Life & Experience Based Learning

 It's been a coon's age (living in the south has its effects) since I blogged.  Truthfully I'm not sure how long a coon's age is, I'll have to google that, but I know it's been months.   The time since we started 7th grade when I posted our new school year beginning and now A LOT has happened in our lives.  A LOT.  First, I was eating, sleeping, breathing, and quite honestly, shitting all things conference related.  THAT was it.  Well, that and still trying to homeschool and keep the IH facebook page and support group going.  I can't say for certain, and I don't want to check, in case I'm right, but I *think* my husband mumbled something about divorcing me if my schedule stayed the way it was for much longer.  I always said that on September 10th I would be doing NOTHING, as a well-deserved rest from all things N.A.S.H. and the conference.  What I didn't know was that 'rest' I needed required more than one day and did in fact last for longer than a week and then before I knew it, it was birthdays, Halloween, and the most major flare-up of my fibromyalgia I have ever experienced.

In the midst of all that, my father fell off a ladder - he's 83 - and had a concussion.  Then, my husband had eye surgery and then knee surgery.  Then my father fell again and shattered his femur and he's still a patient at the rehab center.  My best friend's (of 29 years) mother had a major stroke at the same time and is still in rehab and is not doing as well as we hoped.  Meanwhile my flare-up continued and continued.......most days we homeschooled from my bed and we only covered the 'necessary'.

So, that catches you up on what has been going on in our lives for the last three months and what kept me from blogging.  I'm feeling somewhat better and I actually have something to talk about that *may* be of interest, so here I am again.  With all that life continues to throw at us, often times Punky finishes her daily assignments - grammar lesson, vocabulary lesson, and math lesson - and is left asking what she should do next.  In an effort to give her the direction and suggestions she needs, yet still allow her choices in how she spends her time, I had been pondering a new method for our homeschooling experience.  As it was, so much of our days were filled with *real* life, real experiences, that it felt like any learning she was doing was coming from those real life experiences. 

Now that life was (hopefully) calming down a bit, I wondered how we could structure our homeschooling so that it was more 'experienced based' and so that if life threw chaos our way again we'd be more equipped to go with the flow.  Kismet led me to a blog when it popped up in my google search for 'experienced based learning for homeschoolers'.  And there it was!  A secular mom's blog on her new 'experience based' learning model.  The Homeschool Realm is the blog, and it was a happy surprise to find out that Savvy Homeschool Moms' very own Tina writes that blog!

I openly admit to stealing it for myself...in its entirety.  I did however tweak it a bit to suit us better (every family is different).  So, today we start this new method of homeschooling.  Why?  Because even though we are in our 6th year of homeschooling we're are always on the look-out for a better way to do it!  There is no 'right' way for anyone but there can be a better way - better in the sense that it inspires learning, exploration, and retention of knowledge.  The only thing we know for sure does NOT work for us is traditional school at home (doesn't work for me) and unschooling (Punky hated it).  So I stole a page from the blog and set about making our school room into an 'experience based' learning center.  

Experienced Based Learning

Punky has a weekly 'schedule' that lists her required 'dailies' and then lists the 'experiences' she's to take on each day.  Her routine classes/activities out of the home are included.  Here's what that looks like:

There are seven categories:

 Read Something

 

 Watch Something

 Create Something

Play Something

Listen to Something

Write Something

Explore/Do Something

I had, once upon a time, used the Workbox System for our homeschooling (which I loved) and so I incorporated those workboxes into this and each category has it's own box, labeled, and it is in those boxes I place the various things that Punky can use or work with for the different categories.  Here are examples of what I put into various boxes:

Read Something

 

Create Something

 

Play Something

 

Write Something

 

Explore/Do Something

 

Biology is our science this year and the Middle Ages is our history.  Both of which Punky wanted to do.  So, a lot of what I put into these boxes revolve around those two subjects.  I also throw in other items that I know she will enjoy, think are fun, or is a current area of interest for Punky.

The workboxes aren't the only thing I set up though.  I, the queen of the luddites, figured out how to use a new technological tool called: Symbaloo.  I created webmixes, as they are called, for science and history as well as the seven categories for experience learning.

Here's a few of those:

Science

History

Create Something

Play Something

Write Something

 Watch Something

I like Symbaloo over Pinterest, just my personal preference, and Punky has it set up on her computer as well so she can to go the various webmixes and pick out something.

So today was Day 1 and it was great that when Punky was finished with her dailies she understood to go poke around in the workboxes or on Symbaloo to find something of interest to experience.  So far today, Punky used Symbaloo to find a crossword puzzle maker posted in the 'Create Something' folder and created her own crossword puzzle with 'Theatre' as the theme.  I then, of course, was required to do the crossword!  She went into the writing workbox and found the Story Cubes we've had forever and figured out how to use them to start writing a story.  Now she's picked out a game for us to play and later she'll go to art class!

I'm hopeful that this method will provide us with the flexibility we need yet still accomplish two of my goals for homeschooling:  a love of learning and sense of accomplishment.

I'll keep you updated on our progress!

Happy Schooling,

Mari B.