Jumpin', Slidin' and Rollin'

Another week. How did that happen? I failed to take good notes of what we did this week and I am too tired to do the detective work to remember, so I will touch on highlights. I am assuming Wednesday and Thursday were quiet, hang around the house and try to get some housework done, kind of days. I know I did try to get the house picked up for C, who was coming home on Saturday.
We had a park day with the Lifelearners on Friday and it was one of those great days that make me feel really good about being involved with running this group. Lots of families showed up, the weather was gorgeous, the conversation was especially meaningful, the kids were playing so well, it was all good! I love it. We had brought a huge jumprope to play with. I tied it to a post and swung it around for the kids to try jumping. I even got a turn with one of the moms turning it for me. Not as easy as it once was, but still fun! The kids had fun sliding down this hill one cardboard boxes. They figured out that if they put sand on the textured surface of the hill, it would make them slide faster. E was quite the daredevil, racing down the hill! A did not slide, but she did master the jumprope, jumping 12 times in a row.
C got home on Saturday. We picked him up from the airport and he met us with a bouquet of red roses for his girls, all three of us! It was very nice to have him home after two solid weeks away. The girls pretty much dominated his attention for the rest of the day making up for lost time. I had a massage scheduled, so I went to that and did some shopping on the way home. I got E her own pair of rollerblades. She had tried on A's way-too-big-for-her pair and actually did well skating around the house, so it was time for her own. She was excited to get them when I got home.
Sunday was spent relaxing and just being together as a family. C and I did a yoga workout together as soon as we got up. It was his first time doing yoga and he was pleasantly surprised at how much of a workout it really was! C and the girls rollerbladed around on the back patio, while I lay in the sun on the bench. A had gotten one of her Weird n Wild Creatures sets and they were playing this game where as they went around counterclockwise they went back in time to visit the different prehistoric animals on the cards. A wanted to see where each one fit in on the timeline on the back of some of the cards. So we looked for reference to time periods and showed her. She laid out the cards in order and told them how many times to go around to get to the next creature's time. C looked at me at one point and said, "Unschooling" with a satisfied smug on his face. It is so nice to have him onboard now! In the evening we all watched our netflix movie, Where the Red Fern Grows, the recent version. I had read the book in highschool and saw the old movie back then as well. C had never read it or watched the movie. I had warned the girls that the ending was sad, but I was the one crying my eyes out at the end. The movie was very well done and we all enjoyed it.
Today was a good balance of time with the girls doing what they wanted to do and time for me to do my thing, like laundry and dishes and emails. A and I played one of the games that you can play with her WnW cards, basically a dueling type card game. I won the first one and she won the second one. It really boiled down to the deal of the cards each time. Strategy-wise, she was spot on! We spent some time out front rollerblading in the street. They are both getting really good. I even put on my blades and rolled around with them. I was a little sore from yoga yesterday, so I took it easy. We did a little gardening work in the back before it got dark. A wanted one of the volunteer Alyssum that popped up in the garden over the winter for her room, so I potted one up for her. We checked out our supply of seeds, making note of what we still need to get for the spring garden. I was happy to see that I had sweet snap peas, as the girls have been eating them a lot lately. It will be nice to eat our own homegrown peas, not to mention cheaper! We will probably do some planting of seeds soon.
Well, that brings us up to date. I have a bunch of ideas of stuff to write about, so it might not be a week before you see me next.

The Lion, the Panda, and the Penguins

Quick catch up time. On Saturday we went to the library to pick up a book I had on hold and this time the girls went crazy picking out books. I swear they each grabbed ten books or more. On the way home we stopped at Lowes to get some odds and ends for the projects I have been working on. On Sunday we did not do much except go see The Chronicles of Narnia. I really enjoyed it and A was saying how she wished she could go back to Narnia for a day after we saw it. It was nice to check out the new movie theater only six, count them, six miles from our house. It does not feel so lonely out here on the fringe of town with major motion pictures so close! Now if they could just get an overpass over the highway near my house, then we would be set! Anyway, yesterday I finished the shelves I had made for the girls room. They really liked them and enjoyed figuring out what to put on them. A played a lot of Zoo Tycoon. She is too funny with that game. Every time she gets an animal that is unhappy, she wants to scrap that zoo and start over. I helped her get her Panda happy again and she was so happy not to have to set up a whole other zoo! Silly girl. Today we met with the Life Learners at the wildlife habitat at the Flamingo casino, where they have penguins and flamingos and a ton of other birds, and koi, too. HUGE koi! Like four feet long or something. The girls were freaking when they saw them. They really enjoyed the penguins, too. Not really a good day for Mom talk, though, too much coordinating kids and moving from place to place. Oh well.

A Week in the Life

Friday
We hosted a Life Learner play date here. Nothing special was planned, just good old fashioned play. Oh, we did have a bit of a freecycle swap going on, with a few of us passing along items we no longer needed to others who wanted them. I really like the idea of the stuff I gave away going to my friends. Makes for a nice sense of community. C was coming home from a business trip and arrived at 2pm. He happily joined in the party and socialized with everyone, including the two Dads who had come. Afterward, we had some nice family time together to make up for lost time with Daddy.

Saturday
C needed to buy some clothes and he knew he did not want to do it alone and also that the girls would not be thrilled to tag along with us, so he set up a babysitter. We had a very nice time shopping together and eating lunch out. It was very much needed grown up time and our marriage benefited greatly from it. The girls had fun with our babysitter and we had another nice family afternoon/evening with Daddy. He had to fly out for another business trip that night, so we took him to the airport about 9pm.

Sunday
The girls and I had a day off running around town. We went to the library first to drop off books that were due. I had a book to pick up and the girls declined picking out any other books that day for themselves. Then we headed to the fabric store to get the supplies to make E an ice skating dress. No, she does not ice skate, she just wants a fancy outfit like the skaters wear! It was a pretty good trip, even if it did take her forever to pick out fabric and trim. A was very frustrated by her sister! We were hungry and cranky so we had lunch. Afterward I had promised that we would go to the toy store, but only if A would lend her sister some cash. E was down to five bucks and wanted stuff that cost more, and I was not up for a fight about buying toys, so A agreed to give her some money. Well, no amount of money was going to be able to buy what E wanted! She wanted something that did not exist. She sat on the floor in the Bratz aisle and cried for an hour. Yes, really, an hour! I was not in top form and did not know what to do with her. I always try to reason with her, even though I KNOW it does no good. Finally I hit on us going to Target to see if they had the doll she wanted, but with the agreement that we would leave if she started crying again. She agreed and we headed there. Luckily there was a doll that fit her requirements well enough. I said nothing about the price, figuring I would dock her pay until she broke even. I had no more patience for another breakdown over not having enough money. All's well that ends well, I guess.

Monday
I had a dentist appointment today and took the girls along to see what it was all about. A got a kick out of the pictures they took of my teeth, more than the x-rays. E wasn't all that interested. After, we hit the grocery store for some food. Then when we got home, we called our friends who were coming over that evening. We had homemade pizza for dinner with them and made this cool stuff called floam together. It is basically slime with tiny styrofoam beads in it. The girls had a blast playing with it.

Tuesday
Today was quiet, but full of little cool moments. We woke up to A wanting to watch the Phantom of the Opera, which we had not seen for a long time. So we popped that in and watched and sang along together. E wanted to watch our netflix dvd, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the original Dr Suess one, so we watched that, too. They had seen the newer one, with Jim Carrey, first, and I wanted them to see the original. They had another Dr Suess story on the DVD and we watched that as well. A recognized it from our Dr Suess books, so when it was over, I got out the books. I read two of the stories to them, the last being The Lorax. I got a teary at the end and remembered something from my childhood. When I was A's age, I had seen a performance of The Lorax in school. At the end the narrator threw a Truffula tree seed (made of paper) out into the audience and I caught it! I told the story to the girls. A thought it was very sweet, both the book and my remembrance. Another blast from the past occurred. I got a delivery of some books I had ordered and one of them was this cool book of aliens from science fiction that I had remembered from when I was about 10 and looked for for years. Well, I found it thanks to amazon and the "look inside" feature they have! We had a nice time looking through the book on the couch together. The girls thought it was cool, too. The other book was a Fake book of music for the piano. I flipped through it and plunked out the melody from one of the songs from The Phantom! Fun! We played some games together today as well.

Wednesday
We had a park day with the Life Learners today. It was fun but very tiring for me for some reason. When we got home, I was just exhausted! The girls had brought their parachute to play with with their friends. They had fun lifting it up and running under it together.

Thursday
I got a drive to do a project today, so we headed out into the garage to work. The girls rode their bikes and scooters while I hung some shelves in the garage and got started on making some shelves for the girls room. It was nice to get out the table saw and putter away with my power tools. A helped me a little, too. She also spent time inside playing a game on her computer.

Friday
Today was very much like yesterday. I worked on painting the shelves and the girls played. We rode bikes up and down the street for a while, as well. A got into playing Zoo Tycoon this evening, with E sitting with her to watch and help. E played with the piano some, playing the songs it has in it and pretending to play along. Either that or jumping up to dance and sing with the music!

That's all folks!

Life Curriculum

I have a saying, which came to me while doing a form of free writing, that goes, "Life is all you need to learn all you need to live." It jumped out at me, so I wrote it down somewhere safe (the other writing that day got thrown out, per the technique) and it now graces my email signature. I'd like to say a few things about what those words mean to me. Unschoolers would most likely understand it to mean that as you live your life, opportunities are presented to you to learn all the stuff you need to keep on living your life as you choose to live it. But I bet even unschoolers would think I was referring to all the "academic" stuff that schoolers are so concerned with. For example, your child is passionate about animals, so they seek out things that offer them information about animals, like books and shows and games. If some of that requires reading, the desire to be able to read the words in those books or games or whatever, drives the desire to learn to read, which in turn gives the child the information they are so passionate about, allowing them to deepen their passion for animals. And so on, and so on. It is a catchy phrase to describe the heart of unschooling: that people learn what they need when they need it, naturally.

Lately, I have been thinking of life learning in a different sort of way. I have been toying with the concept of a curriculum, which is a set of information that is taught/expected to be learned in a defined period of time, as it applies to an unschooling life. Departments of education decide what information and skills should be learned by all children in their system before their educations are considered complete. Unschoolers know that one size does not fit all and that educations are not complete until you are dead. However, we all have an idea of the basic knowledge and skills that our children will need to be successful in life. It is easy to not worry if our children never learn the major imports and exports of tiny third world countries, or the dates of battles in all the wars, but not learn to read before we send them out into the world on their own? Unthinkable! Of course, unschooled children are as unlikely to never learn to read as they are to never learn to speak their native language, but that is beside the point. The point is, we all have a set of knowledge and skills we expect our children to need, should they wish to succeed in life.

Ok, so what does an unschooling "curriculum" look like? Well, as always, it depends on the kid. It depends on the parents. It just depends. But as for what I am thinking about for my family, that I can speak of in some detail. At least to the extent that I have formulated a solid translatable thought on the subject. I suspect that this idea, like all ideas, will grow and change as I grow and change, but I will attempt to put it down in words you can all grasp.

I have noticed that when the word "educational" is used, people automatically have a set of subjects pop into their heads. Like reading, writing, math, science, geography, etc. But is that all we need to know to be successful human beings? What about how to be happy? What about how to interact with others, and I don't mean schoolyard socialization? How to forge and sustain meaningful relationships. How to find and pursue meaningful livelihoods, according to our passions. How to be good parents. How to say you're sorry and truly mean it. How to express gratitude sincerely and accept compliments graciously. How to be a friend.

And what about all the basics of life, like cooking and cleaning and buying a house and burying a deceased relative? What about how to bake your own bread? How to wash/iron/mend/even sew your own clothes? How to survive a disaster, start a fire, put out a kitchen fire? How to can your own food, after you have grown it in your own garden? How to change the oil in the car and replace a flat tire? How to file your taxes, balance your checkbook, save for a rainy day, let alone retirement?

I seem to have learned most of that as an adult, or near adult, on the fly as I needed it. It sure would have been nice to have been able to devote more time to learning this stuff as a child, when the full responsibility was not squarely and frighteningly on my shoulders. And what of all that stuff I learned in school? All those imports and exports, molecular structures, literary classics, mathematical intricacies? I have no idea. I do not use or remember any of it. The stuff I do use is so redundant in my life, I would have to have been an idiot not to pick it up: reading, consumer math, etc.

The hardest things I have had to learn on my own as an adult have been how to be in relationship, with myself and others, and how to be happy. Still working on both to be honest. The last thing I want for my children is for them to enter adulthood as woefully unprepared in these areas as I was. So, we focus on this now, as the interest and situations arise, alongside and most times in lieu of the "important stuff" like reading and math and history. We can cover that stuff anytime, as their interests arise and life provides. The best part about this learning plan is that there is no "graduation". There is plenty of time for my life curriculum to be learned. Their whole lives, in fact.

Another week

Ok, this waiting so long between posts is not working for me. Is it working for you? Must write more often, I forget all that we do if I don't. Quick update and then maybe I will ramble about something for a while. Or not.

Saturday
Aunt K left very early in the morning for home. Very sad little girls in this house this day. I don't remember what we did, except that I was surely getting ready for the little party I had planned for New Year's day. Oh yeah, that was New Year's Eve! We had black-eyed peas and greens for dinner and then watched the ball drop in Times Square at 9pm. Gotta love PST with little kids on New Year's! C and I were in bed trying to sleep when the real midnight hit. We knew what time it was only because of the fireworks going off in the neighborhood. Such old farts we've become, huh?

Sunday
I sent C and the girls off for a day away at a friend's house so that I could have my party. Four of my girlfriends came over for a get together where, among the usual talking and eating, we were going to do a burning bowl ritual. Basically, we wrote down stuff we wanted to release and then burned the paper. Afterward we wrote out our aspirations for 2006 and sealed the paper in envelopes. One friend, who elected not to write her aspirations out, swapped the envelopes secretly. We do not know who has our paper, but she will give it back next year. It was a very nice time. I really enjoy my friends here and want to plan more stuff like this throughout the year. C and the girls had a nice time while they were away.

Monday
C had the day off and spent it watching football. The girls hung with him for the day, since he was going back to work the next day. I spent my time between my office, attempting to organize my desk, and cooking in the kitchen. It was a quiet day. Just what we needed.

Tuesday
Lifelearner events started up again today. We met at a park to play. It was a beautiful day and we were very grateful for such good weather in January. Since the sun sets so early, we wrapped up early, around 3pm. E wanted me to find her a pink tanktop, so we stopped at Target on the way home. No luck finding pink tanktops, in her size anyway, but we did find one for A and she agreed to let E keep wearing the one she had borrowed earlier in exchange for me buying her that new one. E was not happy about it, so we stopped at Walmart to see if they had one. Worse luck there. They did not have any spring clothes at all. I ended up getting camisoles and a tie-dye kit. The plan was to dye the white tanks to suit E.

Wednesday
After I got up and awake for the day, E and I got out the dye kit and started doing that. She wanted three different designs off of the pictures on the box, so I shot for that. She also threw in a pair of white underwear to dye. A joined in with two pairs of panties, the only white clothing she had in her closet. The kit has more dye powder to use at a later time, so we will have to plan to do some more tie-dye in the future. Knowing E, I hoped she would be satisfied with the results. She wasn't, but I think she will grow to like them, after the dashed expectations wear off. She is way too much like me, for sure. I was pretty good dealing with her, even if I did want to scream after all the effort I have put into getting her what she wanted. I was a bit stern with her about not letting her happiness be defined by "stuff", or lack thereof. I think she got what I was saying to some extent, because she perked up and seemed to forget about pink tanktops for the rest of the day. We spent a long time outside riding bikes and scooters in the road in the afternoon. A family came to look at the house for rent across the street and I chatted with them while they waited for the owners to come let them in. They homeschool and have a 6 year old daughter, and four older kids as well. Could be cool neighbors, if they decide to move in.

Thursday
Spent the day taking down all the Christmas decorations and cleaning up for a Lifelearner play day here tomorrow. E was bugging her sister a lot and A was not handling it well. I got frustrated with it and told them both I was sick of it. Went and hid in my office for a while. A came down to find me and said she wanted to show me something. Turns out she had cleaned up her room and put away all their clean laundry, her sisters included. She was bursting with pride and I thanked her profusely.

I'd like to say more, but I am beat. Busy day tomorrow. I'll try to get back here before another week has passed and say something more profound.