Busy, Busy, Busy....

So, we celebrated our freedom to educate our children, as we see fit, by having a "Happy Unschool Day". We enjoyed so many good times playing and just being together. It was so nice not to have to prepare lunches and hustle out the door this morning to get the kids to school on time. My kids would be in the middle of playing and pause to tell me "Mama, I would be in this class right now if I were in school." Then, he/she would grin from ear-to-ear and say "but, instead I'm in my pj's eating popcorn watching a movie!!!"
I've been under the weather with some odd illness that caused the right side of my face to swell. I have kept my mind off of it by organizing our "school books"(I use that term loosely) by subject. I also set up my version of a system called "the work box system". However, in my version, there is no time constraints or set schedule. Only a routine. The kids start at the 1st one and work their way down. They might open up a box that has a snack and a drink in it. They might open up a box that says "watch Libertys Kids" with a small bag of popcorn. They might even open up a box that has them play an educational game with me or a sibling! They also have a box that may have "go for a brief nature walk with your nature journal". The sky's the limit. The kids are so excited about having a little surprise each day and I enjoy having some form of routine for our mornings. The boxes should be done by noon and then we are free to explore subjects as individuals or as a family. You may be wondering what happened to our "Unschool Experiment". Well, after several talks with the kids they ASKED for some routine and assignments. Yes, you read that right. They want to have periods of unschooling and periods of structure. I think it's the best of both worlds. I am not quite ready to start our regular schedule yet. Tomorrow we have coop so I'm going to start on Wednesday of this week. I'm so very excited to see where this year takes us as we navigate the world of homeschooling together! We all feel so lucky to get this opportunity. Life is good!

Our new library area(one of many!) that holds my HS books by subject, as well.

My version of "The Workbox System"