As a unschooling parent , filling your home with materials and resources is a great way to support your childs natural curiosity, for when they feel like creating, exploring and researching. You do not need to create a school like at home atmosphere with desks,folders and posters all over the walls or a classroom like setting, natural learning should entwine with your home and your family,If you are having doubts to what your home should look like , you are over thinking what unschooling is all about, Unschooling means no school, so stop thinking like a teacher. Natural Learning weaves through daily activities so Trying to confine it to a particular space is artificial . Our home (unschooling classroom) looks like a regular house, you will not see learning posters all over the walls or see a dedicated space for "learning" as for us, natural learning is just living in our family home .
You will open up our kitchen cupboards and see measuring jugs, measuring cups,scales,blenders,mortar and pestles,and jars for collecting specimens,you will look over and see our oven and microwave and coffee machine these are all our natural "maths" materials for when the children want to make and bake
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You will go into our sunroom where our old dining table turned art table / bottle flip table is , you will notice 2 cupboards , which hold all our art supplies and recycled cardboard packaging , waiting for when the kids want to paint and create,
You notice half the sunroom is set up as a gym and one wall has a dart board , waiting for the kids to challenge themselves .
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You go into our loungeroom in the corner you'll see our computer and printer , set up for when the kids want to research, print and play, you walk over to our loungeroom cube storage, where you'll find games, books and other bits and pieces, that promote curiosity and exploration- I have found most from second hand shops their waiting for when the kids want to explore and read.
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In the other corner is our bluetooth speaker waiting for our children to embrace music,above that is our shelf with our wooden instruments and guitar
You go into my daughters room, where she has a sewing machine set up ,a mini fashion designing doll kit , some of her artworks she has created are on display , more books, notepads and pencils and a hanging chair where she can read and play her phone in,
You go into my sons shared room and you will find their bow and arrows and metal detectors hanging up, their slingshots,pocket knives,lego builds and power tools on their bookshelfs ,their gemstones and other things they have foung on display , You will notice their xbox and tv set up and their beds are pulled close to it.
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You walk throughout our home and find all our specimens and nature finds we have collected on our outings on display everywhere, waiting to strike new conversations and observations.
Outside you will find our shed full of wood,nails and tools waiting to be turned into something when the kids feel like tinkering
Unschooling is about just having the resources, around for whenever your child may feel like exploring, it doesn't matter what your home is filled with, letting your child naturally learn life skills, problem solving skills and giving them a chance to have hands on opportunities throughout your home is teaching them SOOO much.
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Our bikes, scooters and skateboards are waiting for new adventures, our basketball hoop ,soccer,cricket and tennis balls waiting for a family match
Im sure if you look around your home , you will discover that it is a perfect natural learning space for your child just the way it is, A learning place should be warm,cosy and full of great learning opportunities waiting for your child. It doesn't matter if they do not get used everyday because natural learning is happening one way or another even if you can not see it.
If you look around your home now, you will see that it is most likely full of great materials,appliances,tools and things your child can use.Dont be afraid to let them explore all these amazing natural learning resources. No 2 families are the same, how our home is set up, may be completely different to yours, But our home ( unschooling classroom ) is full of things we all love, wanted or are interested in , like the gym and music area are dads passions, the computer area was for me and this blog, the art area was for my daughter, as she loves art ,and the shed is for the boys as they love to tinker, but we all share these spaces together , with each other .Our learning space will forever be changing and added to as we grow and new curiosities arise.
As well as all the learning opportunities our home provides
We use all the learning opportuinites wifi provides
The kids are constantly watching something new and intriguing on youtube, covering a science, history ,creative arts or a geography topic .That they watch in their own time They are researching their problems and questions on google, and learning more maths, english , creative arts and science things on their online gaming. Whenever we are out and about at say the beach, we always find and see something we talk naturally about that turns into learning something new from a quick google search like yesterday for instincts ,the beach was covered in foam the kids played in and then wanted to know what the foam was from , a quick google search taught us that Large amounts of algal often wash ashore and the Foam forms when the algae particles are churned up by the big surf and the wind , this then lead to further conversations as to what algae was.
As well as all the learning opportunities our home and wifi provides
We use all the learning opportunities nature provides,view some of our other how we unschool post to see how nature helps us learn .
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My children are indeed learning
They are learning from their own curiosities
They are learning from asking questions
They are learning from having a go
They are learning from conversations
They are learning from each other
They are learning from our home
They are learning from playing
They are learning from wifi
They are learning from apps
They are learning from Nature
They are learning naturally
“There is substantial evidence that children have a strong and deep-rooted sensitivity to the natural world and that play, a biologically-driven instinct, is the primary mechanism through which they encounter and explore their immediate physical environment.
Ill be adding a list of our unschooling supplies like books, apps,art materials ,tools,subscriptions that the kids like to use etc and the ways we have been covering subjects like maths, english,science lately - in my next post in the next few days so stay tuned :)
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