Pile of Doubt

As an unschooler, sometimes do ya feel as though no one @ your house has done much lately? I know when I feel this way all I have to do is really think about what we have done. I mean, I know I have this blog and I started it with the purpose of maintaining a record of what we do. It has really turned into more of a photo album, which I don't mind but maybe I need to occasionally write something about what we actually do around here!

So we called Aunt Jessie today to tell her Happy Birthday! and she asked us what we did today. I went on to say it ended up being game day. We played Set, Blokus, Blink, Crazy 8's, & a bit of Monopoly. Niki painted a lovely picture (picture to come) and we of course jumped on the trampoline, played crash car derby with the new cars Daddy brought home, and went to the store to get some new board games. Bc, yes just as with the books, once we played all the games Niki deems fun in one day, we decided we need more games. @ the store Niki found some pirate garb, toy swords, toy guns, and knights shields which she proceeded to play with there in the isle. She fore footed all that booty for a "My Little Pony" doll with bottle and one toy gun. The girl cracks me up. We had to do some budgeting and all the things both of us chose were not in the budget. We split the money I had between the two of us. I got the boys some toy tractors, plastic dress up hats, and a strange tiny plastic horse which you set in water for 72 hours and watch it grow to 600 times it's original size! I also got Parcheesi, Yahtzee, and Uno. These games conjure fun memories for Dom and me as kids, so I thought I would get them to see if we could make some fun memories with our kids. You can see from the comparison that Niki's pony baby she just had to have was a tiny bit expensive.

We came home and checked on our Webkinz and I got online and read her some political satire links I found on one of our group posts. I was excited that she asked me to read it to her until I looked @ her to ask if she understood what I had read only to discover she was asleep! What a day!

So, are we unschoolers? Yes. But with all the talk/reading of late I think I have to add that we practice a child led life style. I think the term unschooling is so vague. We obviously do things all day and I know the babes are learning. Sometimes I just need to put my pile of doubt aside and make sure I am trusting our kids. They know themselves and I always witness what they have learned when I truly let go of expectations. Now time to crawl into my bed and see whose in it tonight.

Deeply and importantly talented

or maybe more like amusingly and superficially talented. Our family does a little bit of everything and this weekend is a clear demonstration of our family doing a little bit of everything. I submit, we are amusingly and superficially talented and I think we like it that way!

The girls played XBox 360-the game is Ghost Recon, the new one, whatever it is numbered. Dom taught them how to work the controls and Mady and Niki are truly having a blast, pun intended.

I know in the boys baby books there was a sticker for "Ate with a spoon!" Everything in our house is a finger food to them, that is until now. They are using utensils now. Why just tonight when we were enjoying our Pomegranate tea, Ezra used his fork! Luke did use his spoon though and once we managed to pry the fork from Ezra's cute little hand, he was happy to use a spoon as well.

My sister and dad built supports for the 4 walls of the future east Texas cabin. Soon after watching the supports being built we watched Mady drive Niki, Luke, and Ezra around on the mower. It was a warm day and I am so thankful we were able to be outside. Our family loves to be outdoors, so being inside on any day is not as fun as being outside.

We also made it to watch the band play this weekend. This was the first time the boys have gone. Ezra examined every move Bill made while he was singing and playing his guitar. Luke seemed slightly overwhelmed but by the end of the night he was running around and dancing.

Mady and I went to hang out @ the bookstore this Saturday for a bit. She found a computer game in which you take care of horses in a stable and we bought a book with some nice illustrations of various animals.

We bought the board game BLOKUS @ a local comic book store. I have only played this game with Mady one time so far but she loves it and best of all Niki is able to play it too. The rules are easy to understand and the pieces are all kinds of neat shapes so it is fun for exploring with. It is a fun strategy game to aid in logic and reasoning. We also found these fun websites this week for mathy stuff. If anyone else has any math suggestions or ideas please pass them on. Math is one of my biggest concerns for Mady. She has struggled with it in PS so I want to make sure she is well prepared.

This week we are going to the Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo and I think we may travel a couple hours north to visit a cotton farm!

Just another day

Mady and Niki played Big Daddy's XBox most of the morning, er, early afternoon, a war game. Dom showed the girls how to play last night and they have been waiting to find there way covertly through the rough terrain and blow stuff up since we made them log off sometime around 2 am.

Ezra and Luke played with blocks and shoes all day. They think it is hilarious to hide from each other and when the seeker has found the hider the hider runs wildly down the hall screaming. The only problem with it today was Ezra felt the need to wear Mady's clogs while playing this little game and kept falling in the hall. He just wouldn't take the shoes off. Once they laid down for a nap I put the shoes away so he wouldn't break his ankle!

Mady and I played Set for a bit tonight. I was beating her pretty badly so she decided she only wanted to play one game. Last night she was all over it, I think she just wanted to be on the computer. Since she was bored with me I let her log onto Club Penguin and play what she wanted. The Set game mysteriously disappeared after I cleaned my room tonight. I thought Mady misplaced it but I think I may have misplaced it!

The plan for tomorrow is to take Mady out for the day. We had another book store gift card to use but it has also been misplaced. I think I have one errand to do then we can go hang out @ the books store and do whatever Mady would like after that. I want to go get another board game!

Here are some pix of the kids playing in cornstarch. These are a few weeks old but I thought the site needed some more pix.