It's Always Time for Learning When You Unschool
It's always a good time to learn in our house!
Before breakfast my boys spent their time between TV and video games:
Ian has started watching a new show (or new to him anyway) called Prospectors. He learned a lot about mining by hand as well as the many types of gems and minerals miners mine for. (self- guided science)
As the boys were making breakfast:
Evan decided to cook an entire bagel. I reminded him that he NEVER eats the whole thing. Ian told him Evan he was going to have to pay me $5 if he didn't eat the whole thing. I piped up and told him that was a bit ridiculous since the entire package of bagels doesn't cost that much.
Not one to pass up a learning opportunity I asked the older boys if they could tell me how much a bagel would cost if there were 6 bagels in the bag and the bag cost $2.50. They tried to find a solution on their own for a little bit. Ian tried .50 cents each then he tried .25 cents each and knew the answer was somewhere in between with the answer being closer to .50. I told them 2.50 was like 250 with a decimal in between so I then walked them through and asked what 25 divided by 6 would be.
We hadn't done much with division other than their facts but they told me they had a remainder of 1. I told them we carry the 1 over to the remaining zero and then have 10 divided by 6. We came up with .41 cents per bagel. Since we had a remainder of 4 I told them it was probably a good idea to carry the 4 over to one last zero and then we'd know if it was .41 cents or if we had to round up to .42 cents. They told me that 6 went into 40 6 times with a reminder of 4 so we had to round up. I didn't force them to figure this out or tell them they had to but they enjoyed walking through the math problem and discovering how much a bagel costs. (real life math!)
By the time we finished they were mostly done eating and the older boys quickly cleaned up and headed upstairs to get ready for the day. Evan was slowing down dramatically on his eating and he finally admitted he was full. He had only eaten half the bagel and he asked me if he had to pay me. I assured him he didn't but asked him how much money he was throwing away. I asked him what half of 42 was; he thought for a few minutes and shrugged so I asked him what half of 4 was and he told me 2. I asked him what half of 2 was and he told me 1 so I explained that half of 42 is 21 so he was throwing away .21 cents. He asked if that was a lot of money and I told him it was less than a quarter; some loose change so it wasn't a lot of money by itself but if he threw that much away every day it would really add up to a lot of money in a year. It was another great life lesson in real life math and the kids were interested and engaged!
While we were out and about:
We went to their karate class and the boys had a great time kicking, throwing punches, and learning all about control. They worked on improving their core strength and learned a few new moves today too. They had a new student in their class today and the boys were thrilled to realize it was an old friend of theirs. (physical eductaion/ socialization/self- defense)
We listened to our book on CD in the car and finished up another disk. We stopped at the library on our way home and checked out a huge pile of books and some movies. With our books all checked out we headed home. (reading and foster a love of books/ learning)
Once we were back home for the day:
The boys changed out of their uniforms and made lunch (life skills). Alec asked if I could read some more of Harry Potter to them and we read a good half- chapter (reading). The older boys were leaving to go to an art class with their grandmother. I could tell Ian was a bit nervous about going to the class but I was happy that he was willing to try something new (facing fears).
When the older two boys were gone:
The two or three hours flew by! Evan and his friend played with Lego sets and a bunch of our building sets (construction/ math/ logic/ cooperation/problem solving). They used our magnetic blocks to build a house with a swimming pool and a tent. They used our structure blocks to build a diving board for the pool as well as a picnic table. They used all the Ben 10 character toys to play out a whole scenario with what they had built. It was great!
The older boys finished paintings:
Before breakfast my boys spent their time between TV and video games:
Ian has started watching a new show (or new to him anyway) called Prospectors. He learned a lot about mining by hand as well as the many types of gems and minerals miners mine for. (self- guided science)
As the boys were making breakfast:
Evan decided to cook an entire bagel. I reminded him that he NEVER eats the whole thing. Ian told him Evan he was going to have to pay me $5 if he didn't eat the whole thing. I piped up and told him that was a bit ridiculous since the entire package of bagels doesn't cost that much.
Not one to pass up a learning opportunity I asked the older boys if they could tell me how much a bagel would cost if there were 6 bagels in the bag and the bag cost $2.50. They tried to find a solution on their own for a little bit. Ian tried .50 cents each then he tried .25 cents each and knew the answer was somewhere in between with the answer being closer to .50. I told them 2.50 was like 250 with a decimal in between so I then walked them through and asked what 25 divided by 6 would be.
We hadn't done much with division other than their facts but they told me they had a remainder of 1. I told them we carry the 1 over to the remaining zero and then have 10 divided by 6. We came up with .41 cents per bagel. Since we had a remainder of 4 I told them it was probably a good idea to carry the 4 over to one last zero and then we'd know if it was .41 cents or if we had to round up to .42 cents. They told me that 6 went into 40 6 times with a reminder of 4 so we had to round up. I didn't force them to figure this out or tell them they had to but they enjoyed walking through the math problem and discovering how much a bagel costs. (real life math!)
By the time we finished they were mostly done eating and the older boys quickly cleaned up and headed upstairs to get ready for the day. Evan was slowing down dramatically on his eating and he finally admitted he was full. He had only eaten half the bagel and he asked me if he had to pay me. I assured him he didn't but asked him how much money he was throwing away. I asked him what half of 42 was; he thought for a few minutes and shrugged so I asked him what half of 4 was and he told me 2. I asked him what half of 2 was and he told me 1 so I explained that half of 42 is 21 so he was throwing away .21 cents. He asked if that was a lot of money and I told him it was less than a quarter; some loose change so it wasn't a lot of money by itself but if he threw that much away every day it would really add up to a lot of money in a year. It was another great life lesson in real life math and the kids were interested and engaged!
While we were out and about:
We went to their karate class and the boys had a great time kicking, throwing punches, and learning all about control. They worked on improving their core strength and learned a few new moves today too. They had a new student in their class today and the boys were thrilled to realize it was an old friend of theirs. (physical eductaion/ socialization/self- defense)
We listened to our book on CD in the car and finished up another disk. We stopped at the library on our way home and checked out a huge pile of books and some movies. With our books all checked out we headed home. (reading and foster a love of books/ learning)
Once we were back home for the day:
The boys changed out of their uniforms and made lunch (life skills). Alec asked if I could read some more of Harry Potter to them and we read a good half- chapter (reading). The older boys were leaving to go to an art class with their grandmother. I could tell Ian was a bit nervous about going to the class but I was happy that he was willing to try something new (facing fears).
When the older two boys were gone:
The two or three hours flew by! Evan and his friend played with Lego sets and a bunch of our building sets (construction/ math/ logic/ cooperation/problem solving). They used our magnetic blocks to build a house with a swimming pool and a tent. They used our structure blocks to build a diving board for the pool as well as a picnic table. They used all the Ben 10 character toys to play out a whole scenario with what they had built. It was great!
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