Unschooling Backpacks! | What Is It and What's In Ours?...

[@Whitney_Sews]

I love this! We are more typical homeschoolers, but I definitely want to incorporate this idea into our summer learning.

[@ariannapflederer]

How fun! Someone else mentioned incorporating it into their summer learning too. I love that idea!

[@bluesouthpaw6326]

Wow! You're doing a good job. Very cool idea.

[@wendymilne-emslie8329]

I absolutely love this idea. Do you still do this idea with your girls? I have just found your channel tonight and I'm really enjoying your videos. Thank you for sharing. ❤️

[@elainey1659]

We use Gather Round too! Just started homeschooling/unschooling and we’re loving it!!

[@ariannapflederer]

Aw, yay!! Happy to meet another unschooling family using gatherround ☺️

[@chelseagarchar4338]

My kids do regular school but I think this is a fabulous idea for summer learning so they won’t slide back.

[@ariannapflederer]

Yes!! Absolutely love that idea!

[@bubbles__61104]

I was homeschooled unschooled until high school my choose to go to "normal" school. But we did the core things math English reading and state testing prep. Till 9 grade different state. so we had different state rules other than that I was unschooled. And went to college ect as well. Good luck in it all and happy to see you back.

[@tuathadesidhe1530]

Math in the garden, and cooking are good ways to naturally bring in math. My kids naturally learned about decimal points and place value by looking in junk mail catalogs, and pretending to go shopping on a budget. And they would take turns of being given a budget and being in charge of buying, and cooking either lunches, breakfasts, dinners, or home ed activity days foods. Another great book you might be interested in is "the children's forest" they learn both herbal and tree lore along with traditional recipes, crafts and learning the Ogham tree alphabet - and seasonal Celtic folk lore.

[@codiiiiiiiii]

I got that same backpack in green for H to use as his Easter basket this year! It’s so nice! I considered the REI Tarn 12 but I didn’t love the colors but the Mountaintop one has been great so far. I can’t wait to fill it with all of this fun outdoor learning material!

[@ariannapflederer]

Isn’t the backpack is great?! I was really impressed with it!

[@tabithaanderson118]

I love this, we’ve just started homeschooling this year and we are a bit of a mix of some structure and some not! I LOVE hearing your girls sweet voices talking about their interest and showing their stuff, you can tell they’re proud of what they’re doing and that’s amazing, good job Momma❤️

[@ariannapflederer]

They love to share about their current interests! It’s my favorite to listen to them share what they learn!

[@raisingthemdifferent1618]

Gather Round Homeschool looks so fun. My kids are still young and our 2nd language is English. But maybe when they can read English in a few years we will look at GRH again.

[@ariannapflederer]

We are really enjoying it, I hope you guys do too when you try it out!

[@emmab.1328]

I’ve always kind of written off unschooling as crazy and dumb but I’ve definitely opened my eyes up to it a little. I still don’t know if I’d do it because I’d be scared I wouldn’t do it right or something and my kids would grow up uneducated lol. Also about that book for learning to read, in Bosnia letters are called their sound as well. My mom taught me Bosnian letters and numbers before going into kindergarten and I always never understood why the letters weren’t just the sounds they made. It really makes no sense when you think about it lmao

[@emmab.1328]

Waldorf and Montessori schools really peak my interest though. They’re just so expensive here in America

[@ariannapflederer]

I LOVE Waldorf schools especially. But oh my, the price is like sending your kid to college haha. I totally feel you though on being unsure of unschooling. One thing I’ve learned since starting to homeschool and having friends who are years down the road...you’re kind of always worried you’ll mess it up no matter what version of homeschool you do 🤪 haha! But that just comes with motherhood in general. Unschooling for sure does take being purposeful and on top of answering their questions and/or giving them the tools to get answers on their own! 🙂

[@wildflowersandwonderment]

I love this!! You found so many ways to let your kids dig deep into their interests. I unschooled /relaxed unschooled my son until 4th grade. (That’s when my MIL got into my husbands head about whether he would be ready for high school 😑) Love what you’re doing!!! 💕

[@ariannapflederer]

Aw, I’m sorry. That’s tough! So glad you have that awesome foundational starting though for him, hopefully it really helped foster a love for learning for him!

[@jessicabailey6897]

Love this!!!!!

[@oliviajo8653]

Oh my word, such a crazy coincidence - I just received my "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" that I ordered for my girl who's the same age as Aerie! So funny to see you talk about it on the day I got mine 😀

[@ariannapflederer]

Haha, that is a funny! I hope your daughter enjoys it and see’s success with it as well!

[@ServiceDogRosie]

@Arianna can you educate me on how this unschooling works for prepping for grade school, middle and high school and college eventually.. or do the kids do regular core classes at home while incorporating hands on approach to outdoor activities and life skills vs traditional home schooling.. I'm 30, I had home economics, social skills, botany, home economics etc

[@ariannapflederer]

Great questions! Statistically speaking, unschooled kids tend to be far more prepared for college (as well as normal homeschool kids) than public/private school children. You are essentially fostering a love for learning and teaching them how to make education/studying a normal part of life! As I mentioned, you can incorporate all the different subjects into their area of interest! But it’s the parents job to make sure they are truly doing unschooling with purpose and encouraging their children to be learning day to day, and not just letting them be unproductive all day. Our state also has to have yearly standardized tests, so it’s easy to track your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Then if needed, and you choose, you can address certain areas more if you think it’s necessary. A lot of public schools have access to classes like home economics, botany, etc. but there’s not an option for prolonged focus to master like you can with unschooling. And that’s only if that’s the child’s interest, most kids interests likely don’t have classes available in a public school setting. Social skills of course is easy with homeschooling and unschooling. Usually easier, and homeschool kids typically are better socialized because they interact with children of all ages and adults of all ages on a regular basis 🙂 Most homeschooled/unschooled children (our included) are involved in weekly co-op’s and lots of outings/field trips! I think it’s also important to note that college isn’t the only route to making a living and a life. Finding your passion, mastering it, and making a living out of it is what everyone should strive for! If that requires college, then awesome. But if it doesn’t, that’s great too! College isn’t a necessity anymore like it was in our parents generation. But thankfully unschooled kids who are properly supported should thrive and have no issue in a college setting if they choose to go that route! ☺️

[@jodiupchurch]

That Robot Toy Looks Cool Great Idea 👍

[@ariannapflederer]

Thanks Jodi! She definitely loves it!

[@emiliemcmillan1158]

Look into Wild Math!

[@ariannapflederer]

I talked about that in this video, it’s what we were using :)

[@emiliemcmillan1158]

How did I miss that? lol. 🙈

[@MindyourMatters]

New friend here. Nice to meet you!

[@ariannapflederer]

Nice to meet you too ☺️

[@alyssah.3160]

You may be interested to look into the science of reading. Many find success with 100 Easy Lessons because of the cumulative scope and sequence and direct instruction of speech to print; however, I find it incomplete as it does not explicitly support the child (or adult) in understanding why the language works in seemingly funny ways nor facilitate the use of terminology and tools that would help the child explore the code scientifically. Anyway, if you're interested, Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene and Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide are excellent resources to start with.

[@stevewiseman3996]

If your kids need help with math you can make or buy a times table chart 1 to 100 pin it above there bed's and they will learn math by looking at it while they fall asleep I swear it works

[@bubbles__61104]

If you can get them to sit still for 10 to 15 mins at a time abeka curriculum for math is AMAZING I know you don't like screen time but abc mouse and adventure Academy is really good. Hope this helps. Also look at the dollar tree and Costco or Sam's Club and Amazon for workbooks for the math part. You can always do how many flowers are in the pot ect. As well

[@bubbles__61104]

@PhDangerously Over Educated I'm sorry my kids and a lot of other kids did just fine with abeka for math especially if they have any type of learning disability it is very flexible I am also an educator