NOT-going-back-to-school

My boys are happy to be able to stay home, and I am more than happy to oblige.

We’ve been discussing what they’d like to learn more about this year, things that we all need to work on to improve ourselves, and fun, new things we’d like to try.

That’s how we do things here–we explore things that fascinate us, pursue interests that we are curious about, and I always encourage my family to never stop trying to be the person they really want to be.

So we had a pizza party to celebrate.

And a family game night.

We played “Let’s Go Fishing!”  Remember the old game with the little fish that go round and round, opening and closing their mouths, and you have to use the little plastic fishing pole to pull the fish out?  Yeah that one.  Classic fun for the whole family.

After dinner we all took turns challenging each other to Mario Kart, and even a couple of rounds of Worms Armageddon.  If you’ve never heard of it Worms Armageddon you don’t know what you’re missing.  It’s a really great little game where each player has a team of worms–yes, worms–and each team has an arsenal of “weapons” to use against their opponent.  Some of the weapons are typical war-time items like a bazooka, hand-gun, dynamite, or mine; others are more unusual–like the exploding sheep bomb, mad cow, prod, or the banana-bomb.  The player uses strategy and cunning to take out the opposite team–if you’ve never seen an animated worm scream in fear you might want to give it a try.

I don’t have a curriculum or lesson plan for my children, since we unschool.  I do have a number of activities I’d like to do this year, some new field trips, even some areas we need to strengthen–such as math skills.  But we won’t be using worksheets for that!  Just various games and activities that are designed to build skills through play–studies show children learn best that way (don’t we all?).

With the unschooling lifestyle every day is a summer day and the world is full of possibilities.  What better message to send to children?