Only Learning...

let it snow let it snow let it snow!

2010-02-25T12:07:00.002-05:00

it's been coming down is wonderful piles, and sadly melting away too fast... but we've managed to pull a few sledding trips out of it, not too many winter hike yet this year, but plenty of sledding!

we've had such a wonderful time sharing the cold the slopes and even the hot cocoa with our amazing home-school pals.

Recovery & a Fresh Start

2010-02-03T09:50:00.002-05:00

In the aftermath of my badly needed Hernia Repair Surgury, we Engaged in a new form of Homeschooling I like to call Couch-Schooling, wherein all questions and guidance must be directed toward my immobile position on the couch, where I sat armed with my coffee, a timer & our schedule. It seemed to go so well that I have decided to, at a minimum spend our minimum reading time each day perched on the couch alongside James reading while he reads. This slight adjustment in our plans has lead to an unexpected new level of peace and contentment on my part and a shared joy of quiet reading with James.

I have reluctantly shifted back into more structure, as James seems to really like having a defined, structured schedule from day to day, we worked together to help set up when he thought each type of learning should take place in any given day & we both seem to be liking it a lot!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T11:58:00.002-05:00

Wild Fun, Joy and excitement.

We celebrated our own new Holiday: Evolumas with so much new joy and a sense of real ownership! We made our very own red "evolumas" tree and designed or own "Thoughtful Evolumas" cards. We shared gifts we were glad to know came from each of us through hard work, careful thought and love, instead of giving all the credit to an autonomous fat man in a red suit, whose virtue is magic.

We are also excited to be able to share with some friends their celebration of Kwanza.

We just love celebrating this beautiful season. All the cold and snow makes us want to be together more.

We also Rang in our new year with our family's traditional meal of Sauerkraut, Kielbasa & Mashed Potatoes & a toast to the ball drop in Time Square with sparkling white grape juice.

Here's to a Fabulous, Thankful & Joyous 2010!

holidays means distractions

2009-12-01T11:20:00.010-05:00

halloween, thanksgiving, x-mas like festivities are all swirling around our house and our minds... keeping us distracted... here are some photos:

The Fabulous Ann showed us how to make Potions!

We made Tin Can Lantern together for Kidtopia

James went as one of his favorite video game characters for Halloween: Sora from Kingdom Hearts

We performed Candy Experiments with some of our overflow booty!

James worked hard on his new Hydrogen Fueled car, which he got as a birthday gift

James also LOVED playing with this fabulous Robot which the Ever Craftastic Taffy sent him for his birthday

Halloween!

2009-10-23T09:34:00.004-04:00

James and I have had so many wonderful Fall and Halloween adventures already and Halloween is a full week away. We picked ourselves a half bushel of beautiful Golden Delicious apples @ Wassems Fruit Farm.

We attended a Splendid costume birthday party & James Create the most wonderful Frankenstein to decorate our door. He is Life size and magnificent. I have never been so glad to have allowed him to skip the leaf craft as I have this year, his creative juices got going and look what he made!

I've really been enjoying the onset of Fall, the weather turned a bit nicer, warm if a bit rainy and it is just right for a smooth transition of seasons.

Being Reminded

2009-10-13T09:44:00.006-04:00

My dear friend Melba posted a blog about the gift of parenting the other day, when I read it this morning, it gave me such a burst of recognition about what a wild whirl wind journey we've really been gifted with as parents. For all the bumps, hard knocks and questioning our own every move, we really are on the greatest ride on earth!

The more my boy lives his life like he means it, and learns more about who he really is and embraces that the more I learn how to do it too.

This morning we indulged in a little Metal & made Pumpkin Pancakes & home made Applesauce, and Played more of our amazing new video game, we had Fun and are learning in spite of ourselves.

In trying to take a more Unschooly road we've hit many a bump along the way. Mostly me, I have a lot of trouble letting go and having faith in the process, regardless of the research and the anecdotal evidence to suggest that it is the best path, at least for us.

The other day I realized that there was a way for me to give more freedom while still calming my fears about running too wild, I sat down and compiled a list for James, it turned out to be 2 columns and almost three pages of activities, games, etc that I feel totally confident about letting him do freely. I typed the list up in a font that is very simple and large enough, with enough spacing to make it easily readable, and I can just reference the list if we ever find ourselves in a lul. I am also allowing my self to impose minimums of certain subjects, Reading, Writing & Math (as they play a major role in the future ability to educate oneself), and time limits for any given activity, so we move around and change our perspective from time to time.

I'm certainly no Radical Unschooler, we have just enough structure and just enough freedom to keep us both loving or life together and learning new and exiting things all the time.

I am so in love with our new game: ScrribleNauts... it is so amazing, we all love this game & actually bargin for more time on the little Nintendo DS. This game consists of one little guy Melvin, who goes around to different situations, worlds, levels, and has to solve various problems to get this little "starite" the great catch is that he gets to use whatever tools, people, vehicles, etc you can think of, that right ANYTHING you want, you just type or write it in and it magically appears. Everyone should check this game out it is Amazing!

The Bounty of this Unschooly Life

2009-10-12T13:04:00.004-04:00

I'm living in Gratitude and Joy today, and it is such a wonderful experience. I really feel like I need to revel in it. So many times I find myself all complaints and confusions, or insecurities about whether or not I am doing the right thing, but right here and right now, I know beyond any shadow of any doubt that we are in the right place and doing the best thing we can be doing for us. Our teeny tiny house just feel filled to the brim with joy and comfort and good things.

A few of those good things:

6 homegrown pumpkins + 1 Cider Mill pumpkin

1 Hot cup of coffee

1 Sleepy dog & 1 Perfect little boy playing a new game called ScribbleNauts (which the whole family has become obsessed with)

This is how we Shine

Food, Friends & Fowl

2009-10-12T09:03:00.003-04:00

James and I absolutely love our adventures with our Home Schooling friends. Over the last year we've become so much closer with so many wonderful people. It's high time for me to celebrate! I just don't know where we'd be without them. They are such an amazing support & so much Fun too.

Over the summer, we spent many a day at the lake enjoying our friends, We went for a fabulous fishing trip organized by the excellent rangers at the Hudson Mills Park.

We got together to make our wonderful craft aprons for Kidtopia, We all had such a Blast decorating them with fabric paints!

And with all of this exciting socializing, James occasionally needs to retreat into the simple and peaceful interactions between him and our doves.

We have feasted the past few weeks on comfort food, from Lasagna to Swedish Meatballs.

With the Frost and Freeze of winter finally on its way here we had to harvest our Pumpkins and found to our Joy that we have 6 good sized pumpkins. James also brought home a little orange pumpkin from his dad's house this weekend. We are so Excited about Halloween this year!

Life is just so full of good things for us right now, and focusing there has been the blessing we've been able to give one another.

4H, Homemade Pita Bread & Ants

2009-10-04T21:11:00.003-04:00

One very recent development in the journey of life James & I have been sharing, is our increased level of involvement with our county's 4H group.Our local homeschool play group became 4H affiliated about this time last year, and I suppose that's a large part of what got the ball rolling, although to be honest I've been very interested in 4H since I was in Middle & High School. You see I grew up in a small mostly rural town where 4H played a major role in many people's lives & the 4H fair was always a fun time. I was always on the outside looking in though and had deep seeded jealousy.

My dad became a certified 4H volunteer a few years back, so when the leaders of our homeschool group asked if I'd be willing to get certified as an official 4H volunteer, how could I pass it up?This past Friday was my training and interview, (which i passed by the way) I have a tendency to answer a question with a story, and so in response to one of the questions, i can't remember which I told the story f the day, just this past week or so, of how it was that James and I started our day making Pita bread from scratch and ended up ordering ants for the ant farm from the internet. This is one of many reasons I love homeschooling, our learning has a life of its own and we just run around chasing it, trying to keep up.

James did almost all of the work on the pita bread himself, while watching a video tutorial on YouTube & later that week when the ants arrived we dropped them into their bizarre gelatinous environment and they started digging almost immediately. We learned that the gel ant farms were developed by NASA so that they could study ants in space, apparently all of the G-forces, and jostling of take-off would always crush their little sand tunnels. We've been delighted to be able to watch them continue to build and connect their tunnels and build rooms, it's really an amazing feat!

The Strange and Beautiful Reality of Fall in Michigan

2009-10-03T09:01:00.007-04:00

so what if the berries weren't to be had on Monday, because in Michigan the bounty rebounds & on Wednesday at a glorious berry farm a touch closer to home we found the bushes laden with berries and the rains had subsided.

James and I picked a quart each of amber and red raspberries, in the end we chose to combine them into one big heap of jam for this winter. As it turns out the amber berries didn't hold up for the one day of refrigeration before we were able to spare a bit of time to make the jam, so the vast majority of them had to be trashed.

The mysteries of harvesting and preserving our own local food has been enough to keep us riveted to the changing weather reports and making multiple trips to the local Meijer for more supplies.

To tell the truth I think James is beginning to tire of the whole process but I am truly addicted and mystified.

Maybe I'll learn enough this year to really be prepared for next, here's hoping.

Autumn Srtikes Back

2009-09-28T17:07:00.006-04:00

does anyone other than me remember the chilly snap we had a few weeks ago, before the most recent Heat Wave. We made the decision to take out our window air conditioning units early as we were convinced fall was descending early... only to be smacked upside the head by an unimaginably warm First Day of Fall... well autumn is here for real, and let me tell you She Means Business!

After so many days of us checking the weather report and postponing this activity or that because of a gloomy forecast, we've stopped paying attention, well we pay enough attention to bring back up gear, but not enough to let it keep us indoors. Today was one of those rare days when the weather forecast was right on target. We gathered Raspberries, but no Apples at Wasem Fruit Farm we plan to go back for those darned apples soon though. We got wind whipped soaked to our toe bones and well we wound up heading in way early!

We did get some raspberries however and Kate & I whipped up some deeeelicious raspberry jam. The kids got doughnuts & I was able to bring home a big ol' Jug o' Cider.

Definitely not a wasted winds-day, but a tiring one to be sure.

apple orchards and halloween party planning

2009-09-27T17:40:00.004-04:00

for me fall seems to be my time of new beginnings, my favorite season and the one in which i embrace new challenges and turn the page on my plans for my life.

This year I've embrace the challenge of participating in the planning of the annual Halloween party at our homeschool play group. I have to admit that i am scared, i am not usually the kind of person to step up to this sort of challenge, but before i even knew what was happening there i was leaning forward and eagerly giving over what little sense I have to stay out of things, and volunteering to plan the party. As far as planning goes I am also realizing that without even meaning to I've set up a twice monthly, learning through craft activity based on the book Kidtopia, by Roberta Gould. I guess I was just so excited by the book and it's prospects for group fun I through my hat right there in the ring, with out a second thought, Go Me! (i think).

We're also off the the Orchard this week for apples and raspberries. My new skill this year (aside form leadership & volunteerism) is canning, so I hope to be able to pull enough raspberries to whip up some jam, we've been eating a lot of pb&j around here lately & every penny counts.

Photos of our wild fruit picking adventures to follow... wish us a bountiful harvest

Banned Books Week Starts Today!

2009-09-26T09:23:00.006-04:00

Read as though your life depended upon it... Because in so many ways it does.

Freedom of Press and Expression are held in the highest esteem in my home, to the extent that literature and music that offends me also fall into the category of things I am willing to protect with immense fervor.

Having been raised with a great deal of "protection from" in a "sheltered" home I know all to well the dangers that suppression of information can have on a developing mind. Not to mention that, as a homeschooler I am of a mind that when it comes to censorship, the only entity it is right and just to give that power to is the parent of any given child the Government and other broader entities have no place in it.

The novel, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood sheds great light on the dangers of such suppression it is a highly recommended read, and would be an excellent undertaking in support of Banned Books Week, in my humble opinion.

Click Here for more info from the American Library Association about Ideas, Events, and Promotional materials for Banned Books Week: Sept 26 - Oct 3

In Fact Spend your Whole Week visiting some of these amazing and sometime saddening links:

A Fabulous Puppet Masterpiece on the topic, good for the little ones, I know I'll be watching it with mine on Monday

A Tell-Tale map of attempts to ban books in the US as a Michigander I was admittedly saddened by all those little blue dots on my home state.

Now, I know many potential readers are homeschoolers, but the information can be helpful to all of us, this is a link to the Book Censorship Toolkit from the Kids Right To Read Project

I'm still trying to figure out how to upload the list of "Books Challenged or Banned in 2007-2008" to my blog for your reading pleasure, will update if possible, but for now i think it can be found here, at the ALA website

Our Little Cabin In The Woods

2009-09-23T09:55:00.012-04:00

This summer marked the first time, in the 9 or so years that we've been a cohesive family unit, that we all went camping together. We had somehow never managed to all go camping at the same time... so this Summer we were determined to do it! We decided to try Cabin camping, which is something none of us had done before, at least not like this, and it was one wild and fun adventure.

We didn't quite realize how far from civilization the cabin really was, we sort of thought it would be somewhere near or in another campground, near other campers, little did we know....

we were positioned smack dab in the middle of 2 campgrounds which were each an equally daunting drive away... on curvy dusty back roads... we actually managed to get ourselves lost a few times driving around looking for firewood & water... both of which we thought would be within walking distance of our camp... not so. I don't want you to get me wrong, I am in no way complaining, aside from James' minor disappointment in the fact that this camping trip involved no swimming, we had the best of times, mainly due to the fact that we were So Far from Anybody else.

James picked up a skill for whittling wood & Jason proved to be quite the "Lumber Jack"

All this beauty and wonder was only about an hour's drive from our little home & seemed a world away, we toured the floating Bog & spent endless hours just sharing in eachother's company. I was able to wake significantly before the guys to enjoy some excellent alone time with the fire, which was our main form of entertainment. All in all it was a little slice of heaven on earth we can't wait for more camping adventures next year!

101 way to spce up home schooling

2009-09-22T21:33:00.002-04:00

I love love love me some savory goodness...

have a look @ this website: Bringing Up Learners

just sayin'...

Better Late than never....

2009-09-22T10:54:00.003-04:00

I've been awarded!

Kate @ Wading Through My Head awarded me the Honest Scrap Award.
It is now left to me to confess ten honest things about myself & pass the award on to "a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.”

#1) I really should be doing the dishes right now... not blogging

#2) I love love love the life i am blessed to be living & am afraid, embarrassed, feel guilty to admit it

#3) I was raised very religiously and by a system that puts a lot of faith in traditional education, maybe that's where all the guilt comes in

#4) I work hard to project confidence due mainly to a significant lack of it

#5) I have not "created" in a long enough time, that i am afraid i'm becoming rusty

#6) I waste enough time on the computer that i very well could be "creating" i just don't want to admit that

#7) I am not domestic

#8) If left purely to my own devices I would probably self destruct, by way of caffeine, nicotine, and obesity, this is probably the only place that my childhood indoctrination serves me well

#9) When I conjure up an image of a devine being, "god" if you will she is a very large African woman, who teaches me in gentle sing song ways and loves me because of, not in spite of my faults

#10) I could not have consciously known that my husband, my partner in life would be the most amazingly perfect fit for me, yet by some chance or fate it happened, and the reasons he is so perfect are very much the reasons I imagine god the way I do

and now on with the awards!

Melba! photomelba.blogspot.com

HomeschoolSyd getin-buckleup-holdon.blogspot.com

Anne Ohman enjoyforalliswell.blogspot.com

the year in review

2009-09-22T10:43:00.005-04:00

i just plain can't seem to want to blog consistently, but i'm reaching a place of serious acceptance about it.

it's probably been something like a year or at least 6mos, since the last attempted post. and life is smoothing out around the edges really nicely.

James has read his way through enough comic books that it's no longer a craze, more of an enjoyable pass-time, reading?!? an enjoyable pass-time? I know right? I'm so thrilled. He's currently reading Love That Dog, a novel in poem form & we're listening to Wolf Brother, by audio book, we've just finished the My Side of the Mountain series by audio book. Our scientific discoveries have lead us into: Human Anatomy, Cray-fish Studies, Entomology & "Mythbusters" Our Social Studies still hinges on Social Justice & James has added Zombie Relations, which is endlessly amusing.

I learned to can this year which has kept me more busy than i'd like to admit & I recently discovered that I have a Hernia, whom I've knick named "Ms. McGillicuddy" and will have surgery @ some point this year to correct.

Jason's almost finished his master's in Mathematics! Hooray!

and we sally forth in our journey...

Comic book Reading Curriculum

2009-04-10T08:37:00.004-04:00

for the last two weeks we've implemented our new "comic book" reading curriculum. In which we ride the bus down to the Vault of Midnight, on Main & James is allowed to pick out whatever comic books he wants (we will limit it to 30/mo max, if we need to). Two mondays ago was our first tirp and it was Amazing!!! we had a beautiful bus ride & a grand time browsing and selecting just the right Comics. James is so Very Obsessed with Sonic right now. We decide to take our new reads over to the Fleetwood for a snack & were lucky enough to run into our dear friend Melissa who works the Morning shift on Mondays. We had a delicious snack, James had cheese fries & I had a heaping pile of Hippie hash... I'm drooling just thinking about it now :) & James read from his new books. We also got meet a few very interesting characters in the Fleetwood & on the bus. We stopped into the 826 Michigan's Robot Repair Shop on our way back to the bus & I bought a book of compiled short stories and poetry by Ann Arbor writers, Unsquared it is very very good...

We've also explored & not yet had success with the art of Taffy making, but we will press on.

I was blind sided by a terrible cold last weekend and part of this week, so it was a little slower going, but James never ceases to amaze me with his endless curiosity, and adventurous spirit. He and "Tattoo" are exploring the Botanical Gardens "off trail" (secret places) as I write.

UofM Dearborn EIC

2009-02-01T14:08:00.008-05:00

we've been participating in a wonderful monthly class/program that the UofM Dearborn runs from their Environmental Interpretive Center. The "class" basically consists of an anticipatory conversation with a multi-aged group of home school kids, and then a hike , no matter the weather for about 1-2 hours in the Ford property out back followed by an indoor discussion of what we found, we even got to use these crazy huge microscope things on one of the adventures....

We've really enjoyed the class and have covered topics like: Tree Identification, in which we discussed and discovered different bark textures and colors, and types, and types of branches and leaves and leave configuration... On our first trip we learned about the structure of forests, even that forests of different ages have various structures that can help you identify how old a forest might be, we learned about canopies and what kinds of animals might live in which canopy and why...

We also got to drudge the pond to look for insects, we found so many different kinds, it was amazing! We really enjoy the outdoors so this class has been right up our alley, we've only missed one so far, and it was due to my illness, not the weather... we plan to keep going every third Monday until the session ends.

my learning...

2009-01-31T11:52:00.004-05:00

so the journey continues, and i know that the purpose of the journey is learning i just didn’t quite realize how much of that learning would be going on in my own head and heart. when it began i believed that the journey was for me to “facilitate” or even “teach” but the more i know, the more i know i don’t know... and i suppose that is how one becomes wise.

a friend of mine and sage, who has been down the road i am traveling, many years before me is always trying to remind me that the whole mad whirlwind of living life is for the purpose of mystery, curiosity, joy, rambling and sucking all the juice from the peach and maybe even gnawing on the pit...

and my littlest sage is sharing the same message with me day in and day out... whenever i get too too overwhelmed with external notions about “good enough” and “teaching” and who knows what all else he just rolls his little eyes and sighs a big sigh... his secret message to me that it is o.k. to let loose and live, and allow us both the freedom to learn that got us going down this road in the first place.

and then the real magic happens and i begin to realize that the more we LET learning happen, instead of trying to MAKE it happen, the more learning we can do, and these days i think i’m the one learning the most... who could’ve guessed? i certainly couldn’t have.

steping back from steping back

2009-01-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

homeschooling has been good, great even this past few months... I have not been bloging, or myspacing or facebooking, or etsying, or any of it... for a while, I had a need to "hunker down" and take some time away from my on-line activities and pour myself into other matters... but i'm back and ready to blog... all about our path forward.... after the birthday party, the dishes, and at least one load of laundry... then the blogging will comence :)

detroit news about homeschooling

2008-09-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

I just want to share this really informative article from The Detroit News...

I really appreciate the attention paid to non-religious homeschoolers:

School of choice: Parents opt to teach kids at home for growing list of reasons
Candice Williams and Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News

LAKE ORION -- Lake Orion resident Sydney Forsythe wasn't pleased with how her son Noah, 8, who is developmentally delayed, was moved between mainstream and special education classes in public school. So she brought him home to teach him herself.

"He doesn't fit into the special ed cookie cutter, but at the same time he certainly doesn't fit into the mainstream cookie cutter," she said. "There's no in-between, and he started regressing. The teachers do what they can, within reason, but with budget restrictions in the district there is only so much they can provide.".....

for the rest of the article click here

jen

opening day

2008-09-10T11:56:00.000-04:00

I am a 29yr old mom living in a college town doing my best to keep the hatches buttoned down...

my 9 1/2yr old son is one of the rowdiest most rambunctious little guys I've ever met and needs a little help with reading. He like his math & science and will do just about anything to get out and run around and DO something, he also adores his video games... we try to strike a balance :)

I work part time at a nearby community college and my husband teaches there full time, while simultaneously working on his master's degree...

we've got our little life filled just about up to the gills so...

here we are opening a new chapter, the start of a new school year well enough under way for a blog about it...

this blog will be dedicated to our homeschool journey

jen