It's All About the Joy

We plan to unschool/homeschool Aiden and Keeley as long as they are interested and stimulated and they want to be here being homeschooled. I do offer them the option to attend classes and or school -- occasionally -- but so far the answer is, "No mommy. We LOVE homeschool." I'm not REALLY interested in sending them to school anyway because of what I've read about them. School was established during the industrial age. It was designed to churn out factory workers who could make it to work on time and sit quietly, eat on a schedule, and take directions without giving their supervisors any trouble.

I'm interested in letting my children develop their own place in the world. To allow them to be free thinkers, critical thinkers. To get up and run across the room 35 times because that's what their little bodies need--right this second! To narrate a story while climbing over chairs and hopping on one foot across the carpet because they think better when they are moving. To draw pictures when they are inspired, not when it's "art time" twice a week for 40 minutes. To take a nap when they feel tired, not because it's "bedtime". No, "do your homework before you go outside to play." No stomach ache because you didn't study "hard enough" for that test or missed the deadline for that paper and now you've got an "F" ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD!!

I know how LUCKY I am to have this opportunity to stay here with them and watch them grow and learn and thrive. I would feel totally cheated if I knew a teacher was getting the opportunity to watch them "learn that concept", see the light bulb turn on, etc. and I was missing it. I would hate it. I LOVE watching my children grow up. It's my honor to help them learn.

I mean, come on. Look at those faces. Time is fleeting. They are my joy. The least I can do is let them have theirs.

Two Fun Days in a Row!

Yesterday we went to Pork's Discovery (Keeley's name for Port Discovery!) It was loads of fun, right up until the LAST second. You know when they CLOSE? The boys just don't understand that yet... well mostly Keeley at this point. I went down the slide with Keeley this time and bumped my head at the bottom--not a lot of fun. Last time I was there Aiden talked me into going through that AWFUL drain pipe. Never again I tell you, never again. It actually hurt my knees going over those ropes inside. I MUST be too old to enjoy things like that anymore.

And unfortunately the zip line was broken and no one could ride on it. And, as Aiden announced to me, he is just now tall enough to get on it himself. Oh well, maybe next time. Aiden spent a significant amount of time in the water room getting SOAKED all down his front. Pants actually dripping wet. I suggested to one of the staff members that they get a see through dryer so people could strip and dry their clothes. (Educational and useful, especially in the winter!!) But her reply was, "well, it would probably be broken more than it worked." So, I guess that's the theme there? I got a few shots of Keeley and Aiden riding "Keeley's" horse!!

Our friends Faith, Easy, Malilah, and Zola met us there. Good thing too, 'cause we tag-teamed all afternoon. It was fun!

And today when we woke up it was SNOWING!! Keeley immediately started asking if we could go outside to play, but we waited until Aiden woke up so he could enjoy it too. We all went outside to build a snowman. The snow is heavy and wet, so it balled up really easily. It was that snow that actually gets bigger as you roll it? I've never seen that really happen, but it did. Made a big heavy snowman that the boys chopped down with their snow shovels right after it was finished.

Now they're downstairs drinking hot chocolate deciding whether or not they want to get all their clothes back on so they can build another snowman to chop down. Boys!

Stay warm and enjoy this wintery weather!

Love and Light,

Susan

Ladies and Gentlemen...

HELLO~ So, last night Aiden and I had a discussion about his hair and the knots that had seemed to have taken over. His hair was down past the bottom of his back when it was wet except where it was so knotted that it looked similar to (but not as good as) dreads.

I think he had just finally had enough of it always being in his face and also not being able to run a comb or his fingers through it. So I asked him if I could cut his hair on Sunday and he said, "Well, I'm not sure." So I don't know exactly how it happened, but we negotiated our way down a long path and ended up agreeing on a haircut for a toy.

Now I know what my unschooling friends are thinking, that this goes against all the rules of respectful parenting and unschooling I know. And I know it doesn't make it better, but I've been very upset that I made that agreement with him ever since it came to be. I even discussed it with him late last night~that this somehow turned into a bribe and that I didn't want that to be why he was cutting his hair. He said he understood and said he would decide about the haircut in the morning. I told him I would buy him a toy regardless of his decision because I had already agreed to do so, but it would not be so he would or because he had cut his hair. I also already told him that we would NEVER be doing this again for a "profit" and he agreed this was a one time thing.

Anyway, he woke up this morning with a HUGE smile on his face because he was going to get a haircut AND a new toy. So now I will live with having tried to BRIBE my son into getting a haircut. Anyway, we got through the whole ordeal, and as you can see the results are pretty amazing if I must say so myself.

Grandmom is coming over for a visit tomorrow and she had offered to take Aiden to get his toy, but he just could not wait until tomorrow. So I took him to Toys R Us and he picked out some new "Fun•Keys" to add to his growing collection. I'm hoping that we can go to David's for a wonderful organic lunch tomorrow instead.

Aiden's Front Tooth

By the way, Aiden's front left tooth (from the view inside his mouth looking out) fell out yesterday. Actually, he asked me to yoink it out of his head. His adult tooth pushed the baby tooth pretty much right out. My baby...

Busy Day

My head woke up at 8:20 a.m.--VERY early for me. Keeley was up shortly after that. We went downstairs and I poured my first cup of coffee while he watched Peep, Chirp, and Quack. I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and he said banana muffins! So I started making banana muffins knowing full well Aiden wouldn't touch them. When I got them in the oven I started a second batch--this time I put in frozen strawberries. Those are Aiden's favorites. When those were ready to go in the oven the banana muffins were ready to come out and that's when Aiden woke up and came downstairs. While the second batch of muffins were baking I started cutting up the curd from the goat's milk cheese I started making last night. I got the whey strained out of the curds and into a cheesecloth to make Feta when the strawberry muffins "dinged". Aiden went right for them! (During the course of the day he ate at least 6 of them.) After the cheese curds were in the cheesecloth and hung to dry I started scooping the pulp out of the butternut squashes I had baked a few days ago. When that was done I scooped the pulp out of the acorn squashes I had baked at the same time as the butternut squashes. I had my hands on the sweet potatoes, but thought I'd better eat something before I passed out. So I cooked myself a bagel and fried egg sandwich, on top of which I put some roasted green peppers. DELISH! After I ate I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher (may have already been the second time today) and I offered the boys some food which they both turned down. MUFFINS! After I loaded the dishwasher I took the curd and mixed the appropriate amount of salt into it and put it in my homemade cheese press (two stacked round cake pans) and got it into the fridge. I then realized it was time to start fixing dinner and all I had was a stewing hen, so I had to stew a hen. Then Uncle Frankie stopped by to say "Hi!" He stayed to visit for about 4 hours. Keeley took a nap while he was here and Aiden stayed and told stories and we all talked. It was nice. Dinner: the meat was pretty tasty, but a little tough (of course) and so everyone ended up eating leftover Chinese food and cereal. I felt like I had stood up and cooked ALL DAY and we had leftovers and cereal for dinner. Oh well. It was a good day anyway. Busy, but good.

Beautiful day

I finished blowing up the dragon pool today. I started last night and when the compressor Frank gave us started to squeal and putt, I decided it needed a break. So we finished today and filled the pool with cold water. The boys had more fun with the hose than they did in the actual pool, but the water should be warm enough tomorrow to get in. Keeley just LOVES to dig up bugs. Aiden couldn't be more opposite. He'd rather not even get muddy. Two nights ago, our next door neighbor kid, Philip, came over and the three of them set up on their ends twig/branches that had snapped out of other trees. They made a little forest installation. It was so pretty (no camera close by or I would have snapped a shot). The next morning Keeley knocked one down by accident and Aiden knocked the rest just for fun. Keeley's taking a bath now to wash the mud off his body (most of his body ;) and Aiden is waiting for him to be finished because he wants to take a non-bubble bath. Oh, yesterday we all baked brownies that took about an hour to cook and they STILL weren't done. Next time we're using a cake pan instead of the square one. Still, YUM! Tomorrow afternoon we're going to the tire park to play with our other unschooling friends. I'll even do some hula hooping with my friend Beth if the boys will let me take some mommy time. Till next time...