How we will unschool kindergarten (and an update)!

September 1, 2012 By 2 Comments

unschooling kindergartenWe are still here in Phuket, and Billy’s schedule at the school has returned to its normal hours. Oh, thank GOD!
And in the next few weeks he will have a few days off so we will take a trip somewhere, perhaps to Krabi or back to Khao Lak!
I am just incredibly grateful to have my husband back, as for several months he has been working Tues to Firday 1 to 8, Sat-Sun 9 to 5 and Monday for two hours in the evening, as well as teaching his student in Germany once a week via skype. Now, he will be home during the week!
SO GRATEFUL.
Kaya is now about 4.5 and I can’t believe she will in less than a year be kindergarten age. Insane! Wonderful! Exciting!
The more she and I are able to understand each other, the easier things have become for us, and especially for her.
Our plans are to of course continue unschooling her, however we will be making things more ‘schoolish’ is some ways.
We will be ordering curriculum ( will explain later in the post) from Enki or Oak Meadow or somewhere else, mainly for me.
What we DON’T want is any testing, arduous homework, forced ‘studying, memorization drills, etc. But we want an outline of things to try, mainly for myself.
Kaya and I both need ideas that spark other ideas of what we can do together, and what we can learn together. I have been very interested in the Enki program since before I gave birth to her, and have been in touch with them. I look forward to seeing if any of their books/materials can aid us.
We will be getting more into learning a second a third language though. This I wont compromise on, but we will be doing it in an organic way.
To explain: most of the kids I went to school with in France were trilingual not out of choice but because their family spoke one language ( perhaps German) and the school taught in English and French, and they grew up in France. Thus, they pretty natural spoke each fluently from a young age onwards. THIS has been a HUGE driving force behind us wanting to live in a country that has a primary language that isn’t English. But…we will be moving to Scotland, for various reasons. So I need to do my part and speak more French to her, and we are still figuring out ways of how to get a third language into the mix. I love what Jeanne did over at Soul Travelers 3 and feel they gave their daughter such a huge gift by involving her in that Chinese school for classes when she was in Penang. That may not work for us, but who knows.
As far as our much awaited move is concerned, we should be in Scotland late November, early December, and my cousin and mother may come up for Christmas! Should be a blast ( although a cold one!)

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Comments

  1. Rebeca says:
    September 1, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    I didn’t realize Kaya is about the same age as my Raphael. He’ll be 4 1/2 in another month. It’s such a fun age, so much learning and discovery around every corner. I’m really enjoying him find his own interests and his place in our family.
    Glad you have more of your husband around, and hope the next few months go smoothly!

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  2. Jeanne @soultravelers3 says:
    September 5, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    Aw, thanks for mentioning us and the kind words. I so agree, that one of the best things we can do for our kids is give them a 2nd ( or 3rd or more) in childhood when it is so easy to obtain. You are so lucky that you have another language to give her. It will take a while to get use to it, but once you get the habit it will get easier.

    it’s definitely been a big ( and long term ) challenge for us as monolinguals to raise her as a trilingual in Spanish, Mandarin and English, but absolutely worth it. Being bilingual, you understand the advantages.

    Maybe when you are in Scotland you can find a homeschooling group of native French speakers. I have some dear friends in GB who are native French speakers and they usually want to raise their kids as bilinguals and that group action would be fun for both of you ( like we did with Spanish and Mandarin speakers in California ). Plus you won’t be far from little trips to France! ;)

    Good luck with it all…you’ll do wonderfully!

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