Connect the Dot Homeschoolers

As our preschool year of homeschooling is coming to a close, I'm still having a hard time identifying our home school style.  I thought I would have everything all figured out by the end of this trial run.  The truth is: I don't.  I do know that this journey is one we want to continue (for at least another year since you never can tell what the future may hold).  I have also noticed that we have fallen into a pattern with our homeschooling, but our schedule is nonexistent.  It's a lot like a preschooler if you ask me: unpredictable.  So, I realized that we did not need to conform ourselves to a style, or two, or three; but instead, I needed to define our own style.  When I stepped back to look at the big picture of our constructive chaos, I came up with our current homeschool style: we are connect the dot preschoolers.

We tried workbooks, and a reading curriculum; but always when Laken was ready and willing.  If she wasn't, I would take a step back, re-evaluate, and change directions.  I have no problem avoiding a subject area (i.e. math or reading) for months at a time if Laken is not interested.  When she is ready, she will grow by leaps and bounds very quickly.  I do believe that we often underestimate preschoolers.  I am a firm believer in the power of play, but I also believe they are capable of taking on much more as long as they are given adequate playtime as well.  At this age, I'm okay with Laken not doing "schoolwork" at all if she is busy learning through pretend play (even if this goes on for days or many weeks).  This is the first component of our connect the dot style: sometimes there are large gaps between the dots.

I am really not interested in Laken memorizing math, science, or history facts.  She's had more of an interest in learning to read than anything else so that is a skill I have worked on developing with her (on her terms, of course).  What I do hope for her is that she is learning to make connections.  

If you explore my blog, you will see that everything we do revolves around making these connections.  I have found that unit learning, and only studying one topic at a time, works best for us to achieve this outcome.  If her "work" is too busy with multiple topics or subject areas then it is much harder for her to see the big picture when she is done connecting all the little dots, or parts of our unit study.  This also means that I do not necessarily incorporate math, reading, writing, or any other subject as activities in our unit study.  If we are studying history in our unit study then that is probably the only subject area she will study during that unit.  Our ongoing Native American unit study is a good example of this.  After all we have done, do I quiz her on tribe names, regions, and customs?  Absolutely not.  In fact, she doesn't know any of those things.  Although she knows many of the customs, she would not be able to identify the tribe they are associated with; and especially since I don't believe she picked up any of the tribe names.  What she does know is that there are different tribes across North America, some build shelters and grow crops (she can also identify a chickee, hogan, longhouse, igloo, and plank house), others are hunters who live in teepees and follow herds, the different types of clothing they wore (cloth or animal skin), the different ways they all lived off the land, and how they were very different from our society today.  I call this connecting the dots and seeing the big picture.  

I realize that eventually Laken will have to do daily reading and math lessons, at the very least.  For now, this works for us; and she is learning so much more than I could have ever expected.  I am so happy she taught me that!