soul of sunday...slightly tardy

because we can...

;)

joining in over at Ordinary Life Magic....

the gift of days

...days all to ourselves.

to run
climb
ride...on a new-to-her bike with squeezy brakes not back-pedal brakes which is terrifying and careen-ish

to read...an entire afternoon for me, my tea and a whole world made of ink and imagination
to set a goal and pursue it and then
excel.....a fifth-place ribbon at Pony Club Quiz -- of course, not the reason why - but so full of affirming  goodness that one feels brave enough to try her D-test this spring.

to converse....about winning and losing and how mistakes are a great way to learn something

december 5 (a retrospective)

from the Countdown to Chrimbly...

make home-made gift tags!


and so we did. recycling the vast collection of old holiday cards that i've been hoarding saving for a wonderful purpose...

the during:

the end-result:

'twas most satisfying.....

in other news...i'm knitting 'til my eyes cross and my hands seize into knots. our noble steed decided it just wanted a day-and-a-half rest and decided to start yesterday afternoon right after B had called CAA to arrange a tow.  perhaps it just wanted to trundle to the mechanic on it's own speed....

now it's fingers and toes crossed for Nothing Major and Fairly Inexpensive...which of course is laughable because trips to the mechanic are both Major and Expensive by default.

happiness is...

the Pony Club 'D' workbook...

doing a quiz...under the watchful eye of Prof. Malcolm

she has read and quizzed her way through the entire thing.....in two days....

relentless in the pursuit of her bliss

suh-weet.

(the actual testing isn't until March...i'm pretty sure she'll have it down by then)

journey to dread...

not as dire as it might sound!

the lovely Rose has asked for some pictures* of the ongoing event that are Savannah's dreadlocks...

we're about two months in now....a work-in-progress (the mama's hands and arms ache and the child's sitting-still-ability factor dictates how long our maintenance sessions last). the weaving in of the loose and fly-away hairs seems to be the only maintenance she requires now....most of the 'locks having formed nicely. i chose to do numerous slender 'locks because she has fine hair and is a wee pixie of a child....

last session i wove some ribbon and embroidery floss into a select few -- partly as decorative inspiration, partly to assist the natural locking. there's also a few wooden beads in there somewhere.

i started them by back-combing but now use a combo of that and crocheting to tighten them up. live and learn. no products used, though.  she washes them once a week with Dr.Bronner's shampoo....which works well to help the tightening/tangling.

she is madly in love with her dreads (as am i) -- and is officially the coolest kid in our neighbourhood (my slightly biased opinion), although her Auntie A was also most admiring of them at the party yesterday....

roll on spring and it's my turn...

*she is a most elusive creature and so i must apologize for the quality of these photos as they were taken guerilla-style as she played at the park. she has promised to let me snap some better photos after our next maintenance session.

life with horses

B and i decided when the children were still only tiny, that we wouldn't push our horsey life on them. we wouldn't assume that they'd follow in our footsteps...and, in fact, moved away from that life altogether. granted, it took B's accident to prompt him to move away - there really wasn't a choice -- but the important thing was that if either one was to choose to have horses in their life, it was to be a choice freely made.

some time last autumn, Savannah decided she'd like to take riding lessons.  we asked her to wait until spring -- who wants to learn to ride in a Canadian winter? -- also to be sure it's what she really wanted..and not just a passing whim.

java -- naughty pony

fast forward to this autumn, and she's been taking weekly lessons since May.  it's all gone very well and she is,  genuinely and without bias (mostly), a natural talent.  her lesson time changed to Thursday evenings about two months ago, and since that's my evening to work, B has been taking her.  last night a shift cancellation meant i could take her and was very much looking forward to seeing how things have progressed.

but she's had a rough few weeks. she's been thrown twice in the last month - once it was unavoidable and she weathered it well, but the second time it was a ridiculous situation she was placed in where poor judgement on her instructor's part had the pony taking off at a smart gallop and although she almost stayed on, in the end, she fell off. that one, rattled her.  now, she tells me on Wednesday night, she's afraid to trot.

*sigh*

so what does a mother do?  there is a very real element in this horsey life that absolutely requires a measure of toughness. there's no pussy-footing around. she fell off and she will fall off again. ponies will bugger off; they'll buck; they'll do all manner of fiendish things. it's just a part of life with horses.  how to communicate that to her without making it sound like a 'suck it up' speech. when really, that's what it is.

looking very serious -- note the size difference between pony and (beginner) rider :(

so we drew some cards.

and the lessons to be learned there were simple but powerful.  i explained to her that the reason she was frightened was because she had forgotten. she had forgotten her own strength; she had forgotten that even though she was scared when she fell off the last time, she got back on. and i talked about how her pony would pick up on her feelings and that she needed to remember to keep her *heart balance* -- which is an over-simplified explanation of being calm and centered.

nevertheless, she was terrified. she was reluctant to trot and her pony picked up on that. so the poor assistant instructor had to run beside them to keep the little effer going (i'm not a fan of this pony -- he's naughty and he's a cheat....but i digress)...all the while, i hear Savannah whimpering and on the verge of tears.  oh, how i did not want to be one of Those Mothers -- you know the ones...the over-involved, bossy types that don't respect the boundaries of the teacher/instructor/coach-student relationship -- but when it got to the point where her coach was apparently intent on trying to push her through her fear rather than address it, i stepped in. i gave her a little pep talk and reminded her of needing to remember her *balance*....and the lesson ended much better than it started and she felt good about how things finished.

but we're also exploring other options. i went to a meeting afterwards of the local Pony Club chapter -- having just signed her up.....it's a whole different dynamic than the typical 'show stables' and will give her a better practical knowledge and skills of horsemanship rather than just the part where you're riding around.  it will also give us a network to find a place where there are ponies that aren't too big for the children riding them and....eventually, a pony of her own.

before all that though, she still needs to defeat the Java Monster.

what if....

every day.....

you got to stay at the Art Station.....as long as you wanted.

and you got to play computer games...as long as you wanted....

and recess came whenever you felt too big for the house so you pull on your sneakers and run out without your coat. then you tear around the tree and jump in huge piles of leaves until your nose runs and your cheeks are red and you almost wish you'd remembered your coat...almost.

~*~

what if, when we were growing up, there wasn't someone telling us to move to the next station (even though our painting wasn't done yet and we didn't like the play-house)? how would our lives be different now?

what if, The Experts didn't scare us with the evils of computer games and how they're eroding the minds and souls of our children (even though when given free access and steady guidance, our children are capable of making balanced choices)? could we accept that computers and games have a place?

what if, children were free to run and explore and experience the wild world around them without being hovered over and organized and lectured? would we still think it's irresponsible to let our kids out of arm's reach?

can you imagine what they might learn?

like shape and form and colour; like the vast power of imagination and our innate gifts of creativity; how you can learn physics and architecture without even realizing it by figuring out where to put the dynamite to demolish the computer-generated model; like how you discover the first frost and why it's on some leaves and not others and you might hypothesize why this is so. and without being told, you're right.

they might even learn that a paintbrush has equal value to an algorithm and a poem is just math in a different format.

all that, and more, before 11 am.

~*~

there are times when i despair that *i* don't know enough or have enough knowledge in some area or other to be responsible for the education of these children. that maybe lesson plans aren't such a bad idea; that maybe there should be more of this or that.

and then i remember that these children are amazing, and that as long as it's fed, their natural curiosity will take them so much farther than any preconceived ideas we might have over what *stuff* we think they should know. that to suppose we can know what lies ahead in the wonder of their lives is a mild form of arrogance. they are, after all, only on loan to us...and not ours to create in our own, or anyone else's image.

such is the beauty and the miracle of this life we are leading.

autumn....

dawn through the trees...Kerncliff

sure i'm a blog-slacker.....no excuses beyond a bit of can't-be-arsed and a lot of navel-gazing as of late...

moving onwards, however...

we had a gorgeous Thanksgiving weekend last weekend....back-to-back turkey fabulousness at Aunty S's and then Aunty B's.....

can we talk about how much i *heart* pumpkin pie? can we extol the virtues of this noble vegetable?  for years i shied away from the idea of a pie made out of pumpkin (ewwwww!) and then one day i was convinced to try a slice. i've been making up for lost time ever since.  i made the pie for my sister's dinner....and brought the leftovers home...and ate 'em for breakfast the next day.

~*~

at some point over the afternoon at Aunty S's, Sebastian picked up an etcha-sketch type doodle-board thingy (what are they called, anyway?) and proceeded to draw some rather spectacular pirates.  this is a child who rarely has shown interest in picking up a crayon and drawing and has caused more than a few faithless moments of doubt in this crazy unschooling path with his disinterest in all things writing-related.  sure, he paints from time to time but not really.... so here he is drawing rather amazing likenesses on this magnetic-filings-metal-tipped-pen thingamy.  which in and of itself was quite delightful. (naturally, i didn't have the camera on hand)

and being the klepto that he is...he needed to take aforementioned board home at the end of the visit.   once home, he wanted to write the letters of the alphabet. at his request i guided his hand for the upper case letters (i figured they'd be the easiest to start with) and of course there were dramatic interpretations a la "letter-yoga" for each one.

and THEN....to my amazement, not only did he start again on his own....forming perfect upper-case letters (no backwards d's or b's or s's)....he did all of the lower-case. perfectly. without us ever having done them before.

wtf?

seriously. all this from spending time going over this crazy alphabet poster he has where we act out a scene from Sesame Street where Prairie Dawn is trying to do the Letter of the Day and Cookie Monster keeps eating the letters (Cookie Monster played by yours truly).

amazing stuff, isn't it?

which of course prompted a vast amount of navel-gazing on this path we've chosen and how although we've made certain sacrifices in terms of income etc. -- this is some kind of amazing thing.....these great leaps of learning...of pursuing natural inclination and curiosity....this utterly innate ability to learn what we need to know  without having to be sat down and drilled and then assessed and measured on how well we know it.

it's so hard sometimes, to keep the faith in the face of so much criticism and disbelief -- usually from well-intentioned people...which makes all the concern and advice that much harder to dismiss.  because it's the lack of quantifiable proof (in the form of grades and test scores) that makes unschooling difficult to explain to people.  most don't do well with the 'just trust them' speech.  *sigh*

but when stuff like this happens....well....it totally rocks. :)

oh, and also...we made cookies.

lovin' this life...

truly.

kid vs. cat

Sebastian chose a $4 chess set with his birthday money (gotta love this kid's sense of value!).

mostly he acts out the Pixar-short (from the beginning of A Bug's Life, i think) where the old man plays chess against himself. he even fakes the heart attack.

sometimes Snowbell plays too. :)

*back-dated post because last week was...well...not conducive to sitting at the computer. ;)

Back to school....NOT!

aaahhhhh.....empty parks!

we spent a leisurely morning...(french toast and smoothies for breakfast)...Savannah decided what she wants to learn next (telling time) and then we headed out to do some errands.  which of course ended with a side-trip to the park....

although we don't really plan exactly what we do each day...we are finding our way back to a certain routine and rhythm.  the lazy chaos of summer (and the heat-induced sloth) doesn't really suit us and it generally devolves into madness.

it was a warm and humid day again today -- nothing compared to summer -- but it meant lots of outdoor time.  just how we like it.

i'm feeling very blessed for the life we lead....not always the easiest or most popular path...but so very worth it.

following our feet..

It started off as a trip to the bulk food store -- heavens-to-mergatroid the squirrels are out of peanuts -- plus I needed flour and cinnamon.

We battled through the casualties of the weekend storms....it's more fun to clamber OVER these things, than to walk around them....

Where once a tatty old used car dealership stood, is now this scar on the landscape. Future site of a pain management clinic [prompting the unenlightened to fly into fits over all the crackheads and heroin junkies that would surely be cluttering up the place -- someone may have inadvertently mentioned methadone] Even though the car dealership was grotty and abandoned, there were some lovely old trees to brighten it up . They're not there now. We are not amused. Savannah has issued an ultimatum which involves speedy construction and the planting of many trees and shrubs to replace those torn down.


Halfway to the bulk food store, Savannah decided she was thirsty. Thusly, we carried on to the coffee shop for refreshments and people-watching.

We eventually wandered back to the bulk food store and got in our supplies -- with a few extras, of course.  It was decided after we did our shopping that we would walk past the 'haunted house' on our way home...

Sometimes we're up for the terror, sometimes not.  Debate rages over 'haunted vs. not-haunted', 'abandoned vs. occupied'.  Hard to tell. Although the tree in the front yard is gorgeous. On this, we at least agree.

Musings over a large lollipop -- which, by Savannah's estimation will take approximately one year to finish -- brought us to the conclusion that a side-trip to the park was in order...after all, it's going to rain the rest of the week...

And so we swung and dug in the sand and watched the painting people learn how to use their ladders and made silly faces into the camera...

Such freedom this, in following our feet....

Of mice and math

Math is not my friend.

I have a deep psychological scar about math that I've traced back to an incident in my early school years involving a recitation of my times tables. *shudder*.  Oh, I get by...I even did reasonably well in university-level calculus (thanks to a great professor), but in general, math makes me queasy.

Sadly, however, it's one of those necessary skills....

Early last week Savannah expressed an interest in earning some extra coin (she's saving up to buy a horse, btw)  so an opportunity to start doing some basic math arose. So what's a math-o-phobe to do? Why, find some computer software, of course!  {in my defense, it is her preferred method for doing new things -- it's all about being able to puzzle it out on her own} And from her experience playing Fairy-o-poly, I figured she'd grasp it quite easily when put into a *real* context, rather than faffing about with abstracts.

So now she's buying scooter accessories and making change in a virtual store where the shopkeeper is a rather obnoxious little mouse with a nerve-jarring  Frosted-Lucky-Charms Irish brogue. And when she got frustrated with the horrible rodent, she went off to make pizzas and has grasped fractions with amazing alacrity...amazing only because it took me until adulthood and I was riding fast horses in a circle to truly grasp fractions...

Malcolm...

And one of the best parts about this kind of learning, is that you get much cuddlier seat-mates than you'd find at conventional school...

In which Savannah is learning to read....

The learning to read saga reached a pinnacle today when I had flashbacks to the learning to ride a two-wheeler saga....desperate, I turned to the Oracle of Google. And found a fabulous and FREE (my favourite flavour) website (Starfall) full of learn-to-read goodness. This, it seems, is Savannah's preferred medium in which to approach this particular task....

And she's getting along swimmingly -- enjoying herself immensely -- and is much more confident. And I am much happier knowing that she isn't relying on my wretched teaching skills to achieve greatness!!

What we do...

We're back.

A few 'cosmetic' changes...a little something to mark the passage of time.

You will notice a change in the blog title....it was Earthenwitch who coined the phrase, as she described Sunday breakfasts with her little family; a time of unhurried cups of tea, of wandering in the garden, of feeding ducks and reading books. She described it as experiencing life..as it happened, rather than how someone else prescribed it. It struck me that this is how we choose to live our life...well, as much as possible, anyway. Combine those thoughts with the realization that it's been about a year since Savannah left school - yessiree, she's a kindergarten drop-out, some questions raised by a caring friend about what exactly is unschooling and the fact that there have been raised eyebrows and puzzled looks surrounding the idea that this removal from school isn't a temporary thing. It's a done deal. Until such time as either one decides they'd like to return....it's over.

Of course there are questions, worries, concerns, panic - how? why? what about...? Hopefully there can be some answers found in the handy-dandy links on the sidebar. And I hope to further populate my list of other blogs with more wonderful unschooling families and the things they get up to.

But for now, a brief synopsis....a glimpse of our little world and what we get up to....after all - this one's all about the pictures.

First, you should know.....that the world is our classroom - there are no walls, no time limits - only our boundless imaginations and the far reaches of the Universe to hold us in.....lots of room to move, there, wouldn't you agree?

We stop to smell the flowers......and we believe that a 'weed' is just a 'weed' because a person didn't plant it there....

We follow our noses and find treasures in the unlikeliest of places....

... indeed, there is Life amidst the decay

We take a bug box out into the woods to look for caterpillars....and if we don't find any...then we look for other things instead.....

...like wild strawberries and red clover tops - yummy things to eat. See? It's best not to depend too much on a plan...you might miss something.

The seats are very comfy in our classroom....they're all over the place and.....

..there's always one with a good view of the.....

....*board*.

"But how do they learn?"

*sigh* Still don't get it? Okay...

We play with books....we are surrounded by books...all kinds of books....and sometimes, we read them....sometimes we just look at them....and sometimes we build fortresses with them...but they are always there...for when we're ready...

We send and receive postcards from all over the world....we wonder about the people and the places and their beautiful lives...(we refer to the aforementioned books when we desire further details - or not.)

We make paper dolls....just because it's fun and art ROCKS our little world...

And then, when we're tired - we take naps....

Life is a journey and we choose the road less travelled....


Walk with us?