Today we awoke to the dreariness of the rain that drizzled down the window panes. Sigh. Days like this just seem to emit a state of lethargy. Not one of the boys really wanted to go to camp today, but particularly Mr. Colby. 

As I pulled up to drop them off, Clark had that pained look on his face and Colby wouldn’t budge from his spot in the back of the van. He had made up his mind, he was NOT going to camp today. I managed to get Clark into the gym and with a counselor. He just plopped down on the floor all limp and defeated. Accepting that fate was indeed decided for him. But, Colby, well he stuck to the determination he had had from the get go and my heart relented. After all who wants to drag a reluctant weary 6 year old to camp, when really he did not ‘have’ to be there, and could just come home and rest. 

So off I drove homebound with one extra passenger, and as I peered through my rear view mirror all I could see was one squinty eyed weary little boy. Now I knew I should have trusted his need to be home today. When we arrived at home, I seized the opportunity that the day could hold for Colby, Christian and I. I began to consider what we could do with our day. An idea began to dawn on me that this would be the day we finally got to go to the craft store. Colby adores art projects. He has done one every day at camp. And every day when I pick him up, he is thrilled to show off his handiwork of the day. No sooner does he show me his created treasure then it becomes broken in some form or fashion and a little boys heart is crushed to pieces right along with his beloved artwork. SO, this would be the day of art redemption for the little man I thought. We will go to the craft store and purchase many wonderful projects, that WILL NOT break!!! 

As poorly as Colby was feeling, he perked up as we meandered down the craft aisles. Perusing the many opportunities for creativity to flow, he managed to pick out several options with which to head on home and let the creating begin. On the car ride home he chattered ceaselessly of how he may or may not paint his new project this or that color and other such ideas as they came to him. I just delighted in hearing his creative juices stirring. 

Once home we decided to wait for Christian to go to bed before delving into the potential mess and hazards of tiny beads with a toddler around. Besides Colby felt the need to lay down on the couch and realized his stomach was troubling him quite a bit. I decided to maximize on this down time with my boy and suggested I read to him. It took me mentioning at least 10 different books before he agreed eagerly to “My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannet. So onto the couch I plopped book in hand and read the morning away to my poor pathetic ’sick’ little soul of a son. 

Now he lays sprawled out upon the couch slightly snoring away. This boy of mine has always known to take it easy when he feels out of sorts and he has always been a fast recoverer. And so, I sit here admiring the child as he rests, thankful for the chance to focus my love and affection on him in a more direct way than normal. Blessed to be together and looking forward to what the rest of today will bring.

It’s been awhile since I have posted here. Summer has been slow and lazy, yet bustling and busy as well. Caleb, Colby and Clark have been enjoying summer camp at the Y. They will have a total of 7 weeks of camp. Caleb’s favorite part has been the social aspect and the swimming. Colby’s favorite part has been, I think his art projects. And for Clark, I am not sure but I think he enjoys the singing, cause he is always singing the camp songs at home. It has been a good experience for all 3 of them. 

One thing to note, Caleb just finished his first book of the summer. Oy!  ”The Black Cauldron.”  He is now going to read “Stuart Little”  I am hoping to motivate him to read a book a week for the rest of the summer. He is also doing a bit of math practice here and there. 

I am still working on Caleb’s portfolio. Unfortunately I have misplaced much of his writings and several other things I wish I could have to put in his portfolio (which by the way, is extraordinarily late.) Aah! 

I am still on the fence with putting them in school. I am waiting for an interview at Open Connections and to see if we can get into their friendship fund. I am hoping to keep homeschooling, yet to have this option for part of the week would really be a huge blessing. I know we need to be busy more and to balance out our days better. So this looks like an amazing option and opportunity. We shall see………….

Just read a short biography of Thomas Edison to Caleb. I learned that there is a museum , a national historic site, in honor of Edison. It’s located in Northern, New Jersey. I think we just might have to go pay a visit. Here……..

Yesterday, I finally picked up one of the many kid kits so generously provided by our local library. Have I mentioned my secret love affair with the library? I love my library!! Anyway, I got out the bug kit for the boys to explore on this, yet again, rainy morning. All four boys engaged in insect play, counting, naming, and viewing in the little bucket with a magnifier in the lid. I decided to look up their favorites online so they could see real life versions of the bugs. So here are a few they were interested in. The scorpion, the dung beetle, the Goliath Beetle. They lost interest quickly with the bugs and then Colby wanted to look up sea creatures. So we looked up some sea creatures, and found some of the most bizzare creatures, ew! Colby wanted to look at sea horses and Caleb insisted I look up cookie cutter sharks. He seemed to know all about them, from watching a show on Animal Planet. 

Later we will make edible caterpillars, when Daddy gets home, or else I will never get photos of them  

Here is a video of “The Flight of the Bumblebee” – a nice musical addition to our little bug fest!!

I spent some significant time reading on “Joyfully Rejoycing” by Joyce Fetteroll, just yesterday and today. I have read many of her articles before, but I am finding it helpful to keep revisiting. And just today, I realized things are clicking for me on this unschooling adventure more and more. It’s a slow learning process, a journey. I am trying to relax myself as the end of the year is nearing and Caleb will have to be evaluated. What I realized today, is that when Caleb is interested in learning something, he is willing to push for learning it. Like with basketball for example, he was willing to read books on famous basketball players. He was interested in seeing games and observing their moves. He was willing to work hard during his basketball practice at the Y and practice on his own regularly at the neighbors court. It was important to him, and he was and still is willing to take the time to enjoy and learn as much as he can and practice to get better. Now, I am seeing the same things with karate. He really loves it, and is willing to do whatever he is taught in class and work hard at it. Even at home I see him practicing. He even read a book on karate, and then went to Club Penguin to see what order the belts go in, and decorated his room with all karate theme. Or should I say, he created a do jo. (not sure how you spell that.) We even watched all 3 “Karate Kid” movies with him, just before he started his lessons. Yesterday, I asked him if he wanted to keep taking lessons through the summer. He smiled and shook his head. He then told me, “How else will I reach my goal?”  I said, “What’s your goal?”  He said ,”To get a high level black belt.”  Okay, well there you go. He is VERY passionate about this right now, and therefore motivated and driven. 

He is also very interested in the Christopher Paolini trilogy we are reading, and we are now about to start the third one, “Brisingr.”  He is NOT however, interested in the pile of books I picked up at the library. He has no context to be interested in them. I won’t push, but they are there in case, haha…….

I also noticed that when we did the little bit of reading on the astronomy site, he said he’d be more interested in astronomy if he had a telescope. Well, now who wouldn’t? The one time I got to see some planets through a telescope at a party, I was fascinated. Then Keith and I had a date, where we laid in the back yard and watched the meteor showers. That was super cool! It was enough to intrigue me to learn more about astronomy, one day when I get the chance. So I am hoping that we will get to go to the Franklin Institute Observatory soon. 

Caleb is also very interested in History through books, and audio cds and videos, such as “Liberty’s Kids.”  He is NOT however, interested in writing, one single bit. He loathes the idea of writing anything. He has no context for it. He tells me, mom I write stuff to my friends on my computer games. So, that is all the writing he needs right now, and all that he can see the use for writing. And I have to be okay with that. What I am not okay with, is that I have nothing to show at the end of the year to the school district. That makes me mad, because if they decide he’s not getting enough they can say he needs to go into school. Bah! I just pray that doesn’t happen. Oh and math, I have a hard time, seeing the learning he has had on that. How will I log that? I do have some written math stuff for him, but will it be enough to satisfy the school. He is very adept at kinex and legos. He has made some wonderful creations with those. He also watched videos to learn how to solve the Rubix cube, and learned about algorhythms. (not sure how to spell that)  I also played a game with dice with him, to learn powers. He obviously didn’t master these concepts, but he was introduced to them in a real way that makes sense to him now. He simply does not understand the point of long division. I told him, no worries, if you encounter the need for long division ever in your life, you will probably just use a calculator. 

Spelling, however, interests Caleb enough that he will go through lists of words with me and spell them out loud. He doesn’t mind reading a bit about grammar, but really doesn’t see his need for it right now. Nor do I. So we touched on it this year, but only briefly. 

He is very interested in music. This year we discovered “High School Musical” and he has been playing the YouTube videos quite often. He also like to play around with the djembe from time to time. He has told me he wants steel drums. Just yesterday, he picked up the kids guitar we have and made a song up. It sounded mellow. He later told me, he found a new instrument he would like to learn. The guitar. Well, we have got that covered now don’t we. Now Keith has a real context and reason to teach guitar lessons. 

Just some of my thoughts and processing for now. I am beginning to see the unschooling working………..and it’s very rewarding!!!

Today Caleb and I checked out an Astronomy site for a bit. We read about what astronomy is, and reviewed a huge list of famous astronomer’s from history. Galileo being one of them of course. I hope to find a book on him. Anyway, we also read about Pluto, and Jupiter a bit. The cool thing is that Caleb said he’d be more interested in learning all of this if he had a telescope, and a friend just offered me one this week. So hopefully, we will be getting it soon. We also plan to go the Franklin Institute soon and check out the observatory.

I woke up this morning to a darkness, that I could only assume was due to rain. I had to jet out the door to run a few errands, but halted shortly after I took one step out. Brr, it was cold. Funny thing, the past two days we had to run the a.c., thanks to the lovely April heatwave. Strange weather we keep having this year, so fickle. After taking the time to go back in and grab a coat, I headed out to get my supplies for the household, a stop at Starbucks seemed an absolute must on a day like this. 

After returning home from my stops, I took all four eager boys to the library to stock up on movies. Today would most definitely be a movie day. Caleb chose to run up to the library and meet us there. So we headed down the street, around the corner and the next corner, down the street around the corner and the next corner to park. It’s only a block from the house, but I didn’t want to walk up and back with the boys in the cold wet weather. We headed in to make our selections. Each boy making the choice of his viewing pleasure. Christian quickly found the toys and made himself busy. I searched the shelves to see if they had “Brisingr”, as we are nearing the end of “Eldest”. They didn’t so I made sure to ask for it at the desk and had it put it on hold. Can’t wait!! After our goal was reached we all piled back into the car and headed the short distance home. Once home, Christian and Clark plopped down in front of Teletubbies, while Caleb and Colby cleaned the basement.

I am not sure how much of the day went from there. The basic cleaning up, feeding everyone, sibling squabbles and various activities ensued. Caleb spent some time on Club Penguin. Colby took some time to create a necklace, while daddy had the littler two out of the house. The only safe time to do a craft of that nature. Caleb and I read a bit of “Eldest”, it just keeps getting better and better. Christian actually took an amazing nap. Clark spent time with the Mighty Mind tiles, with much requested assitance from me. Colby read aloud a page or two of  ”Phonics Pathways” to me. Popcorn was made twice. Caleb and Colby went out to shoot hoops for a bit in the neighbors driveway. I spent some time on and off reading my new John Holt books I had just picked up at the library. The boys watched “Air Buddies” twice. 

Now I am just taking some time to record our happenings whilst getting dinner ready. I am in a dreamy mood. Longing to make some of our dreams and plans come to fruition, but feeling like they are a long way off. So, I remind myself, to just enjoy the moment and take life one day at a time!!

Recently I picked up a Liberty’s Kids dvd. I was thrilled to find it. I also then found the whole series of the show being sold on Amazon for around $45 or so. I am definitely going to purchase them when I get some extra money. So, today Caleb and I watched them together. A wonderful way to learn some good ole American history.

Today, I didn’t fret over what the kids did or didn’t do. It flowed. Easy and free. Peaceful even. Peaceful in the sense that nothing was missing, nothing was broken. So surely I didn’t need to fix anything by being sergeant ‘teacher’ mom. Nope, just a fabulous Friday. We all got up slowly one by one. Eeked our way down for the day. Clark was up first, since he had gone to bed first, 6pm to be exact. And since he never maps anymore, I was happy to see him catch up on some z’s. I can’t remember the sequence of events after that. I do remember that I had yogurt with granola, and Clark had a larabar, applesauce and half a bagel. Seems his appetite is kicking back in. Keith had given the 3 older boys their allowance the night before, so the big thing on the boys mind right off the bat was what they were going to spend it on. They all decided they wanted Club Penguin memeberships. I had to encourage them to start with the one month membership so they’d have money left over. Especially since funds are tight and I can’t promise them when, nor how much money they will be getting in the future. So we had a leisurely morning. Caleb and I worked through the 5th grade spelling list we found online. He seems to enjoy spelling out loud. So we do it from time to time, just working through the list. Crossing off the ones he knows and saving the ones he doesn’t to review again. I find it amazing that most of the words he knows by sight from reading in books. Teach them how to read and then they will inevitably learn the logistics of writing, grammar, spelling and so forth. I personally would much rather let nature takes it’s course before sitting down and doing tedious amounts of grammar lessons. Blech. Caleb and I have indeed reviewed some grammar, but outside the context of real writing, it just doesn’t make any sense. He didn’t mind reviewing some this year, nor did I. But I think we are both happy to not inundate ourselves with such boredom. Anyhow, I also showed him a video on long division. He says that just doesn’t make any sense. I think he really means, that just doesn’t mean anything to me. I can’t honestly tell you, when the last time I needed long division was. Seriously. And most likely if I needed to do it, I used a calculator. Duh!! Okay so back to our day…….Colby and I are reading through Phonics Pathways and he really likes it. He feels very satisfied that he can read so many words and picks it up so quickly. He has been really learning to identify words on his own up until now and I encouraged him over the past few months in various ways in his learning to read. We played games on the computer on Starfall. He would read words to me on and off just out and about in daily life. So I finally got keen on trying Phonics Pathways. So far we are both enjoying a few minutes a day of him honing in on this new passion and skill. 

When Keith got home from his running around, the boys and I headed over to CVS to purchase their Club Penguin memberships. Each boy marched up to the counter with money in hand to make their purchase, it was So precious. Caleb had to lend Clark a dollar because he didn’t have enough. I was proud of him for that. So then we headed home and they were all quite eager to sign in and set up their domains. They spent much of the day one by one, playing on Club Penguin. As soon as we got home, and since Keith was working from home, I took Christian and walked up to the tot lot. Just he and I. A little date. Very sweet. He is quite the independent little guy that is for sure. He had so much fun going down the slide and around to the part where you climb up and walk through the little play thingy (?). Everytime he ran past me, he’d say, “Hi mommy”, with such glee. I just stood there and watched my boy having fun, and of course did a bit of people watching as well. Then when it was time to go, I said let’s go home and get a pop pop pop. He marched right to the gate and took my finger and we walked hand in finger all the way home. 

Caleb has been very interested in basketball lately. I am not sure what initiated the interest. Perhaps he just got into it on his own and various things have fueled his interest since then. Such as “High School Musical” and “Like Mike.”  I also recently got him two books about Michael Jordan and he has read them with great interest and wants to go shoot hoops at Jake’s as soon as he’s done reading. So of course today being the gorgeous day that it was, he wanted to go shoot hoops for awhile. 

The boys enjoyed the rest of the fudge we made this week. Colby enjoys making one thing out of his “Sweet Treats” cookbook every week, and this week was Rocky Road Fudge. The boys really liked it. (Not me, thankfully, that way it wasn’t a temptation.) 

Clark continues to carry on strong in the potty going. He is doing so great and it’s so much fun to watch him learn this new skill. It’s not stressful at all. Nor should it be. I am so relieved in a way, because I was tired of people making comments regarding the fact that he wasn’t yet trained. I knew he would do it when he was ready. Just like Colby did. I certainly did not want to relive what I went through with Caleb, which was my own doing. He gets a lollipop every time he goes and the boys are having fun seeing what they can do to get a lollipop. Ha ha. I am having fun too!! 

Most of the afternoon the boys wanted to be outside. When Keith got home after his second trip out, I took the older three boys over to the playground with Jake for a bit. It was so blissful!! Clark swang on the swing with me on my lap, face to face. We swung high. We bonked heads and laughed and laughed. We swung with flips in our tummies, I just love that!! We had a delightful time together. Laughing, playing and chatting. I even played squish the lemon and spun myself on the swirly things. 

It was a mellow day all in all. I just love my boys. I love when they are happy and enjoying life. Learning through the day to day, moment to moment. I just love that!! We had a nice dinner, I actually cooked. Pork, rib meat, and corn bread muffins, as well as green beans. That was nice for a change, a sit down dinner all together!! 

Evening came and all the boys bathed and it was time to hit the hay. I don’t think anyone wanted the day to end except for me. It took awhile for them to all calm down, but they are all tucked in and quiet. And here I sit tapping away on the keys, recounting our day. What a pleasure!! I hope I take the time to do this more often. 

Oh one thing I really want to remember, was that Colby asked me for a double light saver for his birthday. He also wants to wear black pants and a black shirt and a black cape and he will look like Darth Maul. He was very excited about this idea, so I hope I can oblige him, maybe even sooner than his birthday, since the idea is hot now!~!

Anyway, sweet dreams!!

“Online Activities for Kids. Projects for school extra credit, or just plain fun!” by Preston Gralla

This book has lots of cool ideas in it. I know I won’t use them all, but I like the info. and the links and thinking outside the box. 

I found one activity that we may do, called “Who wants to be a millionare”, and the site they use is, www.moneyopolis.com. I will definitely check it out. 

Another one of the projects is called “Poetry Showcase” – go to  http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/scramble.htm

And also www.shakespeare.com/Poetry/  - here you will find a group of words that Shakespeare used to write his plays and poetry. Use the words to write a poem in the same way that you wrote your other poems. Title it in and write it in your poetry notebook. To write another poem, click the ROLL THE DICE on the left hand side of the page and a new set of words will appear. For more poetry practice, go to www.bbc.co.uk/education/listenandwrite/ – run by the BBC. Here you will learn many different ways to write poetry, such as using similes, and even writing raps. Click on a section, such as WORLD OF WONDER WORDS and follow the directions for writing different poems. After you’ve written a poem, title it and write it in your poetry notebook. You can also send your finished poems to the web site and they may be posted in their “Showcase” section. Check out the poems by other kids in the Showcase.

There are more activities that look interesting to me, I may post about later. But, mainly I just wanted to post about the book, so I will check it out again sometime.