Another Boo!

We made haunted houses today! Actually, Paige made a haunted house and Jonah made the garden shed. I just thought these were so cute. Thank you Grandma Tull for the idea! It is so easy to make these with milk cartons and graham crackers (We used chocolate ones cuz I think they look spookier.)! We also liked our slime-green frosting. Just thought I would share... We had a great, really sweet time.

Pumpkin Farm Day!

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL fall day! Sunny, bright and quite cool. Oh, I love these crisp days! We drove to Enumclaw (which really isn't that far of a drive...It just sounds far, at least to me.) passing lots of beautiful fall colors on the way, to a new farm, Thommason Family Farm. This two year old farm is actually a working dairy farm for most of the year, but the cows are moved to a nearby farm just for the pumpkin harvest time for people like us who love coming to real farms.

We stayed for 4 hours enjoying the sights and activities. Of course, they had a pumpkin patch, but that didn't take up much of our time- maybe 5 minutes? We spent the bulk of our time in the "corn box," really a huge box made out of hay bails in a barn filled with grain (mostly corn). We loved going down the slide into the grain and jumping off of the hay bails. Mike and I had to keep our shoes on while we were in there. We didn't have socks on and the corn was absolutely FREEZING! We didn't mind dumping our shoes out. It amazed me that the kids didn't even mention the chill. Paige, as you see in the picture, even took her coat off. Although, Paige WAS a jumping maniac so that also meant that she had to climb a lot. Plus, walking through that stuff up to your knees is not easy!

There was also a barn filled with a miniature hay maze and a big pile of hay bales that had a slide at the top. Soooo fun! And in a corner of the barn there was an "all terrain tricycle track." We loved these John Deer tricycles! Jack loved chasing the kids on their tricycles. There were animals too.... A couple cows, a miniature horse, a pair of goats, a couple pigs, some kittens... This farm had everything! Plus, there was a huge play area called the "Kiddie Corral". They had a bubble station, a rubber duck racing station which Paige loved, a (not real, but really working) cow that you could milk (Of course this was popular with Jonah!), a large sandbox with lots of tractors and diggers... Also a hay ride and a little kiddie tractor pull. I think the kids rode in old plastic milk barrels. This video shows the kiddos on the tractor pull ride. I must have taken this video since it is sideways... Our regular camera is also our video camera and sometimes I just naturally turn the camera. Does anyone else do this? I think Mike thinks I am the biggest airhead (which I am NOT!) when I do this. Anyways, Jonah is in the back "car," and Paige and Jack are right in front of him.

Oh, we loved it!!! Oh, another thing, the cost of going to this farm is soooooo much cheaper than Remlinger. It was $6 for the kids, free for adults. We (Mike) spent a total of $30, including pumpkins. At Remlinger's, that would just be 2 admissions.
So you wanna see our jack-o-lanterns? This was our first year actually carving with kids. Mike did the carving with one of those cool pumpkin carving knives while I sorted the pumpkin seeds out of the pulp (So that I could roast them and then saute them in some oil and sugar and then burn them... :( ) Paige designed her own Jack-o-lantern this year with a marker. Jonah, who doesn't like to draw much, just asked for a bat. Cute, huh?

That's my bat! See my cute kitty!

I hope everyone else is having a happy fall too! We just love this time of year...the cool, sunny days, pumpkins (pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes...), beautiful changing leaves, hot chocolate, hot cider, mmmmm..... and there is always the fun of Halloween!

Jonah's Imagination

Jonah has always been a creative, spunky kid. It seems like he is in his imaginary world more than when he is in reality. I often hear, "Mommy, no! Don't go in the water!" when I try to cross a room. Jonah will also try to get my attention and I will say, "Yes Jonah? What would you like to say"? and often I get reprimanded by him. "Mommy, I wasn't talking, the dinosaur was talking!" so then I have to say, "Yes Dinosaur? What would you like to say?" To get anywhere with Jonah is a challenge. Well, anything is a challenge with Jonah right now, but it is also pretty hilarious! We just have to be on "Jonah time" with plenty of patience and an imagination ourselves.

Jonah has never needed toys. Sure, he has a couple toy animals he likes, but he finds household objects more than satisfactory. Right now, he seems to be pretty obsessed with turtles (This started after Paige invented the "turtle ride") so Jonah likes to have a towel wrapped over his shoulders and tied on. The towel is his "shell" and he will spend hours as a turtle crawling a little here and there and then covering himself with his towel "shell". The other day Jonah was in the bathtub and quickly grabbed a towel. I shrieked, "Jonaaaah! Why did you put that towel in the tub?!" Of course, that was his turtle shell... Last week, I left a half cup of tea on the counter with the tea bag still in it. I don't remember what I was doing, probably reading or playing with Paige or Jack, but I looked over and there was Jonah with his hands in my tea. Again, I shrieked, "Jonaaaah! Please get your hands out of my tea!" Jonah just looked at me innocently, "But Mama, this is my possum (the teabag)." Jonah played with that teabag for a good half hour... I also remember when we were in Aruba last year, Jonah did not play with any real toys but a little digger and a shovel for the whole week. He did, however, "vroom" Silvio's candy bar all over the house (Jonah had no desire to open the candy bar. He just wanted to use it as a car. Crazy kid!). Poor Silvio had a pretty deformed candy bar to eat! Oh, there are too many stories...
Here are some of Jonah's other favorite "toys":
Tongs- He does like to use them to dish up food, but they are also crab pinchers and garbage grabbers.
Small old piece of cotton batting- This is Jonah's ghost.
Sticks- These can be anything to Jonah. They are snakes, swords, bats, spiders...
Rocks- These can be just rocks, but usually they are some kind of animal like a turtle, a bug, a bird, a skunk...
Boxes- Many a child's favorite toy, right? These can be a boat, an island, a nest, an airplane, a car.
Laundry baskets- These are usually nests or animal cages.
White plastic strip that I took off of a can of juice concentrate- He's playing with his "skunk" right now.

Wanna play?

Making Strides!

Jack (16 1/2 months now) is making so many strides lately! In the last couple of weeks he has become a full time walker! No more funny knee-walking! No more funny looks from people (at least about Jack's walking. We get funny looks for other things...). No more little soft leather shoes with holes in them... No more holes in every pair of pants he has (Well, almost every pair is worn through because Jack would "knee-walk" everywhere, even on concrete. Crazy baby.) I have to show you what his little shoes look like. They are now retired...Oh, I am sad. I really was hoping Jack would stay a baby forever.

Don't buy the Target Robeez/Bobux knock-offs! I know that Jack is/was tough on shoes, but these only have about 2 weeks of use behind them. The leather is not fully dyed and the paint on the giraffe and the brown of the shoe has just rubbed off. I am so glad that he didn't have these when he used to put shoes in his mouth!

Oh, poor firetruck Robeez! You are missing some wheels and rungs on your ladder! These shoes were worn a little by Jonah but Jack has worn them for months and months and they have been washed a number of times.

I will miss you puppy Bobux most of all! You are holey and stained, but still so cute. Jack wore these shoes, almost daily, for almost 6 months! I love all the Bobux shoes and LOVE that the designs are facing the right way for the babies.

Mike bought Jack his very first pair of walker shoes last Sunday, just like he has for the other kiddos when they started walking. It is always a big deal, becoming a real walker, but for Jack it has been even more exciting, I think because he waited for soooo long. He could walk and took his first steps a couple of months ago, but Jack is smart and cautious and doesn't seem to mind being a bit of a baby either. He walked when HE was ready. Paige kept saying, "Mom, I think Jack will be walking by Halloween, don't you"? I kept saying that I didn't know, but that I would think so. I asked her why this was so important and she replied, "So he can go trick-or-treating Mom"! (Like I was totally ignorant...)

Look at me go!

Like my new shoes?

This post wasn't just supposed to be about Jack's literal strides though. He has made strides in other areas as well. All of the sudden he is trying to talk much more. His words are not very clear, but I understand him when he asks for help (ahmp!) or to nurse (num!). He tries to repeat our words now when we say "Jack say it.". It helps that he has a little cheerleader (Paige, of course) with him most of the time. She is always so proud of his accomplishments.

The third stride is related to the water! I don't remember if I have posted about this or not, but Jack has been afraid of taking a bath for at least 5 months. Jonah was the same way at about 12 months old, so we just showered him with Mike on the weekends and then in a month or so he was taking baths like normal again. Well, like a lot of things, what worked for Jonah did not work for Jack! Every time I put Jack in the tub he would scream and jump out as fast as he could. I couldn't even get him to sit. He would hold himself so rigid! But, here's what changed all that. Jonah and Paige have been in swimming lessons at the Kinderswimmer (We love this place!), but Jonah was just getting tired of going to his lessons. He had lost interest and was just not trying anymore... Well, Jonah is three. He needed a break. Anyways, we had already paid for swim classes through the month for Jonah and Paige but I just couldn't imagine dragging Jonah to 5 more lessons. So, we decided to have Jack have lessons in Jonah's place! Jack had his 3rd lesson today (I go in with him.) and he LOVES it. The first day he was nervous and cried a bit, the second day he was just nervous a little, and today, he smiled and was so proud of himself. The best part? Jack now loves taking baths!!! He stayed in the tub for about 45 minutes today and 45 minutes Thursday and he didn't mind me washing his hair. Today he even practiced putting his eyes in the water all by himself! Oh, my big boy!

PS. Jack's eczema is greatly improved too. We have been off of dairy for a while now and last Monday we reintroduced it to see what would happen. Yikes! Poor baby had bad eczema on his cheek and chin and his poor little bottom was red... It is better now, but he still has little bits of eczema here and there. It has never been totally clear, but almost. I suspect he may react the same way with soy, so we'll experiment... Just wanted to let you know.

Another Geocaching Adventure

Well yesterday I wanted to give Julie a small break while Jack was taking a nap, so I took Paige and Jonah and we went to explore a park near our house. We are finding all sorts of small parks or wilderness areas we have never been to through Geocaching. It is really a lot of fun. I am into it, so is Paige. So anyway there were two in this park. The first was pretty easy to find. The GPS led us to a old mail truck in the middle of the woods. Why was there a old mail truck in the middle of the woods? How did it get there? Who knows, but it was kinda cool.



So anyway we found the cache pretty quickly. So then we headed on to find another that was (by GPS coordinates) not very far from where we were. This second one we had actually almost looked for a couple of weekends ago, but we couldn't find a way into the park from the other side closer to where the cache was hidden. From just off the road it looked like a pretty steep hill down, so we assumed the best way in was from the other side. So anyway, now we are coming from the other side so all is good, right? Not really...

We pretty quickly found a trail that looked like it would go down to the creek that runs through the park, which is where we needed to get, so we followed the trail. It was a little overgrown with sticker bushes and a little steep, but I figured it had to be the best way. No you may be wondering why I figure it had to be the best way. Basically, it was the first way I found, so that was good enough for me.

Anyway, so we started heading down and the trail became quickly denser and steeper. Oh yeah, it has been raining here now, summer is over... So Paige slipped first. Wasn't bad, she got right up, had one sticker stuck to her back, but she was a little scared. So I tried to hurry a little to get down to her. This is where I slipped. I went sliding right past her. Now she was really scared. Jonah meanwhile is up above both of us on the hill. So now I am about half way down (or at least I think) and the kids are above me. So first I get up, pull the sticker off me and hike back up to calm Paige. Then I go up a little further and get Jonah and carry him down over the spot where Paige and I slipped down to where Paige was. From this point on, I started carrying the kids down the hill. First Paige would go a little ways down, then I would go back up get Jonah and take him down past where Paige was, and then repeat. When we made it to the bottom we were all a little muddy and everyone had had multiple stickers pulled out of them. It was a great feeling. The best part was we now had a field of sticker bushes and nettles to cross to get to the creek. This is the part where common sense would tell you to turn around. Actually, that point probably should have come after Paige and I both slipped the first time. In either case, we didn't.
So we crossed the field of sticker bushes and nettles only to find out we were on the wrong side of the creek. At this point we are so into this adventure nothing can turn us back. So I cross the creek by myself just to see if it is safe. The water was about ankle deep. I crossed back over grabbed Paige and carried her over. When I turned around Jonah was already in. I ran back across to get him. I figure he was only in to his ankles so far, so I was okay, I just didn't want him to fall and get all wet. So I crossed again carrying Jonah and finally our search started. After about 15 minutes with no luck the kids were getting bored, plus Paige was constantly asking how we were getting back to the truck. She was really nervous of the possibility of going back the way we came, maybe she didn't like the sticker bushes tangled in her hair? At this point Paige pointed at another trail, this one was on the side of the creek we were on and looked nice; wide, no stickers and not so steep. Unfortunately it headed the wrong way. Paige talked me in to trying it anyway, so we walked up. When we got to the top it opened up and there was the road. Wow!!! Paige and Jonah were happy. This was the way we should have come in to find this cache; 2 of them in the park and both need to be accessed from different entrances, go figure. So back to the story, Paige really wanted to walk to the truck following the road, the only problem, the truck was about 3 miles away by road... So I convinced them to head back down and we would go back the way we came. I promised to carry them both all the way and make sure no one slipped, fell, or got stuck in sticker. Big promise, huh, since I really couldn't completely control this. So as the "Going on a Bear Hunt" story goes, we went back down the hill, across the creek, through the meadow of sticker and nettles, and up the steep hill. Me doing each of these three times because I couldn't carry them both at the same time. Here is a picture of the hill (our trail is on the left, hidden under the sticker bushes) and Paige and Jonah each waiting for me to return to get them at one point. No matter the situation, there is always time for a picture...




So when we finally all made it to the top the kids were happy again and Paige even said she had fun. Jonah wanted to be carried back to the car which was okay with me, because I couldn't get much dirtier at this point.

The final part of the story really came when I woke up this morning. My legs were still tingling from all the nettles. I don't think I have ever walked through so many...

I was tagged!

Our friend, Fiona, a long-time blogger, tagged me. She is passing along a fun little game. Here's how you play: You open your 6th picture file and find the 6th picture in it and write about it. So, that is what I will do! Look what I found! Oh, I love looking through older pictures!

Paige was such a little cutie! We titled this series of pictures, "Boo-boo in a bucket." We used to call Paige "Boo-boo" or just "Boo". I'm not sure why we called her that, but since then she has had LOTS of other names like "Babygirl" (which I think Mike got from the Bernie Mac show), Gigi (that is how Jonah said "Paigey"), Paigelina Ballerina (Nana started that one...), Gigalina, G, Geeg, I think you get the hang of it. My side of the family is REALLY big into nicknames. Like, I don't remember the last time my mom called me "Julie", at least when addressing me directly. I always knew when my dad was in trouble. My mom would call him by his name, "Steve" or even the dreaded "Steven", but the rest of the time his name was, well, NOT Steve.

ANYWAYS, I was supposed to write about this picture. Well, we took a series of pictures of "Boo-boo" when she was about 5 months old to use as Christmas presents for our family. We took a LOT of shots of her in the bucket and out of the bucket, mostly naked, but in a diaper. We then turned them black and white and made 8 by 10's out of them. We used my friend Wendi's photo tinting supplies and did our own tinting! I loved this. The pictures turned out really cute! Then we painted frames to go with. So, that is the story of this picture. Paigey was our only little center of attention then. We just adored her and thought she was the most beautiful baby in the world. I think that is how all parents are though, right?

So, I need to tag someone now! I can't tag Fiona! I guess you're "it" Christi!

Jack Dancing!

Okay, so this is the first time I have actually gotten a video to work! The problem though, is that the footage is VERY short, so don't blink! I will work on this! Jack was soooo cute dancing to this Raffi rendition of "This Little Light of Mine." He has been asking for music, pointing to every radio and Ipod in the house constantly these days. He LOVES music. He did try dancing standing up, but he kept tripping on his tail, plus he thinks that "dancing" means that you have to jump up and down in a circle, which is REALLY hard when you are unsteady on your feet. Isn't that kinda what you used to do in mosh pits Mike? Paige, of course, dressed Jack up like the Little Mermaid. Hope you like it anyways!

But you're a teacher!

"But, you were a teacher" they say. I say, "Exactly. That is WHY I am homeschooling our children right now." Funny, because when I WAS a teacher, I thought that homeschooling was crazy. I thought that homeschooling parents were just overprotective and weird and that they were in turn creating weird kids. I didn't really know any homeschoolers, maybe met a few, but I sure had an opinion on the subject! How embarrassing. I also took offense to the fact that homeschooling parents didn't trust the teachers to educate their children. I, for one, had a good education myself. I have a masters degree from the University of Washington in Elementary Education and endorsements in Special Education and English. I understand now that there are a multitude of reasons for homeschooling. Some reasons are academic and others are social, while other reasons still are related to a lifestyle choice, like travel, having a more open schedule, and having more family time. We are homeschooling because we see advantages academically, socially and familiarly (hmmm.... I m not sure if that is the right word, but you know what I mean.).
In the last few months I have been constantly challenged about our desire (or MY desire as Mike just goes along with it pretty much, trusting me to do the right thing) to homeschool the kids. I hear a lot of opinions about academics and socialization and curriculum. So, if you are interested, read on! You can now understand why we are homeschooling and how we are doing it. I, BY NO MEANS, judge those of you who put your children in school or judge you if you do homeschooling differently than we do. This is just the way that works for US, with the knowledge and wisdom that we have now. I am pretty passionate about this subject, so I have a feeling that this post will be long!
I have read a LOT about child development and how children learn and have also observed MANY children over the years, including our own. Here is what I understand (and research backs me up! Check out books/research by John Holt- very interesting). Young children are natural learners. What I mean by this is that children learn without a curriculum in place and that they are naturally VERY inquisitive. They want to master the world around them. When children are given time to think, to process, to create, and to ask (and an adult takes time to answer!), they learn. What happens to children when they go to school, is that they are then subject to learn what the teacher/school district decides is important, not what is important to the child. There are also lots of children to one teacher, usually 25 children or more to 1 adult. Because of this, children are encouraged to be quiet and to not ask too many questions. The teacher has important curriculum to cover, remember? And if the question doesn't have to do with what the class is working on at the moment? It is usually not answered. So then the child just dwells on their question/thought instead of even thinking about what he/she is supposed to be learning. What eventually happens is that many children stop being curious, stop asking questions, and stop really learning. Many children do what I did. They didn't learn things because they were curious and wanted to learn, but because they needed a good grade or a gold star or an affirmation from mom and dad.
I/we want our children to become (I know this sounds like a cliche, maybe it is...but it's true) life-long learners. We want them to remain curious and precocious. We want them to know how to search out information, whether that be by asking, by reading, by experimenting, by observing, or by looking online for an answer. We want them to also retain information and skills. I can tell you that I remember NOTHING from my 5th grade social studies (This is just one example, I could go on and on about not really learning anything in my classes.), except that we learned about latitude (like a ladder) and longitude (the loooong part of the ladder). The reason? I hated it. I found nothing interesting about the history we were learning. The textbook was beyond boring. It seemed so distant, unreal, and unimportant. So, starting in the 5th grade, I decided that I didn't like learning about social studies, that it was boring. Pretty much everything I know about history I have learned in the last couple of years as I have come across interesting things, like a Lewis and Clark documentary and some other good books.
Our children have way more "social studies" knowledge than I did at their ages or even twice their age. Why? They have been read to and talked to about different events, time periods and countries. They have traveled, giving them a great interest in knowing where things are in our world and events that have happened there. We have a globe and atlas and maps in our house that are of interest to the children. I am always hearing, "What's that purple country? What ocean is that?" and I take time to answer. When children want to learn something they are like sponges. They just pick up the material soooooo easily. Our children know about longitude and latitude, not from sitting in class at social studies time, but by geocaching, helping Daddy and Mommy find the treasure by looking around the right coordinates.
So, this is how we "school" right now. We don't! There is actually a name for it: We "unschool" our children. This means that we don't play school, don't follow along with what the school district decides is appropriate for kids of certain ages and don't look at learning as a chore. Learning is all about excitement and fun and curiosity. Our children are given lots of time to be kids, to play, create, think, imagine, listen and just be kids (Childhood is becoming so short. We want our children to have a real, happy childhood without lots of stress.). We do have a routine of our day to keep us all sane, but it is pretty flexible as, for now, we only have half hour swim lessons twice a week and church/Sunday school on Sunday. Those are our only things we feel we must make it to.
We have tons and tons of books around the house and read them often. All types; nonfiction, fiction, storybooks, novels, books on tape (Oh, how we LOVE Beverly Cleary books on tape in the car!!!), easy readers, magazines... We take regular trips to the library with the stroller. The stroller is used solely to bring materials back to the library and then to take things back to the car. Last time, I paid attention to the number of materials we checked out. 45 items! And this was a typical trip to the library. When we get home we read and read. Reading brings forth copious questions from the children. Often I answer questions, but sometimes then we get online to answer something more fully and/or I place holds on more books or videos from the library based on something they wanted to learn. Our children learn about science concepts, math concepts, vocabulary, spelling, history, art, everything you can imagine- from books.
We also DO a lot of things in our home. Paige, who LOVES art, is able to paint, watercolor, color, draw, and create pretty much whenever she wants to. Sometimes she asks for an art "lesson" from me. She has learned how to draw still-lifes, different kinds of lines, how to draw many things... She is sooo creative, but she is also very analytical and her ability to make a design that is symmetrical, interesting and bold is amazing. I love that she gets to do what she enjoys so much. If she were in school, she would not get to do this. She would get to create on her own a little bit, but would mostly be told what to create and how to do it. I don't think she would like this as well. Right now, she says she wants to be an artist when she grows up. I want to nurture that. It is such a confidence builder to be able to create art and have it look aesthetically pleasing to yourself and others.
We, as you have read in our other posts, do a LOT of cooking and baking here. While we cook, we talk about fractions and we count (math) and talk about ingredients that do different things in the food (science). We taste and compare and try lots of new foods (nutrition, right? Unless we are talking about marshmallows!) So, we learn math skills by cooking, but we also learn math skills while shopping. Paige helps me find the best prices. Jonah counts foods into the cart or bag. Paige has been known to come to us and say "I like to play math. Can we play math"? This means that she wants to be asked a series of addition and subtraction questions to answer.
Another activity we do here is play a lot of games! We like Candyland, Checkers, Chess (Paige is really good!), Mancala, Memory, Chutes and Ladders, Scrabble Junior, Go Fish, Guess Who... There is a lot of learning to be had with games; social skills, like taking turns and being good sports, math skills, like counting and number recognition and addition and subtraction, spelling and reading.
It is really important to Mike and I that our children read, write and do math well. Not right now, but later on. This may mean that we feel the need to buy a textbook, but it might not. There are soooo many ways to learn, so many more exciting and interesting ways of learning material. A textbook though, may be the answer for Paige when she gets older. She tends to teach herself a lot of things. I can see her learning algebra on her own, just reading the text and figuring it out. For now though, the kids learn math, writing and reading through typical activities, like reading the calendar (including the numbers!), writing thank you notes and cards, just reading books. I cannot say enough good things about books!
Okay, I think you get the idea. I could go on and on. I bet you're thinking, "Boy don't I know it. This post is soooo long. Do I really need to read it all"? Of course you don't, but if you've gotten to this point, you are somewhat interested, right? I bet you're waiting for our "SOCIAL" reasons for homeschooling the children, huh? Here's my answer: So far, our children are very social and well-adjusted. Paige is a lot like I was (am) and has one really good girl friend, Gabby. She sees Gabby at Sunday school, but we get the girls together to play a couple times a month as well. Paige is also very confident. When we go to play at the park, she ALWAYS (except when there are no other children) finds a friend to play with. She very comfortable goes up to other children, no matter what their age, and asks them to play. They always say yes (She is awfully cute!) and she has a wonderful time. Jonah has Paige for his BEST friend. He adores her and plays with her for most of every day. Besides Paige though, he prefers adults who actually have conversations with him and answer his questions. He is beginning to search out other children at parks and things now, but this is new. He is only 3. Children of this age often do parallel, rather than interactive social play. And Jack, he's a baby. He is shy and loves to be with Mama. I have found that keeping my children close and loving on them is the best way to make them feel comfortable around others. Usually around 2, they will just wave me away if I go somewhere. They know I will come back. So, socially, the children have each other, they have me, they have swimming lessons where they are given instructions from their teacher, they are in Sunday school, and they go pretty much wherever I go (and I expect them to behave socially appropriately- Saying hello, good-bye, and answering questions that others ask of them). I am sooooo thankful that Paige is not learning the not-so-good social skills that happen at school. Paige is really impressionable and will copy the actions and voices of others. I would rather her copy Angelina Ballerina than a bad attitude played out at school. I can think of so many things that I would NOT want my children to emulate. It's all part of training. We are constantly training our children in their social skills. When they pick up on others (that might be really bad), it takes time to stop those behaviors and move forward. Hopefully I am making sense to you all. As the kids get older, they will probably be in more activities, but for now, it works for us to be together most of the time as a family.
If you are interesting in unschooling, you should read "The Unschooling Unmanual." I have read lots of books and portions of books on the topic and lots of really interesting articles online. Did you know there is a huge debate in the Christian community of whether Unschooling is Godly or not? Very interesting. Very heated. Very funny in a way.
Hmmmm.... I think I have gotten this out of my system. I needed to write this out for myself. I just keep thinking about what we are doing, but have never written it down. If you have any questions, ask away. I am sure I have an answer for you. But beware, it might be a looooooooong answer.