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18 reasons why doctors and lawyers are homeschooling their children

Happy Chinese New Year in Feb

When I tell someone we homeschool, the first question they'd ask, usually, is what curriculum do you use? Well, my answer is, we don't use a curriculum. Then they ask, what grade are they in? Well, according to age they are in blablabla. But according to abilities, it's a whole different story. My 7 year old just finished Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. These books range from 6th grade to 8th grade according to the public school AR programs. Her math is at her age level. My 5 year old has been reading the Magic Tree House series and is in his 8th book. I am not sure what grade level this series is in, but I am guessing 2nd grade. But he loves math and is doing multiplication. My youngest is almost 4. She reads 3 letter words and knows how to count. Pretty normal for a 3 year old I believe. But she has a great ear. She plays twinkle twinkle little star on the piano in different keys and knows when a white key doesn't fit so she moves on to a black key. 

Well the next reaction is usually speechlessness. ;) They don't know what to ask next. When they have composed their thoughts, the next question is usually, so what do you do all day? 

Great question. I do what I am supposed to do. I cook, I clean, I practice on my instruments, I read my bible, I read tons of books, I watch my kids and make sure they get what they need to explore or read or do, I teach them truths when they need grace, I take pictures, I play tons of games with them, I get together with my friends, I drive them to different activities, I go work out etc. As I live my life openly as a woman of God, they learn to live life. They are allowed to say no, they are allowed to explore, they are allowed to help, they are allowed to play with snakes, they are allowed to read all day, they are allowed to make a mess, they are allowed to play games, they are allowed to make mistakes ... etc. I only act when I see them idle. My youngest came up to me while I was cleaning  a couple days ago and said I want to help, I want to be useful. Are academic skills important? Sure. Will my children know their stuff? Uh, yes. Why don't I use curriculum? To take pressure and expectations off of learning. Do I ever give them work? Sure. Sometimes they make a to do list in the morning and ask me for worksheets. Is it a lot of work? Actually, yes, and no. They help me so much with cleaning and cooking so my workload is very light. But we play so many games and go to so many places together that most of our days are packed even when we didn't plan it. It drains your brain juice to play 3 chess games in a row. Trust me. :-)

Proverbs 21:31 

The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord.

Unschooling still requires steps of faith for me. As this proverb says, victory rests with God. We can prepare them for everything but without God and His grace, our kids will be wayward no matter how smart they are now and how successful they become. Trust in the LORD first, take care of spiritual growth, and you will know what He wants you to do about school.

Unconventional unschooling

This is what it looks like when your kids are in a conspiracy. ;-) My kids are here learning Cantonese together. Surprisingly, all my kids have a real interest. So, I just speak it to them, play chinese games, read chinese books to them, rhymes and motions, and songs. If my hubby could speak it more regularly to me, it'd be better but I am not complaining. :)

My kids watching how tortillas were made at Rosa's. They stood there for 10 minutes and did not want to eat. Fine with me. My hubby and I had a 10 minute date hehe.

My older two were doing these lists while I slept in one morning after I gave them bananas. I know, very bad mother. But I was feeling nauseous. Pregnant? Maybe? LOL Anyway back to the lists. Left is my detail oriented first born. She listed 26 to dos.Right is my fun and games middle born. He listed, as you can see, 4 things to do. I just thought this was hilarious!



I love how they are so different. I love how God made them strong and weak in different areas. May they always do everything to the glory of our God.

Field trip? huh?

We go to the museum regularly so that's not a field trip. Actually we don't call trips field trip. We just call it, mommy wants to go somewhere, wanna come with? LOL

This was in the beginning of Nov. Yes I am still very behind on all my pictures. They just keep piling up!

We learned a lot that day. We went to the Greek festival, train show, a craft show, and the science museum that day. One word: Daddy was out of town. HA! 

naked egg

I'll try to post more of what our days are like in our unschooling adventures. Too many pictures, I realized I am very behind... But here's our lesson on osmosis and reverse osmosis!

We started our experiment with two raw eggs. Egg A and Egg B. Both were dropped into a cup full of white vinegar. As the calcium carbonate dissolved away, both eggs were left "naked" in their outer membranes. Osmosis already occurs with the vinegar because most of vinegar is made of water. The water made its way into the eggs and made the eggs huge. That was not enough though. We had to make the most out of them!

EGG A. To further demonstrate osmosis, we poured out the vinegar and put it in red food coloring.

My kids loved the red egg LOL. We decided to see if osmosis indeed made the egg red outside and inside. So we boiled it ;) and dissected it. We even have a video! The egg was so full of water, the egg white never became completely solid, but you can see, it's pink! The yolk maybe was too dense for the little red coloring we put in so it stayed yellow. 

EGG B To learn more about osmosis, we put egg B into syrup. The syrup made it possible to show the kids reverse osmosis by taking water out from the huge egg! It shrank and was not able to bounce. 

That was fun, but we had to put it back in the water and blow it up with osmosis again!!! So we did. Look! hahahaha When we broke the outer membrane, water just came gushing out. One peculiar thing we discovered what that the yolk, even though we had not cooked it, was solid. Texture was of a gummi bear.

 Here's an extra video of the bouncy naked egg A.

Changing the education paradigm

It was good till he quoted something about how we are risen apes LOL

 

 All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. - Benjamin Franklin