Music Lessons!

 

 Austyn was playing around with our large electric guitar, but couldn't use it properly because it was too large and heavy. He was playing it so much that he got a terrible blister on his thumb. We decided to go shopping for a mini electric guitar. It wasn't as easy of a task as we thought, but since we are all home and have more time than the average family we went to about ten stores before we finally found one. He loved it from the moment he saw it. And he has insisted on playing it everyday since he got it. Daddy has been giving him lessons and he has learned so much. The cool thing is that he tends to only look at his strumming hand when he plays and does his chords perfectly without looking at his left hand. I think we have a kid with a natural talent on our hands!

One thing I should mention here as well is that we are learning instruments along with him. Kev is learning how to use his guitar again while teaching and practicing with him and I've been learning it a bit as well as the recorder. Through learning with him it makes learning more fun for all of us. Parents can show their kids how to unschool and that is a part of the process of unschooling... being a model.

The Photographer!

At the young age of four we can already see a talent in Zoe. She loves to take pictures! She is very technically inclined with her camera and her computer and plays with both often. This camera was the best gift she has ever gotten. I highly recommend it for young children to use. There are so many fun and creative options on it. The only downfall of this camera is that it has a few video games programmed into it, but other than that it has been great! She loves it and has been using it for many months now.

I Guess This Is Unschooling... activity 4

Just because we ended up unschooling doesn't mean that the kids never do the three R's. I can tell that people assume that they never do lessons of any kind and this is a misconception. They do what they ask for. And "YES" they ask for math and they ask for reading lessons AND they print in their play all the time. I know it is hard for some people to grasp this idea. We see kids who are told when and how to learn each day in school and those kids usually don't want to do more of the three R's at home. In fact they need to be forced by the parents laying down the rules about homework. By telling my kids when and where to learn something I always felt like I was insulting their intelligence and possibly affecting their confidence in their own ability to choose and learn the best way they know how. 

Since I've let go of my own impulse to "control" I've seen such a transformation in us all. There is so much less pressure. I don't mean just for the kids but the pressure has been lifted from us parents as well. Life feels so much more free and flowing now. The kids seem to grasp information so fast compared to when I would try and sit them down to do something. Everyone seems happier and we are all learning so much.

I hate that articles and news casts misrepresent unschoolers. I think because we are all so conditioned in our society about how school is or how we have to learn through being taught it makes it hard to understand. I also think this idea of having to be taught is conditioned into us because if we truly believe this we will pay for teachers and that means money for someone else. I could go into this deeper here but I won't. Suffice to say that it wasn't always this way though out history and people did great things in the past without having to pay an ivy league school to teach them. The strange thing is that now that I see how life is for all of us to learn what we want (parents included) I wonder how I never saw it before.

I am adding an after-thought here: I believe that as long as they aren't in the system of school or forced to be taught subjects that they will ask for those subjects (even CRAVE those subjects) or be willing to learn it without having it scheduled and forced upon them. BUT (big BUT), if there comes a time that I feel that they really will need something I know that there are more appropriate ways to have them learn what they need in fun and engaging ways without extinguishing their enthusiasm for learning. This is exactly what I witnessed from Austyn when I would sit him down on a schedule and teach to him. His enthusiasm died right off. I have learned to respect and trust his ability to seek out what he needs to learn and what he will learn well in each moment of everyday and I'm making sure that he is getting what he craves.

More Useless Fun!

Daddy calls this "The Cocoon". The kids love this game and it becomes a game to see who can get out first. LOL!!

Outdoor Hour - Crickets

This study was set up to study crickets, katydids and grasshoppers. We only studied crickets since that is what we found in a tipped over umbrella in the back yard.

Through the study the kids learned so much including how to identify the sex of the cricket. Since we took our cricket into our house and kept it as a pet for a few days, I was a bit thankful that she was a girl. Female crickets don't make the famous cricket noise.

Unschooling on Fox

I thought I'd share this. What do you guys think?

Fun in the Heat!

In this picture I had just decided to jump into the kids pool with  my clothes on and a water fight started between the kids and I.

Book Sharing Monday - The Dirty Cowboy

The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake is such a cute book. It gives the child a peek into the life of a uncleanly cowboy who rarely bathed. His close friend is his dog. He decides one day that he is going to walk FAR to the nearest river to take a bath.

 His trip and bath go well, but what happens next is completely unexpected. 

My kids and I enjoyed this book tremendously. I hope you do too!

Outdoor Hour - Fire Flies

Austyn has been eager to study fireflies since he saw some a week or so ago. In a matter of minutes one night we caught two, but didn't have jars to put them in with us. So, we tried again the next night but it was too hot and humid and there were hardly any out. It's been hot and humid just about every night since until, finally one night while we were visiting neighbours a firefly came flying by us and we caught it. The jar was only a walk away at our house and that is where our captive went. 

It didn't want to flash for us in captivity no matter what we did. We tried out shutting all of the lights off but it didn't work. We did read about it and answered all of the questions. There was so much to write on the notebook page so I took over the writing since Austyn couldn't write out that much. He learned so much and it was easy to know what information excited him the most because he jumped up and told Daddy right away!

We kept the little guy overnight and finished off our lesson in the morning. This way we could see the insect better. I have come to the conclusion that Austyn has great observation skills.

We let the firefly go after we were finished with our study and we observed it's behaviour. It fell to the ground where it was even more camouflaged and it burrowed under the wood to hide away for the day.

Park Day

Only four families showed and one only stayed for a short time, but even with only three families it could end up to be a good number of kids. Our family is small compared to most of the families in our homeschool groups. The kids played a bit on the play area but ended up right in the dirt digging holes and seeing what they could find. 

Zoe loves to swing like this and she sometimes will take a time-out to herself and just do this for fun on her own.

We made our way to the beach and off went Zoe's shirt. In the water the kids all went.

After the water everyone decided to roll in the sand and get all covered in it.

Our teen homeschool friends are a great example of how homeschool teens act. It's never uncool to play with the little kids or talk to the parents. Growing up in a homeschool allows them to be kids as long as they like. What they wear doesn't matter either and they can be friends with all ages.

It was another fun day out with friends!

Recycling Field Trip

We went on a recycling field trip to learn where our recycling goes and how it is treated. We also learned how to recycle properly. Austyn and Zoe were too small so I stayed with them and Daddy went with the big kids to learn more about how things work. 

The kids learned about red and blue boxes and what items can and can't go in each. They learned about how recycling saves our valuable resources like trees and what trees are good for. They also learned about the three R's in order and why they are in that order. They played a game and got a pencil made out of recycled boxes. 

We got to see the huge cubes of paper piled up outside and the inside of the building complete with conveyors and fork lifts.

Our kids are very hands-on and were allowed to touch the cubes of our papers being recycled.

They also saw how the big trucks worked. Even though it looks like both boxes are going in one hole they aren't. There are two compartments inside and the driver can decide which compartment the hole goes to. 

The main benefit we got out of this trip is that we learned just how bad we are with recycling. Our plan is to purchase less of the things that have packaging that isn't recyclable. We are going to continue to reuse jars before recycling. We are going to only recycle what is recyclable items and sort our recycling properly. We also learned that there is another composting system we can purchase that can compost more than a regular compost. After doing some research I learned that there are two types of this composter that I never heard of before and here is the website incase you are interested in living more green.

http://www.greatgreensystems.com/