unschooling

a week of time at home

The kids have been sick with a respiratory bug this week and we have several Halloween events coming up so between feeling ill, planning for parties and trying to recuperate we’ve been sticking close the past few days.

There has been much Lego story telling, Minetest and Minecraft play on the computer, watching some movies.

Gavin dug out his K’nex rollercoaster set and doggedly kept at it despite it being complicated and missing a few pieces until it was set up and working.

Lilah and I tested a gingerbread cookie recipe she saw and desperately wanted to make so we can bring them for the Halloween Carnival we’re going to on Friday. They came out very well, despite having to make over the recipe twice and do the opposite of the directions in one case. This is why with gluten free, vegan baking, we test ahead of time!

There’s been a lot of kitten play time. She likes to play with the kids’ toys which is pretty cute except there are tiny kitten teeth marks on some things the kids really like. No toys have needed to be thrown away after her treatment yet, though. Just a cardboard box or two. The kids are learning so much by caring for her and watching her grow used to our home. Lilah told me a story from Luna’s perspective the other day about how she felt at the adoption center, how she felt meeting us, how she felt the first days in our home and how she feels now in our home. It was a wonderful and appropriate story.

We went to the planetarium for a short, close-by outing. Gavin amused us (okay, okay, me) by trying on the astronaut helmet/robot head in the shop there.

Gavin and I played several games of No Stress Chess followed by one game of Chess.

The kids made stir fry for dinner with Chris’ support. They picked which veggies and what they’d like to put on it (broccoli, snap peas, bell pepper, mushrooms and tofu with soy sauce, rice vinegar and peanut butter sauce. They cut the food and fried it, made a sauce and helped serve it. They felt really great about this and I’d love to try to make it a regular weekly event as cooking and kitchen familiarity is an essential skill for healthy happy people.

Gavin impressed me the other day by relating out the blue to me that he will stop and think before believing what other people tell him! I am SO super impressed by this revelation, even though it came out of watching a movie and not life events. This sort of thing has been a worry of mine for a while because he happens to give people the benefit of the doubt almost all the time and he rarely declares any sort of intention or recognition of the way the world works in social settings like this. I am so proud of him! The growth he’s made since the time when words were not yet a common language for us and every abstract communication was virtually impossible is so incredible and I am grateful every day for every little bit of what we have now. I still love the snuggles and hand holding and lap sitting though. I’m a lucky, lucky mama.

unschooling

a few October days

We enjoyed an Autumn Celebration with our local unschoolers group.

We raked leaves and did a scavenger hunt and made mobiles and played with salt dough and punched out leaf confetti and made magnets and climbed trees and rolled down the hill.

I made a leaf necklace while Gavin watched.

We played with friends at our house.

Gavin began plans for and making of a book. It’s an adventure story. I hope I will get to see more!

We roasted and pureed a pumpkin from our garden and a banana squash that was gifted to us.

The kids played war with Hello Kitty cards.

There was lots of Lego building and storytelling and kitten caring and cuddling.

We visited the museum and gardens for some active fun. The kids picked up a map and navigated to the parts of the garden they wanted to visit.

On our way to and from home we’ve been listening to Mossflower by Brian Jacques, much requested by the kids as another in the Redwall stories after finishing Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.

unschooling

summery week

We went up to play at Red Butte Garden.

After really enjoying some picture books we checked out of the library with a raven character who says, “Nevermore”, I read Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven to the kids. Here’s the first stanza with the raven quoted:

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

They enjoyed it, though I’m sure there was a lot of they didn’t grasp. I don’t worry about that very much as long as I think (or find out) that they can enjoy things on some level, if there is vocabulary or concepts too advanced for them, all the better to be exposed now. I’m sure they can catch things I can’t because my brain is too busy with the fancy vocabulary and tricky abstract concepts. It was fun for them to know that the character in the picture books came from that poem.

Gavin and I played Ticket To Ride and he won, after deciding to change strategies toward the end of the game. He even built the longest route!

We baked double chocolate muffins.

Lilah painted over her glue resist design. And added salt.

They read Fox In Sox together.

Lilah worked on walking backward on the beam (among many other things) at her gymnastics class.

At the park, they climbed trees. This is happening all the time recently and it’s new. I’m not sure why they never had much interest before but they sure do now and I’m so glad.

We tried out our new sun umbrella (necessary for all those summer play times at parks with no shade) and the kids staked it down.

The kids vacuumed the car.

We visited a recycling center and took a tour and brought some recycling items with us. I learned a lot about how hard it is for many things to be recycled. The take away was compost, don’t use plastic bags, and don’t use styrofoam. We’re already fairly aware of materials we use and trying to use less and recycle/re-use more but we can improve here and there.

We went geocaching, with friends this time and had fun but didn’t find the cache. We thought we found it once and were very excited but it wasn’t the cache.

I’m going to have to go back myself and look again if the kids don’t want to. Maybe I will scout out some caches ahead of time to bring the kids and our friends to so we have better luck, at least until we know what we’re doing more. A GPS unit other than my phone might help too.

A friend came over and they made up stories with lego characters and made designs with pop beads.

We took a weekend trip to Bear Lake.

Chris and the kids haven’t been before and it’s been years since I was there. It was beautiful and fun, though the water was pretty cold beyond the sand bar it was very warm on the shallow sand bar protected side. There were lots of tiny snail shells and clam shells, pelicans and killdeer, other waterbirds I couldn’t name.

Maybe we’ll make another trip there later in the season. As Chris said, it’s not nearly as satisfying as the ocean, but it’s pretty enjoyable anyway. We talked a lot about how lakes and oceans are different, especially tides and waves and animals, because the kids were really fascinated on the way there trying to picture Bear Lake when they have most beach experience in California.

We have a trip to the ocean planned later in the year though. I can’t stand the idea of not visiting the ocean at least once and the kids apparently feel the same as they’ve already begun asking over and over to go.

unschooling

gardening and other physical explorations

The three of us went to the garden store and picked out vegetables for our garden and some pansies for our porch. Gavin chose some red and orange pansies and Lilah chose some dusky purple.

We finished reading Little House on the Prairie. We don’t have a copy of Farmer Boy (next in the series) at the moment so we started Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty McDonald in the mean time.

Lilah went to gymnastics class where they are preparing for their meet.

We planted the pansies in little pots to brighten our porch and a geranium inside by the window.

We visited the Leonardo again.

Our Harry Potter listening in the car came to a finish as we just listened to the end of the last book so I’m looking for some new series I think the kids would enjoy hearing in the car.

Gavin began his spring outdoor soccer, practicing with his team. Lilah and I watched, did cartwheels and practiced her gymnastics routines and played with our own soccer ball.

Gavin came across a recipe for soft pretzels and asked if we could make them together. He read down the recipe to make sure we had everything we needed and decided with my help, that we did.

We weeded the garden, dug out tree roots and planted the strawberries that Lilah insisted we grow this year, and plant first. She was disappointed that we only had a few plants so I shared that trying something new in the garden is always an experiment.

They found worms and trash and roots and lots and lots of weeds. Gavin dug and dug and dug with the new kid sized shovel we got.

Lilah asked me why I was rubbing the roots of the strawberries so I explained that the roots need to expand into their new home and if they are a little more flexible, it helps.

We mixed up the pretzel dough and kneaded and rolled snakes and shaped pretzels. Then they played with Hero Factory characters until the dough was ready to go.

We slipped the pretzels into the bath, hoping they wouldn’t fall apart, like happened in our last attempt. They actually held up pretty well. I think the difference was popping them in the freezer right before boiling.

After a “tea time” with pretzels and green tea we headed off to the roller skating rink.

The kids practiced their tricks, I practiced my decidedly less exciting ones. Lilah was skating and noticed a girl about her size with covered head and long clothes (very colorfully styled hijab)and stared, then smiled. The girl had her roller skates untied and was falling. So Lilah stopped and tied her skates for her. I was very proud and happy to see her in that small moment of connection. She told me later that she’d expected the girl spoke another language but was surprised when she spoke English and so we talked about how there are lots of people here who are not exactly like us but still speak English (and have a lot more in common too.) (Photo is very fuzzy because of bad lighting and pictures while moving.)

Off to the park we went when we got home to practice Lilah’s floor routine and for a few kicks of the soccer ball before dinner. I read a chapter of Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty McDonald to them while they finished up dinner, then a chapter of The Ranger’s Apprentice series in the bedroom before cuddles and songs and dreams.

unschooling

plural noun: bagels

We played with MadLibs and were all enjoying it very much until Gavin wrote something wrong twice and there wasn’t space left to fit it in and got really upset and decided to take some time on his own. I am happy that he’s beginning to develop strategies to use to deal with situations he’s having difficulty with.

They built with Gavin’s physics set.

They built with Magformers.

We played at the park.

Lilah and I did some yoga.

We tried a new kind of flour in gluten free bagels: cassava (which is the same thing as tapioca except it includes the whole root).

Bagels have a lot of steps. When we put them in the simmering water with sugar, they dropped the bottom and then slowly floated up to the surface. Gavin tasted the water, realized it was sweet and asked if it was the same as what we put in the hummingbird feeder. I told him, “Yes, pretty much except that doesn’t have flour from bagels in it.”

The kids each sprinkled their own bagels with poppyseeds, then we put extra cornmeal and poppyseeds on some and left a few plain.

They came out a bit gummier than I’d like, but everyone else was pleased. I’ll try without psyllium husk powder next time. This time I added it in case they started coming apart in the water, like they did in our last bagel making attempt.

We watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind together. It’s one of our favorite Hayao Miyazaki animated films. Lilah is very drawn to the main character who works to bring peace, understanding and respect of all living things about.

All four of us walked over the local school playground, kicked the soccer ball around and played on the playground.

The kids and Chris went to scouts and made kites and crowns while I had some time on my own. It was good for everybody.

unschooling

word play & other play

We read some Dr. Seuss books.

Lilah and I shoveled snow. It was very exciting since it’s been months since we needed to.

She requested that I make Energy Bites for a snack – a cookie dough like snack made with coconut, peanut butter, flax seed meal, oats, a bit of honey and chocolate chips, so I mixed a few up.

We had a friend over. They dressed up fancy and built with Legos and had a fashion show and jumped on the bean bag.

Gavin organized his squishy body parts organs.

At the park we found a large tumbleweed and explored that for a bit. It has prickly parts but is fun to roll.

Lilah hula hooped with two hoops.

We talked about genes after I made a joke about how Lilah has red hair since I only ate carrots when I was pregnant with her and then Gavin asked, “But really, why does Lilah have red hair?”

The kids talked about things they are proud of themselves for: kindness, smartness, playfulness.

Gavin and I played Roads, Rivers and Rails.

We enjoyed our sprouting cucumbers. No Thai Basil or Blue Kale visible yet.

We ventured out to the Jordan river parkway, saw some ducks, a submerged shopping cart and visited two playgrounds. There was quite a bit of soccer ball passing and kicking along the way too.

We finished The Wizard Of Oz and read The Sneetches and Other Stories. Our current favorite is the story of the pale green pants with nobody inside ’em. Lilah has just latched onto my ongoing joke about nobody so she was particularly enjoying it.

me: Who’s in the bathroom?

L: Nobody.

me: Nobody’s in the bathroom?

L: Yeah.

me: What’s Nobody doing in the bathroom?

L: No. NOBODY’S in the bathroom.

me: I know, but what’re they doing in there?

L: There is not anybody in the bathroom!

me: Well, if Anybody’s not in there, where is Anybody?

L: There is NO person in the bathroom!

me: Well, you just said Nobody’s in there.

We worked on the bird puzzle some more.

We dressed up with friends and danced together.

They played Rivers, Roads & Rails.

I’m slowly learning a few things about our unschooling life and how I fit into it. I’ve learned that all that time I thought I’d just have in the day without needing to drop-off or pick-up isn’t there. If I want/need time to do my own projects I need to schedule it. Otherwise it won’t be there.

I thought of unschooling much like most parents do the summer break every year, as unlimited in time and resources and possibilities. In some ways that’s true, but it doesn’t feel that way in the midst of it. There are still so many ideas and projects that never get finished or in many cases, started. Most importantly, I’ve learned that’s okay. It’s okay to not do it all. To begin and leave it. To say, “Not today.”

We’re getting better at this.

unschooling

Taking care

There was coolmathgames.com this morning. And some My Little Pony watching and then afterward, playing.

They built with the marble maze some more.

Lilah made a card for her friend. Gavin built with Legos.

I went on a long walk along the river by myself. The kids didn’t want to go and I needed to get some exercise. There were lots of birds enjoying the cool weather.

After lunch we listened to some John Coltrane from the Ken Burns Jazz collection while reading Ponyo.

I read some more of The Wizard of Oz.

In the evening we went to our family scouts group where the kids are working on computer coding. Both of them had fun solving puzzles and Gavin was working on creating his own game at the end. They really enjoyed it and I’m going to try to help find more opportunities for similar exploration.

We spent a good portion of the next day exploring the Jordan River parkway south of us, watching ducks, testing out new playgrounds, crossing bridges.

We saw a group of ducks take off and then later floating down the stream. I pointed out to the kids that they looked like they were going fast. Gavin answered that they were going fast because of the current. A bit later we stopped at a pond and Lilah was putting a stick in the water. Gavin asked her if she could tell how deep the water was. I love taking them outdoors and watching them test things out and figure out how the forces of nature work by trying things rather than being told about things.

When we got home they played with Legos. Gavin built a car for my phone. First we tried just putting the phone on some wheels, but it rolled right off, so Gavin set out to make a phone holder on wheels. Two minutes later it was complete. Wheeee!

There was reading at the pediatricians office, waiting for a vaccination.

At bedtime, after I left the room, Gavin came out and told me “Lilah needs help. She’s sad.” She’d been quietly crying. I went in and climbed on Lilah’s bed and held her. She cried and cried. I asked her if she was just sad or if she was sad about something. She didn’t answer. So after a while she began to calm down and I told her that she could let me know when she was ready for me to go. Eventually she told me that she’d been sad because I “did not very much funny stuff”, meaning when I was cuddling with her at bedtime she felt I wasn’t playful enough and she was sad because she felt I was more playful with her brother, and then she said that I could go. So I told her I could do more funny stuff tomorrow if she reminded me and told her I loved her and left. I am grateful that Gavin let me know what was happening. He doesn’t usually need to take care of his sister but when he does he does a good job. I am grateful that I was able to just be with Lilah through her upset and eventually that she was able to put her sadness into words.

In the morning there was perler bead building.

3-D style, this time. Gavin wanted to make something for a friend who likes minecraft so we made a minecraft style box with 6 pieces that fit together into a cube. Lilah worked on a capital B for her friend.

Lilah made a necklace and crown for her stuffed bird.

Gavin’s friend came over and they played Tsuro while Lilah and I made macaroons.

Lilah tried out the keyboard, then walked away, then came back. I think we’ll be hearing some music in the next few days!

unschooling

Monday

We are home and back to our routine (if I can call our go-with-the-flow days routine) after a wonderful visit with family in Washington over Christmas filled with jokes, hugs, games of all varieties and lots of good food. I asked Lilah if she was happy to be home and she said, “Yes, because my green bean bag is at home and I LOVE it!” It was one of her solstice gifts from Chris and I and it is indeed well loved thus far.

This morning Lilah slept in after being a bit sick still and a long, long drive back from Washington Saturday- Sunday. Gavin and I started making pancakes and then when she woke up she helped too.

They played with their new lego set and their old lego sets. They acted out some scenes from Harry Potter and used various lego people parts to make a Dumbledore.

Lilah got out her window suncatcher set and we peeled off the butterfly she made before we left to put on our window.

It looks very bright with the snow coating everything gray and white outside.

While I went outside and shoveled snow from our steps and sidewalk, the kids played No Stress Chess together – a variation on chess where each player draws a card before playing each turn that tells her/him which piece to move (and also illustrates the way each piece moves). It makes the game more accessible and more random and they both seem to be really enjoying it.

After several games, the chess game evolved. Animals were added, with new powers. There was a borrower who borrowed things. There was a story-teller. I love watching them create together.

Gavin played with his Praxinoscope animation kit. It spins and the pictures go around and if you look through the opening on the side it looks like a moving animation of the individual images. In Gavin’s words: “It has a mirror that reflects the pictures from the flat part. The (view piece) is rectangular so it blocks out the other pictures and you only see one.”

We read some poems by Liliane Moore and Sudeep Sen.

The kids set up Lilah’s new Wildcraft game, a cooperative game about herbs, particularly healing herbs and started a game but didn’t get far before dinner time.

I read some more of a new book called Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles by Rupert Kingfisher. I thought it would be perfect for Lilah and got it for the trip to Washington and we’re in the middle of it, having started reading it up there. It is charming and empowering story of a girl who likes to cook.

unschooling

Wednesday

There was Animal Jam on the computer together. Then more lego Hero Factory play.

We visited Gilgal Gardens, a local historic outdoor sculpture garden depicting LDS founders.

It’s quite strange and marvelous. I captured some portals in Ingress while we explored.

Once we got home Gavin and I baked snickerdoodles which he’s been asking about for days while Lilah finally got started on knitting on her circular knitting loom which she’s been wanting to do for months and months.

She needed quite a bit of help to begin and support along the way while dealing with accidents and whatnot but she spent at least an hour straight working on it and has an inch or so of a lovely purple hat to show for it.

Gavin arranged the word and letter magnets on the fridge in a visual poem.

Gavin read a few pages of George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl to us while Lilah continued to knit.

I amused the three of us by putting Lilah’s sunglasses on our pug.

Then we adventured to the park to enjoy the last of the light and the kids played at the playground and hid behind trees.

Our Spiral Scouts holiday party was next. We had some great time with friends capped by a game of Settlers of Catan, which Gavin is always jumping out of his skin to play with our friend who is equally obsessed.

unschooling

Wednesday

There was lots of play with hexbugs this morning as well as quite a few conflicts between the kids. Both kids wanted to play with the same bug. Both kids wanted to use the same track piece for different things. I had to step in and ask them to resolve things when it got too heated. I reminded them that words are our best tools for resolving differences and that unless they resolve things not only can they not continue their game but also they would both continue to feel badly. I asked them to help solve things. Eventually they came up with a lovely compromise and proceeded with their game happily.

They have been more conflicts lately and I think the cold weather keeping us indoors has been hard on all of us.

We read some library books together and played Chess and Rat-A-Tat-Cat. Gavin read some Brambly Hedge stories to himself.

A friend came over to play with Lilah and Gavin went to his friends house to play. It was wonderful here and from what Gavin’s told me, wonderful there too. There was playground building, singing, stuffed animal playing, math fact sharing, a walk to the park and swinging here. Then Gavin was dropped off, Lilah’s friend was picked up and it was just the three of us at the park enjoying swinging, hula hooping, hoop rolling and the sunshine.

When we got home we made some pumpkin pies together for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

While the pies baked, we watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind together, a Hiyao Miyazaki animated film with a beautiful story about peace being stronger than force. It features a princess who I can actually say I adore because she works harder than anyone in her village, she advocates for others, she is not invested in her appearance, there is not one mention of her marrying in the entire film nor is she ever in need of rescuing, in fact, she is often rescuing others. Hurrah! Both kids really enjoyed it and Gavin proclaimed it one of his favorites even though it features a female main character.

It was a cozy evening before the holiday.

Yes is a World

Tag Archives: baking

a week of time at home

a few October days

summery week

gardening and other physical explorations

plural noun: bagels

word play & other play

Taking care

Monday

Wednesday

Wednesday