Unschooling

I told my six-year-old daughter the other day that she could do anything she wanted for school except watch videos.

I find that all her little activities seem to be educational in some way or other. Of course she loves me to read books to her, especially if they are stories (which she has been asking for lately); but she is interested in all subjects, anything from dirt, space or bananas, to Japanese culture and traditions. She also has been enjoying learning to read and reading to me. And she likes math.

The other day she asked for her first recorder lesson. I had bought her a recorder and child's book last Christmas and just told her to treat it as an instrument rather than as a toy, and when she plays it, make it sound beautiful.

She also surprised me when, after reading the gospel of the day to her, she asked for more. I had not printed all the readings for the day, and hadn't saved the file, so I asked her if she would like me to read the rest of the chapter from the Bible and she said yes. So we did.

Yesterday we went to an open house at our local 4-H farm, and she wants to join the club -- do crafts, pet the chickens and the goats, hang out at the farm.

What I do is document all these activities so I can show them to our educational representative at the charter school we are signing up with. Happily, they take everyone from unschoolers to classical.