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

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

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

Tuesday

We began by building with hexbugs and legos.

Then we looked at national flags in a book.

“Can we listen to the Dreamland cd, Mama?”

There was a game of zombie dice.

“Mama, can we build a zipline for legos?” “I bet you can! Try that yarn.” “Whee, it’s going down!”

I put together an unschooling interview and interviewed the kids. Then Lilah interviewed me. I wrote them up here.

We took a trip to the aquarium and enjoyed many animals. We read about extinction and endangered animals in Utah. We spotted sea turtles and sharks, penguins and toucans eating fruit. They crossed the rope bridge.

Then, back home for brownies and more legos.

We read eachother jokes. “What kind of school do you go to to greet people?” “High school.”

Gavin read to us about carnivorous plants.

Then Lilah and I were off to gymnastics class for pull ups, balance beam jumps, handstands and then back home to show Daddy and Gavin the “broken monkey leg” maneuver.

There was Civilization playtime with Dad for Gavin during gymnastics class.

Back home for dinner, books together and cuddles.

Yes is a World

Tag Archives: gymnastics

Tuesday

Tuesday

Tuesday

Tuesday