We didn’t have curriculums, piles of books, exams etc because traditional schooling did not work in our household.

(But when they were older two of our girls did want to take exams, see below!) 

We chose another route and the route we chose was completely different to bringing school in to our kitchen. There were no piles of exercise books that they had to get through by a certain date. I did not pace up and down behind them checking the clock and waiting for them to finish things by a certain time.

So how did they learn if they were not being taught around the table like at school? As young children they learned through playing and through life. See the list below!

Life is long but childhood is so terribly short. Time is moves fast and in a flash your adult child is borrowing the car and is out the door, then they move out, it goes quickly even though when you are in it with small children it sometimes feels like forever.

Childhood will be gone in a flash. click on that link and you will see that very beautifully shown is a series of photographs called ‘A Portrait of Lotte.’ That is a great example of time speeding by.

Here was our kids alternative non curriculum…

They cooked and created chaos in the kitchen

They read

They made things

They danced a lot

They sang out loud

They talked non stop

They ran through the trees

They chased the cats

They cried and got cross

They sorted it out again and cheered up

They washed up

They played computer games

They did adhoc science projects on the kitchen table, when they felt like it

They researched their own projects, or projects they ask people to set for them

They looked things up on youtube and wikipedia

They wrote letters

They played with friends

They sat on a pile of stones and stared at them for ages looking for the shiny ones that glinted in the sunshine

They flicked elastic bands

They did their hair, in various styles, then they did their hair some more

The played on The Khan Academy

They did Mystery Skype’s

They were involved in doing SOLE’s with School in the Cloud

They went to circus classes and two of them are now circus perfomers

They did maths by doing the shopping, or baking, or by trying to remember their times table for fun

They’d get me to paraphrase what ever novel I was reading and they listened to the story

They laughed a lot

And they talked a lot

They lived a full expansive childhood

But we didn’t bring school in to our house. We brought the world in, as best as we could and then when they wanted to they went on to study for exams. They went on to do things that they were really passionate about and I think that is the key here. As an automous learner will only go on to do what they truly love and when they get the bit between their teeth they go for it, as their motivation comes from within. Nobody is making them do it.

So for any of you worrying about the speed of learning, have faith in your children they love to learn and often the learning goes on and it is not even noticeable till you look back and realise ‘Wow!’