Structure or Unstructured

It seems that our family has different ideas about homeschooling. I have no problem with a loose "schedule". I think the kids learn a lot from every day life. Yes, we have days that are complete veg but we also have days when we learn a lot more and do a lot more. I personally think it all balances out. Are we doing busy work all day, every day like in the school system? NO! But that is one of the joys of homeschooling. Are we tied down to Monday through Friday? NO! But this is another joy of homeschooling. I love that we can be flexible. I love that we can do what feels right to us and works for us at the time. If the situation changes than we can change with it. Nothing says we can't. We don't have to stay on this particular path. The beauty of it is that we can venture off the path and find our own way, create a path, find a new path, just wander around...whatever. Yes, I think the kids need to learn certain things. Even if we aren't doing math or grammar in our workbooks we often do harder stuff verbally during conversations, cooking, etc. Being able to put what they know into action is key!! It doesn't do you any good to know the information if you don't know what to do with it.

I let Morgan spend the night at a friend's house last night. This friend is homeschooled as well. She took some of her school books with her and both girls did school work today. Even if they hadn't done school work, I didn't have a problem with it. To me, this is part of homeschooling (for us). We've done this with other homeschooling friends that had busy family weekends...the girls would have sleepovers in the middle of the week. It caused no problems! My mom made a comment about it being a school night. Well, sure, I guess...but it isn't like they get up to catch the bus & have class at a specific time. So tonight, Morgan's friend is over here spending the night. She brought her school work to do tomorrow. Corey has made a comment about my mom not being wrong, that it *is* a school night. Now, he had NO problem with Morgan spending the night at her friend's house or her friend spending the night here. From time to time he will raise a concern about the kids and I not doing enough school work. I do take his concerns seriously when he brings them up. Every now and then I do feel like we have "slacked off" and I will pick things up a bit. However, this comment about "school nights" just doesn't cut it with me. I disagree completely. We have agreed that homeschooling allows us freedom and flexibility. To me this covers everything from what days & hours we do school and what subjects we cover and how we go about covering them.

I'm not a complete unschooler. I do believe the kids need to do and learn things they might not want to. However, I am very eclectic about how we learn what we learn. We use workbooks, library books, audio books, real life, internet, movies, field trips, tv, friends, etc. Whatever gets the idea across. :-) And it doesn't matter to me if it is Tuesday, Saturday, 11am or 7pm.