Our Unschoolers want projects! Ideas for Project Based Learning.

So last night as I tucked the kids in to bed one of my daughters said.

‘Mummy, I want homework. Could you give me a project, make me do it and if I don’t do it be really mean to me?’

We both laughed.

Then the other two chimed in ‘Yeah, me too, me too!’

What I gleaned from this is that they are hungry to learn, they want something to do and they want to be challenged. They also want me to stick to a boundary to make sure that they finish their projects. Which is kind of contrary to the unschooling philosophy but it comes from them, so it is all good. I am following them in their learning.

So late last night I wrote a list and it goes like this.

1. Raise one hundred Euro for charity, find a charity that resonates with you, research it and then raise money for it.

2. Research Vietnam, find out everything you need to know about going to Vietnam. Learn some basic language, find out if there are circus schools there. Present it to me in a week.

3. Design and build a model house, look at Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and design it in that style.

4. Write a story. Put in five illustrations or photographs. Design the cover of it as if it were a book. Use a painting from The Art Book to springboard an idea for your story.

5. Design a flyer for our upcoming kids market.

6. Tell me everything you can about black holes.

7. Do a portrait of yourself as to how you think you will look in ten years’ time.

8. Write a script, make a film. Act in it, organize the actors, design the costumes and do the filming etc

9. Learn the basics of French, do what you can in one week.

10. Learn how to play and sing a song on the piano. Perform it in a week.

11. Do a theatre show, an outside piece, plan it, write it, rehearse it and invite an audience to come and see it in a week’s time.

12. Write a Minecraft song, write the lyrics the music, record or sing it for us in a week.

13. Learn how to do some Japanese writing with a paintbrush.

14. Write a piece for the blog about the Unschooling/Homeschooling camp. Tell us from your perspective how would you have organized the camp differently.

15. Research the pyramids in Egypt and see how they were built then re build them in Minecraft.

Then the kids gave me a project.

Draw a cat that has all the characters and personalities of our six cats combined with in it. (GULP!)

These were the ideas I proposed, please feel free to use any of them for your kids if they inspire you and let us know how you got on. I shall report back from our end soon and let you know what happens from here.