Tuesday

Gavin played Lego Chima on the computer. Then they watched Pokemon and Leapfrog: Amazing Alphabet.

There was Magformers and pony play. Then breakfast and more pony play.

“Let’s play Real Ninjago but in the real world.” “Okay!” They play Real Ninjago almost every day together. It’s a pretend game based loosely on Lego Ninjago, but populated with whatever characters/environments/challenges strike their fancy that day: dragons, Pippi Longstocking, poisonous plants, slavery. Sometimes they use toys as characters, sometimes it’s just oral. They negotiate together and tell a story that weaves their many interests together. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. I’m not ever invited to play and I’m glad that it’s their world, just for the two of them.

Then we began a big project: cleaning out and organizing the kids’ closet. It’s mostly toys, supplies in there rather than clothes though there are some of those too. We took everything out. The kids loved this part as they found long-lost favorite toys.

We sorted things into groups. We have a big pile of things to keep, another big pile of things to give away to bring someone else joy, and a few things that the kids aren’t excited about using but we will keep for other friends or perhaps Gavin and Lilah’s kids someday. The kids did most of the work of pulling everything out, making decisions, putting things back in their places with my assistance. I got to take several armfulls out to the recycling and garbage bins, but other than that they did most of it. Now the closet is organized and cleaner and the kids should be able to find what they’re interested in pulling out and able to put it back when they’re done. Woohoo!

Lilah and I picked tomatillos, serranos, carrots and cherry tomatoes.

After lunch, we pulled out a bunch of games from the closet to the game shelf in our living room and put some in the closet. It’s fun to switch what’s out. We played with our stacking tops and then Lilah and Gavin decided to play Connect 4 and spent several hours trying different approaches and techniques.

I left for a hike on my own for an hour or so. It’s been more a struggle than I had expected to have bits of time on my own. I find that I feel guilty, more than I used to when we were not unschooling, if I am not with the kids, even when I know it’s not a problem. However, it’s important for me to just be alone here and there, just explore my own thoughts without interruption. It helps me feel happier and healthier and be more present with the kids when I am with them. I enjoyed spotting butterflies and enjoying the sights and smells and sounds of fall. The clouds in the sky swirled like the top of a latte when I was walking back down the road. When I got home the kids were playing together and had the chess set out.

Then it was time for Lilah and I to drive to her gymnastics class and Gavin and Dad to play Civilization and make Palaak Tofu for dinner. That’s an Indian dish with spinach that usually uses Paneer, an Indian cheese, but we use tofu instead. Yum!

unschooling

Monday

We began with computer time for both kids.

After breakfast we picked up my sister for a walk up City Creek Canyon. We parked right under a chestnut tree so we spent some time collecting chestnuts, mainly for my sister to take to her group of after school kids to check out. Chestnuts are so beautiful when they first come out of their prickly shells. We saw empty shells, old crushed bits, and a few shiny chestnuts. We took a few home too and the kids loved opening them and admiring the swirls on their shining surfaces.

We walked up and then headed down by the stream for bark floating, mushroom finding, log bridge crossing, path finding.

Up a bit we saw water skaters and a small fish in the creek. We took a different path and found what Gavin called a teepee so we explored that and then added to it.

We headed onward and found ourselves back by the stream but on the wrong side so we built a bridge out of large sticks and small logs and a stone or two to cross. We saw milkweed seeds coming out of their now brown pods. We saw small butterflies and chickadees and a turkey vulture. It smelled wonderful there and is always beautiful. The possibilities to explore are endless which is just such a wonderful, exciting feeling.

After lunch we cleaned up the Legos all over the floor, sorting them into our three bins: regular blocks, itty bitty “special” blocks and big “special” blocks. We decided we need to have a family conversation about how to handle Legos in a way we can all feel comfortable with so they are not spread across the entirety of the living room shared space and upsetting me and getting lost or broken but so that the kids have space to play and keep things together.

Gavin did some magazine browsing.

Then it was time for Lilah and I to collect her friend from school. We spent a bit of time on the school playground and then came home to play with ponies, Magformers, stuffed animals and Lilah’s bobble head cats. There was cat carrier building, shopping, hair-do admiring.

After Lilah’s friend said good-bye, we practiced some Spanish – food and plurals today.

Then Gavin and I headed to the park on our bikes to do loops around the parking lot and then cross the park to the other parking lot and do loops there. It was just after sunset and the sky was still lit but the ground was beginning to gray. We talked about how there are several words for this time of day: twilight, dusk, evening, the gloaming.

unschooling

Friday

There was computer play followed by tumbling and nest making. They brought blankets and pillows out and made their own cozy space.

They wrestled.

The Goldie Blox sets were opened and stories were read and blocks built with.

We did some Spanish together – more animal and food words. Soy un vegetariana.

We watched an episode of Cosmos: a Spacetime Odyssey.

Next we headed to the rink to roller skate. This was the kids second time roller skating and they were still working hard to get it, but enjoyed it nonetheless. They began without the balance supports and did a few laps and then when they got tired and frustrated with that we rented the supports and they had a ball twirling around in the middle of the rink. I skated too and realized I need to learn how to stop better. We skated for a good hour and a half before heading for home and dinner and family time and bedtime.

unschooling

Thursday

They started with computer play and Pokemon and My Little Pony watching.

There was lego play and pony play.

Lilah drew pictures of her friends with their names and hairstyles and favorite colors taken into consideration.

We baked muffins with mixing and recipe reading and chocolate chip allotting.

We puzzled.

After lunch we headed up to our favorite spot by Storm Mountain and hiked by the stream. It was cold but beautiful. We collected maple leaves and I dabbled with a little leaf art. We decided that Lilah needs a collecting bag to bring with us on walks and hikes.

On the way down we noticed a pine tree full of pinecones. We wondered if they are the kind with pine nuts so we brought a few home to check out.

When we got home there was sticker sticking fun and then we did some Spanish together – food and animal words.

We finished the Rocky Mountains puzzle. It was a beautiful and fun one, and we would definitely like another with Charley Harper art on it. We even noticed several of the species from the puzzle on our hike today!

unschooling

Wednesday

Right after breakfast we headed up to UMFA with my sister. It was their monthly first free Wednesday!

We really enjoyed looking around. It’s hard not to touch things though, when some are practically begging for it! There was an artist there, Tony Feher installing some art on windows with painters tape that looked like a tile mosaic. His exhibition is opening later this week! It was fascinating to me to watch him. He also had a piece already hung using pink tape descending from the very high ceiling in a grid. It blows a tiny bit in the indoor air currents and seems like chaos but if you stand in between rows you see the linear pattern.

The kids enjoyed the South Asian art and the Indian art especially, as well as a video of a performance piece where an artist in throwing rocks in bowls of paint and they drip down over many boxes, each with its own bowl of paint waiting. Rock, Hard, Place it was called. I cannot remember the artists name. We looked at Ganesha carved in stone and wood. We admired a Horus casket painted beautifully and holding a grain mummy. We looked at paintings of Utah and noted some places we’ve been. It was very enjoyable for all of us, not too terribly packed, and filled with fascinating art from all over and many eras and we’ll do it again on another free day.

After we got home we watched an episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

Then we did some Spanish practice, followed by a request for music to sing along to. “Ella’s Playhouse is already in the player, Mama!”

Soon it was time to head out for Gavin’s soccer game. Lilah enjoyed the playground while Gavin enjoyed playing with his team. They are the Earthquakes, named for the MLS team who wears blue and black.

Afterward it was dinner and bedtime, with snuggling, reading and a few songs.

unschooling

Tuesday

There was Pokemon watching.

Gavin built with Magformers while Lilah and I made waffles.

After breakfast there was a game where they walked round and round the room while going imaginary places.

We read a few articles about the eruption of Mount Ontake in Japan. Then we looked at a video of a fish with a transparent head on National Geographic’s website. “I can see it’s brain! And it’s eyeballs are moving!”

There were baths and cuddling followed by several sudoku Chocolate Fix challenges together.

A lego garden was built with poison berry plants which grow berries that are red before they are ripe so people might think they are apples and eat them, then they have tiny black spots and then, when they are ripe they turn black.

We read an article for kids about Ebola and talked about what it is, where it is and how scary the outbreak is for Africa. We looked at our globe at the part of Africa where it is now.

There was more lego play.

I read a chapter of Wise Child to them and then we did some Spanish practice – animal words today.

We made some popcorn with our air popper (always fun to watch!) and read Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride by Stephen Krensky.

We listened to and danced to Ella Fitzgerald.

We enjoyed all of it.

unschooling

Monday

They played on coolmathgames.com.

Then we worked on necklaces with beads Lilah got for her birthday. They discussed knot making, how long string needed to be, where the beads came from and what they were made of.

Legos were built with and Magformers were put together.

We did some Spanish practice together.

The new glowing birthday Wikkistix/Bendaroos were brought out and they made shapes on the provided cards and then made shoes for their ponies. Then we took them in the dark bedroom with a black light to see if they would glow.

Then Lilah and I headed off to pick up her friend to come play here. We braved the pouring rain and even some hail and the girls loved the excitement of it being a challenge to get from school to the car. At home, there was dress up, lego play, more magformers building, especially building homes and vehicles for stuffed animals.

There was story telling and Goldieblox building.

After saying goodbye to Lilah’s friend and dinner, there was tag in the living room and beginning discussions about halloween costume plans. Lilah has requested a butterfly costume, like last year, but a different species. Gavin wants to be a lego minifig. He’s not sure what kind yet. We have some research to do, some materials to gather and some creative assembly to do together in the next weeks! How exciting!

unschooling

Wednesday

There was computer play for Gavin and part of a Garfield movie for Lilah before the three of us baked muffins for breakfast.

We read a chapter of Wise Child. This book has some great issues to explore for us at 9 and 6, like being scared of differences in other people, peer pressure, fear of being alone, improving skills through practice and needing to do things you don’t like.

There was lego play and reading some newly borrowed library books.

We did more Spanish on Duolingo and Mindsnacks Spanish numbers.

I brought out our And Then… story starters and we each chose a story starter, then wrote the next part. The story starters are a box of beginnings of stories, each with a charming picture on it. It’s a fun way of inviting the kids to write imaginatively. Lilah dictated her story to me and I wrote it out for her and then she illustrated it. Gavin wrote his out and then illustrated. We’ve found that lined paper makes a huge difference in his confidence and quality of writing as he gets so easily frustrated and overwhelmed when trying to write. After we finished we each read our story aloud and enjoyed them.

There were handstands and arabesques and hula hooping.

Lilah decided she was tired and asked me to read her a book and then she lay down down for a bit. The fact that she recognized her need and acted on it without worrying about missing something makes me happy.

I wrote out a scavenger hunt for the kids to do around the house full of things like something blue, something fuzzy, something that smells good, something funny to do while I did yoga.

Gavin made map hunts for Lilah and I to decode.

Lilah and I headed out to a Spiral Scouts meeting and Gavin and Dad headed to his soccer game to finish off our day.

unschooling

Tuesday

They began with computer play and Pokemon watching.

We watched the construction right outside our house and its’ progress, wondering about what would happen next.

Then we learned how to say good morning in German and Spanish: guten morgen and buenos dias. And how to say and: und and y. We decided to try an app to learn Spanish together on my phone.

There was lego play and we read another chapter of Wise Child.

We looked at flowers and plants and animals and talked about different kinds of symmetry. Lilah drew a flower, with radial symmetry.

I asked the kids if they’d like to do some math and they said yes, so each of them answered a few questions on the whiteboard. I was wondering if Gavin would remember the greater than, less than symbols. He did. He enjoys math very much. It’s a language that makes sense to him and he especially loves story problems so I try to throw a few his way regularly. I enjoyed watching his process of division drawn out. It’s fascinating to see what way a kid approaches a puzzle that can be solved in so many different ways. Lilah enjoys math puzzling too, especially patterns.

After lunch we looked up the weather on wunderground.com and Gavin wrote down info in his weather journal. Then we discovered it’s a new moon so we took name suggestions and voted as a family on this moon’s name, inspired by our beloved teacher Leslee’s class the last two years. Suggestions included: Kitten moon, Owl moon, Hoot hoot moon, Magical moon, Starlight moon, Magic moon, Meow meow moon, Squirrel moon, Woof moon. We settled on Meow meow moon. Some stuffed animals got in on the voting.

The kids worked on assembling our vacuum. On a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day last week our old vacuum broke beyond repair, so we were very excited to have and try our new one.

We tried out the Spanish app, Duolingo. It was fun, though I’m not thoroughly sold on it being fantastic for young kids. If we do it together it’s pretty accessible.

We took a trip to the library to return books and find new ones to read and came home with three armfuls, one for each of us.

Gavin immediately dove into a map book where you find treasure by using mapping skills. After he finished he read about the other related books and requested we try to find them. Lilah was very interested too and asked to read it on her own as soon as he finished.

We played with density using water, vegetable oil and coins, legos, plastic animals and rubber bands.

Lilah and I went to her gymnastics class where she practiced candlesticks, arabesques, cartwheels and handstands while Gavin played Civilization with Dad and then helped him with dinner.

unschooling

Monday

There was coolmathgames.com and lego building.

We met my sister for a tour of her roommates beehives and then a walk along the Jordan River.

Then we read a chapter of Wise Child.

We found a mouse in the house so we set up a humane trap to catch it and relocate it. We listened to it’s scritchings and scrappings behind our microwave as we waited for it to check out the yummy peanut butter and cracker we put out for it.

We played with stuffed animals and legos more, then Lilah and I headed off to pick up her friend.

When we got home the three kids made up their own version of The Lego Movie, then played mom and kids, then played with our marble maze.

There was some gymnastics practice and giant ball play.

I enjoyed listening to an explanation of what being unconscious means and then enjoyed a demonstration more.

“What would you like for dinner tonight, kids?” “Come dance with me and I’ll tell you.” “Okay.” “Now spin me around three times. Okay, I’ll have rice and tofu and apples.” “Dance with me too, Mama and I’ll tell you what I want.”

We watched this video about a knot:

Then we wanted to watch (and dance and sing to!) another favorite by Ylvis before bed:

It was a good day.

Yes is a World

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