So...A day in the life of unschooling

So I thought I'd share what a good day of unschooling in our house looks like. And seeing as my last post mentioned rusks and trains I thought I'd use that day!

After all stumbling out of bed & eating a bit of breakfast, we all went to get dressed and I asked the kids what they wanted to get up to.

Baking was the unanimous decision so I decided to make some health rusks I've been wanting to do. We needed a few supplies though so popped off to the shops.

Bear grabbed a kid sized trolley and got all the necessary ingredients, while Evie and I strolled along behind him.
A quick aside here - You know those shops where they have a queueing system with the boards that tell you what number teller to go to when it's your turn? Well Bear loves finding the right till by matching up the numbers, and I think it's a great way for him to learn number recognition without even realising it ;)

Back home to the baking and as you can see the kids had loads of fun measuring, pouring and stirring...note the vigorous stirring which results in ingredients everywhere lol!

Lots of interesting things to learn while baking, questions about various ingredients and why we're using them, measuring and mixing, textures and tasting...and of course the magic of watching a bit of flour, eggs, milk etc all turn into something completely different and wonderful on the opening and closing of an oven door!





While I was greasing pans and cleaning up the kids kept busy and called me over to see their train engine, which they'd built. And what a lovely train it was. We all went on a trip through the countryside and pointed out all the different things we could see.

We passed a farm and saw all sorts of animals there, chugged through a forest and saw fawns peering out from behind fir trees, and in a final bit of excitement we held up by "baddies" who blocked the doors so we couldn't escape. thanks to some quick thinking by Bear though the situation was soon resolved and we all got home safe and sound.

(That wasn't the only trip taken that day, I left the train in place and it grew and grew to include every chair and stool in the house. And when The Dad got home he took a trip too!)



Then it was lunch time and we all got to relax a little, the kids watched a bit of tv with their lunch and I got to catch up a little on the internet.

Then nap time for Evie, and Bear decided to join her (he doesn't usually nap any more, but as he's such an early riser & bad sleeper he often needs one or so a week to catch up) - yay, more time for The Mom to catch up on some work & e-mails.

Once everyone was awake again we decided it was tea and biscuit time, and because it was such a lovely afternoon we decided to have them outside. So we put out our blanket under the tree and enjoyed our snack.

Then it was time to run around and play, the kids spent some time on the jungle gym and chasing each other around. Evie stalked the cat and ended up in the sandpit while Bear crunched leaves, raced his motorbike and kicked a ball a bit with me.

Once a bit of energy was worn off, I decided to pull out a brand new book and we all lay on the blanket to check it out.
And I am pleased to say it was a roaring success.
I bought them The Usborne Big Book of Things to SpotWhat a lovely way to introduce all sorts of things, different environments & the animals who live in them, counting & number recognition, concentrating and looking for all the different things in each picture.

It kept us busy right until The Dad came home, and even then there was a bit of fuss when the book was finally put away.

At this point I was happy to pass over to the Dad and get on with my own things, so they all played together and went for trips on the train.
He took them with him to go get dinner, takeaways - a Friday night treat. and before we knew it dinner had been eaten, little bodies had been washed in the bath, clean pyjamas were on and bedtime stories were being read.

Just a normal day at home.
A good day, a fun day, a learning day and play day.
Nothing special :)