so did the babes.
more snow.
in color, today.
a little drop of food coloring....
gift making-
plates.
you know the ones - you made them in school and then sent them off with your class, and a few weeks later you have a "world's greatest" plate for your Mama. or Grandma.
ours will hopefully be proudly used for Christmas Cookies or some such thing.
holiday cards.
relief art.
stamped art.
more Godzilla mastery.
Trev's been working on wii Godzilla a lot over the last couple of days. A couple of weeks after we got the wii (back in April), he did some research to find out how he could unlock some of the characters. cheats, if you will. i didn't have a problem with it - i figure any kid who has the brains and resources to research online and then remember, copy, and implement such complicated instructions has earned it. :) he played that way for a while, as he got to know the game a little. (have you noticed how dang complicated video game movements are? There are like 50 combo shake/push this button/hold this part to the right/stand on your head, push this buttons three times fast -but not slow!! because that does something else entirely- etc, etc.)
Anyway, he decided that his game wasn't quite the way he wanted (ie not terribly satisfying), so he simply started over from scratch with a New Profile. :) and he's mastering it quite on his own, now.
ain't life grand??
friendly play.
talk with Papa.
bathtime.
Godzilla friendly play.
gumballs.
crazy friendly play.
lol, goes the mama.
"oh, hang on, Trevy," she assures him, "I know what I'm doin'--I can feel you!!"
flashing light saber whack'em play. (that would be Jakub.)
computer play.
chalk and board play.
downstairs post dinner for a little hip-hop dance instruction.
a success, that.
more computer play and some end-of-the-day whooping.
so the day took a decided turn toward the regular.
but "the regular" isnae such a bad thing.
The regular is a really, really good thing!
ReplyDeleteI Love what you all do,how fun!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe kids look like they are having a blast.
?????We are learning that we are unschooling/eclectic style but according to my currciulum book that I look to for directions we should be learning types of rocks but Zachary just likes to collect them he is not wanting to learn the types or names do I just let it go>>>
Blessings
Jamie -
ReplyDeleteWell, if we're talking about unschooling, that depends on if you want the good opinion of your curriculum book or the good opinion of your son, I would say.
I think what you're asking is how to make sure that he is engaged, interested, and learning things.
First let's say this - there are an awful lot of people who could not pick up just any rock in their path and identify it. I would even dare to say 90% of people don't know one rock from another.
But that aside, we haven't studied geology, yet, other than fossils, as prehistory is a big part of our lives.
If this was something I felt strongly about, something important to me and that I thought was imperative for the well-being of my family, I'd handle it in the friendliest way possible.
"Oooh, that's a cool one. It's different than the last one you picked up. D'you spose it's older? Harder?"
I wouldn't force this in a quizzing sort of way, but if I were really interested in the subject and my children learning it with me, then I would be genuinely interested in the rocks, right?
So I'd probably look them up in our book and if I found any interesting facts - "Hey, guess what? This kind is actually really rare! This is one of the few places in the world where this type of rock forms - it's because of that volcano 500 million years ago!" or "Hey - that book is cool, I found out that..."
If he's interested, then relate it to things that he'll find interesting. "This sort of rock was used by the xxx(indigenous people) three thousand years ago to make their tools (houses/bowls) - they did so because it was so hard (soft/smooth/colorful)..."
If it's interesting to you, then by all means share what you learn with him.
If it's interesting to him, then make it fun and fascinating.
If it's boring to him, and boring to you, and something that seems like drudgery and pointless to learn, then why would you put yourselves through that just to pass it off a list? Wait until it is interesting. That seems like a waste of time to me, if no one is interested, no one is going to remember anything about it. It's no different than being in school and "teaching to a test", and we all know how pointless that is.
Either way (if you study it now or not, as interest allows), there is so much value in living and learning joyfully. Choose that!
:)
Stephanie
Thanks for the smile! :) Love seeing your day in pics!
ReplyDeleteYour comment is a blog post in itself :)
ReplyDeleteTo me, it's finding the courage in myself to carry on the way we are.
There are days that I wake up in a panic and think "We need to do maths/ punctuation/ spelling" and I scrabble around putting some thing together. Then I realise that my son is already playing Lemonade Stand on Cool Maths, my daughter is writing a new story and using her dictionary and the other two are busy doing their thing.
So I quietly put away the stuff I've unearthed, switch on the kettle and have a hot drink whilst trying not to feel too stupid.
(This is absolutely true - and although it happens less the more we go on, it does still happen. We've only been doing home school for two years, and unschool for about five months so we're - I'm - still learning.)
I do that, too - but it's more of a need to "engage" than it is a particular subject.
ReplyDeleteI'll stir it up if I feel like we're operating automatically - doing the same things just because we don't want to bother using our heads to come up with something really interesting.
Sometimes that means games that look like math, sometimes it's science, and sometimes it will be a week of Go. (which is sometimes museums, sometimes nature, and sometimes just Out.)
I don't really care (usually) what it is we're learning about, as long as there is a genuine zest for something.
One more thing -
ReplyDeletethat's not to say that I don't get a hankering for things, I might get a mad craving Science!
And then I'll look through our stuff, and try out some things, and bring them to the children.
I don't have a problem with this process, as they're usually interested, and often it will just jumpstart other ideas and interests.
Stephanie,you hit the question.I have no thing for rocks and he doesn't either except he likes to look at them to collect them.Now,when I told him we were going to learn the names of them he said NO WAY,he just likes to collect them.So I left it at that and moved on.I am learning that i haven't been going by the curriculum, I have been looking to see what they are suggesting to teach that day an dI might use it all and add here or there OR totally just do our own thing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for advice