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Unschooling Through The Winter

© Teri Brown

Spanish Club, Math Club, Dance, Art, River Ecology. These are all activities that fill our winter weeks. What would be far too much in the summer is perfect for the winter. Why? Because during the summer, outdoor activities command the bulk of our attention, leaving us little time for such pursuits. But when the rain starts to fall we head for our classes and clubs ready for intellectual stimulation and social activities.

Some of these clubs I’ve founded with my children to help us better pursue an interest. Others are classes I actively seek out and pay for, with the same goal in mind. Still others are volunteer opportunities and as such, are filled with learning.

To keep from becoming overwhelmed, I consider the following:

Long-term interests. My son is passionate about rivers, biology, animal science, fishing and hatcheries. Every winter I try to find an activity or class that will continue his education along those lines. This year we have volunteered for a local watershed watch dog group, which not only gives him an outlet for his passion, but also offers classes in biology as it relates to the rivers.

Short-term interests My daughter’s short-term interest this year is dance. While she has always loved to dance free-style, she has shown a greater interest in dance as it relates to her long-term interest, art. She might possibly fall in love with dance making it a long-term interest, but for right now she is taking ballet for fun and exploration.

Common interests Whenever possible I try to find an activity that covers common interests. Spanish club was created this way. All of us were interested in learning this language and found a teacher to instruct us… if we had a small group. So after contacting my states email lists I put together a Spanish club. Math club was created in much the same way.

Long and Short-term commitments Spanish club is a long-term commitment. We are committing to learn the Spanish language and we have committed ourselves to both the teacher and the rest of the club. Math club is more of a short-term commitment. It is made up of close friends; no main “teacher” and we agreed to be very flexible. Football is a fall activity which is, though time consuming, a short-term commitment. In planning out the year I try to balance both my long term and short-term commitments, which I reevaluate on a continual basis. I try to leave enough leeway that we can add on both social and intellectual activities without killing ourselves.