Tag Archives: roller skating

unschooling

wheels and waves and lizards

We drove to a new friends’ house and the kids played nerf gun attacks, played in the pool and played MineCraft together. They had a great time. Gavin was super excited to ride this mini motorcycle with his friends instructions and encouragement!

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We went roller skating for the first time all summer! It was fun. The kids wanted to play in the bounce area and climbing area so I asked them to clean the living room and in return I would pay extra for them to do those things. We all skated for a bit and then the kids went to climb and bounce and I skated a bit more myself.

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Chris and the kids went bowling with their Scout group. They had a good time and Gavin had a good game of it. The last time we went (a year or so ago) he was frustrated by his gutter balls.

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We went up to Silver Lake for a picnic, walk and a climb. It was lovely and cool up there. The kids climbed this rock and looked down on us. On the other side of the lake there was frolicking.

We walked to the library and checked out some more graphic novels for the kids. Gavin knows right where books about MineCraft and Lego are and Lilah is well acquainted with the non-fiction animals shelves.

Lilah’s been folding tiny origami things, mostly animals.

Gavin celebrated his 11th birthday last week with friends at a playgroup, again with friends out for miniature golf and more bowling and then the next day with family for games and love. Wow! After hanging out with grandma and grandpa and aunt and us, he chose to go out for his favorite, Thai food for dinner.

We went to the water park and enjoyed cooling off in the wave pool and lazy river and occasionally taking shady breaks to lounge in the tubes.

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We’ve been watching lizards in our front yard. There are at least two, skittering around under our plants and occasionally showing their stripey, blue tinged selves. How fun!

Gavin and Lilah made things from a tinker crate and from Gavin’s birthday loot. Gavin made a robot and Lilah made a racing car.

 

Gavin asked for a big set of colored pencils for his birthday (Anytime the kids ask for art materials I pretty much drop everything and run to the store. Haha!) and has been enjoying organizing them and examining how the pencils are organized by their numbers and trying them with some drawings.

The kids have been watching Pokemon, jump-started by playing Pokemon Go and telling me all about the Pokemon universe and its inhabitants. Lilah even decorated a balloon as Pikachu.

We’ve been enjoying the water park most weeks this summer. This week Gavin went on his first water slide with my sister who joined us. He was so excited!

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Eleven years old! We even got to talk about how “teenage” usually refers to the numbers with “teen” in them though the set between 10 and 19 obviously go together in their own space and what a “tween” is.

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unschooling

Thursday

There was Pokemon watching and Coolmathgames.com playing.

After breakfast there was more Playmobil castle play.

“Mama, will you read us a chapter of Wise Child?”  “Sure!”

We worked on the Lego costume some more.  We realized what we’d done last night wasn’t wide enough so we started over.  We cut the cardboard, added a neck piece, taped it together and then hot glued it.  We held it in place with a ball to keep it as round as possible.  Next we’ll either begin on the torso or we’ll paper mache the head.

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We finished Wise Child.

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We looked at our new vanilla extract batch, started yesterday, just starting to turn golden after being clear yesterday.  While we were in the kitchen, the kids examined the drawers in the kitchen, noticing how they roll on wheels and comparing them to the drawers in their bedroom.

We went to the skating rink and we found they open later now so we headed back home, sewed some elastic on Lilah’s wings for her hands and then it was time to return to the rink.

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We skated for almost two hours before heading home for dinner and bedtime. Every time we go, we each get a little bit better.  Gavin is now enjoying himself and getting along fast with the support.   He can also make it well along the edge or holding hands.  Lilah is able to skate on her own, though she still falls fairly often.   She enjoys using the support too, but doesn’t really need it anymore.  I am getting better at different foot patterns, slowing down and stopping which I never knew how to do.  It’s important when there’s a kid in the way and you need to avoid them or when you want to exit the rink!  So much fun!

 

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unschooling

Friday

There was computer play followed by tumbling and nest making.  They brought blankets and pillows out and made their own cozy space.

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They wrestled.

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The Goldie Blox sets were opened and stories were read and blocks built with.

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We did some Spanish together – more animal and food words.  Soy un vegetariana.

We watched an episode of Cosmos: a Spacetime Odyssey.

Next we headed to the rink to roller skate.  This was the kids second time roller skating and they were still working hard to get it, but enjoyed it nonetheless.  They began without the balance supports and did a few laps and then when they got tired and frustrated with that we rented the supports and they had a ball twirling around in the middle of the rink.  I skated too and realized I need to learn how to stop better.  We skated for a good hour and a half before heading for home and dinner and family time and bedtime.

 

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