Category Archives: unschooling

art, unschooling

Thursday

They began by building with train tracks.  A whole village filled the floor!

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I read from Wise Child to them over breakfast.

Then there was K’nex play and stuffed animal adventures.

Gavin read from The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem to us; Sea Story.

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We made self portraits from tangram blocks.

Then we drew self portraits and added crayon, paint, oil pastels.

There was tumbling practice.

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After lunch we headed off to The Museum of Natural Curiosity where we climbed, directed water through pipes and hoses, tested structures in earthquakes, played music, measured our heart rates, built with giant blocks, played on a zipline and on swings.

We came home, ate together and watched an episode of The Cosmos, which fascinated both kids and spurred all sorts of questions at bedtime.

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unschooling

Wednesday

Today I cleaned the house because we had guests coming and between you and I, I’m one of those people who believes a clean house is a sign of a misspent life, so there was a lot of cleaning to do.  The kids helped by organizing, picking up here and there.  I had to spend a lot of time cleaning though.  The kids played legos together happily for a long time and then went in their room to play a newly invented game with stuffed animal real ninjago battle!

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They missed out on doing more active things together though and missed spending quality time with me.  They were both incredibly grumpy and disregulated by the time I was through.  So I sat down with them and tried to reconnect.  I picked up Gavin’s foot and pretended it was a phone, held it to my ear.  I pretended I could hear people on the other end, and answered all kinds of silly questions and then kept hanging up. “Hello, hello?  ….. No, I don’t need any chickens. …. No, not even one.  …. I don’t need any ducks either!  …. Please stop calling here!  Good bye!”   Gavin then would laugh, go back to looking grumpy and then hold his foot up for me to answer it again.  Eventually Lilah came and requested I talk on her foot phone too.  We ended up giggling a lot and then the kids were more able to figure out something fun we could all do together afterward.

We read some Wise Child by Monica Furlong.

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We played Hanabi together, a fun collaborative game where you have to play without knowing the cards you’re holding and have to rely on your team mates to help you know what to play and what to discard.

We watched:

And then we went for a walk to the park to swing and race cars down the slides, then dinner with family from out of town and across town and then home and songs and cuddles and bed.

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unschooling

Tuesday

There was some computer play for Gavin while Lilah was still sleeping and then The Lego Movie.

Gavin read the latest National Geographic during breakfast and Lilah read her All Aboard book she cut out and put together from her Highlights magazine yesterday.

There was lego building and imagining and some balance beam walking and cartwheels and hand stands on the tumbling mat.

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I read some Dealing with Dragons to them.  After lunch they asked for more, so we finished it and they immediately ran to look for the next in the series by Patricia Wrede.

There was more lego play.

Lilah read In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak aloud.

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We played a game of Blokus.

Then there was more balance beam and mat play.

Gavin left to swim and play with a friend while Lilah and I played a game of Fluxx and then built part of a new computer desk set up.

Then Lilah and I headed to her gymnastics class for candlesticks and cartwheels and handstands.

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Gavin came home and worked on assembling more desk furniture with Dad.

It was fun.

 

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unschooling

Friday

They started with coolmathgames.com.

Then we made a visit to the pediatrician.  Afterward we played with legos and listened to Ella Fitzgerald.  We discovered a new favorite song:  Chew, chew chew (Chew Your Bubblegum)! We’ve been singing it off and on all day.

We watched Fossil Rock Anthem, a parody of Party Rock Anthem that’s about geology and that led to some other kids fossil videos on youtube.

After lunch we went Tracy Aviary.

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We watched the ducks and pelicans and identified a few species.  We looked at the Andean Condor, Andy and the golden and bald eagles.  One of the golden eagles was having lunch while we watched.  We read about how the eagles they have at our Aviary were injured in the wild and wouldn’t have survived on their own.

We made our way toward the the flamingos, swans and macaws and met a peacock on the walk.  Lilah was so proud that she was able to say still enough and silent enough not to scare it away.

Then we had a nice long rest in the shady Owl Forest to look at all the different owls and watched some Patagonian parrots fly from keeper to keeper for treats.  We even got to see an owl fly in practice for their bird show.  It was beautiful.

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Lilah did some feather collecting.

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We spotted a quail bunch wandering and the kids crept slowly and quietly after them to get a better look.

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After we got home, we ate and then headed to our neighborhood park for a bit of swinging and biking to end the day.

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unschooling

Thursday

They started on with some Pokemon and some My Little Pony watching.

There was lego creating.  Gavin built robots and Lilah discussed primary colors she was choosing to build with.

We baked oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip muffins.  They turned on the oven, read the recipe, measured, stirred, set up the pan and even tried our mortar and pestle to grind up some cardamom seeds!

Then there was more lego imaginative play.  “There was a black-out!”  “He bumped into her house and crashed into the window.”  (Indescribable sound effects here.)  “And then Nya came out to help.”  “Yeah…”

I invited the kids to join me in making a color wheel out of legos.   We dug out lots of colored blocks and tried to place them according to where they belong between the primary colors.  Gavin chose to make a white/light grey/dark grey/black gradient to accompany our color wheel.

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Lilah made a hammock out of a scarf tied to the table and rolled a ball inside and then gave her bear a nice place to swing and nap.

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Then Gavin and I picked up his friend from school and came home to play “LEGOS!”  They got out our lego board game Heroica sets and put them all together.  Chips and salsa were eaten as bosses were defeated and weapons were earned.  Then there was a Magic The Gathering game, followed by an epic tale of stuffed animal surprise attacks and spying.

After playtime with Gavin’s friend, we ate and ended our evening with Dad reading some Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan before bed.  We’re in the middle of the fourth book now.

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books, unschooling

books we’ve read and loved and books I hope to read

books we’ve read (and loved!) with the kids:

(in no way comprehensive)

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

The Ranger’s Apprentice series, books 1-3  by John Flanagan (reading #4 now)

James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede

Searching for Dragons by Patricia Wrede

The Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce

The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz

The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Juniper by Monica Furlong

Wise Child by Monica Furlong

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (reading now)

picture books:

Happy Pig Day by Mo Willems (& anything else by him)

Lost And Found by Oliver Jeffers (& anything else by him)

The Rainbow Goblins by Ul De Rico

Possum Magic by Mem Fox (& anything else by her)

Tico And The Golden Wings by Leo Lionni

The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein

Leaves by David Ezra Stein

When Owen’s Mom Breathed Fire by Pija Lindenbaum

Fox in Socks by Dr. Suess (& anything else by him)

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

books I hope to read with the kids:

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Cotton In My Sack by Lois Lenski

Prairie Schoolhouse by Lois Lenski

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

the Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper

The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander

A Wrinkle In Time series by Madeleine L’engle

Holes by Louis Sachar

Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran by Kenneth Thomasma

The Princess Bride by William Golding

anything by Anne McCaffrey

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

 

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I’ll add to these lists as we read and discover or remember more books we’d like to explore!

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unschooling

Wednesday

There was ninja character play with legos.  “Wheeeeoooooo, wheeeeeoooooo, ninja alarm!”  “And then Kai sat here to control his spaceship.”  “But he can’t see if he sits there!”  “Well, but it’s much easier to control it if he’s sitting here.”  “Mmmhmm.”

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We spent some more time on the puppy puzzle.  Then we played a game where I draw something and make a speech bubble with an unfinished statement and the kids fill it in.  Today it was a sasquatch speaking to us.  The kids like it plus I get to draw!

Then the kids built with legos while I read a few chapters of Juniper.

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Lilah looked through a National Geographic magazine, pored over the pictures.

Lilah and I played a round of Rat-A-Tat Cat and then all three of us played the next one.

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Next we were off to get a few new fall clothes for the kids and made a nice long stop to play in the fountains.

We came home and ate and then headed off to a co-ed whole family Spiral Scouts meeting to see what that’s like and if we’d like to join.  It was fun and good to be around a bunch of kids of varied ages including a few friends we know from school last year.  We enjoyed it and we’ll definitely be going again.

 

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unschooling

Tuesday

The kids watched the storm outside this morning, with lots of lightning and thunder.

After breakfast they played with tangram blocks. They are some of my favorite things to while away a morning with.

So I played too! I made a self-portrait and then got to share that vocabulary concept with the kids when Lilah asked “What is a self-portrait?”

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They thought it was silly and they played with what I’d made, making the mouth open and giving it a tongue.

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The car tracks were brought out and built.IMG_0836

We had a three-way game of Magic the Gathering.

Someone unearthed an old fortune teller, so then we worked at making some new origami fortune tellers with new fortunes. “You get a diamond.” “You get a gem.” “You get to go to work.”  (Notice the positive language there?!)  “You find a gigantic seed.” “You have to wear your pajamas all day.”  It was fun to see what they came up with!

After lunch we headed to the planetarium where we played with perpetual motion displays, played with their huge new infrared monitor, looked at cloud forming, played with static electricity and a display showing how magnetism effects orbits.

We came home and watched a fascinating video of bowling balls moving in phase.

There was computer play.  And then gymnastics for Lilah and I and Civilization for Gavin and Dad.

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After dinner we read a handful of Gwendolyn Brooks poems.

to the Diaspora

you did not know you were Afrika

When you set out for Afrika
you did not know you were going.
Because
you did not know you were Afrika.
You did not know the Black continent
that had to be reached
was you.

I could not have told you then that some sun
would come,
somewhere over the road,
would come evoking the diamonds
of you, the Black continent–
somewhere over the road.
You would not have believed my mouth.

When I told you, meeting you somewhere close
to the heat and youth of the road,
liking my loyalty, liking belief,
you smiled and you thanked me but very little believed me.

Here is some sun. Some.
Now off into the places rough to reach.
Though dry, though drowsy, all unwillingly a-wobble,
into the dissonant and dangerous crescendo.
Your work, that was done, to be done to be done to be done.
Gwendolyn Brooks

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Uncategorized, unschooling

Monday

Gavin started off with some Chima online while Lilah slept in a bit.

Then they watched They Might Be Giants Here Come the ABCs together.

There was lego play and organizing and other building toys.

We puzzled.

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After eating lunch, I read the last three chapters of Pippi Longstocking to the kids.  Gavin remarked at then end that he does not want to be a pirate when he grows up.  I’m a little concerned.  Wink.

Then it was time to go pick up Lilah’s friend from school.  They played a bit on the playground and then we came home and played school.  We walked to our neighborhood park and played there.  There was tag and swings and toss the stuffed dog while swinging.

We came home and built with magnetic toys and played hide and seek with stuffies.

After we said goodbye to friends, we went out in the garden and picked cherry tomatoes and tomatillos and checked progress of our pumpkins, and fleet of butternut squash.  They are huge plants!  I’d never grown them before and they are taking over our garden plot!

We walked to the local elementary after dinner to play soccer and enjoy the playground before bed.

 

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unschooling

the Learning we are working on most

Since we’ve started unschooling, I’d say that although we’ve done lots of science, math, art, literacy learning, using our bodies, the majority of what we’re tackling right now is relationships.  By relationships I mean the whole spectrum of feeling and how we recognize and act on those feelings and how that affects our selves and others throughout the day.

The way kids are managed in school, where the only choice they have is to do what’s expected or to “disobey” leaves little room for emotional learning, for self-regulating awareness and skills, for conflict resolution, within self and with others.  Additionally, when kids are in school they spend much less time with their siblings and parents.

We have opportunities all day for this now, where many opportunities were just boxed up, shelved and never opened while the kids were in school.  If the kids watch shows for 3 hours, they feel yucky afterward.   Then they sometimes take those yucky feelings out in conflicts with others.   This applies to me too!  If there’s a problem, it’s all the other persons fault.  They were the one who [insert complaint here].  On top of the multitude of opportunities we now have with one another learning at home, we also have more need to resolve them because we all live together and are spending a whole lot of time together!

I’m trying to demonstrate and share in conversations with the kids that it’s important to ask yourself, especially when upset, am I helping?  Am I making things better, more the way I want them to be by my actions and words?  It’s so hard to let go of the anger, the feelings of being wronged, misunderstood, of the yucky inside and instead try to help but it’s the only way to move forward, so it’s important.

Today the kids had a communication breakdown that left both of them upset.  I went over to them to try to help, while a bit upset myself that both kids were hurt and angry, and after I’d finished talking about how we can all do better to be kind and give others space, the kids told me that I’d upset them by the way I’d been talking.  I acknowledged that I raised my voice a bit, apologized and then reminded them that often when we realize we’ve hurt someone or contributed to a problem, it hurts.  It feels uncomfortable.  That’s an important tool to help us make different choices later.  Often the conflicts in our house come from a need for loving connection that’s not being met.  Usually when we have conflict, what we really need is some meaningful, loving time together, really being aware of the other person.  I am working to be more aware of this and to find ways to help us all to recognize this and ask for what we really need from each other.

I’m working on how to talk with the kids and not to them when there’s a problem.  It’s harder when I am upset!  But just as I expect them to try to help, that’s what I expect of myself too.

I expect it will take a long time to normalize in these areas and that we will continue to work on them throughout our lives.  I also recognize that there needs to be space for these kind of things to bubble up for progress to happen.  I’m certainly still working on all this and will be for as long as I’m alive.

It took me years and a lot of work and motivation to get to a place where I can be angry, realize I’m angry and make decisions that (most of the time) are not just anger fueled, but are made in order to create the solution I want, whether that’s understanding, comfort, being heard…  I hope to be able to share what I’ve learned with both my kids.

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