books, unschooling

fall in the mountains

Lilah’s been finger knitting. She’s made a scarf, two necklaces, some bracelets, a head band and some curtain ties that I know about plus likely just as much that I don’t.

We went swimming and worked on breathing while swimming.

Lilah took a lyra class and has been doing more aerial silks classes. I do yoga while she does aerials which is perfect.

We’ve been listening to the Brotherband Chronicles, The Outcasts by John Flanagan in the car. It’s so good.

Gavin is working with his Odyssey of the Mind team on a Star Wars themed challenge. They are working on a play with various characters and scenarios. It will be his turn soon to be a student leader and bring and support a short activity for the group so he’s been brainstorming about that.

I’ve been working on Halloween costumes. The kids weren’t sure what they wanted to do until just a few days ago so I’ve been scrambling to collect pieces and parts for all of us and to make Lilah’s costume but it’s fun to do even if we are on a tight schedule.

We took a hike up to Fifth Water hot springs with my sister.

It was a beautiful cool day and there were still colored leaves everywhere though a bit less vibrant than the previous week. When we go up to the hot springs the river runs blue and a bit cloudy and there are many small pools with rocks, waterfalls, reeds. We found one that nobody else was using and my sister and I enjoyed immersing ourselves while the kids dipped their feet and legs in and explored. Gavin had brought a book so he read for a while as we soaked.

We watched a Ginormous Pumpkin Regatta, a boat race in giant pumpkins with my family. It was really entertaining. There were some capsized pumpkins and one that was so big it could barely move aside from spinning in a circle. I want to know more about growing those pumpkins. How big are the plants? How much soil do they need? Do you pick off all the other pumpkins to grow one as big as possible? How do they taste? If the growers spend up to 30 hours a week caring for the pumpkin, what is it they’re doing? I may do some research to satisfy my curiosity. However, I doubt we’ll be growing giant pumpkins anytime. The usual size kind took over our yard just fine this year. We got 4 orange pumpkins from two vines and 2 gray-green pumkins from another vine that grew from seeds in the compost. The kids are particularly excited about the green ones.

We’ve been going to a homeschool gymnastics open gym session with friends. The kids get to use the equipment and play for several hours.

One of our favorite places, Red Butte Garden, a botanical center near us and where Chris and I were married has a Halloween activity every year called Garden After Dark that we enjoy. This year it was Alice in Wonderland themed. It was really fun to hunt for gems for our key to the portal to another world, search for white rabbits and enjoy the Queen of Hearts reciting Jabberwocky. They had games like flamingo croquet and giant tea cup decorations and also fun information about plants like there are roses that change color and riddles about flowers and herbs. We had a lot of fun and came home with wildflower seeds and chamomile (tea) seeds.

unschooling

Sunken Cities, Lego Cities, Evolution

Over the past week or so the kids have been playing Spore every morning lately. So, the rest of the time the kids conversation is including evolution, mutation, tribes and herds. (It’s a computer game where you start as a tiny sea-dwelling organism and slowly evolve and become a land-dweller. You get to choose the changes, like type of eyeballs, type of feet, size of torso…, as you slowly level up and your creature changes and develops.) Usually both of them are leaning together, planning what changes to make next, where to take their creature in search of food, shelter or allies. Here’s Lilah in a rare moment without Gavin’s sage advice on hand.

Gavin built a Lego version of Carcassonne, complete with four civilizations, Japan, China, Vikings and Rome. It has a volcano and a temple, four cities and a river that goes to the sea. I’m impressed by his building, his creativity and his interest in geography, history and game mechanics.

We finished reading Madame Pamplemousse and the Enchanted Sweet Shop and are continuing Prairie School.

We looked at a bunch of slides with the new microscope as well as some feathers from our parakeet.

Lilah went to gymnastics. She even went up to the high bar, the one up higher than my head, swung herself around and up and did her “mermaids” on that bar before swinging down and dismounting. I was impressed.

Gavin and Dad played civilization.

We built my new single-serving puzzle.

Lilah’s had a cough for weeks and the air has been really bad here so we’ve been staying in quite a bit. Yesterday and today the air is finally clear again thanks to some rain and snow.

The kids have been playing with their Hero Factory modular robot toys.

Here’s a snippet of one of their stories:

G: “I’m following you Earth Leader. All right, Sandstone. Look this is the tricky part of getting down.”

L: “Yeah but remember Kai is good at climbing.”

G: “Yeah he’s good at climbing things but not slippery things like vines.”

“‘Let’s go to the new city of Earthler which I’ve never seen’, Kai admitted.”

L: “Look, she’s fireproof and waterproof!”

We talked about sales tax because Gavin has been doing chores to earn money and is interested in spending it on a new Bionicle figure. We discussed how much sales tax is, why it exists and what its for in general and specifically here in Utah. Then we began talking about when it started and got into the Boston tea party and representation of the people in governments. It was a pretty great bunch of discussions!

We picked up our Spanish practice again, going over food words, animal words and I learned how to say, “You are so sweet my teeth hurt.”

Gavin finished knitting his hat on the loom.

Gavin asked recently about Atlantis, if it’s real or not. So I explained that actually there are plenty if cities that have sunk for different reasons and we don’t know if Atlantis is one of those. Afterward we looked at some great photos of sunken cities and read the brief descriptions of where they are, when they sank and if they know why. It’s been something that has interested me since I was a kid, so it’s fun to see Gavin interested as well. I’m glad to know and be able to pass on that there are infinite mysteries left in history, biology, physics just waiting to be discovered and puzzled over.

We went the the Museum of Natural Curiosity and climbed and read and spun and wondered and built and laughed. My favorite part this time was watching the kids dress up as pirates and put on a play.

Friends.

unschooling

Busy, busy, busy

We’ve been so busy and I haven’t been documenting as much because of the holiday season but here’s a glimpse of things we’ve been doing.

We made a wreath.

Gavin’s been knitting after Lilah finished her hat on the loom that’s their size. She’s very proud of her first knitting project.

Lilah and I have been sewing the cutest owl stuffed animal/pillow for her brother.

We’ve been doing lots of reading. We started a new book: Prairie School by Lois Lenski. It follows a family in South Dakota in 1950 and is a really enjoyable exploration of how life in the 50’s in rural America was both similar and different to our current experiences.

Gavin made some gorgeous perler bead decorations and we hot glued them on barrettes for his sister.

We’ve been cuddling up watching movies since the kids have been feeling a bit sick this week; Spirited Away, Harry Potter, Castle In the Sky.

Soon we’ll be celebrating Christmas with family, Solstice with the four of us and more Christmas with more family in Washington so blogging will be on hold for a while.

unschooling

Thursday

There was Animal Jam playing.

There was lego Hero Factory building and rebuilding.

There was knitting.

We went to the Tracy Aviary and saw lots of birds as well as things to climb on and spin and read.

There were pelicans having fish.

And flamingos in swirling white waters.

We climbed giant bones.

We measured our wingspans.

And much more.

After we finished exploring the aviary, we had a snack in the car and decided to play at the playground in the park surrounding the aviary. There was climbing and hide and seek and sliding and musical exploration.

After we came home the kids watched The Triplets of Belleville, a French film. Lilah did some more knitting and Gavin helped with one row.

Then the kids decided to decorate our tree before dinner and cuddles and Julie of the Wolves and singing and sleeping followed.

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.

Yes is a World

Tag Archives: knitting

fall in the mountains

Sunken Cities, Lego Cities, Evolution

Busy, busy, busy

Thursday

Wednesday