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.

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.

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.

unschooling

Thursday

They started with computer play and Pokemon and My Little Pony watching.

There was lego play and pony play.

Lilah drew pictures of her friends with their names and hairstyles and favorite colors taken into consideration.

We baked muffins with mixing and recipe reading and chocolate chip allotting.

We puzzled.

After lunch we headed up to our favorite spot by Storm Mountain and hiked by the stream. It was cold but beautiful. We collected maple leaves and I dabbled with a little leaf art. We decided that Lilah needs a collecting bag to bring with us on walks and hikes.

On the way down we noticed a pine tree full of pinecones. We wondered if they are the kind with pine nuts so we brought a few home to check out.

When we got home there was sticker sticking fun and then we did some Spanish together – food and animal words.

We finished the Rocky Mountains puzzle. It was a beautiful and fun one, and we would definitely like another with Charley Harper art on it. We even noticed several of the species from the puzzle on our hike today!

unschooling

Friday

They began with Pokemon and My Little Pony watching.

Then we made double chocolate muffins together. At the end they put the chocolate chips on top. “Mama, I don’t have enough.” “Well, if you have two muffins that each have two on top and you want three on top, then how many more chips do you need?” “Two!”

There was lego and pony play.

After lunch we headed up to Storm Mountain where we love to hike up to the stream and then climb up and down the rocks in the stream. On the drive up, Lilah noticed a truck blowing exhaust out of a pipe on the top. “Look, that truck keeps doing that. Yuck!” Which led to a conversation about pollution, what pollutes and what doesn’t. Gavin remarks, “If people want to see the North Pole when it’s all melted they’ll have to build a platform for people.” Lilah says that to build it without polluting more, they would have to use divers instead of machines.

As we are hiking up the trail, we hear some birds. Gavin asks, “Mama, is every sound in music a note?” I try my best to respond and give him a few ideas in answer: Every musical tone is a note. There are 8 notes and then they repeat. They are called A through G and that the whole group is called an octave. And, that everything in a piece of music can be written and read. “Maybe we can learn how to read music?” We continue and observe what’s around us. A grasshopper jumps on my ankle and the kids are fascinated.

They found a nice flat slanted boulder to slide rocks down into the pool below. They had races and decided big ones moved faster and made larger splashes. We looked for frogs, but didn’t see any. We did spot a bird taking a bath in the stream and bobbing up and down. Lilah called it the bouncing bird. It was fun to watch it as we moved along behind it. We kept our eyes out for stinging nettle (We are learning to recognize more plants in our area and that and poison oak are what we started with) and found some beautiful maple leaves to bring home and press. The leaves are beginning to turn! Gorgeous! We watched the clouds swim across the sky and found a new trail down to the car.

A stop at the store and then we came home to dinner with Daddy. A wonderful day.

unschooling

Thursday

They began with computer games and pokemon watching. Then puzzling and a bit of balance play on the balance beam.

There was oatmeal muffin baking. And talk about rising batter and baking powder and falling as the muffins came out rather flat. But they tasted delicious anyway!

While Gavin worked more on our latest puzzle, Lilah glued some flowers we pressed from a hike earlier this summer onto card stock to give a friend.

Gavin wrote some thank you letters for friends. He embellished one with a Spiderman illustration.

Lilah read several Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems to me. They are some of our favorites!

There was lunch, more writing and balancing.

We did some silly walking, inspired by Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks and some more lego play.

Then off to City Creek Canyon to go up to the top for the last time before they close the road for the season. We went two miles up, to the snow data collection whiz-gigs. Right near the bottom we spotted a lynx cub a little bigger than our pug heading down toward the creek. No pictures as I was busy watching and pointing it out to the kids. I didn’t expect unschooling to pay off like this, but I was very excited! I’ve never seen a wild lynx close. It looked like a big cuddly cat with a short tail. Amazing!

We saw many kinds of mushrooms that I hope to research later based on pictures we took. We climbed and tossed rocks in the creek. We saw a snake, lots of grasshoppers and butterflies.

On the way down, the kids were world-spinning, each choosing a weapon to master and having their own school to master it in, with elaborate backstory. “I learned to use the sword as a kid from my father.” “Well, my mother taught me to use a staff.” Then they were bears, eagles, rhinos and a rhino-corn, evolving into different forms. They found curved sticks and used them as pretend bows to hunt, “but not really, Mama, because I don’t hurt animals in real life.”

Finally, back home for dinner and evening rituals.

It was good.

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.