Unschooling is COOL!

"C" wanted to know what the highest Mt peak in the world(Mt Everest). So we looked at Google Earth and discovered it was in Nepal. I had him look up Nepal on his own globe.

He then wanted to know what the highest peak was in the USA, then he asked what the tallest Mt was in CA.

We discovered Mt McKinley (AK) is the tallest in USA at 20,320 feet/6194 m,

and Mt Whitney(CA), the tallest in CA at 14,505 feet/4421 m.

After that, I wrote out a subtraction of the 2 Mt peaks for him to figure out the difference.

20,320-14,505=?

He answered correctly: 5,815 ft.

During this process, I had forgotten how to write ALASKA in abbreviated form, so I had to look it up, and C wanted me to print out the whole USA map that had the USPS abbreviations written over each state. Then he wanted to know if there was a list for all the countries in the world! I told him, I doubt they have such a thing, but looked it up on the net, and sure enough, there was! So, I printed those out too. He happily looked through the pages for about 15 min.

This is what I love about un-schooling. One thing leads to another and you've got geography and math in one, all because of a few questions!

Curious Indeed

Today, while driving home from a park play day with other homeschoolers, C asked, "What's the difference between a Credit Card and a Debit Card?" I commended him for this awesome question, as most kids don't understand much about money. I know I didn't know the difference until I was in High School! I explained to him, "Debit Cards are linked directly to your checking account electronically. So, when you use the card to purchase something, the money is taken out from your checking account. You are using your own money to purchase." He nodded, so I continued, "Now, when you use a Credit Card, you are using someone else's money, usually the bank you got your credit card from. When you buy an item with your credit card, the bank pays for it, and then you have to pay back the bank, along with the interest the charge. So, it's much better to pay using your Debit Card than your Credit Card" I told him, "Do NOT keep a balance on your Credit Card. Pay it off in full every month before they charge the interest. Only buy with the Credit Card if you know you have the money to pay it back right away."  He seemed satisfied with my answer and said, "I'm ahead of the game if I know this stuff right?"  I agreed with him whole-heartedly.

There are ADULTS who still don't understand this concept and that is why they are in big trouble with Credit Cards!

It's official! We're homeschooling!

I called the school last week to let them know we will not be coming back. Public school started on Aug 22nd. C has so many health problems at school, asthma acting up as he'd inhale tiny particles of food he's allergic to. Because of the asthma, he couldn't concentrate on his studies, and he'd have to make a trip to the Nurse's office about 3 times a day, which is distracting.  Then there was teasing, because we put a mask on him and the lack of interesting things to learn.

I took him to the library today, and he was scoping out all the space books. He asked the librarian if there were any books for children about Red Giant Stars or black holes. (I'm sure they don't study that stuff in 3rd grade yet.) I was surprised, they showed him a few books! He gleefully took home about 7 books in all, including one Gardening book, one on Mesopotamia and Bible related geography, and Garfield comic book, hehe.

So far we do not have a curriculum. I think I'm liking "unschooling". We do have some organized things like math via IXL online, Japanese with Kumon and practicing piano.  I'll look into curriculum on language arts.  We're doing science experiments for kids a few days a week, and learning history/culture/geography from a series of books called, "What Your First(or other grade) Grader Needs to Know". Google Earth is a great tool for many things, like answering "Where are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?"

We're exploring this new realm of homeschooling together and C's zest for knoweldge is insatiable anyhow, so there's no "running out" of things to learn!

Socially, for now he enjoys Cub Scouts, Sunday School and I'm also planning on finding a Co-Op that organizes Theater. C said he wanted to act! (Where does he get this extroverted behavior???) I've signed up for a local Park Play date with other homeschooling kids on Fridays so we'll check it out.

Conversations in the Car

Yesterday we were driving back from Torrance (visiting friends) and C wanted to know how long each billboard advertisement was posted.  I told him it really varies on the contract the advertiser and the billboard owner agreed on. Some may be for 3 months, or some as long as a year. It all depends.  He asked how much it would cost to advertise on such boards. He then proceeded to express his desire to invest in billboards. I asked him "Why?", and he replied, "So I can advertise my own Shows!" (hehe) He also said he can make money by selling the advertising space to other people. He said he'd buy the billboards then charge people money to put their advertisements on. "Would 7 dollars a day be a good price?"he asked. I told him, "That would be very cheap. My guess would be in the hundreds per day, but it depends on the location. More populated places being more expensive to rent."  I explained that he'd have to charge a lot to offset the cost of his purchase. I told him purchasing would be expensive and that would be a negative in his bank account, and he nodded. I explained he'll need to bring that back up to a positive and them earn some money, that's why you charge a lot. He pondered that for a moment and seemed satisfied by my answers.

C was feeling very thoughtful after Kumon this afternoon. As we were driving to get to his Roller Hockey practice, he began saying, "I'm made of matter, and you're made of matter. Everything is made of matter! We're driving in matter, we eat matter, billboards are made of matter!" Then he chuckled and said, "We have matter in our butts!" I told him that's icky. He laughed, then said, "But it's true!" I agreed with him, but quickly turned the subject to other "matters". He proceeded on the subject and said, "The whole universe if made of matter!"  I told him that's true and he continued, "Isn't love matter?" I told him no, it's not something tangible. I rambled on to say, "Love is a feeling, you can't really see it, touch it, taste it...but then again, you can feel it..." He laughed hysterically at the double-entender, then commented, "But you feel love in your heart and your heart is made of matter!" I corrected him and said, "Your brain is where you feel your emotions C." He replied, "But still the same, your brain is made of matter too!" I told him feelings are rather metaphysical, that they are above matter.  I told him I was having fun having deep discussions like this. He agreed, "Yeah, these are deep thoughts".