Education

"Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die."  – John Taylor Gatto

The Apprentice Puppeteer

Noelle is involved in puppet ministry this year and really enjoying herself.  She got her "hood" last night and has been having fun creeping us out, lol.  She put the thing on my head when I wasn't paying attention to her and, yes, you can see through it, but I would have liked a proper warning :-P

Decorating?

Yesterday, we spent an interesting evening helping friends decorate for the Oil 150 celebration going on this week. There is a contest and let me tell you, they are out to win! An oil derrick in their front yard, no less! We started at 4:14 PM and finished the helping out part somewhere around 8:30 - 9:00 PM. We had people slowing down to get a good look (some also turned around to get a second look) and a few even parked to watch, lol.

Videos take too long to load so here are some stills from the many videos I took.

Pymatuning

On Saturday, we decided to go to Pymatuning Reservoir.

We stopped at the car wash on the way and the kids and I took some goofy pictures.
We had originally planned to go to the deer park (actually a small zoo) but the place was crowded beyond belief (we'll go back on a weekday). We were hungry anyway so headed into Jamestown for some lunch. Then we drove over to the dam to explore.
Next we drove to the other end of the reservoir to feed the carp. Noelle has a joke she tells about how to cook a carp: Take a pine board and nail the carp to the board, cook in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 hours, take out of oven and throw out the carp, eat the pine board ;o)
Here's a couple videos of the hungry buggers:

We stopped at Family Ties on the way home and ate dessert instead of dinner. I mean come on, who has room for dessert after eating a meal? ;o)

To top off the day, we went for a walk to see how progress was coming on the community swimming pool. The plaster crew came all the way from Texas and they were swarming all over the place trying to get things finished for the opening in a few days.

All in all, a very busy day!

A Really Cool Idea

We need to do this with our bay window!

Randomness

Our favorite "room" and impatiens.




Some things Noelle has identified.
Owen's new kennel pad, with a zip-off cover I made from an old flannel sheet.

The Weekend

On Friday Kirk and I looked at washing machines (decided against the used one) and bought a Maytag. Here's one of those purchases that I would love to have been American made but those were a couple hundred dollars more than we could afford. Lately, it seems as though everything we own is wearing out.

Noelle and I attended our church's mother/daughter brunch Saturday morning and had a really good time.
After we got home I spent most of the afternoon learning needlework stitches and working on my CQ square. Later in the evening we watched the movie Faith Like Potatoes.


Everyone else went to bed and I stayed up late mixing together the dry ingredients for the scones I was baking in the morning. I promised Ermagene I would make her two dozen and planned on giving the rest for cafe.

Breakfast Scones

2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sour milk

Mix dry ingredients together well. Cut in butter. Add milk. Kneed dough on a floured surface a couple times then form into a log and cut in half. Pat each half of dough into an 8 inch circle and cut into 8 wedges. Separate wedges and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a pre-heated, 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes. Makes 16 scones.

Kirk stayed home sick from church so the kids and I went without him. The rest of the day everyone lazed around and I practiced more stitches for my CQ. Dinner was a simple affair of ham, eggs, and waffles. Kyle got invited to go listen to Eric Hovind speak at a nearby high school and even spoke with him personally afterwards. He got home about 9:50 p.m. and really enjoyed himself.

Homeschool Co-op

The kids participated in learning about life during the 1860s. They learned about daily life, civilian artifacts, dancing/etiquette, military drill, school/games, and uniforms/military artifacts.

It wasn't planned for them to dress the part, just worked out that way.

A Journey

I have some friends who are finding their way in regards to what they believe. I am on the same journey myself. About a year ago I heard a message preached by Paul Washer (Shocking Youth Message) and it so completely confirmed my thoughts on what I read in the Bible. I must strive to compare my walk with Scripture, not what I feel or others think. Here is a video compilation of one of Paul Washer's sermons (Examine Yourself ).



If you want to listen to more of his sermons then go here.

A lot of discussion has mentioned the term "Churchianity" so I did a Google search and found this wonderful article. What a great description of the True Church, the Bride of Christ!

However, I don't think it is wrong to be a part of a body of local believers who gather together to fellowship and worship together. I also fellowship with a body of believers online. I worship with my family and on my own.

I don't have it all figured out, I'm continuing to learn and grow. This is why I like unschooling so much. Christian Unschooling is about helping/letting my kids find their walk with God, as well as finding my own. He created us all with a purpose - To have Life in Him.

Here is a video of the true Gospel, not the watered down version that is so prevalent today.

Books, Unschooling, & Family

I love books. I love visiting the library and checking out as many as I can carry, loading up my backpack and my arms to overflowing. If I had a lot of money I would buy books constantly (but the library saves me a fortune). I've bought many from used book stores and yard/garage sales, I love a good bargain =)

Anyway, now you know about my obsession with books. Favorites? I can't say as there are so many I haven't read yet. A lot of people get into critiquing authors but I just like to enjoy the stories. I haven't read too many I didn't like, it all depends on my mood and stage of life to decide what sounds good at any given time. I love learning new things, all the time. I'm an information junkie and so is Kirk, so are the kids. When Kyle was born we constantly brought home as many books as we could and read and read and read to him, he would sit in our laps for hours. Noelle didn't do this early on but grew to love books as much as the rest of us.

Imagine our joy with the internet! Whatever new interest (book) we are into gets an even bigger information explosion there. The most recent gold nugget that Noelle and I are enjoying is on butterflies. We found this site and will explore it for the next couple of days I'm sure.

I love unschooling! Instead of being slaves to someone else's opinion on what should be learned when, we are free to explore, learn, and grow in our own way.

I so enjoy having the kids at home with me. When people find out we homeschool (I really don't like that word but it beats explaining what we really do) I am amazed at how many of them say, "I think what your doing is great but I could never do that." After a little more conversation it usually comes down to not really wanting to be home with their kids all day. That is so sad. Why have a family if you can't wait to get away from each other? They are missing out on so much joy with their kids. Society has twisted what God intended for good -- families.

We love being together so much the kids have asked if they can live at home and do college online. You bet they can! I hope that we will always live close by us. But if they don't, Kirk and I have already told them that we will move and follow them =D

A Kid's Blog

As an unschooling mom I try to model learning for my kids and Noelle has dabbled in blogging herself because I do :) She loves to write stories and has many many notebooks full of them. Typing is much slower going for her but I know the more she does it the better she'll get. She also does her illustrations using Paint (many many of these on an old windows 95 computer that she alone uses). I know she would love comments of encouragement (my plea, not hers) and if you must critique, please be gentle so as not to discourage her enthusiasm for writing. I think she does a great job but then again I'm just a little prejudiced ;)

Flutterfield (old blog no longer in use)

My Storeez (new blog)

Note: She uses the alias Ivy so please remember that if you comment.

Learning to Knit

I tried to get Noelle interested in knitting a year or so ago but she got too frustrated....

Over the holiday break while having fun at a friends house, she realized that a couple of her friends knew how to knit. When we were at the library a couple days later, she found a book called Kids Knitting and checked it out. When we got home she asked me if she could have some yarn and needles to learn to knit. After several attempts to follow the book she asked for my help. We snuggled up in a big chair together and struggled through some intense moments (she's working on her patience ;) I decided to "start" the scarf she wanted to knit for her American Girl doll so we could concentrate on just the stitches themselves. She stayed up knitting in her bed and now loves it!

She started this project herself and I caught her in the act this morning.

Computers

I learned how to install an Ethernet NIC (network interface card) into my Windows ME computer and then connect it to a home network. (I still need to get an Ethernet cable to connect my new network capable printer so I can print from either computer.)

Its quite interesting trying to find software that actually works with ME. So why bother? Well, the computer was given to us by Kirk's great aunt when she got her new computer. Free is pretty good incentive to work with what you've got, lol.

Now I should be able to get more accomplished online, we'll see.

Another Family Trip

It was a whirlwind two days and the kids had their first stay in a hotel, although none of us got much sleep. We were going to go camping but the weather made us make a change in plans.

We wanted a whole day at Carnegie Science Center, so we slowly worked our way there the day before. We drove, ate brunch at Eat n' Park, shopped at the Grove City Outlet Mall, drove, checked into The Red Roof Inn off the interstate, shopped at The Cranberry Mall, ate Wendy's for dinner, back to hotel room, watched some tv, and went to bed. Next morning; ate donuts for breakfast, got ready and packed everything up, drove into Pittsburgh (ah, the exhilerating stress of roadwork and messed up traffic), walked around until CSC opened in an hour, saw Heinz Field, walked along the Ohio River, and took pictues. Time for CSC, four floors of science and a submarine to explore. After experiencing everything we could, we started our very long drive home (we did break it up by stopping to eat dinner at Hoss's).

Our Day

We learned quite a bit today. If you want to know more about horse dentistry you can check out this website. Oh, and if you think the smell of your own teeth being drilled stinks....

Here's a few pics from today, enjoy!

Ah, Noelle made a new friend :)


Open wide Pete


Feeling sharp edges that need smoothed


Kyle's favorite horse, Dan


Talking with the horse dentist


Lacey didn't have any dental work done so I enjoyed visiting with her.


She's for sale but I don't have the money. *SIGH*

Interesting...........

Sounds a lot like why I unschool :)



This is also why we love the library andlibrary, school, the internet.

Sharing Unschooling

I don't talk too much about unschooling around those who homeschool in my community. We are the only family that does as far as I know. I just mentioned (about 2 years ago) belonging to an unschool list in my state and another mom said (accused was more like it), "You aren't one of those unschoolers are you!?" We weren't at the time but heading in that direction. We were very relaxed/eclectic then.

Well, for some reason I talked about it the other day (maybe because the "school year" was over?). I didn't get a bad response this time, quite the opposite actually. Now she wants to know more about how we go about unschooling and fulfilling our state's requirements. We talked for a while and I felt like I was just being confusing. Anywho, she invariably asked what they always eventually ask, "But what about math?" Ky wants to use an algebra curriculum we're borrowing from another family, so I told her about that. Was I chickening out? A little. Why? I've been asking myself that for four days. I think its because I'm not very eloquent in person (not sure I'm very eloquent about it in print either :-P )

Here's what I wish I would have said to her. "What about math? It surrounds us everyday and Kyle and Noelle use it all the time. We don't pull out a textbook, we live math." There doesn't that sound better? lol

Their questions always seem to relate to some kind of timetable. I mean come on, who decided what should be learned when? Who/what gives them that authority? I sure didn't. If it were important to God, wouldn't He have explained it in scripture? If he does, and I've somehow missed it, would someone please point it out?

Okay, I feel better. Thanks for reading :)

Note: I believe its still unschooling if the child asks for the materials that are schoolish in nature.

Unschooling

"To parents I say, above all else, don't let your home become some terrible miniature copy of the school. No lesson plans! No quizzes! No tests! No report cards! Even leaving your kids alone would be better; at least they could figure out some things on their own. Live together, as well as you can; enjoy life together, as much as you can." -- John Holt

John Holt

Okay, I haven't read any of his books. I'm checking them (How Children Fail, How Children Learn, and Learning All the Time) out of our library to read, today. Kirk says he will read them as well. Keep praying.......

Another Rant

They're our kids! God gave them to us, the parents, to raise! We know the kids are smart and learning all the time. They're wonderful people! We don't send them to public school because how we raise them is our business, not the business of the school district or the government.

Our kids' learning is none of your business either, so stop asking how "school" is going. We don't "do" school, we live our lives and learn as we go, completely natural. When God's word says to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it", it DOES NOT say to do it like the schools do it!

And while I'm on the subject (I'm sure there are exceptions), why does the church resemble school so much in the way it does things? Sunday School segregates the kids, youth groups segregate the teens, 20s groups segregate the young adults, and home groups segregate the adults; just like school segregates everything!

We were watching Hoosiers and got to talking about how so many things in high school are a popularity contest. Our conversation made me realize that I've seen a lot of people living their lives like they're still in high school. Why? They were in an artificial environment for 12 years of their lives and don't know how to live and think for themselves. Many of us didn't buy into the crap though, that's why those of us who can unschool.

In the movie Mickey, the kid repeats sixth grade. The teacher comments on how the kid acts as though he's seen the material before and is getting straight A's. Oh, please, as if a school in NV would have the exact same curriculum as a school in DC. I know kids who transferred to a school in the next county, who were doing great at their old school, and ended up in remedial classes at the new school.

You know, I probably could keep going but now that I've vented, I feel better =D


Note: I am not ripping on families who send their kids to public school. Its every family's choice. My point is that it is not "our" choice and I'm giving you a little insight as to why (there are many more reasons and I'm sure I'll post about them eventually).