many awesome subjects and facts about everything from science,geography,history,money,english and more . My kids aren't much "book readers" they'd rather read stuff online and when natural reading opportunities come up, but we cant get enough of these,they have flaps that you fold up to find more about underneath, anyways my daughter sat there for hours reading most pages and would excitingly tell all of us the new facts she was learning,you can find these books HERE .
my daughter also created her own cafe signs for their pretend cafe roleplay game,They all played with our natural open ended toys and they also done some art colouring competitions, indie painted a unicorn for a tree of life giftcard competition and the boys colouring in for a Bunnings voucher competition ( they love tools and building stuff) covering creative arts,english,science,history,geography subjects
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We went for over a hour drive to explore special sand dunes amongst a rainforest ,whenever we have long trips we play eye spy games (to help my youngest son learn letter soundings for his spelling - we say the word sound instead of letter, the oldest 2 we get to spell out the word when they get it right )so we had many games of this, the kids love it. Anyways- at the Dunes we read the sign and discussed that The sand dunes reach heights of about 30 meters, and are Formed from over hundreds of years of roaring forty winds blowing the sand from the beach through the rainforest forming these sand dunes.We climbed these huge sands dunes covering english,geography,pdhpe subjects
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We went 4wding , the kids love standing on the back of the ute tray while we drive (i loved it as a kid too) - we came by a poor dead stingray that had been washed up, but this lead to a great science lesson about the stingray, I googled some stingray facts and we all natural learned together that stingrays have no bones in their body – and that their skeleton is made up of flexible cartilage (the bendy stuff that your ears and nose are made from!).We discussed how they use a super set of senses to search for food these are Special gel-filled pits across the front of their face, (called Ampullae of Lorenzini), none of us could say that word - this allows them to pick up electrical signals from other animals when they move – how cool is that! and the stingray protects itself with venomous spines or barbs in their tail - hence their name.We all learnt as well that the stingray enjoys munching on crustaceans (we discussed what crustaceans meant) - they eat small fish, snails, clams, shrimp and other small creatures.The kids also ran around , climbed sand dunes like always and threw sand bombs at each other.
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and we also celebrated a birthday girl this month a big 10 year old. Recently she has been drawing dress designs,watching youtube videos of diy textiles , and creating her own fashion,so we got her a sewing machine, i also found this great mini doll fashion design kit for her, it was packed full of how to -guides, fabric, scissors everything you could imagine to make mini clothing, she loved it all,- she also got a hanging boho chair that she really wanted for her room , and a flower press among other things. Things she got were to create,make and enhance her curiosities, great for our unschooling resources.
You can purchase these to from clicking the below links :
doll fashion kit ( I got mine from kmart but i so wish i saw this one first)
flower press ( I got mine from kmart aswell but these ones are just so cute)
They also played online gaming- I like to call it (educational software) as so much learning happens while they play- roblox,fortnite, watched various youtube videos,Indie created more gaming videos for her youtube channel and they each asked many many questions throughout the week, alot more went on aswell that I cant quite think of.
Natural learning is about experiences like that
Unschooling is all about natural learning, when learning opportunities pop up from everyday life, you jump on that opportunity to learn - side by side with your child in that moment. You embrace their curiosities, follow their lead and know that learning is happening naturally.
Its so easy to turn just about everything your child does into " so called" subjects. Look what we achieved in little over a week naturally.
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