Modified unschooling on Thursdays with the twins on their last year before proper school.

The twins are officially out of school for the summer! Just last Friday was their final day of daycare. Ever. I remember having to pack diapers in their backpack for their very first day of daycare. Ever.

First Day(2010) and Last Day(2012) documented on my camera/phone.

And in-between (12/21/2011) they got new backpacks!

Time is flying. Soon we will be getting them little school uniforms. Soon, but not just yet.

Next year, the twins will be in preschool for 2 full days a week. It is a play based program so they will be doing lots of, um, playing. They’ll craft, help cook, hear stories and do all sorts of interesting things, but it is really just a year of getting ready for the reality of proper school.

I will need the time as well because while I would love to be one of those women who has it all under control, the reality is, I am going to require some practice at making three school lunches a day.

We are not a homeschooling family, so I know that my weekdays of having children at home with me are numbered. I don’t for one moment take for granted the luxury of envisioning an entire year ahead. I feel grateful that we can afford for me to stay home and that we have grandparents nearby who can take them once a week. I also know there are so many mothers out there who would love to have just one more day with their lost children, let alone the hope for a lifetime. I can’t help but think about my dear friend who will not be here next year to pick her daughter up from her first day of Grade Three. Those mothers will be guiding my heart when I disconnect from work one day a week and purposefully explore with the kids.

I am looking forward to a whole year of Thursdays spent with the twins. I have decided to loosely base the project on the idea of Unschooling. The kids will lead me to each weekly entry by exploring what is of interest to them. (I know, that sounds pretty hippy to me as well!) Of course I have a list of things that I will introduce (because how can you get interested in something that you don’t even know exists?) and I have a growing catalogue of ideas sent in by readers and other bloggers, but I want the twins to help guide us. It is as much their project as mine. When Gemma was their age, she was desperate to start learning how to read, but the program that she attended said that kids at that age were too young to be taught that. They were also a play based center…a different center and more rigid than where the twins are going. We decided to listen to Gemma and since she was already spelling three letter words by age three, we thought we might just take the whole reading thing into our own hands. She grabbed right on to phonics as we expected she might. To this day she is an avid reader. I will be listening to my kids and Thursdays next year will be our days together to learn.

Please follow along with our journey and feel free to share your adventures as well! I will be documenting and blogging each thing we do. The twins will also be journaling (in their four year old way) and rating the adventures…more on that in our first installment of this Year of Thursdays, January 3rd! If you are a homeschooling /unschooling family, have an adventurous spirit, tasty recipes, craft projects, great ideas or more, I would love to hear from you! Some days will just be a little project and others will be day long adventures! No idea or project is too small (nor too big!), so please email me sesameellis (at) gmail (dot) com.

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