Dear Old Homeschooling

When we started our homeschooling journey on 2008 ( oh my where the time goes ? ) I never heard of unschooilng or roadschooling. Well I was thanksful enough that after more then one year long fight I could homeschool the children and I was very fearful and scared to do anything else but 'taking the school home'.
But in the last three years the Lord has been teaching me so many new things everyday and He has called me to change little by little and by huge steps what I was doing with the children.
Last year in april ( on year 2010 ) we left our more then comfortable suburban home for the unknown. Actually we were leaving for Finland, and we couldn't imagine how longer and interesting that joureny would have been. So while taking care of boxes, traveling plans and rental homes we started unschooling. I left the kids free to manage their days, just proposing them interesting activities in the garden or letting them help us with the move. Once in Finland, in may, I felt it was too late for formal schooling so we kept just crafting, exploring and unschooling all the way.
Then our life took another turn. Long story short, we came back to Italy in July and we bought a very old motorhome ( out faithful Elnagh Magnum 560 ) and decided to travel from Rome to the south of Spain and then once there we went all the way back through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Finland. We got aquainted with the idea of roadschoolig, as we call it. It is not really unschooling, it's more like soaking in the place we're visiting, knowing people, talking and listening people, telling our story and learning other people's stories, and watching around, the nature, the monuments, the animals ... whatever, and trying to learn about them, not because we have to, and not even because we want to, but because we're part of it, like getting to know your own body, made of all the wonders of the world. When we came back to Italy in the fall we started homeschooling again. I don't think the place or the house we're living at the moment offers enough to the kids in many terms so unschooling days get too long for them and they welcome some table time. But of course I was finally confident and comfortable enough with the idea and the concept that the kids will learn, no matter what. i only have to give them the opportunity for interesting and meaningful experiences and they will get all they can from them.
Call it relax. Call it faith. I know they will learn what's right for them.
So when we decided to leave again in june we were ready to jump again in the exciting waters of unschooling. We traveled from Rome up to North Cape and back, visiting Germany, Finland,Norway,Sweden,Danemark. The kids kept learning, and asking, and knowing people, listening stories, getting to know different lives, and kept using their skills, reading, writing, studying, talking in english just naturally. Call it being proud. And happy. I was all this. Now we're back once again. We're all ready for some fun with table time, with more forml projects. With some traditional math and writing. We'll keep traveling when we can even during the winter but not so extensively, and while traveling I'll know that we'll be learning just as we learn during table time.
So today was our first day of Dear Old Homeschooling .

(Here some pic of our last trip to Pisa and Monteriggioni and of our first project of the year )

Milla ( do you like the hat ? I did it. I like it a lot )

Pisa ( Piazza dei Miracoli )

Monteriggioni, over the walls and in the museum where it was possible to wear and try knights clothing and armours and swords ....

We have started talking about Middle Age, so our first project was this medieval castle !

Shalom !