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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

It was fun.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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?”

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

The car tracks were brought out and built.

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.

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

unschooling

Wednesday

They started off playing coolmathgames.com (Duck Life, for those of you in the know). Then we watched Pokemon and Pingu.

Then there was lego play and organizing, and a letter to grandparents written.

We pulled out the marimba, steel drum and our other drum and played scales, Oh Suzannah and experimented. “What does it sound like when you drop a lego person in the drum?” “…on the marimba?” “He’s playing music!” “I like to just try different things!”

There was puzzling on the puppy puzzle we’re in the middle of.

We watched John Oliver And Cookie monster, On The News Beat

and checked out An Icy Solution To The Mystery Of The Slithering Stones, an article about the moving boulders in “The Racetrack” which I visited as a kid.

An Icy Solution To The Mystery Of The Slithering Stones

There was some balance beam play.

They played a game of Magic The Gathering; a practice round, because Lilah is still learning how to play on her own.

Lilah and I went to pick up a friend from school and played on the playground together. We came home and read Elephant and Piggie books and played with legos and hexbugs and stuffed animals with Lilah’s friend. Oh, and there was some hula hooping.

All of it was wonderful.

unschooling

Wednesday

They began with lots of lego building…. trees, castles….

There was more Where On Earth? kids atlas reading.

We picked out some new shoes for new adventures.

How does our garden grow? Tiny lemon cucumbers are starting. Squash are getting bigger and there are lots of sungold tomatoes to pick and eat.

We walked up City Creek Canyon, stopping to throw rocks in the stream, look at plants, float bark boats down, saw some water striders and even spotted some fish. We admired milk weed pods and acorns, maple leaves and hollow stumps.

We came home and worked on a bit of a new puzzle.

Then had dinner and a game of Dominion, our new Intrigue expansion.

And it was fun.

interviews, unschooling

Interviews

I thought an interview with the kids about how they feel and what they are thinking about would help us begin our unschooling journey.

With Gavin:

1. What do you and I do together?

Ummm. Play games. Make puzzles. Watch movies. Play soccer sometimes. Play Magic The Gathering. Cuddle time and choose one song for you to sing. Sometimes play frisbee. We adventure in Yellowstone and we saw geysers. Like, Goblin Valley and California.

2. What do you like most about your life?

Everything. Games. Legos.

3. What things would you change in your life?

Sometimes you guys shouting at me.* Being not cold in the winter.

4. Are there things you’d like to do more of?

Play Magic The Gathering. Umm. I want to play more games. I want to do more biking. Watch more movies.

5. Are there things in our life you really dislike?

When things are unexpected. Like sometimes there’s certain games I want to play on certain days and you play different games and I don’t like that.

6. What would you like to know more about?

Science. More science. How to make games on the computer.

7. What are you really good at?

Math. Adventures. Playing games that are older than eight. Magic.

8. What are you not as good at?

Aiming at targets. Nothing else.

9. What do you like most about your family?

Because they play games. I like birthdays because I can invite friends. We get to read books together.

10. What do you like least about your family?

I don’t know.

11. How is your life different from other kids your age?

Because other kids like different things. People do different things at different speeds like S last year gets to do three math strips. I’m not in school. I’m homeschooling. I get to do stuff at home and do other things at other places.

12. If you had more love in your life what would that look like?

I don’t know. More time with friends.

With Lilah:

1. What do you and I do together?

Hmmm. We play games. And we read books together. And we’re still working on a puzzle. Sometimes we fly kites. Sometimes we play soccer together.

2. What do you like most about your life?

I like it because I have lots of stuffed animals to sleep with and we get to play lots of games. And sometimes I get to play all day.

3. What things would you change in your life?

I don’t know. When people hurt me; I don’t like that.

4. Are there things you’d like to do more of?

I’d like to read more books and play more games. And I also wanted to sew a lot.

5. Are there things in our life you really dislike?

Sometimes when someone yells at me.* I don’t like that at all.

6. What would you like to know more about?

I wanna learn more cooking and also I would like to learn more about art and I also would like to learn more about birds and animals.

7. What are you good at?

I’m very good at reading. I’m sometimes good at baking and cooking. And I’m very good at hiding presents.

8. What are you not as good at?

Creating things and planting plants ’cause sometimes they don’t grow.

9. What do you like most about your family?

I love Mama. And Daddy. And I also like about my family that they like me too. And I also love Gavin.

10. What do you like least about your family?

I don’t know.

11. How is your life different from other kids your age?

Cause sometimes (a friend) is not nice to me.

12. If you had more love in your life what would that look like?

I don’t know what it would look like. Maybe like a hundred times more than the universe.

*It hurts to hear the kids say this, and it hurts to admit that I do shout and speak in anger and frustration sometimes. Shouting and speaking unkindly is something I am working so hard to end right now. I am making progress but I have a way to go. Obviously this is incredibly important to everyone in our house!

With Mama:

1. What do you and I do together?

Hmm. We read books and we draw and we cuddle. Sometimes we do yoga and dance. I like hula hooping with you. And I like to laugh with you.

2. What do you like most about your life?

I like being able to spend time with my family and enjoying one another and the world.

3. What things would you change in your life?

I wouldn’t change much. We might have decided to invite you home for school earlier so we could have more time together and less stress in our lives.

4. Are there things you’d like to do more of?

Yes! I’d like to do more yoga, more hiking, more reading, more drawing, more painting, more camping! I’d like to tickle you more.

5. Are there things in our life you really dislike?

Yes. I really don’t like speaking unkindly to you or anyone. I want to do better at always, always using non-violent communication. I wish I could spend more time with my sister.

6. What would you like to know more about?

Lots of things! Like, how to identify the squash in our garden before they have squash, what kinds of mushrooms are edible, anything about animals, how brains develop, constellation names and positions, new words.

7. What are you really good at?

I think I’m pretty good at reading, drawing, having fun, hiking, gluten free & vegan baking, being a mom.

8. What are you not as good at?

Keeping all the dishes clean all the time, memorizing dates, talking to people I don’t know, being on time.

9. What do you like most about your family?

That we like to be together and do fun things together.

10. What do you like least about your family?

I’m not sure.

11. How is your life different from other kids your age?

I don’t have to earn a living right now so I have the luxury of spending time with my kids and looking for opportunities for us. We don’t follow a rigid schedule like most people who have to be at school and work at specific times. I have so much less stress without the outside schedule worries.

12. If you had more love in your life what would that look like?

More love for myself (my inner voice) and my body the way it is today. I would feel lighter, be more readily able to happily connect with others without the dark shadow of worry about myself that occasionally affects my interactions now. I would be more confident. The love I have from others is already full to the brim!

Yes is a World

Tag Archives: games

Tuesday

Monday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Wednesday

An Icy Solution To The Mystery Of The Slithering Stones

Wednesday

Interviews