My kids are teaching me the "un" in schooling...

For those of you unschoolers out there--now I'm not what I'd call an unschooler, quite yet, LOL, but the more I head towards that path, the more I see it working! We've not done official "book learning" in quite a while, but Mallory is on the write on/wipe off board doing multiplication! We've talked about real life multiplication, this morning it came up when we were talking about how Koala's spend 3/4ths of their lives sleeping. I said "so in one day, they sleep..." and Mall interjected "about 20 hours!". My initial instinct was to correct her to 18, I bit my tongue and said "well, it would be 3 groups of 6", and she replied that "18 is about 20, Mommy!", then proceeded to start on the white board with multiplication problems. The greatest part of this? She's announced to me "wow! I'm really really good at this!" This is an age where a large percentage of girls decide they hate math and are not good at it all; I'm loving every moment of this and am so glad to be homeschooling.

Dinosaur Lapbook!

We actually completed something, whoa, I'm feeling a little dizzy, hold on. Okay, so, we finished a whole lapbook! Zachary did his on dinosaurs, it started small and sure got big, he kept wanting to add things, it wasn't me I swear! ;) Okay, maybe some things were me, but mostly it was him. He is so proud, and me too! Here we go.....

(more pictures to come, having some technical difficulties) Oh, and Zachary took most of the pictures, too!

****here's the link to flikr, where you can view it as a slideshow http://www.flickr.com/photos/26441006@N02/

Front cover

Inside first front flap, is the dino joke book, reptiles tbook, terrible lizard homemade book by Zach, 2 matchbooks

the joke flap book

Reptile "T" book

The blue book was designed by Zach, it has an egg on one page, a baby dinosaur hatched out next, and a grown dinosaur next.

Under the other top other side is a wheel book, dino adjectives, dinoland popup, dinosaur world map (with tabs for continents), and how big were the dinosaurs graph.

Next is under the dino world map side, we attached another folder, with Zach's own dino drawing (an herbivore with a hat) and the Head Games book (read clues, find the right dino head)

Inside the Head Games book

The back cover

Awakening

I just couldn't sleep this morning, too much on my mind that even medicine couldn't quiet, and finally got up at 4:25am. Its such an inspiring time of day to be awake. There's a quiet and stillness in the house. Outside, the world around has just awoken, too, but is so busy already. I love the sounds of the birds, beginning their day, chirping their hello's and warnings to each other, sounds of the branches and leaves moving as they hurry with their work. There's a smell in the air before the sun comes up, its a sweet smell, and so fresh, I feel like I can actually smell the anticipation of a new day. Watching as the sun began to come up again reminds me that each day will come, each with new promise and hope, each with the chance to be thankful for all that I do have.


Now, if I could just get up like this every day! Usually its "Mommy come downstairs and make my oatmeal" or "Mommy can I watch tv til you come down" or "Linda where's my keys" or "Mama can I go to the gym if I get 'abc' done" or, wait, I can't come up with something for Dylan because he is a very quiet, undisturbing morning person. Hey, I don't disturb anyone when I wake up, what's the deal? I should go wake all their little toosh's up...nah, I try not to be masochistic. ;) Good morning, get outside and enjoy today!

PS Please don't call here around 1 this afternoon, I'll be napping.... ;)

My Shiny Sink!

baby steps baby steps...but its happening more and more. Actually have a tablecloth on the table, woo hoo, coming along. Now its timeto get off the computer and do some more flying. Okay, how funny is that, I'm so not flying, I'm fluttering--nah, I'm sputtering. and now I'll go empty the full of dirty dishes sink. Yea, I'm doing, reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal goooooooooooood.

I love homeschool....

The kids were watching "Meet the Robinsons", and there was a scene where the kid told Louis to fix the time machine. Zachary said "Dylan, do you think I could make something like that?", and Dylan said "yea, actually, I do!" (Dylan is convinced that Zach is going to invent amazing things and be like Ben Franklin or Einstein), so Zachary went over to the Legos, went to work and built his version of what was in the movie. Its all about confidence, isn't it, and having people believe in you. I don't see the problem with kids being believed in all the time, why is that a problem for those against homeschooling? Sorry, I don't want my kids to have that one teacher that tells them they'll never amount to anything. If its going to be said to them, well heck, let it be done by me! hahahahahahahahaha...just kidding of course. of course.