great talk by woman who was unschooled

I really enjoyed this talk. I have to admit, that i love the fact that this formerly unschooled woman is brilliant! more importantly, though, it really reminded me to let go of this idea that attending a prestigious university is the ultimate goal. i was still hanging on to the notion that this was the ideal and even use examples of homeschooled kids attending ivy leagues to defend my choice to unschool. when i started to consider homeschooling, i thought that, of course, my kids will attend college! now, i see it as a choice, not a good or bad one. i just want them to follow their passions and be happy. but for me, it's all about the deschooling, baby!

how do you know they are learning?

i just realized that i have almost completely forgotten my need to prove that my kids are learning. now it seems so silly to even consider them not learning. i can't stop them! it does still amaze me to think about all that they do in a day. i love watching them freely choose activities and watching their flow.

for the past week patrick has been doing a puzzle of the united states that his grandparents sent. he does it while he waits for me to get ready for an outing, while i make breakfast, or at any other transition period during the day. during these times, he will also stand at our map of the united states and call out, "give me a state!" when i can't see what state he points to as his answer, he spells it for me. he came up with this game on his own.

i never really had any major fears about my kids learning what they "need" to learn because there is no school subject they do need to learn. it's pretty simple. i get a tad bit angry when i think about all of the useless information i crammed into my brain. what a waste. why not use that brain power for something you are passionate about learning?

patrick and liam sing tomorrow

our first ever you tube videos! i just had to get them singing this song. after a month of annie, they seem to be heading back to a star wars phase, though. yesterday, they were dressed up as obi wan and darth vader fighting with lightsabers while singing annie songs.

our afternoon

thought i would post some pictures from this afternoon since i got some fun ones. i am still trying to figure out how to format pictures on blogger so please be patient with me.

we spent several hours outside, our first sunny day in a long time! we played with the chickens and goats and dug for a lost sock in the muck. early last week, the kids took a mud bath in a puddle by the driveway and liam lost a sock. they got all of their shovels from the barn in order to dig around for the sock. i thought it was a lost cause, but amazingly, they found it in about 10 minutes! 

i also took some photos of our rental house and property. i feel so grateful to be here! it's a gorgeous spot!

a day in the life

part of the deschooling process for me has been to let go of  this fear that i am not doing unschooling right or that i should be doing something more structured or perhaps more meaningful during the day with my kids. my experience of life before unschooling was that much of my day was planned for me. this gave me the false sense of purpose. all of this free time now is making me a bit nervous!

today i thought i would share "a day in the life" of the mcconnell family. got this idea from my boulder homeschooling yahoo group. i love reading about the days of other unschooling families so i thought i would post mine here as a regular feature.

8:00 am- wake up. cuddle in bed, make beds, boys get dressed

8:30am-downstairs to make breakfast. bacon, eggs, toast, coffee, and kombucha. the boys help with breakfast.

9:45am-outside to take care of the chickens. we play in the rain and the muck for a while and then head back inside.

10:30am-make our "chicken books" on snapfish. the boys got a camera for their birthdays, and we have been working on a project compiling pictures and information about chickens. we had been reading a few books about chickens, plus looking up information online. we all decided that we wanted to create our own "chicken book!" each of the boys made their own book selecting photos from the hundreds we had taken.

noon- make lunch, boys sword fighting

12:30pm-eat ham and cheese sandwiches, raw milk and egg smoothies, apples

1-2pm--clean up a bit around the house while kids play marble whacker. we then put together foam airplanes and paint them with acrylic paints.

2pm-nurse claire to sleep. can't believe she has not slept at all yet!

2pm-4pm- boys and i play dominoes, drink tea, have snacks. i go up to claire 2x while she sleeps to nurse her back to sleep! while i am upstairs with her, the boys make their own snacks. then they decorate the house with toilet paper rolls hanging from the string on the blinds. plus they have toilet paper roll fights. i read and nap a bit!

4pm- we play pirates.

4:30pm-start making dinner. chicken soup w/ veggies. liam and patrick help.

5:20pm-we all go outside to lock up the coop.

5:30-6:30pm-liam and i do an activity book while patrick plays with claire.  matt comes home.

7pm-dinner

7:30-9pm-treasure hunt, uno, and story time

9:46-? computer time for mama!

good night!

rainy days

we played indoors most of the week enjoying new toys and games we had gotten for christmas and the boys' birthdays.

liam gave us a lesson on how to use the bow and arrow which was a gift from aimee. he has been quietly practicing with it and teaching himself to use it since christmas and has declared himself an expert. patrick and i are getting better with his guidance and boy does he love guiding us.

we also made gluten free play dough this week with a recipe i found on the internet. so exciting to make such a great dough that is gluten free. here is the recipe i used:

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup organic corn starch (no GMO's here!)
1/2 cup sea salt
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup water
vegetable dyes

for the holidays, my friend who has this business, www.aromaessencesbykarin.com, gave us doughs made with vegetable dyes and essential oils. we all loved them and tried to replicate what she had made for us. they are so wonderful! the colors, scents, and texture. wish i took better photos, but maybe next time.

annie

we have been singing songs from Annie, the Musical for about 2 weeks now. liam and patrick watched the movie one or two times, watched a bunch of you tube videos of all sorts of productions of Annie, and have been listening to the soundtrack from the original broadway show. we also have the sound track to the lion king, but they are all about annie. i have really worked hard not to crack up while they are performing for me. they are too cute! and gosh my throat is sore and i can't get those songs out of my head! here are a few photos of patrick singing (he wanted me to take them). video coming shortly.