Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to post a Happy Thanksgiving!

God bless.

Kandy

Tree Machine

I just had to pass this along. Today my four-year old went to his art/dance class at the art center. I always wait on him in a room outside of his class. Today his art teacher came out all excited and told me on her way through, "You are going to flip when you see what he made today. It is awesome!" She walked into the other room, and she and another person carrying a camera went back into the classroom. I heard his teacher tell the other woman, "This is the tree man." When class was over, my son showed me his creation. Today they had made inventions, and my son's was a tree machine. They had used everyday things to make something (we do that a lot and call it recycled art. We like to look at "Look-Alikes books, too). His teacher was just amazed at what he had done. I smiled and agreed that it is very creative. It was great! I felt like adding, "See what unschooling does," but I didn't. :^)
Kandy

Sick Day

Today has been kind of an upsetting day. Nathanael, my two-year old, started getting sick last night. I got a call at work from my sister (babysitter) saying he was running a low-grade fever and was having flu symptoms. He still has both today. But he's in good spirits. Taliesin, my four-year old, had his art/dance class today at the art center. When we came home, he asked to work on his numbers. So we reviewed his counting and addition tables. Then he wanted to do a worksheet; so he did the number five worksheet. Then Nathanael surprised me. He has never been interested in doing worksheets. But he wanted to do a counting worksheet. So we counted the pictures on each worksheet - 1-6. He was so proud of himself. Then we counted toy dinosaurs. They both got stickers for doing such a good job, and Taliesin decided to put his worksheets on their school-room door. :^) Just goes to show, unschooling works! :^)

Anniversary

Well, my husband and I just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Oct. 21. We had planned to head to Wichita to see some relatives we haven't seen in a few years; but we couldn't make it due to car problems. So we're planning to go in a couple of weeks to see them. Instead, we spent the day with the boys and saw an evening movie - "We Own the Night." It was a really good movie, too. Then a friend from work had loaned us the movie "Evan Almighty" on DVD. We watched it that night when we got home. It was so cute. It was a good anniversary celebration even though our plans were changed for us. :^)

we got a dog

Just wanted to tell you guys we have a new member of the family - a beagle mix named Riley. My cousin was giving him away, and we had been thinking about getting a dog; so it worked out well. He loves the boys. He barks if someone comes to the door (a good watchdog). He's four years old and really sweet. We're pretty happy with him. :^)
Kandy

First Classes Finally Finished

Well, I finished my first two courses with Liberty University the end of last week. I'm finished with Old Testament and one literature course. I really, really enjoyed them both. Now New Testament and my first theology course begin the 22nd. I've been watching some of the videos and reading ahead, just so I'm prepared. Then today I registered for my spring semester. I'll be taking a class over the Book of Romans, another literature class (an elective), a European history course, and another theology course. I'm really looking forward to them! I'm really loving Liberty classes a lot!

Art class

Taliesin, my four-year old, is having so much fun at his art/dance class through the local art center. Today, they made masks out of round pieces of cardboard and all different things for them to decorate with.

all right, we're moved!

Well, we finally finished moving everything over this past Sunday. Now to the unpacking. We've started some unpacking, but we still have a lot to do! Today we had our unschooling group. We had planned on having our fall at Oakdale Park, but it was raining; so we had it here at the house instead. It turned at well. The kids had lots of fun painting with fingers and leaves. :^)

Getting things ready to move

Packing. Packing. Packing. It seems that's all I've gotten done today since we've been home from church. Tomorrow's the big moving day! Still gotta do a little bit more cleaning at the new house, too. Most of it's done, just need to clean the bathroom on the main floor and dust the shelves in the hall.

Buying a new house

We're in the process of moving to a home we just bought. My four-year old is very excited. He loves it! It has a huge finished basement that is perfect for a family room and playroom/school room (as much as we can have a school room being unschoolers). My four-year old wanted the walls in his playroom/"school room" to be yellow and the ceiling to be green. So we have the walls yellow and will be painting the ceiling green as soon as possible. This is the first home we have lived in, as a family, that we have bought. My husband and I have rented since we've been together. So this is definitely an exciting experience!

Unschooling

We are an unschooling family. I have two sons - a two-year old and a four-year old. We began homeschooing when my four-year old was just barely three. He had started speech therapy through our local public school system; and they were not in agreement that he should be homeschooled. At first, we tried a school-at-home method. That left both my son and me frustrated. That's when I discovered "Home Education Magazine" at the local public library. I loved what I read about child-led learning. So we have been slowly transitioning to unschooling since then.