Share your monthly unschooling 'classrooms'

Eight-year-old Ilana bakes more often than her mom. All baking is gluten-free, sparking many discussions about nutrition, allergies, health, and wellness. See the Gluten-Free Cookbook for Kids for ideas.Ten-year-old Maia makes molecular models using Zometool, a tool for exploring geometry, chemistry, architecture, etc. Zome Geometry and Zometool STEM kits are available at discount through Homeschool Buyers Co-op.Eight-year-old unschooler making spool knit critters. Spool knitting, also known as corking or French knitting, was once a regular playground activity of elementary grade children. YouTube: Learn to spool knit.View the list »
Unschooling sisters, ages 8 and 4, made a reusable painted paper mache volcano with a plastic bottle inside for numerous baking soda vinegar eruptions. YouTube: Learn to make a paper mache volcano.

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Back in March of 2011, Blogger Sarah Jane of Unschooling Sarahs invited unschooling bloggers to join her in sharing unschooling "classrooms" each month, to show that "the world is a classroom" and that learning happens all the time wherever you are.

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What does an unschooling "classroom" look like?

How about your family? Where's your favorite place to explore, discover, observe, experiment, create?

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  • Unschooling sisters, ages 8 and 4, made a reusable painted paper mache volcano with a plastic bottle inside for numerous baking soda vinegar eruptions. YouTube: Learn to make a paper mache volcano.
  • Eight-year-old unschooler making spool knit critters. Spool knitting, also known as corking or French knitting, was once a regular playground activity of elementary grade children. YouTube: Learn to spool knit.
  • Ten-year-old Maia makes molecular models using Zometool, a tool for exploring geometry, chemistry, architecture, etc. Zome Geometry and Zometool STEM kits are available at discount through Homeschool Buyers Co-op.
  • Eight-year-old Ilana bakes more often than her mom. All baking is gluten-free, sparking many discussions about nutrition, allergies, health, and wellness. See the Gluten-Free Cookbook for Kids for ideas.
  • Ten-year-old Maia was inspired to create a hat-sized spool knitter, which she later learned is called a circular knitting loom. Instructables: Learn to loom knit. You can buy a loom or make your own using anything circular.
  • After watching scores of YouTube videos, Maia has been fascinated by Rube Goldberg machines. Learn about making a Rube Goldberg machine with kids. Maia recommends this video of a Rube Goldberg machine created in Minecraft.
  • Four-year-old Kalea observes the changes in the shoreline of the river beach near her house. The water rises and falls dramatically. It's located just down from a waterfall that she has visited many times.
  • Kalea and her big sister made egg salad for the family, beginning with the boiling, then on to the peeling and mashing and spicing. Check out this neat trick for peeling hard boiled eggs without peeling (YouTube).
  • Maia and her sisters have been building a stick fort in the woods behind their house, complete with a hand-painted sign welcoming visitors to enjoy the fort. The fort is built in a hybrid wikiup-lean to style. Learn how to build a survival shelter.
  • Ilana has charcoal, but she prefers to use burnt sticks retrieved from her backyard fire pit. She spends a lot of time studying her subjects and perfecting her drawings. In this case, her subject was our black house cat.
  • Ilana is fascinated with the details of anatomy (related to her interests in gymnastics, yoga, and art). She collected bone and organ print outs from the computer and assembled them into a body her size. Now it's hanging on the stairwell wall next to models of her sisters. Here's a printable life-size skeleton (pdf).
  • Ilana did a series of experiments with density of fluids and objects. She made the test tube stand from modeling clay. This tube contains syrup (heaviest), a peppercorn, water, vegetable oil, and a flake of plastic (lightest).
  • Ilana boiled the broth and agar solution for the petri dishes. Then she collected germs from two often touched surfaces to compare which would grow bacteria more and faster. Here's some information on using agar to grow bacteria.
  • Ilana has been collecting and studying rocks for years. Her grandpa in Arizona sent her this one, along with a big box of others. She recently attended a Girl Scouts workshop on gems and rocks at her local natural history museum.
  • Kalea conducted several experiments in density before figuring out just how much salt to add to water to float her egg in the middle of a bottle with half salt water and half colored plain water.
  • For some reason, many of Maia and Ilana's meal ideas involve cracking eggs. They work well together and have a lot of fun. Maia has some experienced tips for her younger sister.
  • Ilana was most interested in finding tasty blackberries, but she didn't turn down picking and eating a few bland haws (tiny apple-like fruits of the hawthorn tree, sometimes called thornapples).
  • Ilana attends art classes where she paints, draws, and makes pottery and sculpture. She has been in the class off and on for years and has made many friends and many pieces of art.
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Suggested by the author:

, Unschooling Examiner

Sara McGrath is a long-time homeschooling mother of three and author of 'Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning,' 'The Unschooling Happiness Project,' and other books on homeschooling.

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