Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’?

Welcome to the September Carnival of Natural Parenting: We’re all home schoolers

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how their children learn at home as a natural part of their day. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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We have been homeschoolers for nine years now. That is longer than most people I know.  It is a wonderful way to raise a family and my children learn at home every single day.  We try to have “school” time for a few hours every day. This started, obviously, with Hannah and then last year we started Patrick.  Because she sees her brother and sister Willow wants to sit at the table too.  She gets so excited- “School time! I want to do school too!”  Usually, Hannah keeps the baby occupied and I work with the littles- and Willow is already starting to read.  We use brainpop.com, starfall.com and workbooks.  We paint and color and read together.  When Cooper goes down for his nap, the littles go play and Hannah and I go over her work for the day.

I try to keep some structure to the day- but the cool thing about homeschooling is that the kids don’t HAVE to sit at the table to learn.  We sometimes have classes and fieldtrips, and I’m so grateful for the cooler weather because we can spend more time out of doors. We often go for walks together- but also we learn at the grocery store, in the post office, and even while we cook.  My kids love watching the birds and insects that we find in our yard or on the bike path.  I love how fearless they are.  Hannah will find a bit of fur or bone or snakeskin and the kids think that is just fascinating.  Hannah has gotten very good at googling the creatures she finds and even Patrick and Willow are disturbingly good at navigating the internet and have been at it for years.

I love that they can spend time learning about what interests them, and that even when they aren’t doing “school” they absorb SO much.  There are two great examples of this:  The first- Willow adores Sailor Moon.  She dances along to the theme music and has learned to sing it in Japanese.  One day, the huz and I were hanging out in the living room and Willow came running in, grabbed a plain black video cassette and ran back into the computer room.

“What are you doing Will?” The huz called to her.

“Nothing…” She tossed the word over her shoulder from the next room.

The huz and I shared a troubled look and went to investigate.  Our three year old daughter had brought up the internet and used the search history to get onto youtube.  She had copied the letters on the video (plain black video with a small white label) to correctly type “Sailor Moon” into the search bar.  And was busy dancing and singing along to her favorite videos.  We later realized that she had also bookmarked several of her favorite youtube videos.  All this from a three year old girl who can’t figure out what shoes go on the right feet- but learns so much just from watching her brother and sister.

The second example: I remember one day when Hannah was in the backyard with a friend- she was about seven- and they were arguing about fossils and whether there were bugs during the time of dinosaurs.

Friend: “There weren’t any bugs! There aren’t any fossils- Just old bones!”

Hannah: “Of course there are fossils! I’ve seen a couple on the discovery channel.”

Friend: “Well then why aren’t there LOTS of them?”

Hannah: “Maybe their exoskeletons disintegrate.”

And I sat there, weeding my garden patch, in awe of my seven year old girl.  But I couldn’t help thinking “Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’?”

I am continuously astounded at the things my kids can tell me about the world around them.  They learn all the time.  Children are like little sponges- they absorb everything.  You would be amazed at what they learn if you give them the space and time to figure stuff out on their own.

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated September 14 with all the carnival links.)

• A is for Apple {But right now it’s more fun to pick apples!} — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment has a four-year-old who wisely knows she must forgo the worksheets for now and do things with her mother if she’s going to learn.
• Baby Talks — Amy at Anktangle talks, talks, talks all day long to her preverbal baby, about simple things and complexities. (@anktangle)
• Baby University: Little Man, My Teacher — The ArtsyMama shares how her relaxed and patient “teaching” at home resulted in a confident little one when she returned to work.
• Creating a Sensory Garden — A sensory garden has given Marita at Stuff With Thing and her girls practice in math, science, budgeting, fine motor skills, and more. (@leechbabe)
• Despite the Big Yellow Bus — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante has surprised many friends by sending her kids off to mainstream schooling — but their learning doesn’t stop there. (@seonaid_lee)
• Down on the Farm — Megan at Purple Dancing Dhalias describes the multitude of skills her children learn by homeschooling on a farm.
• Early Childhood Education — First Do No Harm — Laura at Laura’s Blog provides an incredible list of tips to facilitate learning at home.
• Education Starts At Home — Luschka at Diary of a First Child was happy to realize that learning at home isn’t limited to older children. (@lvano)
• Every Day Is A School Day — Summer at Finding Summer lists the ways her family learns in this poem of a post. (@summerminor)
• hands on — the grumbles at grumbles and grunts read her little one Sherlock Holmes in utero. She’ll continue to make learning fun now that he’s on this side of the womb. (@thegrumbles)
• Have a Happy Heart — Erica at ChildOrganics has days of poop on the couch and oatmeal down the pants when sending her children to school seems like the perfect solution — until she regains her perspective. (@childorganics)
• Home Sweet Home Schooling — Check out CurlyMonkey’s Blog for a photo montage of how her kids are learning anatomy, architecture, and more — all at home. (@curlymonkey_)
• Homeschooling — My Needs? — Do you homeschool for the kids, or do you do it for you? Read some thoughts from Home Grown Families. (@momtosprouts)
• Homeschooling: A Way of Life — Kimberly at Homeschooling in Nova Scotia has children who meet learning with enthusiasm and are becoming self-sufficient at a young age. (@UsborneBooksCB)
• How We Homeschooled — Deb at Living Montessori Now details in retrospect how her two lifelong learners spent their homeschooling years. (@DebChitwood)
• Learning at Home With a Preschooler and Toddler — Need some inspiration? Michelle at The Parent Vortex shares her tips and resources for lifelong learning. (@TheParentVortex)
• Learning at Home: Are We All Homeschoolers? — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings incorporates homeschool ideas even though she plans to send her kids to school. (@sunfrog)
• Learning From Life — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting doesn’t even have to think about how her daughter learns. She just does it. (@mamapoekie)
• Learning Through Play — What better way to learn at home than through play? Dionna at Code Name: Mama lists the many ways children learn through play, whether they know it or not. (@CodeNameMama)
• Learning With Savoury Pikelets — Deb at Science@Home breaks down how cooking facilitates learning. (@ScienceMum)
• Lessons Learned by Bowling (Yes, Bowling) — What life lessons can you learn from bowling? Ask Jessica from This is Worthwhile. (@tisworthwhile)
• Life is learning, learning is life. — Kristin, guest posting at Janet Fraser — Where birth and feminism intersect, defends the truth that children are hardwired to learn. (@JoyousLearning)
• life learning… — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found that structured schooling is about teaching, whereas unschooling is about learning, and her family resonated with the latter.
• Live to Learn Together — RealMommy at True Confessions of a Real Mommy knows that children learn in all different styles, so only one-on-one attention can do the trick.
• Natural Parenting and the Working Mom — Jenny from Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares how natural parenting in the Philippines — and learning at home — includes “yayas” (nannies). (@crazydigger)
• Not Back to School: How We Learn at Home — Denise at This Holistic Life has learned to describe what unschooling is, rather than what it isn’t.
• Our Learning Curve — Andrea of Ella-Bean & Co. has a special bookshelf set up where her daughter can explore the world on her own terms.
• School at Our House — Where is learning happening at Kellie at Our Mindful Life’s house? It is pouring all over the floor. It is digging down deep in the earth. It is everywhere!
• Schooling Three Little Piggies — Despite the mess and the chaos, Melissa at White Noise lets her children into the kitchen.
• SuperMom versus The Comic Books of Doom! — Mommy Soup at Cream of Mommy Soup realized that if “getting the kids to read” was the goal, it didn’t matter what the kids read. (@mommysoup)
• The joy of learning at home — Heather at Life, Gluten Free has a daughter who sees magic in the stars and understands the honeybees. (@lifeglutenfree)
• those who can’t teach — Do you need a superiority complex to homeschool? Stefanie at Very, Very Fine wonders.
• Too lazy to unschool? — If unschoolers aren’t lazy, Lauren at Hobo Mama wonders if she’s too lazy to live her dream of free-form education. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Unschooling the School of Me — Rachael at The Variegated Life considers what she’s teaching her son about work as a work-at-home mother — and the extreme work ethic she doesn’t want him to emulate. (@RachaelNevins)
• What We Do All Day — Alison at BluebirdMama discovered that it’s easier than she thought it would be to quantify how her child learns all day. (@childbearing)
• Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’? — Nervous about how you will facilitate learning at home? Don’t be – they will absorb things on their own! Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma shares her story. (@kitchenwitch)