Hello all. I'm new to this forum; I've just been poking around for a while. I've been thining of asking this question for a while, but couldn't figure out how to word it, so roll with me if you can.
My children are very young - 3 and 1 - but we've been leaning toward homeschooling since the oldest was about a year. We don't really do any specifically "educational" activities. We play. Mostly running around outside pushing trucks and going down slides. We read stories. We occassionally do some kind of art. We have puzzles, shape sorters, pattern sequencing kits, etc, but most of the time the just want to push cars, trucks and trains (and pretned to be imaginary sword carrying princesses
) - in other words, toys we've bought that they rarely play with. But we talk about everything . . . in the brief times between the almost non-stop running we are pelted with questions about life, the universe and everything. Especially in the car where there is nothing physical to do.
Right now he asks about volcanos (ever heard a 3 year old say "techtonic plates"? :LOL ) almost non-stop. He's also into dinosaurs, pirates and the baby growing in my "u'erus" (:LOL ). However, while he pelts us with questions - usually in the car - we never do anything. We don't do volcano experiments, we don't pick out books about the topics that interst him (we've tried but he just wants to read his old favorites), we don't even look up answers to the questions we didn't know (again, by the time you get anywhere to look something up he's lost interest).
So are we unschooling with these crazy diverse conversations? Or are we just talking about stuff with no follow up? I'd love to build a volcano (viniger / baking soda kind) but whenever we could, he'd rather just play. Should we more strongly encourage learning "activities"? Or wait until he's older?
You can see why it's a rambling question I didn't know how to ask. Any thoughts?
My children are very young - 3 and 1 - but we've been leaning toward homeschooling since the oldest was about a year. We don't really do any specifically "educational" activities. We play. Mostly running around outside pushing trucks and going down slides. We read stories. We occassionally do some kind of art. We have puzzles, shape sorters, pattern sequencing kits, etc, but most of the time the just want to push cars, trucks and trains (and pretned to be imaginary sword carrying princesses
) - in other words, toys we've bought that they rarely play with. But we talk about everything . . . in the brief times between the almost non-stop running we are pelted with questions about life, the universe and everything. Especially in the car where there is nothing physical to do.Right now he asks about volcanos (ever heard a 3 year old say "techtonic plates"? :LOL ) almost non-stop. He's also into dinosaurs, pirates and the baby growing in my "u'erus" (:LOL ). However, while he pelts us with questions - usually in the car - we never do anything. We don't do volcano experiments, we don't pick out books about the topics that interst him (we've tried but he just wants to read his old favorites), we don't even look up answers to the questions we didn't know (again, by the time you get anywhere to look something up he's lost interest).
So are we unschooling with these crazy diverse conversations? Or are we just talking about stuff with no follow up? I'd love to build a volcano (viniger / baking soda kind) but whenever we could, he'd rather just play. Should we more strongly encourage learning "activities"? Or wait until he's older?
You can see why it's a rambling question I didn't know how to ask. Any thoughts?
) I guess I'm also feeling a lot of pressure from family and friends that my 3 yo isn't in preschool yet - nor am I planning on sending him next year. It seems like it would be easier if I could just say, "He's not in preschool but look at all he's learning." Instead of "Well, we spent most of today crashing tonka trucks . . . ." My issue, not his. Just feeling wimpy and looking for some respose other than "na-na-na-na-na because we want to"
or that you have to do prescribed experiments in order to learn.
We had a moment with bones where we went to the library and dd got 6 books about bones and wanted more, but 6 is the limit. But now our life is just like yours except lots less trucks (except for the "Touch a Truck thing this weekend) and more, well,... it depends on the day. I could have written your post too, so that tells me we are doing just fine!!!
you couldn't have picked a better example! Today he was James and I was Edward, but I was informed that Edward was a girl. James and Edward went on a nature walk and splashed through imaginary ponds. I was told that frogs like engines . . . and on and on. Trains are not only a huge part of his physical play, they are a huge part of his imaginary play. When he isn't a train, he's frequently a dinosaur. Then my husband or I are "a dinosaur that eats other dinosaurs" 
and have to chase him and gobble him up.
