Unschooling and Project Based Learning

What is unschooling and project based learning? Child led learning? This is how we end up getting started on new topics and activities, for some things I might use formal curriculum, but normally that is just a guide and we end up doing things hands on instead of worksheets. The more free reign I give my son, the more we seem to cover. When I try to schedule a formal day of learning, going subject by subject instead of doing things more naturally, we cover a lot less. I do keep an eye on what public schools teach to ensure that we aren't missing any important skills, but at this point we're pretty far ahead on most subjects. I would love some suggestions for writing though!

Here's a day from our Homeschool Journal that I've expanded upon a bit that shows how easy it is to turn anything into a learning experience:

We were technically on vacation, but the Geekling (my son, age 6) asked to open our new 3D chalk set. This of course led to experimenting with how lights, books, video games, and pictures looked through the 3D glasses. When he asked why there was a line of color when we looked at lights, the science and art lesson began! We looked up the definition of spectrum, talked about our old rainbow friend ROY G. BIV (the order of colors in the rainbow), and I asked him to take some notes in his science journal without worrying about spelling or punctuation to develop his note taking skills.

We wrote a hypothesis in our science journal about what his favorite video game would look like, talked about scientific method (and more about what a hypothesis is), prisms, contrast, perspective, optical illusion, and using our 5 senses to explore and understand the world. He made a few notes and we started our lists of words and terms we wanted to learn this week in the margin of his journal. He added "Kingfisher" (a bird) because he wants to know more about them.

Going outside to draw with the chalk after reading the directions started our art lesson. Warm and cool colors, contrast, perspective, optical illusion, complimentary and contrasting colors, and how we can make our art really "pop!"

Finally, we explored the backyard. The leaves, trees, flowers, and swing set were a treat for the eyes. Giving us a whole new perspective on the colors we see every day and slight shade variations. We were on a roll, so I decided we should review math facts on the trampoline (G's favorite place in the world). When it was time to take a break, I asked if he wanted to go inside and grab a book to read together. He got very excited and said, "Why don't we write our own book?!?!"

I was stunned. It would be a vast understatement to say he's a reluctant writer. Due to his Aspergers and seeing the world in black and white, creative writing is not his favorite pastime. He is very creative, but normally feels put on the spot when you ask him to write something down instead of just pretending through play. He made up a wonderful short story about a dog named Henry that wanted to be a magician.

After we were done with our story, he brought the Kindle out to the trampoline for some reading and chose Poetry! This week Robert Louis Stevenson is his favorite and we looked up a few words from Looking-glass River he didn't know while we were talking about what the poem meant. This led to synonyms, homophones, antonyms, adjectives, etc. (he started this discussion not me).

Here is the chalk & glasses set we bought that started all of this: