Tag Archives: friends

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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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unschooling

Tuesday

I’m skipping blogging about some days here and there due to holiday bustle but today was a little bit quieter than it has been.

The kids played on the computer and built lego settings for their story telling.

After breakfast they helped fold clothes, pick up and vacuum to get the house ready for friends later.

Gavin pulled out his lego Hero Factory pieces and built some new “guys”.  One of them was named Huge Foot.

Lilah asked me to read The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman to her.

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We took a trip to pick up a gift that we hadn’t already brought home and admired the fountains at the City Creek Center while we did.

The kids worked on some math sheets.  Gavin has forgotten many of his memorized math facts.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  I think we’ll practice a bit here and there if he is willing.  The concepts he’s picked up, though, those are still there.  He did some reading from Where On Earth (his kids atlas) to me.  He still tends to skip words and tumble over himself because his brain reads faster than his mouth. At least that’s my guess.

Mid afternoon Lilah and I picked up her friend from school and they started playing with the Hero Factory constructs as soon as we arrived home.  As their chosen characters, they visited the center of Egypt.  They talked loudly and quietly.  They climbed the biggest tree in the world (also known as our holiday tree).

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After Lilah’s friend left, it was time for dinner, a quick walk around the neighborhood and then reading some more of Julie of the Wolves, which is still starring in their storytelling play in concepts and setting.

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unschooling

Tuesday

The kids got out the pop beads and made characters out of those.  Then they asked each other, “What could we build them houses with”? They tossed a few ideas around and settled on the K’nex so they got those out and began building and story telling.

Each of them vacuumed a room of the houses.  We have a chore list up that they can choose to help with or not.  Each chore has a value in money and they are in charge of both choosing what to do and keeping track of what they’ve done.  When it comes time to get their pay, they get to add the amounts together and figure out what we owe them.  It’s a great system for us because I don’t feel the need to nag and they feel ownership of their help around the house.

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Lilah and I did some Spanish practicing.

We wrote alternate rhymes to Hickory Dickory Dock and pointed out the rhyme pattern.

The kids adore Ella Fitzgerald.  We have an album called Miss Ella’s Playhouse which is a collection of Ella’s songs for kids that we listen to all the time.  So I asked the kids if they’d like to learn more about the kind of music that Ella sings.  They said yes so I asked Chris for some suggestions.  He’s studied music copiously and it’s one of his favorite subjects to explore.

So, we listened to Miss Ella’s Playhouse.  Then I briefly explained the history of Jazz.  We listened to Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer to get a taste of Ragtime.  Then we listened to Louis Armstrong sing It’s a Wonderful World, Ella and Louis sing Dream a Little Dream of Me, Miles Davis play from his Kind Of Blue album and Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane play Ruby My Dear.  We talked about syncopation, the different parts that voices and instruments take, and how improvisation is a big part of what makes Jazz special.  The kids got out our drum and did a little drumming.  I think we’ll explore more soon!

Gavin built another really nice lego spaceship.  His designs get more and more nuanced.

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Lilah and I drove over to pick up her friend from school and then the three kids played with pop beads and K’nex for the rest of the afternoon.

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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.

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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.

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unschooling

Tuesday

There was computer play and Pokemon watching.

After that there was Lego play, inspired by Howl’s Moving Castle and Pokemon, with songs about Team Rocket, Pikachu, a blue and scarlet suit, girl wizards and of course, ninjas.

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I read the Autumn Story in the Brambly Hedge collection by Jill Barklem to the kids.  We adore the stories and the illustrations both.

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We finished up our celery with our lunch and had just the bottom bit left and I thought, oooh, paint stamping!  So we got out our paint and paper and chose colors.  I like how you can see the xylem in the prints as lighter spots.

They made one together “for fireworks day” with celery stamps and then daisy stamps on top that looked a bit like fireworks.  Then they asked for paintbrushes and began painting with several layers and colors.

We were still working on that when it was time to get ready to go get Lilah’s friend so we decided to paint more tomorrow.  I suggested going on a walk and collecting things to paint and stamp with.  The kids were excited about that idea.

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Lilah and I headed to school to pick up her friend.  When we got home there was Lego play, snack eating, bunk bed climbing and then some play with the calico critters, small furry animal figurines with clothes and accessories who live in the dollhouse and lots and lots of laughing.

 

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unschooling

Tuesday

There was computer play time and lots of Lego play time.

We read some poems about weather together, from a collection of many poets, all about weather.  The kids kept asking for more.  This was one of my favorites: I’ll Tell You How The Sun Rose by Emily Dickinson.

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We also looked through and talked about the book A Street Through Time by Anne Millard which illustrates a street (piece of land) in different time periods, explaining some of the differences.  It was fascinating!  Gavin especially liked the Roman town page.  We were all very interested in the different boats and how they changed.  Lilah was interested in the different kinds of shops in different time periods and couldn’t quite get her head around the idea of no shops in the very earliest time period shown.

We went to the library to return books and choose new ones.  They enjoyed the ice cavern reading room on this visit.  On the way home, Gavin read three or four new books and Lilah read one or two.

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Lilah and I picked up her friend for a playdate.  They were very excited since it had been about two weeks since they last saw each other.  There was Lego playing and dressing up as ninjas, flamingos, Green Lantern and just in fancy dresses.

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

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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!

 

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unschooling

Monday

There was coolmathgames.com and lego building.

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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.

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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.

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There was some gymnastics practice and giant ball play.

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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.

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unschooling

Friday

There was computer play time, then on to trains and legos.

Then we headed up the mountain for a picnic lunch and then to the Fairy Forest.  The kids read books most of the way up.  We’d never been there before so we followed some directions from another family and they took us straight to it!  A hot pink arrow painted on a log didn’t hurt either.  Thanks, fellow fairy admirers!

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the fairy villages and immediately made plans to go back with additions.

We got back on the road and went up to Lily and Wall lakes for a short walk before we came home to meet a friend for evening play time.

At home there was a frenzy of make believe birthday parties with their friend, complete with dressing up and elaborately imagined feasts and gifts before the end of the day.

It was a day full of sweet moments that left us wanting for more.  We’ll be back to the Fairy Forest and the Uintahs soon, I think!

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