Slow Week! Wonderful Hubby!

Between work, kids, and extended family issues, this week has been slow for us. Work is taking up most of my time right now. We have only bought two gifts for Christmas and need a vacation in a bad way. So, as you can see by the lack of posts or lack of comments on any of your posts, I've been busy. Busy is an understatement. It's been late nights and up early. The positive part of all of this is that I'm working with the best person in the world; my husband. I am so grateful to have him in my life.  He is my strength when I need extra strength. He inspires me. He is such a wonderful and supportive husband and father. Working with him has (in most cases) been such a wonderful experience. So, if this week seemed slow on my blog, it was. I hope to get back on track again soon. Cheers!!

Computerized Microscope!

We did some Science today and this included the use of our microscope. We looked at some slides and a bee that we caught and kept. Here is Austyn checking out the microscope on his own while eating a cookie.

"The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, He does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense ... School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning."
~John Holt~, (1923-1985) American Educator, How Children Learn

Lego inspired by a fellow blogging family.

 

This is a Lego piece that was inspired by a fellow blogging family. While I sat down this morning to view blog entries, Austyn looked over my shoulder and loved something that was made, so he wanted to make one too. He makes just about everything he sees that inspires him, but this is a new one. LOL! Making something because he saw someone else do it. So thank you to Adrienne for inspiring Austyn to make this Sleigh complete with Santa and his Armadillo/Bat/Raindeer.

“A child only pours herself into a little funnel or into a little box when she’s afraid of the world—when she’s been defeated. But when a child is doing something she’s passionately interested in, she grows like a tree—in all directions. This is how children learn, how children grow. They send down a taproot like a tree in dry soil. The tree may be stunted, but it sends out these roots, and suddenly one of these little taproots goes down and strikes a source of water. And the whole tree grows." ~ John Holt, Learning All the Time

Book Sharing Monday

 

 

This is a beautifully written book about a young girl named Claire who learned to knit in the darkness by her mother. "Dream your dreams, my child, and knit them into the wool." They lived in darkness most of the time because they couldn't afford to light their home. She would knit beautiful pictures into stockings to keep her toes warm and word got around her town about her talent. She became known as "the stocking girl".

As Christmas approached she had a dream to have light all day long and have Christmas just like her mother liked it, but she learned that there is always someone who is more in need and gave up on her dreams to help someone else. In the end it always works out!

Ouch, Oww, Owie, Ouch! Writing Cramp!

Anyone who has tried doing an unschooling journal for their kids learning will likely empathize with me when I say, "Ouch, my  hand!" I have been doing a journal for the past couple of days and I can't believe how much I needed to write down. For those of you who unschool in a regulated area, I tip my hat to you! It is not easy to keep up with the learning going on when a child is left to pursue interests. I think we may have found our style! I'm hopeful anyway. I can't see doing a radical homeschooling style at this point but this is a start.

I understand that they are learning all of the time without curriculum, but I still would like to find a way to incorporate the important subjects through their interests somehow. The funny thing is that unschooling seems easy to most but when considering this aspect (making subjects fit with their interests) I can see the work and creativity involved on my part as the educational facilitator to bring in subjects in a way that the kids can learn through their intersts.

The only downfall from what I see is, like many other directions we've taken and decisions we've made, here we are AGAIN doing something that is not mainstream and usually misunderstood. We are attachment parents, long-term nursed, taught our babies sign language, decided to homeschool, this list goes on, and now we may be unschooling!? This is kind of funny!

“It is as true now as it was then that no matter what tests show, very little of what is taught in school is learned, very little of what is learned is remembered, and very little of what is remembered is used. The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschool parts of our lives.” ~ John Holt~ How Children Fail

Homeschool Christmas Outing

 

 

This is our last get-together with this homeschool group until the new year. We had a Christmas Outing. We sang Christmas Carols, read stories, made sparkle snowflakes, a large folded snowflake, tree decorations (including a really cool pioneer one) and we made gingerbread houses (with gram crackers). Austyn had a favourite craft. He really enjoyed making the large snowflake from folded paper. Above you can see him holding his up. He is so proud of himself! I searched the internet for directions on how to make this craft. Here is a link: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake

“Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.” ~ unknown